Inbox to Income: BEAN for Revenue and Reactivation

Published November 30, 2024

1

Overview

In today’s digital marketing landscape, brands face a persistent and costly challenge: the cycle of customer acquisition and reacquisition. This process, particularly reacquisition, has become a significant profit drain for businesses. Paradoxically, brands already possess a direct line to these customers but lack an effective “hotline” to reach them, forcing reliance on expensive ad platforms for re-engagement.

Email advertising, long a staple in the digital marketer’s toolkit, has yet to realise its full potential. Traditional email ads, mimicking web page display ads, have been largely confined to media newsletters. The conventional format, requiring clickthroughs to external landing pages, has deterred brands from fully embracing this medium, fearing distraction from their primary call-to-action within emails.

However, a paradigm shift is imminent. Emerging technologies within the Anti-Acquisition framework are set to transform this landscape, addressing two critical issues simultaneously:

1. Channels 2.0, enabling in-place engagement and conversion, can strengthen connections with existing customers, reducing dormancy and churn.
2. This enhanced attention can be monetised through ActionAds for non-competing brands, creating new revenue streams.

Email, with its unparalleled reach and cost-effectiveness, emerges as the ideal channel to realise this dual potential.

Enter BEAN – the Brand Email Ad Network. This innovative concept integrates multiple cutting-edge ideas:

• AMP technology for interactive emails
• AMPifier for HTML to AMP email conversion
• Email Envelope for dynamic content injection
• Atomic Rewards to boost email open rates
• ActionAds leveraging PII, in-place actions, and seamless payments
• Reactivation strategies as an alternative to costly reacquisition
• Novel ad formats, including one-tap subscriptions to “Email Minis”
• A sophisticated exchange for matching ad supply and demand
• ZeroCPM model, where email service providers absorb sending costs in exchange for ad revenue commission

BEAN offers a twofold advantage for brands: it enables multi-monetisation of existing customers through ads and provides a platform for running reactivation campaigns on other brands’ networks, bypassing traditional Big Adtech platforms. This brand-to-brand ad connectivity could even be structured as a barter system, minimising external financial outflows.

As a cornerstone of the Anti-Acquisition playbook, BEAN represents an untapped opportunity in the market. Its realisation requires an intermediary, ideally an email service provider, to synthesise these innovative concepts into a cohesive platform. The potential reward is substantial: with approximately half of the $300 billion in global AdWaste attributed to reacquisition efforts, BEAN could redirect this spending to bolster brand P&Ls and fuel their Profipoly Quest.

By leveraging the power of email, reimagining ad formats, and creating a seamless, interactive user experience, BEAN has the potential to not only solve the reacquisition problem but also to open up new avenues for brand growth and customer loyalty. BEAN is the future of email marketing and digital advertising, where every inbox becomes a potential goldmine of engagement and revenue.

In this series, we will explore BEAN in depth, examining how this revolutionary approach can reshape the email marketing landscape and provide brands with a powerful tool for customer engagement and revenue generation.

2

Previous Writings

Ads in Emails: Some New Ideas: “Can ads in emails open new opportunities for advertisers, brands, and consumers? My short answer: Yes, the time has come. There are five reasons why change is coming. First, AMP in email can change the format of ads. Instead of clicking through on a display banner to a landing page, ads can become interactive, and the engagement can happen without shifting attention to a new context. Second, with 2024 being the year of the third-party cookie deprecation, advertisers will want better targeting. What better place than an email footer where the PII (email ID) is known? Third, a solution to the email open problem has the potential to dramatically increase open rates and therefore attention. Fourth, with brands facing pressure on profitability, there will be interest in new revenue streams. Finally, new ad formats can create exciting opportunities for advertisers beyond what’s possible with the traditional digital ads we have become so used to.”

Ads in Emails: Some New Ideas: “The key to unlocking this future is to ensure that “Action Ads” generate response for the advertiser, relevance for the publisher (email list owner), rewards for the consumer, and revenues for the ESP…The thinking behind E3 Ads is to create new formats and experiences which delight consumers. The best ads are those where the readers/viewers don’t think of them as ads but as content that is of value to them…With E3 Ads, the business model of email can also be transformed – from “some CPM” to “Zero CPM”. E3 has the potential of being the single channel to address all use cases: acquisition, engagement/retention, and reacquisition. It can do it far more efficiently than current methods. Success with E3 is what can help brands in their Profipoly quest. It can also give the email channel a much-needed makeover for the newer generation of customers.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: “ActionAds represent a revolutionary approach to email advertising, leveraging the interactive capabilities of AMP technology. Unlike traditional email ads that require clickthroughs to external landing pages, ActionAds enable users to complete desired actions directly within the email. They have four key attributes: PII, Push, in-Place, and Payments. This means they can leverage personal information for targeting, utilise email’s push nature, allow in-email actions, and even facilitate payments. ActionAds aim to reduce friction in the customer journey, potentially leading to higher conversion rates.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: “[Email Minis] are brief email series, typically lasting from a few days to a couple of weeks, deliver concentrated, themed content to subscribers. Their power lies in their ability to deliver focused, timely content. Examples could include a week-long fashion advice series, a 10-day financial literacy course, or a 30-day fitness challenge. Email Minis leverage the precision of AI-driven insights with the interactive capabilities of AMP-powered emails. By offering clear value propositions and limited time commitments, Email Minis can attract subscribers who might be hesitant about long-term email engagements, potentially increasing overall email list growth and engagement. Email Minis can easily be subscribed with a single tap via Email Footer Containers or ActionAds.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: “ActionAds could adopt a commission-based model similar to existing adtech platforms, where the email platform takes a percentage cut of the revenue generated from ads. This model is particularly suited for interactive ads that allow users to take action directly within the email, such as purchasing a product or signing up for a service. By aligning the platform’s revenue with the performance of the ads, this model encourages the development of high-quality, engaging advertisements that benefit both brands and users. A bidding system could also be used, allowing advertisers to bid for targeting specific user segments based on their behaviour and preferences. This approach ensures that the most relevant ads are shown to users, maximising engagement and conversion rates. By incorporating advanced targeting and personalisation, this model enhances the effectiveness of email advertising and ensures optimal ad placement.”

Upgrading Email Marketing: Epps, ActionAds, and More: [From ChatGPT and Claude] “The ActionAds Exchange aims to create a new paradigm in digital advertising by leveraging the unique capabilities of E3 (Email 3.0) technology. This exchange will specialize in two innovative ad formats: one-tap subscriptions to Email Minis and ActionAds with embedded landing pages. By capitalizing on the interactive nature of AMP-powered emails, we’ll offer advertisers unprecedented engagement opportunities and provide publishers with new revenue streams.”

Email Envelope: Eight Elements to Energise Engagement: “ActionAds revolutionise email advertising by enabling full interactions within the email itself. Leveraging AMP technology, these ads allow recipients to complete actions – from form submissions and purchases to newsletter sign-ups – without ever leaving their inbox. By eliminating the friction of external clickthroughs, ActionAds dramatically enhance user experience and conversion rates. They also open new revenue streams for email senders and ESPs, transforming emails from cost centres into profit generators. The incorporation of PII, push capabilities, in-place interactions, and seamless payment options makes ActionAds a powerful tool for personalised, effective marketing.”

A Premiumisation Playbook for ESPs: Commodity to Profipoly: “ESPs can collaborate with brands to generate revenue through ActionAds embedded in emails. To make this viable, ESPs would need to build email ad networks to create ads that leverage AMP to bring the landing page experience within the email itself. To enhance this model, ESPs can: develop partnerships with existing ad networks to expand reach and inventory, create a self-serve platform for brands to easily create and manage their ActionAds campaigns, offer advanced targeting options using the rich data available from email interactions, and provide real-time analytics and optimisation tools for ActionAds performance. This model enables ESPs to share revenue from the ad performance, aligning their interests with those of the brands.”

3

Workings

In today’s digital landscape, brands face mounting challenges in customer acquisition and retention. The Brand Email Ad Network (BEAN) emerges as a groundbreaking solution, offering a symbiotic ecosystem where media companies and e-commerce brands can thrive. Let’s explore how two hypothetical companies, Media Giant and E-Shop Express, could leverage BEAN to transform their marketing strategies and bottom lines.

Media Giant, a prolific newsletter publisher, sits on a goldmine of subscriber data but struggles to maximise revenue from its email campaigns. E-Shop Express, meanwhile, grapples with skyrocketing customer acquisition costs (CAC) and a growing list of inactive customers. BEAN provides a bridge, allowing these brands to tap into new opportunities for engagement and monetisation.

For Media Giant, the journey begins with a technological upgrade. By converting their HTML newsletters to AMP format, they unlock a world of interactivity within the inbox. This shift allows for real-time content updates, in-email story expansions, and dynamic search functionality – all without requiring readers to leave their email client.

To boost engagement, Media Giant introduces gamification elements, such as “Mu” rewards in email subject lines. These micro-incentives encourage opens and interactions, creating a more compelling user experience. The enhanced content quality, featuring interactive quizzes, surveys, and story chats, further cements reader loyalty and time spent within each email.

Crucially, Media Giant carves out prime real estate within their newsletters for ActionAds – interactive advertisements that allow for in-email actions. They also make their subscriber list available in a secure “clean room” environment within BEAN, enabling precise targeting without compromising user privacy.

E-Shop Express focuses on reactivating dormant customers. It compiles a list of inactive email addresses and uploads it to BEAN for targeted outreach. The e-commerce brand then creates compelling ActionAds, offering one-tap subscriptions to “Email Minis” – short, focused email series – or exclusive deals with seamless, in-email payment options.

BEAN acts as the central nervous system of this ecosystem. It matches E-Shop Express’s target list against Media Giant’s active subscribers, identifying overlap. When a match is found, BEAN serves E-Shop Express’s ActionAd within Media Giant’s newsletter to that specific subscriber.

The magic happens when a Media Giant reader engages with E-Shop Express’s ActionAd. This interaction triggers a payout – either monetary or through a predetermined barter agreement – from E-Shop Express to Media Giant. BEAN facilitates this exchange, acting as a clearinghouse for transactions.

This system offers multiple benefits. Media Giant monetises its email list more effectively, potentially transitioning to a “ZeroCPM” model where email service providers absorb sending costs in exchange for a share of the ad revenue. E-Shop Express reactivates lost customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional reacquisition methods, bypassing expensive ad platforms.

4

Ecosystem – 1

The beauty of BEAN lies not just in the isolated collaboration between two brands, but in its ability to scale across multiple brands and industries, creating a vibrant ecosystem where companies can dynamically switch roles based on their strategic needs. With BEAN, email becomes more than just a communication channel; it transforms into a high-engagement media network where every interaction has the potential to drive revenue, build relationships, and extend reach.

Imagine a scenario where hundreds of brands like Media Giant and E-Shop Express, spanning various industries and sizes, leverage BEAN’s infrastructure. Each brand in this network can choose to act either as a Publisher (like Media Giant) or an Advertiser (like E-Shop Express) — and sometimes even both — depending on their current marketing goals.

Here’s how BEAN enables a wider range of possibilities for brands, creating a new paradigm for cross-brand marketing within the email ecosystem:

1. Bidirectional Role Flexibility

Unlike traditional ad platforms where roles are rigid, BEAN allows brands to fluidly switch roles between Publishers and Advertisers. For example, Media Giant could use BEAN to monetise its newsletters today by hosting ads for e-commerce brands. Tomorrow, if Media Giant finds itself with a growing list of disengaged subscribers, it could switch to the role of an Advertiser and run reactivation campaigns on other brands’ email networks.

Conversely, E-Shop Express might typically be an Advertiser running promotions across various newsletters. But it could easily become a Publisher by opening up its transactional and promotional emails to run ActionAds for non-competing brands, thereby converting its existing email traffic into a new revenue stream.

This flexibility maximises the use of every brand’s email assets, ensuring that every subscriber touchpoint has the potential to deliver additional value, either through revenue or increased engagement.

2. Expanding Reach with Cross-Brand Targeting

BEAN’s true power lies in its ability to act as a centralised “marketplace” for brands. A publisher like Media Giant could onboard multiple advertisers, ranging from other media companies to B2C brands, who all wish to tap into its large subscriber base. In a similar vein, an advertiser like E-Shop Express could run campaigns on multiple publishers simultaneously, creating a multi-channel presence across diverse newsletters without needing to invest in individual partnerships.

The key enabler here is BEAN’s clean room environment, where different brands can share and match their customer segments without compromising data privacy. Through these privacy-safe matches, brands can effectively target subscribers based on behavioural signals, past purchases, or engagement patterns — enhancing the precision of their marketing efforts.

3. Seasonal and Event-Based Collaborations

BEAN facilitates temporary alliances between brands for specific seasons or events. For instance, a travel company could partner with a sunscreen brand during summer months, or a fitness app could collaborate with a health food brand for New Year’s resolution campaigns. These timely partnerships maximise relevance and engagement, creating win-win situations for all involved parties.

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Ecosystem – 2

4. ZeroCPM, Credits, and Barter Models for Cost Efficiency

BEAN introduces innovative business models like ZeroCPM and Barter Exchanges to help brands optimise costs. In a ZeroCPM model, email service providers or large publishers absorb the costs of email sending in exchange for a share of the ad revenue, making it easier for smaller brands to participate. This approach can significantly reduce the barriers to entry for brands with smaller budgets.

For brands seeking even greater flexibility, BEAN can also facilitate a Credit System. Each participating brand can choose to receive “credits” instead of cash as compensation for running ads. These credits can be stored and used to fund their own acquisition and activation campaigns, essentially turning email real estate into a tradable commodity within BEAN’s ecosystem. With credits, a brand can seamlessly transition between roles — shifting from monetising their own audience to running campaigns targeting a new audience — all without immediate cash outlays. This not only maximises liquidity but also fosters a self-sustaining network of value exchange.

The Barter Exchange model further enhances BEAN’s appeal by allowing brands to trade ad real estate directly. For instance, E-Shop Express could run reactivation campaigns for its dormant users on Media Giant’s newsletters and, in return, provide Media Giant with a free promotional space in its own product-focused emails. This approach ensures that even smaller brands, who might lack the cash flow for large ad spends, can still participate actively in the network, creating a more inclusive marketplace.

5. New Opportunities for Niche Brands and Verticals

While the initial example focused on media and e-commerce, BEAN’s application extends to virtually any industry where email is a touchpoint. Niche publishers, such as industry newsletters or specialized content creators, can offer highly targeted inventory to relevant brands, while B2B companies could use BEAN to cross-promote thought leadership content or webinars through industry association newsletters.

Additionally, financial services, real estate, or healthcare companies could utilise BEAN to reach qualified leads through educational newsletters, lifestyle emails, or wellness bulletins. Each brand’s email list becomes a potential revenue-generating asset, creating a diversified source of income that goes beyond their core business.

6. Real-Time Campaign Management and Analytics

Finally, BEAN isn’t just a matchmaking service — it also provides flexible bidding systems, advanced matching algorithms, customisable targeting options, real-time analytics, and automated compliance checks. Brands can see exactly how their ActionAds are performing across different publishers, monitor engagement metrics such as open rates and in-email interactions, and even tweak campaigns in real time. This granularity ensures that brands aren’t just running campaigns in the dark but are actively optimizing for better outcomes.

7. Local and Global Reach

BEAN enables both local and global targeting. Local businesses can use BEAN to reach customers through the emails of larger national brands, targeting specific geographic areas. Simultaneously, global brands can leverage BEAN to expand into new markets by partnering with local publishers, gaining instant access to engaged local audiences.

BEAN’s Future: Building the Ultimate Email Exchange

As BEAN scales, it has the potential to become the de facto email ad exchange, where brands can list their audience segments, define their ad inventory, and dynamically pair up with the best-fit partners in real time. The vision is to create a seamless environment where every brand can act as both buyer and seller, tapping into the shared value of the email ecosystem without ever losing control over their customer data.

By lowering acquisition costs, increasing monetisation opportunities, and enabling precise targeting, BEAN can redefine how brands think about email. It’s not just a communication channel; it’s a sophisticated, high-impact media network that sits at the intersection of engagement, revenue, and growth.

Furthermore, as BEAN evolves, it could incorporate AI-driven predictive analytics to suggest optimal partnerships and campaign strategies, further enhancing its value to participating brands.

In a world dominated by rising CAC and stagnant engagement, BEAN offers a fresh, scalable solution that turns every email sent into an opportunity — for communication, collaboration, and profitability.

6

Risks and Mitigation

I asked ChatGPT and Claude for an assessment of the reasons why BEAN could fail and what could be done to address these risks.

The Brand Email Ad Network (BEAN) represents a bold reimagining of how brands can engage, monetise, and collaborate through the email channel. However, BEAN faces a number of potential challenges that could undermine its success. Here are the risks along with strategies to mitigate them, ensuring that BEAN can transform from a compelling idea into a robust and thriving ecosystem.

1. Privacy Concerns

• Risk: Given the emphasis on using personally identifiable information (PII) for precise targeting and reactivation, privacy concerns are the single most critical issue for BEAN’s success. Users may feel uncomfortable with data sharing, especially when sensitive information is used to run personalised reactivation campaigns. Any perception of data misuse could significantly harm BEAN’s reputation.
• Mitigation: Implement robust privacy protocols, including anonymising data in the clean room environment to ensure subscriber information is never directly exposed. Provide clear opt-in/opt-out options and transparently communicate how data is being used. Design BEAN to comply with GDPR, CCPA, and other data protection regulations to avoid potential legal repercussions.

2. Regulatory Hurdles

• Risk: Changing data protection laws, like GDPR and CCPA, could impact how BEAN operates, especially in terms of cross-border data sharing and reactivation using dormant subscriber lists. A regulatory breach could result in heavy fines and reputational damage.
• Mitigation: BEAN should be built with flexibility to adapt to changing regulations. This includes creating a privacy-first architecture and working with legal experts to ensure compliance. Engage with regulators proactively to shape favourable data policies and stay ahead of compliance requirements.

3. Technical Challenges and Complexity

• Risk: Implementing AMP technology and ActionAds across a wide range of email clients and ensuring compatibility could be complex, especially for smaller brands without technical expertise. A poor user experience due to inconsistent rendering could deter adoption.
• Mitigation: Develop fallback options for non-AMP compatible clients, ensuring that even if interactivity is limited, the core content and functionality remain intact. Create plug-and-play tools, such as the AMPifier, to convert HTML emails to AMP format seamlessly. Extensive testing and technical support will be crucial for success.

4. Adoption Resistance by Key Stakeholders

• Risk: Brands may be reluctant to alter established email marketing strategies or invest resources in a new and unproven ad network, limiting the scale and diversity of BEAN’s participants.
• Mitigation: Offer pilot programmes, case studies, and gradual integration options to demonstrate BEAN’s value. Provide performance-based pricing and financial incentives like waived platform fees to encourage early adoption. Establish a community of early adopters who can act as advocates and share their success stories.

5. Revenue Distribution Conflicts

• Risk: With multiple stakeholders involved — publishers, advertisers, and email service providers (ESPs) — disagreements over revenue sharing could arise, particularly if expectations are not aligned from the outset.
• Mitigation: Establish transparent, fair revenue models with clear terms that balance the interests of all parties. Consider offering flexible compensation options, such as revenue sharing, credits, or barter arrangements. A well-defined governance model can help resolve disputes quickly and fairly.

6. User Fatigue and Disengagement

• Risk: If ActionAds are overused or poorly targeted, they could lead to user fatigue and disengagement, potentially harming the value of the email channel as a whole.
• Mitigation: Implement strict relevance algorithms, frequency caps, and a quality scoring system for ads to ensure high-quality and non-intrusive experiences. Focus on delivering ads that are contextually relevant and aligned with user interests to enhance, rather than disrupt, the overall email experience.

7. Competition from Established Platforms

• Risk: Major ad platforms like Google, Amazon, and Facebook could view BEAN as a competitive threat and respond by developing similar email-based solutions, leveraging their scale and market dominance to outcompete BEAN.
• Mitigation: Focus on BEAN’s unique value proposition, such as zero-click engagements, credits, and barter systems, and build strong partnerships with email service providers. BEAN’s differentiated approach should be continuously communicated to the market, positioning it as a complementary solution rather than a direct competitor.

8. Email Deliverability Issues

• Risk: Increasing the volume of ad content within emails could trigger spam filters, reducing deliverability and overall engagement rates.
• Mitigation: Work closely with internet service providers (ISPs) and email service providers (ESPs) to ensure that BEAN-enabled emails adhere to deliverability best practices. Monitor deliverability metrics in real time and adjust content and ad placement strategies as necessary to maintain a high sender reputation.

9. Measurement and Attribution Challenges

• Risk: Accurately measuring the impact of in-email ads and attributing conversions to these interactions can be complex, complicating campaign optimisation and ROI calculations.
• Mitigation: Develop robust analytics tools to track in-email interactions and link them to broader marketing metrics. Partner with existing martech and CRM platforms to integrate BEAN data into established attribution models, ensuring that marketers have a complete view of campaign performance.

10. Complexity for Small Businesses

• Risk: BEAN’s setup and management could be seen as too complex for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), limiting participation to only larger brands with dedicated resources.
• Mitigation: Develop user-friendly, no-code interfaces and offer managed services for SMBs. Provide educational resources, workshops, and dedicated support teams to help smaller businesses maximise BEAN’s potential without needing extensive internal expertise.

**

Addressing these challenges head-on will be crucial for BEAN’s long-term success. By building a privacy-compliant, easy-to-use, and flexible platform that prioritises user experience and fairness in revenue sharing, BEAN can establish itself as a transformative force in the email marketing landscape. Ensuring early buy-in, maintaining adaptability to regulatory changes, and providing a seamless, privacy-compliant experience for brands and users alike will be key to its widespread adoption.

7

Pitch to CMOs

I asked Claude to imagine a dialogue where Varun, an ESP executive, pitches BEAN to Maya, a CMO unfamiliar with the concept.

Varun: Maya, I’m excited to introduce you to BEAN – a game-changing approach to email marketing that could revolutionise how you engage with your customers and monetise your email list.

Maya: Interesting, Varun. But we’re already doing email marketing. What makes BEAN so special?

Varun: Great question. BEAN stands for Brand Email Ad Network. It’s not just about sending emails; it’s about transforming your email list into a powerful, interactive advertising platform.

Maya: (skeptically) Advertising in emails? Won’t that annoy our customers?

Varun: That’s the beauty of BEAN. We use cutting-edge AMP technology to create interactive ads that blend seamlessly with your content. Imagine your customers being able to make purchases or sign up for services directly within the email, without ever leaving their inbox.

Maya: That does sound intriguing. But how does this benefit us specifically?

Varun: In two major ways. First, you can monetise your email list by hosting ads from non-competing brands, creating a new revenue stream. Second, you can use BEAN to reactivate dormant customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional reacquisition methods.

Maya: Tell me more about reactivating dormant customers. That’s a big challenge for us.

Varun: With BEAN, you can target your inactive customers across other brands’ email networks. Your ads will appear in emails they’re actually engaging with, increasing the chances of bringing them back.

Maya: But what about data privacy? We can’t just share our customer data.

Varun: Absolutely right, and that’s why BEAN uses a ‘clean room’ environment. Your customer data is never directly shared. Instead, matches are made securely without exposing individual user information.

Maya: Okay, I’m intrigued. But what’s the cost structure like?

Varun: That’s another exciting aspect. We offer a ZeroCPM model, where we absorb the email sending costs in exchange for a share of ad revenue. We also have a credit system and barter options, making it flexible for businesses of all sizes.

Maya: This sounds promising, but it also seems complex. How difficult is it to implement?

Varun: We’ve designed BEAN to be as seamless as possible. Our team handles the technical integration, and we provide comprehensive analytics and real-time optimisation tools. You maintain control over your brand experience while we manage the backend complexities.

Maya: What about our current email strategies? Do we need to change everything?

Varun: Not at all. BEAN complements your existing strategies. You can start small, perhaps by hosting a few ads or running a reactivation campaign, and scale up as you see results.

Maya: This is certainly interesting, Varun. What would be our next steps if we wanted to explore this further?

Varun: I’d love to set up a detailed demo for you and your team. We can show you real case studies, dive into the analytics, and even set up a small pilot program tailored to your specific needs. This way, you can see BEAN’s potential firsthand with minimal risk.

Maya: Alright, let’s schedule that demo. If it’s as impactful as you say, this could be a significant opportunity for us.

Varun: Excellent! I’m confident you’ll see the value. BEAN isn’t just about improving email marketing; it’s about creating new revenue streams and customer engagement opportunities. I look forward to showing you how it can transform your email strategy.