Never has an attribution model been developed where email marketing received 100% value for an action. In the most direct case, email marketing is step 2. Every action taken via email marketing started somewhere else. In this series, you will read about how attribution models are developed, optimized and analyzed for different marketing channels. As you read these pieces, remember that email lies downstream looking to raise its hand and gobble up its share of the action.

It is probably important at this point to pull back and remind us that attribution is the art of division. Our goal as marketers is to maximize the volume of customer actions and engagement and the efficiency of the dollars spent to generate those actions. In that moment, the volume is finite. An attribution model is used to divide that finite volume among the responsible paths that led to those actions.

When I think about this, I am reminded of a skit I once saw a magician do where they cut a lemon in half and squeezed the lemon over and over, and ended up filling an entire pitcher of lemon juice from one lemon. While this is a great trick, it is not reality. When you cut a lemon in half to squeeze out the juice there is a finite amount of juice in that lemon. There are lots of tools and techniques you can use to extract as much of the juice from that lemon, but nothing will create more juice.

Email marketing is the tool used to extract the maximum juice from your marketing investment. There is no denying the power of email marketing in driving customer engagement and action. There is no denying the power of email marketing in extracting every ounce of value from your database, but email marketing is limited to the database – a database derived from other marketing channels.