Hierarchy Of Optimization

As Abraham Lincoln said, "I walk slowly, but I don't walk backwards."  We've made amazing strides in the email and marketing automation space with regard to our strategic thinking, technology advances and how we link disparate technologies to solve problems -- but have organizations followed our lead?   Looking back over the years, I find there is a natural progression to how people use email and the relative complexity of implementing ideas and the costs/risks and ROI of these activities. 
 
I've used this sliding scale for years to illustrate where a company is today, what they hope to achieve so we don't get lost in some high-level-growth goal associated with "creating 1:1 dialogues" that are very hard to attain.   The hierarchy of optimization is best illustrated by the following areas,  beginning with the bottom and migrating upwards with increasing levels of investment to optimize, with potentially higher return on the activities...