The Email Strikes Back

Imagine a time long, long ago: 2002.

Facebook was but a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg�s eye. �App� was nothing more than my nickname. Big data sounded like a Clint Eastwood movie. And digital marketing, well that meant banner ads, websites, My Space profiles and spam emails.

Good times.

Fast forward to today and boy, it�s SO much more exciting! Digital technology is infinitely more ingrained in our lives and all manner of platforms, programs and strategies are now available to digital marketers.

There�s only one problem: those pesky bean counters keep on wanting you to deliver a profit from your investment in digital.

Hate that.

There is good news, however.

If you thought Facebook�s 1.4 billion users was impressive, how about another digital platform that has 3.9 billion users. It has a 300% higher conversion rate than social media with sales that have 17% higher value. And here�s the kicker: for every $1 spent on this platform, the average return is $44.25. That�s a lot of beans to count.

So what is this amazing digital platform? It�s, wait for it, EMAIL!

emailmarketingEmail? Are you serious? Email is so, well, old and boring.

Yes, compared to all the latest digital, mobile and social media thingamies, email marketing has whiskers. It hasn�t had the digerati WOW factor since the 90�s. And if you�re waiting for an invitation to deliver the keynote at a digital marketing conference dissecting your highly successful email marketing program, don�t hold your breath.

For a time there, the figures suggested that email was on the way out. According to the McKinsey iConsumer survey there was a 20% decline in email usage from 2008 to 2012, inversely proportional to the increased popularity of social media, instant messaging and mobile apps.

Given that many marketers have the attention span of a tsetse fly, the endless new digital tools to play with are tailor made. You get your head around Instagram and then along comes Pinterest. You master YouTube and then you have to contend with Periscope (or Meerkat). Heaven!

The key problem that digital technology has created for many marketers is that there are so many new platforms and methods to learn about that the �what to do� has taken the focus away from the �why to do it�.

I�ve seen millions of dollars spent on �doing digital stuff� with no clear strategy as to how the activity will lead to increased sales, awareness, new customers or more satisfied existing customers. As for a longer-term vision that builds on the momentum that�s been created by the initial digital campaign, forget about it.

Of course, it�s not all doom and gloom. Smart marketers have been focused on building digital assets since the 90�s; starting with opt-in email databases through to active communities on target market appropriate social media platforms.

While the jury�s still out on putting all your eggs in the social media basket, there has been a clear resurgence in email marketing�s appeal.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud�s 2015 State of Marketing report found that for 73% of marketers email is core to their business. Tellingly, 60% see email as a critical �enabler� of their products and services this year compared to 42% in 2014.

Even though there hasn�t been anything new to get excited about with email since Adam was fretting over the Y2K virus, the savvy among us know that if it�s results you�re after email marketing is what you should be doing.

Not that the humble email in and of itself is anything special. As with any type of marketing, the magic is not in the technology or the delivery method, it lies in the ability of that marketing initiative to take the target market from point A to point B.

As you�ve no doubt experienced, in the hands of amateurs and villains, email has the power to damage and dilute a brand. How many deathly dull email newsletters have you received that talk all about the sender and nothing that’s remotely interesting to you?

And then there�s spam.

It could be argued � convincingly � that any commercial email that doesn�t focus on what your market is interested in and what can help them is spam.avoid-spamming

So be warned. You don�t have to be selling dodgy medical cures or timeshare apartments for recipients to hate you for wasting their time and clogging up their inbox.

Conversely, effectively crafted email marketing is still what it has always been: an incredibly flexible, highly targeted, trackable and results-generating strategy.

Here�s a fun exercise: compare the cost per personal contact for email versus any other sales or marketing method. We did this recently for a client�s Business-2-Business email marketing campaign and compared it to their salespeople calling on the same number of customers who opened the email. There was around a $275,000 difference in favour of the humble email. It�s enough to give those bean counters palpitations.

By all means do the fun digital stuff; it may not achieve terribly much but it sure as heck can look good on your CV.

However, if you�re the person responsible for generating leads, driving sales and serving your customers more effectively, email marketing could well be the solution, digital or otherwise, that you need.

 

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Peter Applebaum

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