Email Marketing is Personal

Email marketing is still the most personal form of marketing.

In a previous post, I pointed out that email is the earliest form of social media marketing, predating Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and the numerous others that have populated the social media universe. Also, with the rise of smartphones and iPads to complement desktops and laptops, people have various devices on which they can check their email.

According to research from The Radicati Group, “The number of worldwide email accounts continues to grow from over 4.1 billion accounts in 2014 to over 5.2 billion accounts by the end of 2018. The total number of worldwide email users, including both business and consumer users, is also increasing from over 2.5 billion in 2014 to over 2.8 billion in 2018.”

Marketers are always seeking ways to personalize their messages and to create unique experiences for each customer. Facebook and other social media sites may tell marketers about peoples’ likes and interests. However, beyond that, it is difficult to personalize content for each consumer, unless the brand is a consumer’s ‘friend’, who can then send messages to him or her.

While people’s time on social media varies, sometimes even discontinuing accounts, they stick keep email accounts. With email, companies, especially retailers and restaurants, can craft e-mails with interesting headlines and content that is based on each individual consumer’s unique purchasing history. More than just seeing a person’s likes and interests, this tells marketers what a consumer is spending his or her money on. Learning this information lets marketers put the right product in front of the consumer at the right time.

E-mail allows B2B and B2C marketers to go more in-depth with their target audience. A well-formatted e-mail that goes straight to the point will allow marketers to keep their audience engaged, giving them the opportunity to fully flesh out their product or services.

According to Radicati, for B2B, “Email remains the most pervasive form of communication in the business world, while other technologies such as social networking, instant messaging (IM), mobile IM, and others are also taking hold, email remains the most ubiquitous form of business communication.”

Not sure how to reach your target audience? Contact SPARKS! to see how we can help you.

E-mail Marketing Trends to Use

Your E-mail marketing will benefit from some great ideas.

Like social media trends, and marketing trends in general, e-mail marketing has its own trends. No longer are marketers sending out blank e-mails with the hope that they will be opened and read by customers. E-mails must attract and engage the target audience to hold their attention.

With the many templates out there, as well as the many e-mail services that are available, it is easier than ever to engage in successful e-mail marketing. Now, whether or not your highest open rate is on a Tuesday night at 9 p.m. or a Saturday morning at 10 a.m. depends on your consumers’ habits, and you will this out by trial and error only.

1. Cross-platform design. In order to get your e-mails read, they must first be readable. With the rise of mobile use among Americans and the number of e-mail accounts to grow to 5.2 billion by the end of 2018, according to The Radicati Group, your e-mails must be able to be read without trouble. Any lack of design that can translate across platforms that makes your e-mails appear unreadable will result in failure. Of course, always remember there is a person using the device.

2. Video. The use of video will grow this year, as marketers seek better ways to engage their audiences. Video also allows marketers to tell their story better. Video can be utilized in your e-mail marketing to keep readers’ attention. With the rise of the many template companies offering up-to-date technology, it’s easy to use video in your e-mail marketing campaign.

3. Visual. E-mails will be able to be seen before they are opened. The folks at Envato discuss how Google’s grid view allows Gmail users to see their e-mails, which of course allows them quicker opportunity to choose (or not) whether to read an e-mail.

4. Geolocation. The experts at Marketing Profs explain how geolocation works. “Proximity and geolocation can also drive new creative approaches for email marketing. Current capabilities include the ability to track the location details in terms of where a subscriber opens an email. You can automatically segment your email list and send campaign information to specifically designated areas.You can push SMS or email marketing offers to your subscribers based on their current or previous location points.”

More Benefits of E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing’s other benefits

Recently, I wrote of certain benefits to e-mail marketing that social media does not offer, benefits such as e-mails are personable, the perception customers have, they allow marketers to go in-depth, and they capture their attention.

E-mail marketing offers yet still more benefits that social media does not. (Of course, social media is still vital in any marketing strategy, as long as it is complemented by e-mail marketing).

E-mail marketing, especially for small businesses with limited budgets, can achieve certain measurable results that social media cannot.

1. Emails hit their target. With e-mails, you have your target’s e-mail address already, so one part of the battle is won. With social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and others, you’re hoping your ads get to your prospective audience, even though you use specific data – likes, hobbies, income, career, etc. – to target customers.

2. Affordable. E-mails are relatively inexpensive to create and distribute. According to Statista, direct mail spend was $44.5 billion, a total which is expected to increase to $45.7 billion. E-mail marketing allows businesses, especially small businesses, to use a more affordable way to reach their target audience.

3. Measurability. Since businesses want to see how their money is being spent, e-mail marketing allows marketers to measure the success of their campaigns. Marketers can measure open rates, delivery and bounce backs, clicks, and subscribers.

4. Simple. E-mails are very simple to compose and distribute. With the number of e-mail templates available, marketers can easily overcome obstacles to creating attractive e-mails that communicate their message, advertise their product/service, and interact with their target audience. As well, you can custom-design your own e-mail to reflect your brand, instead of using a social media’s messaging system that does not allow this flexibility.

Why E-mail Marketing Still Works

E-mail marketing offer many benefits social media doesn’t.

In a previous post, I wrote that e-mail marketing is still very important and should be a part of any company’s marketing plan. E-mail, I said, has been around way before social media marketing and platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. With the projected increase of e-mail accounts rising to a worldwide total of 5.2 billion in 2018, according to The Radicati Group, and that e-mails sent and received each day in the business sector will reach 139.4 billion in the same year, there are obvious benefits to e-mail marketing.

While social media allows marketers to interact, sometimes in real time, with consumers, there are limits to what it can do. Social media traffic alone does not guarantee a sale and does not mean much. E-mail marketing, however, allows marketers more opportunities to engage with customers. Also, while people’s time on social media varies, sometimes even discontinuing accounts, they always check e-mails.

1. Personable. E-mail allows marketers to be more personable with their consumers. While personal conversations occur on Facebook, less so on Twitter, they are more likely to take place via e-mail. Especially for B2B marketing, CEOs and other business owners use private or business e-mail accounts, such as Google and Outlook, for interaction. Even B2C marketing depends on e-mails, since marketers cannot use Facebook’s messaging feature to have private conversations with their target audience.

2. Perception. While social media is also used by various companies and organizations, and professionals who work in them, e-mail has the perception of being the most mature. Clients want to see that companies they are interacting with have a valid e-mail address by which they can communicate. Would you tell a client to send you a Facebook message? It wouldn’t look professional.

3. Depth. E-mail allows B2B and B2C marketers to go more in-depth with their target audience. A well-formatted e-mail that goes straight to the point will allow marketers to keep their audience engaged, giving them the opportunity to fully flesh out their product or services. E-mail also allows B2B and B2C marketers to get at the heart of a dispute with clients.

4. Attention. Sometimes people are so fed up with social media that they will ignore it. You often hear of people attempting to stay off of Facebook for a certain period of time to reconnect with the real world, to purge their digitally afflicted minds and refocus. However, they still check their e-mail.

E-mail Marketing is Social

E-mail marketing complements social media

When we say social media marketing, we tend to think of all of the social media platforms that are available – Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and the numerous others that have populating the social media universe.

There is, however, another form of social media that has been around before Facebook and the many others – e-mail. Yes, e-mail, those messages that arrive in your inbox several times a day.

With the rise of smartphones and iPads to complement desktops and laptops, people have various devices on which they can check their e-mail. As I noted in an earlier post, mobile phone usage has grown exponentially, with 64% of Americans owning a smartphone, according to Pew.

Think about when time you signed up for Facebook. Weren’t you asked for an e-mail address to which your login information would be sent? The for LinkedIn and others. Also, each time you purchase something on the internet, or make reservations, you’re always asked for an e-mail address at which you’d receive confirmation.

For B2B, “For B2B, “Email remains the most pervasive form of communication in the business world, while other technologies such as social networking, instant messaging (IM), mobile IM, and others are also taking hold, email remains the most ubiquitous form of business communication[,]” as shown below.

Good news! Obviously, e-mail marketing should be a part of your marketing strategy.

When it comes to selecting which time of day, or which day of the week to e-mail your target audience, it takes testing. For some brands, their target audience may read their e-mails on Friday night at 10 pm, while for others, it may be any other day or time of the week.

Stamps, newsletters, and dog polishers.

Stamps? We don’t need no stinking stamps!!

If you spend more than $15 per month on postage for your newsletters and announcements you should really consider Email Marketing. For as little as $0.50 per day you can send out as many emails as you like each month to your customers, prospects, employees, and third cousins.

What? You can already do that for free with your regular email account? Got me there…well, sort of.

An Email Marketing account offers much more than your regular email client. For example, does your email program tell you who actually received your email, when they read your message, and whether or not they clicked on your website to learn more about that newfangled dog polisher you’ve invented? Not likely. Why? Tracking! Email Marketing accounts can track your message once it goes into cyberspace and tell you where it is, where its been, and in some cases, where its going.

Kind of like the computer chips that are installed in dogs in case they run away…probably because they’re scared of that dog polisher contraption you keep using on them.

Learn more about Constant Contact Email Marketing>>

Onward & Upward!

Sparky