64. Email Marketing
Email continues to be a very strong and effective means of communicating with customers by offering promotional offers and discounts, encouraging participation and registration to attend company events, introducing new products and services, facilitating improved customer service, and sending informative and educational newsletters. Email marketing is growing because it has many benefits:
• Minimal cost compared to direct mail, which requires additional economic and environmental costs associated with designing, printing, and mailing.
• Messages and offers can be highly personalized to individuals.
• Programs can be implemented quickly to provide immediate results and sales.
• Links embedded in the message can direct readers to a Web site or microsite landing page to learn more about the offer.
• Email is an effective way for people to pass information along to others.
• Email marketing can integrate other types of media such as video, audio, and social media.
• Web analytics allow for easy tracking of metrics and results.
Email marketing is an effective marketing tool that is widely used and accepted by both businesses and consumers. The ability to target individual messages combined with decreasing costs of delivery make email marketing very cost effective. Forrester Research reports that 97 percent of marketers use email marketing, and spending will grow about 11 percent CAGR to reach $2 billion in the U.S. by 2014.1
Fortunately, most of the bad raps associated with email marketing have disappeared as new email marketing protocols have emerged. Opt-in/opt-out marketing, also called permission marketing, is a practice conscious companies use to encourage open communication with customers and potential customers. When purchasing a list, make sure it contains only opt-in subscribers who have asked to receive information. Being perceived as a “spammer” hurts your reputation with customers and potential customers. It can also wreak havoc with Internet service providers who are enforcing stricter standards and have the power to cut off the privilege of businesses that abuse protocols or are simply unaware.
An important component of email marketing is giving people the right to opt-out of receiving information from your company at any time. This is easy to execute by simply placing a message at the bottom of a communication to unsubscribe to future communication.
Successful marketing is the result of creating a learning relationship with your customers. Continuously ask them what they are interested in receiving information about, and tailor marketing campaigns to their individual preferences. Also create an easy mechanism so email recipients can update email addresses as they change jobs and/or email addresses.
Even though subscribers choose to opt-in, sometimes email advertising and promotions can eventually be perceived as too frequent or annoying by subscribers. For example, I once received emails from Williams Sonoma on a bi-weekly basis. When I decided I was getting too many emails from them, I chose to opt-out, or unsubscribe. I was surprised when I hit “submit” and a message popped up asking me why I wanted to unsubscribe. When I clicked on one of the three options, “receiving too many emails,” another message asked if I would like the option to receive emails once a month or once a quarter. Once a quarter was perfect for me, and Williams Sonoma kept me as a customer.
Email marketing is highly measurable so it is easy to test response to campaigns with different messages and price points. Advertisers can also test what days of the week and time of day recipients are most likely to respond (usually the highest is Monday and the lowest is Friday). Email campaigns generate approximately a three to ten percent click-through to the Web site or landing page, and an average five percent conversion rate.
Other techniques can be applied to increase email marketing effectiveness. The most important factors that drive successful execution of email marketing are similar to direct mail: the target audience, the message (in the subject line and email text), and the offer.