Whatever the cause, we are in a period of change in the business of email marketing. This brings with it risk of course but also tremendous opportunity. It is up to you which way the balance goes with regards to your company.
A recent Google sponsored report has statistically calculated what has occurred over the last three years in email marketing. Whilst history is interesting what you want to know is what the future trends are so that you can target your investment, especially if the rumours of tough times ahead are true.
The amount of email traffic generated by UK companies reached record levels by the end of 2009. This put paid to any suggestion of social networking sites taking primacy and it is reassuring that 20% of firms canvassed have funded their increase in email marketing via a reduction in their social media budget
There would appear to be little doubt that the increase in emails has a lot to do with the set-up costs of email marketing. The level of investment necessary is remarkably low compared to just about any other form and the return is the class leader. Further, on-costs only increase in line with the size of email lists so any necessary investment in infrastructure should be able to be funded by revenue. Companies can come on board with very little outlay and about the same level of risk.
You will probably think that there has to be an end to all this good news. You are right of course. The law of diminishing returns is not guidance. As more and more companies come into email marketing something has to suffer. Click rates have reached a two year low.
This is not to say that overall clickthroughs have suffered. Of course they have not. It is predicted that the internet economy is likely to grow by 10% year on year for the next five years. However, if you wish to get the best value from your email lists it would seem that you need to ensure that your emails go at the right time to the right customers with the right offers.
Email lists, and the data they generate, must be used to full effect. It is essential that your emails are targeted to increase clickthroughs. The more successful companies will use advanced email marketing tactics. Information returned from email marketing software allows targeting on sectors such as behavioural, lifecycle and triggering.
The trick with email marketing is that any investment is self financing. A small percentage increase in clickthroughs will be enough to cover costs and with sophisticated email marketing comes significantly better returns.
The report suggests that a little more that half the companies canvassed will increase their email marketing budget over the next year. Many are funding this through cancellation of other, less responsive marketing, such as direct mail.
There will be lots of opportunity in the months to come for companies with well managed email marketing procedures to increase their marketing returns and their market share as well.
Image Credit: Smil
17 comments
I was just going to plan email marketing for my business before a week ago. I felt it is good that i did not start or I have to take time to implement if I planned.
It is true, I am going to do email marketing, I had enough bad experience using PPC, software backlinkings, it’s just another spamming method and to outmaneuvered it, using the old tricks that doesn’t work anymore
Companies seem to ignore the single largest online branding/advertising venue available: their own regular external emails. Why not use these emails to market the senders company?
You have a website.
You send emails.
Why not multiply your sales-staff by “wrapping” the regular email in an interactive letterhead?
No other marketing or advertising medium is as targeted as an email between people that know each other (as opposed to mass emails). These emails are always read and typically kept.
Unfortunately, not all knows the email feature of their site. There are those who knows but doesn’t know how to maximize its potential.
we have had mixed results with email marketing in the past, we usually get very little response.
Any idea where to get big Email List?
You don’t buy an email list, you build one 🙂
“getting” an email list is almost always illegal. You have to build your own email list. You must follow strict rules to obey the law (CAN spam act)
Email marketing works. Some customers may opt out, but it will pay off one day or another.
Email marketing is something that will never die…it does have lot of potential. The thing that caught my eye in this post is the impact of email marketing in UK. I have read about the importance of emails for people in UK and it seems email marketing is really effective there.
Email marketing can be for big companies kind of a backburner income. They can sell their products up front, and also ask their customers if they can remember their emails.
And from time to time they can send those customers some emails about new products, doing this only can increase their income by at least 10%.
Email marketing is never going to be dead. It’s a fast form of making money when compared with blogging.
Like any other marketing tactic, email lists are best used within a larger marketing strategy that employs other tactics as well.
One of the most important aspect of email marketing is its ability to reach out to prospects. Not only you get to a number of potential customers, you also get to them almost immediately.
I have been reading a lot about how some people think that email marketing is on it’s way out while others still say they get decent returns. I guess it might depend on what exactly you are doing.
I think it is a best suggestion on email marketing.E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fund-raising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.
Thanks
Raj…………!
I believe email market is still a viable way to communicate with your potential customers existing ones etc. But I do see a trend toward mobile marketing thought smart phones.It’s still in the early stages but it won’t be long until is dominates the way email once dit