fuel publishing

Vol. 5, No. 2:
No Slowing E-mail - Much has been written about companies’ increased spending on new media, from search engine optimization, mobile advertising, and Webinars to podcasts, social networks, and video on demand. While these nontraditional communication tactics represent smart, innovative ways for marketers to reach consumers and build brand awareness, the one medium that continues to perform the strongest is e-mail.

Call me a pessimist, but I figured consumer backlash over spam and phishing, flawed opt-out practices, and bulging in-boxes, among other issues, would by now have left e-mail marketers on the outside looking in. Far from it. E-mail, once considered a supplement to direct marketing, has evolved into one of the most cost-effective, powerful marketing channels. Just how powerful? The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) projects that e-mail ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent this year.

According to JupiterResearch, e-mail marketing spending will grow to $2.1 billion in 2012, from $1.2 billion in 2007. Additionally, spending on retention e-mail will account for more than half of total e-mail spending by 2012. In a separate study of some 2,000 online marketers conducted by Datran Media, 82 percent of respondents indicated that they plan to increase their use of e-mail marketing in 2008, and 80 percent said e-mail was the strongest-performing media buy, ahead of search and display advertising.

Of those who use e-mail as a marketing tool, the Datran Media study found, 78 percent hope to drive sales, 53 percent seek to reactivate dormant customers, 71 percent wish to enhance customer relationships, and 65 percent expect to increase brand awareness. It’s clearly having a positive effect: more than 50 percent of consumers who had bought online over the past 12 months did so because they received a marketing e-mail solicitation, and 16 percent admitted to making a purchase from messages tagged as spam, according to a survey by Endai Worldwide. “It reinforces what we’ve believed at the gut level all along, that consumers will always be motivated to buy if the offer is appealing and customer-centric,” says Michael Ferranti, CEO of Endai.

David Hallerman, a senior analyst at e-Marketer, cautions that e-mail marketers may have to spend more in the coming years to remain relevant with their target audiences. “E-mail marketing is effective,” he says, “but spending is tempered by the somewhat, but not entirely, valid impression among many companies that e-mail is inexpensive marketing and that they therefore need not throw too much money at these programs.”

At the recent Email Evolution conference hosted by the DMA, speaker Des Cahill, the CEO of Habeas, said “really good content is no longer enough” to ensure delivery of e-mails. He advocates the adoption of standard best practices across all industries. Another speaker warned marketers to stay clear of advertisers with bad e-mail reputations and questionable practices because e-mail recipients will take out their frustrations on the sender.

To increase the effectiveness of your e-mail campaigns, consider these three tips from EmailLabs, a leading e-mail solutions provider (www.emaillabs.com):

1. Define your e-mail value proposition (EVP). Without a clear focus and value proposition, your e-mail won’t hit your recipient’s “internal inbox.” People can manage only a limited number of regular e-mail communications. Give them clear reasons to open your e-mails every time. Define your EVP much like you would a positioning statement and use it to drive your content, creative, frequency, and segmentation strategies.

2. Integrate with other marketing channels. E-mail marketing can’t exist in a silo. You’ll get a higher ROI when you integrate it with other marketing channels and touch points, such as direct mail, telemarketing, and trade shows. Design search-engine landing pages to make it easier to begin a relationship. Promote newsletter content through multiple channels, and repurpose content from the newsletter on your Web site.

3. Allocate necessary resources. Many companies initially got into e-mail marketing because it was cheaper than traditional direct mail, but the landscape has changed. From ISP relations to technological innovation and government regulations, e-mail marketing is more complex now. So your organization must allocate adequate budgets, resources, and know-how to do the job right and achieve your ROI goals. Your e-mail service provider should be able to help you out, but you must also educate your team and key influencers in your company.

Thoughts? E-mail me at kbeaulieu@pohlyco.com.