Email remains a tempting option to marketers, but increasingly choked inboxes are making badly targeted communications an annoyance - and as a result counterproductive. Just because email is a comparatively inexpensive and easy option, the days of indiscriminately launching thousands of emails into the ether are thankfully over.
Junk mail will not only fail to escape the clutches of the spam filters, but even if it makes it into the inbox it will have little or no effect.
Some things to consider:
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Opt-in is the best option
Although it's not always possible to run an opt-in campaign from the off (where recipients request to receive an email rather than have them pushed at them cold), research has proven that opt-in databases are more effective at delivering a message.
But if you are buying databases, buy the right one for your market, and keep an eye open for too many generic depersonalised addresses i.e. info@, admin@, and enquiries@.
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Get the content right
If you do nothing else, make sure that the content is relevant, accurate and interesting, if you don't you can be fairly sure that issue two will be dumped straight into the email trash box!
Just because email content is easy and cheap to create and send, this shouldn't devalue the quality of the content. Competition in inboxes is getting increasingly fierce, so remember: you are editing your own magazine so respect your readership. Would you read, listen to, or watch it?
Most importantly today, don't just equate content with the written word: audio and more importantly video can be enormously effective at communicating often complicated, products, services and concepts in seconds.
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Automate lead generation
You can now move beyond simply measuring opens, bounces and clicks, and examine the metrics of how people are responding to specific content, thus gauging real interest.
How long are people watching and listing to audio and video clips? Who's forwarding what content and to whom? This sort of information will give you valuable insight into the sales process.
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Integrate with other marketing approaches
Make sure that you consider the impact that email will have on your other marketing channels and vice-versa. Is the content and design consistent with other online materials and marketing communications channels?
Who will E-mail Marketing work for?
It all depends on your product, customers, and the sort of message you want to convey, but email marketing can be a cost efficient way of:
- Generating sales leads
- Enhancing the relationship between your customers, clients or membership
- Communicating the latest information on products and services
Having a well managed, appropriately segmented and clean database is of course a big advantage.
How will E-mail Marketing provide a return on investment?
Email marketing can deliver return on investment in a variety of ways:
- Drive traffic to your website
- Keeping in regular contact with your audiences
- Explain concepts, products and services
Email marketing is also highly measurable, making it easier to track efficiency, effectiveness and return on investment.
What will Frontier PR do?
Frontier PR will manage the email marketing process from beginning to end, including databases, design, content, delivery and analytics. Frontier PR will also create tailored messages that will pull, not push web traffic to your website or micro site.
We'll also manage the message while integrating it into a comprehensive PR strategy, and utilising our partners to devise and deliver bespoke marketing campaigns.