Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Microsoft Kinect are big players in a consumer electronics landscape that is bringing us to the cusp of a future we’ve long courted in films like Minority Report and Blade Runner. As we edge closer to jetpacks and flying cars, advances in mobile technology are bringing about a resurgence of an old yet unforgotten friend.
Email marketing has come back in a big way over the past few years. This can be largely attributed to the mobile tech boom, which turned every pocket into an inbox in a very short period of time.
Email marketing is a solid way for companies, especially small businesses, to keep in touch with customers and build a loyal fan base. The continued ascendance of mobile platforms has made email marketing even more effective since consumers can essentially be reached 24/7 on smartphones.
What are some of the biggest benefits of email marketing?
Customer Lifecycle Engagement
In terms of marketing, the customer life cycle is Acquire, Engage, Convert, Serve, Grow, Retain. While cross channel marketing is essential in each one of those stages email marketing is the only strategy that is necessary to all but Acquisition (usually because acquisition by email involves spamming people). For companies and brands that are doing what they are supposed to do, customers should be happy to receive well-written, informative emails.
Campaign Management
In the past, email marketing meant blasting a message to every email address you could get your hands on. A few academic studies published since then have revealed this tactic is “annoying” to “almost everyone ever”. If recipients are annoyed with your message they will not respond. Now, you can use campaign management tools that allow the user to target already interested parties, alter individual approaches, and determine what’s working (and what’s not) in your email campaign. This can help significantly with customer engagement, retention, and growth.
Super Data
Data is as good as gold in Internet marketing terms. Facebook built a possible $100 billion valuation on the acquisition, management, and leverage of data to companies and marketers. If I went searching for leather pants on the Internet but don’t buy anything, email marketing is an essential tenet in gaining access to a potential customer (myself, the leather pants aficionado), presenting them with the object they desire via personalized email and providing links to content on the net that will augment and hopefully facilitate my purchase.
Though email marketing has been around since the beginning of the Internet (or close to it), there is a real, tangible value in using email as a marketing strategy in the digital world. Increased engagement will lead to higher conversions and ROI, but these strategies will only work if you have built a solid foundation of a worthwhile product, customer service and a respectable web presence. Brands that do a great job of serving their customers will have the best chance of retaining them.
