Email marketing is emerging as an integral component of online marketing for businesses of all types.
Far from being simply the digitised version of direct marketing with its associated “we’ll-throw-in-the-steak-knives” connotations, email marketing is taking centre stage as the most targeted means of communication between a company and its stakeholders.
You could argue that traditional direct marketing was mostly a one-way mode of communication irrespective of the information that was captured by buyer codes and the like.
By comparison, email marketing is a whole different ball game. It’s all about engagement.
Engagement is key
Irrespective of your industry stakeholder engagement is vital. Engaged customers buy more and refer more, adding to your bottom line. Email marketing can deliver engagement in bucketfuls.
In this age of 24/7 online access, customers are much more in control of how they interact with your business.
As a result, often the first contact that some organisations have with their customers is when a sale is made. This is both good and not so good. You can’t dictate when visitors come to your site or how long they stay – although you can optimise the level of engagement through good design and content.
Email marketing provides businesses with a marketing operation that can be controlled to a much greater degree.
Namely, you can control:
- Who is to receive the email
- What will they receive
- How frequently they receive the email
This means your business is in a good position to influence the communication outcome.
Data as an asset
Let’s remember your database is a key corporate asset. Many businesses ‘mine’ this asset to inform various sales processes. Somehow though, when it comes to email marketing, the importance of a clean list is lost or is put aside for another day.
Lists that are not cleaned or that are sent using ‘scattergun’ methods were known to be a bad idea in the pre-internet age. Why then have those notions crept back into the online economy when the risks are even higher?
Damage to your business
Sloppy email list management can damage your organisation’s sales. What seems like an innocuous email can, over time, ‘whiteant’ goodwill and devalue the brand that you have previously invested so much time and money to build. Emails that are not targeted and relevant to the recipient may be opened the first couple of times but then will be deleted in the future. This can harm your brand as it leaves a negative impression in the mind of the recipients. Not exactly the result you want from any marketing!
Your email database is a valuable asset that needs attention and care. A clean, accurate mailing listing allows you to contact customers regularly and build a relationship that will yield greater dividends in the long run.
This all points to the importance of your organisation’s database. A ‘dirty’ email distribution list will give you dirty results: lots of bouncebacks and more importantly can erode your brand values.
As a result, you should spend more time and focus on your email marketing efforts. In fact, it’s sometimes better not to do it all than to do it badly.
Also see our blogs, Why it’s important to keep your email list clean and How to keep your email list clean.
Fatpublisher provides email marketing services to our clients. If you are interested in finding out about our email marketing packages, please contact us.
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