The future of email marketing...don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
(First, sorry for the latency in posting. We had a death in the family, then going crazy trying to catch up at work. First one thing, then another.)
For a time it was fashionable to "dis" email as a marketing tool. With the advent of blogs, RSS and social networks like Facebook and Twitter there were those who foresaw its demise. Well, somebody better inform online marketers because, according to eMarketer and others, email is far from dead! In fact, it appears to have a very bright future.
Consider these facts:
According to Email Insider's Melinda Krueger, "while Facebook is the medium of choice for college students, they still use email to communicate with the 'adult' world."
82% of the marketers surveyed by Datran Media indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2008. —Datran Media, Marketing & Media Survey (2008)
A from email reputation monitoring firm Habeus shows "consumers primarily connect with one another by using email" and that "Email is expected to remain an oft-used communication tool, despite the rise of social networks like Facebook."
Look, I agree that email is a pain. We're all plagued with overcrowded inboxes and, since, as we all know, "out of sight is out of mind," information often gets lost or sequestered away in some folder and, therefore, becomes virtually unretrievable.
Still, that doesn't change the fact that opt-in when are followed.
I'm as big a fan of social media marketing as anyone. I just don't think the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater. What works works even if it isn't the newest, shiniest tool in the kit. Email is tried-and-true and has withstood the test of time.
From where I sit in the marketing chair here at Bizzuka, what's working for us is:
- Opt-in email newsletter (we're about to expand to two newsletters very soon)
- Web site optimized for lead generation
- Good old word of mouth - A sizable portion of new clients come via referral
- Online press releases syndicated via PR Web - We get a reasonable amount of traffic from these, and they've certainly helped increase our SERPs.
- Direct mail PURL campaign - I'm not as excited about this since the cost of acquisition is very high. Still, the use of PURLs (Personalized URLs) is something we're trying and have even created a component to facilitate.
What I'm hoping will work and what we're going to attempt:
Blog - We've just rolled out our own blog component and I'm going to pair it with the email newsletter to repurpose content.
Webinars - I'm very excited about a series of webinars we're working on and believe they will have great lead generation capacity.
Podcasts - We're about to start a weekly podcast on Blog Talk Radio.
PPC - We're going to attempt some limited pay-per-click marketing to see what that might do for us.
Social media - I'm continuing to experiment with the use of social media, but have yet to see any meaningful ROI at this point.
Notice that I did not mention traditional advertising. We're doing little, if any, print media and only one online ad program. (And that's less advertising and more inclusion in a niche-specific vendor directory. We are seeing traffic from it, though I can't say specifically we've received any leads as of yet.)
As you can see, for me marketing is a mix of tried-and-true and new media. Maybe it's somewhat of a "Meatball Sundae," but I'm willing to continue investing in various tactics culling those which show no promise.
If you've taken the time to read through this extended post (and, if so, thanks very much), I'd like to hear your thoughts. Please comment if you'd care to give feedback.
