Are your campaigns reaching the intended audiences?
To maximize the power of email — as well as emerging channels such as social and mobile — you have to think about how these channels fit into your overall marketing strategy and objectives. What channels are best suited to build your brand, help deepen customer relationships, or reach your target market?
Email marketing is an essential part of any successful marketing mix. Large enterprises, as well as small-to-medium sized businesses, use email marketing to engage their target audience by providing compelling and relevant content. The latest email marketing technology allows you to deepen customer relationships, turn leads into sales opportunities, and move them forward in the buying process.
According to the Direct Marketers Association, as of May, 2011, email marketing had an average return on investment of $43.52 for every dollar spent. This is expected to reach $44.25 by the end of 2011. Email marketing continues to thrive as a valuable means for businesses, both large and small, to communicate with prospects and customers; and, as the impressive email ROI numbers from DMA clearly suggest, email continues to drive significant revenue for businesses.
However, in today’s increasingly growing networked economy, reaching targeted audiences requires that you interact with them via multiple customer-facing channels. Two of the biggest marketing trends is the integration of email marketing with social media and making email campaigns mobile.
It is predicted that in 2012, 66% of US internet users will use social networks on a regular basis, amounting to nearly 158 million people. Email marketing is complementary to social media and, in today’s multichannel environment, you can raise awareness of your brand and extend the reach of your online and email marketing efforts by incorporating social media into your overall marketing plan. Social media integration provides a way for your customers to share your email marketing content by posting it on the most popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Additionally, the growing trend in mobile usage, specifically, is an important technology channel to be aware of. Increasingly, mobile-friendly social networks now go wherever their users go. How does mobile marketing fit into your overall marketing strategy? Businesses that effectively integrate mobile into their marketing mix will benefit from deeper interaction with prospects and customers, build richer data sets, and diversify revenue streams.
I recently completed a new white paper titled 7 Email Marketing Trends You Cannot Ignore. This white paper delves into seven trends that will help marketers generate actionable results for their companies using email, including raising engagement, making your content matter, motivating your subscribers to respond, automating your strategy, integrating social, targeting the powerful, and embracing mobile.
Thanks to technology, there are an almost endless number of customer-facing channels available for you to reach your audience. The right mix will help you reach new audiences in the exact way they choose to communicate… where they live, work, and play.
As you plan for 2012, use the seven email marketing trends to guide your marketing initiatives. The power of automated email, rise of mobile, and the success of social networking sites like Facebook will all play a role.
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