Why use email in marketing?
...It’s just ‘spam’ isn’t it?
Or can it be used to deliver highly targeted messages to people who really want to read them?
The facts point towards the latter as email marketing matures.
Let us not forget that the email marketing sector is a relatively new one; one which has existed for about 10 years. In that time, the use of email by consumers, and its acceptability has also grown exponentially. As first dial-up and then broadband usage have grown, so has the consumer view of email as an everyday medium that is now considered part of everyday life.
With that growth has come 2 key things from an email deliverability perspective. Firstly, ISP understanding of how brands have been using email to sell their products, and secondly how the ISP’s have developed methods to separate legitimate marketing material, from what has become known as SPAM. This has forced marketers to ensure that they use email more and more wisely.
As this understanding of email has grown along with access to the internet generally, there has also been a fundamental shift in the way that consumers accept being marketed to. No longer can an offer or service just be ‘pushed’ on a consumer. Consumers are more and more ‘pulling’ the information that they want from the many sources available to them – and a request to receive further information via email is one of them; it’s easy, quick and relevant to the individual requesting it.
On the basis therefore that email can assist by helping to make communication more relevant, it should also be understood that it is just one of many ways which consumers can use to ‘pull’ or request information. Along with print, direct mail, tv, press, radio, mobile and the internet, in a co-ordinated way, email has a key part to play not necessarily as a replacement to these alternative channels, but as one of the many multi channel approaches to delivering relevant communication. It is this use of email as an integrated part of a marketing strategy which, when used well, can see it assist with increasing relevant communication and so reduce the amount of unwanted marketing, whichever channel it is delivered through..
From an environmental perspective email marketing helps, not just because of the waste reduction of potentially not using a carbon based medium (eg. paper), but also that waste reduction allows a marketer and their brand to become more cost-effective. Cost reduction helps drive greater return on investment, and, if used in a co-ordinated, strategic manner then results improve providing not just improvements in the environmental impact of marketing, but also in the sustainability of a business as marketing processes become more efficient overall.
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