Email marketing is not dead. Email marketing is very much alive.
An article published this week by eMarketer has solid data behind those two statements.
While this research shows that email marketing takes top billing when it comes to customer acquisition and retention, marketers need to keep in mind three strategies to help drive those outcomes.
- Be smart. It goes without saying, but being smart about the content and the subject line are imperative. A third of email recipients open emails solely based on subject line according to research conducted by TripIt.
- Be helpful. In life, annoying people are avoided at all costs. Same goes for annoying marketing messages. Be where your customers are in their journey. Send messages as they become relevant to each stage of the journey. Provide content that helps them. Marketing doesn’t always have to sell. Sometimes it is best to help customers and thank them.
- Add value. Make sure your email content passes the “so what?” test. Will the customer care about this information? Is it relevant to them? If it doesn’t pass the “so what?” test and it isn’t relevant to a particular stage of the customer journey, then don’t send. Win by adding value not creating noise.
- Be device agnostic. Marketers know that mobile continues to grow. Realizing that your audience is on multiple devices each and every day means every email needs to be not just mobile compatible, but mobile optimized. Don’t let the relevant, helpful, valuable message you’ve developed get lost in the shuffle because your customer wants to view the email on his smartphone.
Know the customer. Know the customer journey. And make certain that your email marketing is relevant to both and easily accessible on any device. Do this and you too will see how email marketing is a great tool for acquiring and retaining customers.
Have questions on how to get the most out of your email marketing campaigns? Contact Merit Mile today.