No wonder the U.S. Postal Service is in trouble — with all the developments in e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing gives you the most success.
Website Magazine reported the most popular e-mail venues, e-mailing’s value, and tips for Q4 e-mail marketing.
E-mail’s value. My sense is that a study more than a decade ago still holds true: Website Magazine compared the marketing potential of Web sites and social media to the value of e-mailing, as of Sept. 20, 2011.
There were 3.3 billion daily searches on the 463 million Web sites:
- Facebook had more than 800 million members worldwide, of which there are 60 million updates daily. (Now, of course, Facebook has more than a billion.)
- Twitter had 300 million members who tweet 140 million times per day, but more than 50 percent of the accounts aren’t active.
- Google + had more than 25 million users with 1 billion shares by the users each day.
- But e-mail accounts, worldwide, total 2.9 billion – 42 percent of the planet’s inhabitants – with 188 billion e-mails sent daily.
In other words, e-mail is more promising for mass marketers because it represents the highest volume of traffic in communication.
E-mail marketing is king if it executes by accomplishing three goals:
1. The right message.
2. The right audience.
3. The right time.
Tips for Q4 marketing. John Murphy, the president of Chicago-based ReachMail, offers his strategies for retailers to achieve their goals in their all-important fourth quarter.
Mr. Murphy starts by cautioning against sending repeat e-mails in the same category to a consumer who has already made the purchase. Subscriber preferences need to be taken into account.
In essence, his points:
- Audit Your List – Don’t keep sending to inactive subscribers.
- Update Preferences – Give options to your audience from which to select.
- Audience Segmentation – Use the consumer’s history as a basis for sending the right offer.
- Test Subject lines – Keep it simple and test different subject lines.
- Offer Early Deals – Mr. Murphy suggests sending a “special messaging during October.”
These are all excellent points. The only suggestions I’d add are to maximize your message by including links for social media sharing and videos.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are related tips:
Marketing – Have You Considered the Potential of e-Newsletters? — There are several benefits if you include e-Newsletters in your marketing mix. The most salient is that they’re a great way to achieve top-of-mind awareness with your customers.
Are You Hungry for Marketing Ideas to Expand Your E-mail List? — If you’re a WordPress blogger, you know it’s easy to compile an e-mail list. You’ve got ready built-in resources for signups to your feed/atom or feed/RSS on your site. It’s a fairly simple process but it’s not so easy with a standard Web site. Both bloggers and Web site owners can benefit from the same potpourri of strategies to attract visitors and to persuade them to join an e-mail list. Here are 13 ideas.
