Product category:
Internet, email, search, web design
News Release from: emedia | Subject: email marketing
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 11 February 2008
Why email marketing is still so powerful
Emedia Sales Director Phil Walker assesses the impact of Web 2.0 on email marketing campaigns and their effectiveness as lead generation and brand awareness tools.
Having been at the forefront of the email marketing revolution, I am often asked about the growth and development of Web 2.0 and the impact on email marketing campaigns Web 2.0 is said to be the second generation of websites with web-based communities enabling collaboration and users to share information
Web 2.0 applications are becoming mainstream with online social networks, blogs, RSS, wikis and consumer-generated content on websites such as Amazon becoming more popular among consumers and businesses.
My view is simple, that the essential power of email marketing is fundamentally unchanged since the early days of the internet.
Web 2.0 is of course changing many aspects of the way that marketers can talk to target audiences and also loosening the grip of brand managers over their assets.
Users generate Web 2.0 content and this gives them the power to express their views.
But the shifting sands of the social networking sites are not necessarily the golden marketing goose that they may at first appear.
In fact, almost a third of users admitted entering false information to protect their identities, according to the recent research.
(Source: emedia Email Marketing Audit) How do these new digital media channels impact on email marketing campaigns? I believe that Web 2.0 can help evolve, but it cannot revolutionise, email marketing.
A bold claim some may argue.
So why does email marketing remain the most efficient and effective digital channel in this 2.0 age? 1 Email enables immediate, direct communication, and is still the most efficient online channel.
It is a very effective way to communicate with people who want to hear from you and have explicitly given their permission to be contacted by opting in.
2 People continue to prefer to receive information by email from people and organisations they know and trust.
The emedia Email Marketing Audit found that 64 per cent of marketing managers believe that the primary objective of email marketing is to maintain contact with existing customers.
3 Email is best used to deliver short, high-impact messages, with links or attached files carrying more detailed information or rich content.
The value of an email message is often not in what it itself contains, but what it implies.
What email continues to provide, with or without Web 2.0, is quick and easy access to information via links.
These links in email messages allow recipients to access detailed information or feature-rich media online without having to search laboriously (and often in vain) for it.
I believe that the greatest challenge facing the medium is now deliverability.
Email systems - applications, relays, spam filters - must successfully deliver the messages users want to receive and screen out unwanted or offensive trash.
In fact, in the emedia Email Marketing Audit' independent research that we conducted 51 per cent of marketing managers thought better education of IT managers was needed, so that they don't classify permission-based email as spam.
Too often, in seeking to protect users from "bad" messages, email security technology producers prevent "good" messages from getting through, greatly undermining confidence in what has become a business critical medium.
While powerful and important, Web 2.0 leaves the separate power and importance of email unaffected.
In fact, email marketing is complementary to Web 2.0.
By using powerful web analytics from Web 2.0 websites, marketers can study their customers' behaviours and identify useful relevant content and adequate timeliness to enhance email marketing campaign success.
Phil Walker is Sales Director of emedia.
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