According to the 2009 Marketing-GAP study conducted by the Direct Marketing Association consumers prefer to receive emails over other direct marketing channels such as direct mail.
However the report also shows that marketers are lagging behind in using email marketing to promote their products and many do not fully understand how to make this media work for them.
The report highlighted how important email marketing is to companies and how the cleverest companies are using this tool during the recession. Key trends for email marketing over the coming year include:
- Building and improving email lists
- More integration of email marketing with websites, social networking sites and mobiles
- Focusing far more on customer retention
- Better quality, clean data and a clear strategy
Are you looking to improve your email marketing? Try our:
5 Steps to Better Email Marketing
1. Add a newsletter sign up to your website.
Encourage your clients, customers and prospects to sign up for your email alerts by giving them an idea of what the emails will contact (news, tips, offers). The sign up box should be in a prominent position and ask for the minimum amount of information – email address and name at most. EasyDrum provides a sign up form as part of the package.
2. Encourage your users to share information with others
By adding in links to popular social networking sites you can encourage your users to spread your message for you. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Digg and Reddit allow people to quickly share information they find useful with others to widen your audience.
3. Study your click through data
By checking which links people click on and how many times you can get a feel for what sort of information people are interested in receiving. You can use this data to produce more relevant and popular emails in the future and keep your recipients engaged.
4. Regularly test all elements of your email marketing
Do not be afraid to experiment. Try setting up two mailing lists and send them the same email with a different subject line, does one do better than the other? What about sending it at different times? Does the amount of content affect the click through rates, what about the design style? Different groups of customers have different habits, by tapping into your recipients habits you can increase the effectiveness of your emails.
Keep in regular contact
You should pick a schedule and stick to it, if you neglect your list for too long they may lose interest in receiving emails from you. On the other hand, if you bombard them with messages they’ll soon get fed up. This depends on the type of emails you are sending and your customer base, in some cases once a week is acceptable, in others bi-monthly might be more appropriate.
