Web 1.0 Marketing?

E-mail is solidly a Web 1.0 application - The internet's original killer application may seem old hat to some marketers. But it works. Consumers like it and smart marketers are finding new ways to use it.

According to a recent survey conducted by Ipsos for Habeas, two-thirds of adult respondents said they preferred e-mail for communicating with businesses. In my experience, marketers tend to underestimate email's power as a complimentary marketing channel...

Email is More Effective than Search...

New York based Datran Media just published its outlook on email marketing for 2008. The report - The 2nd Annual Marketing & Media Survey 2008: Looking Forward - provides insight from over 2000 marketers on their views and palans to use email in this coming year.


Overall, 82 percent of those surveyed indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing strategies in 2008, and 55 percent of the respondents expect ROI from email to be higher than any other channel. This is in line with the Direct Marketing Association's recent report, which found the ROI from email is much higher than other channels. In fact, email ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008, more than twice the ROI of other mediums including search and display.
Datran found that 67 percent of respondents beleived that email had helped boost sales through other channels. In these scenarios, email is leveraged as a tool for sales as well as a media channel.

Email - Use With Care, But Use

I have long been a proponent of email, specifically as an additive channel - we have seen pretty remarkable effects when email is smartly combined with other (off-line) channels. I have also long warned that the indiscriminate use of email because it's cheap - has dangers far beyond the fact that they are simply ignored. A recent post on Chris Baggott's Email Marketing Best Practices blog puts the case for marrying a little strategic thinking, some great creative and a dollop of data brilliantly...

I may be brand-loyal to Goodyear Tires, but their product isn’t the type for which I would subscribe to their RSS feed or visit their site very often. If they want my business they have to recognize who I am and the best time to send me any communications. To be successful they have to pay attention to me. Know how I buy. Know when winter comes where I live. Or how many miles I’m likely to drive so they can send me the right product reminders...the sort of thing that can be done brilliantly with the right combination of strategy, creativity, email & data.

The Killer Application

Looking for a killer for a Web 2.0 application? Scott Dorsey of ExactTarget has one for you:

This application will provide businesses with a communications epicenter that employees can use to send and receive any type of digital media, including text, documents, audio, and video—all for little or no cost. Always on, this application will be based on an open standard that allows all employees to connect with the members of their social network regardless of what network they belong to or what Internet-enabled device they use.

The above was part of a debate on the future of email in the Business Week Debate Room. read more here...

Leading Digital Marketing Tool? E-mail.

According to the most recent The McKinsey Quarterly, e-mail marketing retains its importance in the digital marketing mix.

In a survey of 311 marketing executives, McKinsey found that 83% used e-mail, ahead of display ads, paid search and online video.




























Over one-half of respondents also said they planned to increase their e-mail spending in the next three years. Great way to start a conversation assuming that you target your message to the audience segment you are trying to reach - otherwise no matter how pretty your layout, it's just more spam.

Basics.

A recently released study from the eMail Experience Council and the Direct Marketing Association confirms that email is rapidly emerging as one of the most powerful marketing channels. Research from the DMA indicates that commercial email in 2007 is forecast to generate $21.9 billion in US sales and that each dollar spent on commercial email is projected to generate more than $48 in sales.
Chad White, the EEC's director of retail insights and the study's author, said "What we found was that there's a clear trend toward subscription processes that are quick and easy, and increasingly transparent." This is key to obtaining permission and staying relevant.



More here...

Asynchronous Conversation Anyone?

In a recent Forrester report entitled "What the Long Tail Does For Relationship Marketing" I found some insightful observations around email marketing.

....Although email marketing is embraced by 93% of marketers, emails are still not up to standards. In Forrester's annual review of email programs only one of the 63 reviewed passed our test, mostly due to lack of customer centricity. Generic blasts of email newsletters, too often the online relationship marketing silver bullet, are not dialogue-building tools. Nor is simply substituting emails for direct mail the right approach. Forrester recommends building email conversations to guide customers through the consideration and purchase cycles.

Music to my ears...

Getting The Message Across

Lyris's latest ISP Deliverability Report Card indicates a surprisingly high average of 13% of permission based emails that are not making it through the spam filters of the key ISPs in the US. Two key factors emerged as influencers:

• Keep images to a minimum - too many can increase the spam score by as much as one point and when the generally accepted threshold for spam is 3 - that is significant


• Be explicit in the sent from address - avoid numbers or symbols.

During the first quarter of 2007, the Lyris EmailAdvisor service monitored the full delivery trajectories of 440,694 production level, permission-based email marketing messages sent from 69 different businesses and non-profit organizations to multiple accounts at 54 ISP domains in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. of the major US based ISPs , Gmail rejected an average of 27.75% and Yahoo 18.22.



More here...