Anyone who has a friend or family member who has lost a job recently knows this is a tough economic time for a lot of businesses. What impact has the economy had on email marketing as a channel?
Less marketing budget = more email reliance
First, because email has a reputation of lower cost and higher ROI compared to other marketing channels like direct mail, businesses are moving into email when they hadn’t really been playing in that arena before. We’re also seeing established email players ramp up their email frequencies to make up for revenue losses or budget cutbacks elsewhere. This practice can be harmful, of course, and marketers should test and watch stats to make sure they are not overmailing.
Marketers must target to trim the fat
While some businesses are emailing anyone and everyone possible, other companies recognize that email isn’t free. With tighter times, they are getting smarter about their marketing. They are taking the time to target and segment their emails to people who are more qualified and apt to care about the particular message they are sending out. The “batch-and-blast” (or “spray-and-pray”) approach, in addition to being recognized as less effective, is now also being seen as wasteful by marketers.
Priority #1: (Show) Value (to) current customers
Additionally, there is a recognition that current customers/subscribers are extremely important to retain and nurture in today’s environment. This involves, again, making emails more timely and relevant to the end reader. Establishing lifecycle marketing campaigns (i.e. sending emails based on the customer’s recent behavior such as a new sign-up, purchase, inactivity, etc) is essential. There is more focus on fine-tuning automated message rules (or triggered emails) and creating value-add content (for example: someone purchases a widget and a week later an email arrives with helpful hints on using the widget). Dialogue and relationship-building are top of mind.
Clearly, these kind of practices will not only optimize results in tough times, but ultimately position businesses for better success once the economy rebounds.
What other ways are you seeing the economy affecting the email marketing arena?
Kristen Gregory
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is very true. As our economy goes down and businesses have less money to do expensive types of advertising such as flyers, poster, banners, etc, more and more businesses are turning to email marketing to make-up for their lost revenue.
Great points, and look forward to more articles from Bronto!
Thanks very much for commenting! I’m so glad you enjoy our blog.
One dangerous practice we’re seeing in desperate economic times as businesses shift to email marketing from other channels and increase their frequency, is marketers reaching back into the past and grabbing very old customer files or non-permission lists. This is a bad idea and could seriously damage your sender reputation, making it even more difficult to successfully bring in revenue.
Here are two related posts you may find interesting:
http://blog.bronto.com/2009/05/18/6-considerations-to-lower-complaints-improve-your-sender-reputation/
http://blog.bronto.com/2008/07/18/a-case-of-expired-email-permission/