Email Marketing Lives On

As I lounge on my comfy couch in my apartment living room, fresh after a viewing of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic World (2015), I reflect on the notion that newer doesn't always mean better. The recently released extension of the Jurassic Park franchise may have the flash of high-budget effects, modern celebrity cast, and fame from explosive internet popularity, but the true association with the franchise comes from the timeless, established original film. Across the country, millions of consumers gained intrigue for the movie based on their own experiences with the previous plot. Indeed, newer isn't always better.

The special effects from Jurassic Park still hold up

In a sense, the same idea applies to creating leads in digital marketing. While the culture of modern America is quite keen on the prominence of social media, the less visible email marketing is still the most effective method of lead generation for a company. Think about it. E-mail being the most fundamental form of internet communication, almost every internet user has at least one email accept. According to Createthebridge.com, email marketing is 40 times more successful in generating leads than Facebook and Twitter combined. 

A Few Email Best Practices

So, why is cold emailing customers such a cost efficient method? Well, there's a whole slew of reasons. The most important factor to consider is providing a piece of content tht consumers feel compelled to respond to. The primary practice digital marketers must implement is understanding and avoidance of creating spam emails. No consumer likes a generic spam message, and most email services filter it out anyway. According to the (albeit hilariously named) Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (they put so much effort into making that acronym work), companies legally required to:

• Don't use false or misleading Header information.
• Don't have a deceptive subject line-- Use subject line that accurately reflects the content of your email.
• Include a Sender's postal address.
• Identify the message as an add.
• Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you--include a working "unsubscribe" link in every message you send.

Hubspot also weighs in with a few email best practices:

Define a goal for your email: especially in the first sentence, it is crucial to answer the basic questions of "who?" "what?" and "why?" Pack as much intrigue into your first few sentences to foster engagement and avoid losing the consumer's attention. 

Personalize where appropriate: add a personal touch to the email by using the recipients first name and/or a minor detail that is relevant to the situation. Be careful not to extend your personalization too far; it may "creep out" the prospect, breaking engagement.

Focus on engagement: implement words of action in the content of the email. Calls to action are an effective tool to influence a prospective customer to act in a certain way toward a brand.

Test and Analyze: continuously evaluate data to possible a notable trend in consumer behavior and/or purchasing habits. Metrics like click trough rate, page views, etc are strong key performance indicators. 

If a marketer crafts a warm email under the correct format, they will have gained a valuable asset in future communications with the target market. However, sending an email is unfortunately only half the battle. Emails may be great at producing leads, but it is traditionally the duty of the sales department to convert those leads into cold, hard profits for the company. 

Smarketing

Smarketing and Inbound Sales

There is a growing idea in digital marketing that tends to contradict some of these traditional roles of job compartmentalization. Employees get so caught up in their own set of tasks, they fail to see the bigger picture. They fail to see where improvements can be made.

Communication is key. If departments within a company can learn to align their efforts and carry them out in a cohesive manner, surely positive business results will be in effect. "Smarketing" is a combination of sales and marketing departments formed to bolster the quality of work done in between the gaps. If marketing and sales share the duties that exist on the bridge between the two concepts. If communication is vibrant at a company, employees can execute a strategy like inbound sales. Under those circumstances, two departments may draft an email message to be sent to as many people as possible. 

Here's a few tips for email marketing with a background in inbound sales. 

1. Define your target audience: this stage includes gather customer data from statistics, primary research, etc. The goal of this page is to create a buyer persona that is easily identifiable to both marketers and salesmen. 

2. Segment your contacts database: organize data and consumers into specified groups for future analysis.

3.  Send the Right Email at the Right Time: Employ the segmentation preparations you have made narrow down which email goes where. One way to split the target market would be stages in the consumer buying process. You could segment prospects by awareness, consideration, and decision stage. 

4. Focus on long term relationships: provide ample assistance and education for the needs f any customer. When brand loyalty is earned, it is worth it for the company in the long run.  

So there you have it. Email marketing is by no means dead; it's stronger than ever, and can be strengthened through concepts like email optimization and inbound sales.