Email as a key strategy to beat the downturn
Geoff Ramsey, Senior Analyst at eMarketer, offered his thoughts today on staying competitive in a tough market. In a webinar entitled Digital Marketing Now: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn, Ramsey stated that a key strategy is to “Stay Close to Customers” – and tactic #1 to achieve this closeness is through email.
Calling email “a great medium for staying in touch,” Ramsey says, “As a marketing tool … [email] works and it is cheap.” He recommends that marketers increase their email budgets in the down economy, particularly for retention.
Why hasn't the recognized and scary "spam" word been used in email marketing as an issue on its success? Everyone I know biggest concern in getting email that is unwanted and an invasion of privacy. I don't care how many list people innocently become a part of there is nothing as disturbing as being overloaded with emails with people you don't know wanting you to buy something that you don't want.
It would seem to me that based on some of what has been said in this area that a "qualify" list is in order. Even then there could be some questioning on deleting a foreign message because of the need for privacy. Email I believe should be sacred and proprietary to the receiver because of who he or she is and they should be allowed to chose who enters their network.
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Great comments, but what alot of people don't know is that 95% of SPAM Traffic in the email world is not the reputable marketers we typically see and relate to. So while SPAM is important and list growth and retention is critical, SPAM from a marketer side takes on two different views: 1. is legitimate email considered SPAM, that's a big marketer problem with perception and tenure of lists 2. How lists are being shared, consolidated and opt in disclosure amongst publishers and list owners, which is not always transparent to the consumer.....
Both present obstacles for the direct marketer or reputable marketer.. but there is no denying the value email has in/around notifications, confirmations/transactions, infromation/education, retention/loyalty, and socialization.. it's not going away anytime soon, but as a direct response vehicle (one email = a sale).. that's not a realistic, viable long term view of the value of the channel and most miss out on that...
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David,
Which email service providers to be the leading companies at this time -- StrongMail, Datran...?
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I try to stay as agnostic to the vendor landscape as possible. While I work with several directly and indirectly, we try to remain pure to the value they all bring. What I can tell you is...choosing the right ESP is a cost/value analysis,, not a feature analysis.. we can get most done with 70% of the recognizable platforms out there, it's just an efficiency view that is based on your knowledge, experience and type/scale of your program..
I like what ExactTarget is doing with their API and work with software vendors, I like what Datran has done with monetization of lists and their ad network, I like what Blue Hornet has done with their SureSegments and data warehousing, I like what Silverpop has done with their B2B focus and integration of their products, I like what Responsys and Yesmail have done with their UI's and integrated functionality.... and I like what STrongmail has done with their flexible (on-premise or SaaS) model and social marketing platform..... Lots of cool things, it's really just about the right "fit"... as to who is the best..
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Nice post,
Email is definatley the best way forward... relativley green and fast...
Thanks for bringing this up
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