Yes, news of the death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated.
Yes, it’s true that Social Media Marketing, the new kid on the internet marketing block, is rightly seen as hot right now … and at Italic Marketing, we’re big fans. But email still has a part to play. And I’m beginning to suspect that it may still be the best marketing channel for some audiences. Why ?
Well, I met an old acquaintance a few weeks ago and was updating him on my business exploits since I’d last seen him. This covered a lot of ground, so I deliberately didn’t dazzle him with jargon, and I only mentioned social media networks in general terms. He’s an intelligent, professional guy, and although he does use computers, both at work and at home, he’s not what you’d call a technology geek and as far as I know, isn’t on any networks himself.
He listened politely as I described what I was up to and then stirred his coffee. He squinted at me and asked, “So do you use this social media-Facebook-Twitter stuff with your internet marketing ?”
“Yes ! ” I enthused, thinking that I’d underestimated how much he was up to speed on social media networks.
“Ach, I can’t be bothered with all that stuff,” he said, “I can handle email, but all that other stuff … ?” He made a face and sipped his coffee. Then it seemed another thought hit him, because now he positively scowled.
“Not the flipping spam !” he added. “But if it’s someone I know, somebody that I’ve done business with or asked for information from, that’ll do me just fine. I can handle that.”
I remembered his comments the next time I sat in front of my personal inbox. I realised that much as I enjoy the immediacy of social networks, I still get a lot of specific, tailored information from email.
So I started to do my own little straw poll – totally unscientific, of course. And I began to realise that there are more people like my friend around … people that perhaps are not comfortable with Facebook, Twitter or whatever, but who have grown-up using email and are comfortable with messages in that medium (in moderation, always).
The next day, I got what has become a regular monthly email from a local restaurant whose email newsletter I had subscribed to a few weeks before. This month’s edition had a “2 for 1″ voucher in it.
I smiled. Not just because it’s a fine restaurant and I will soon enjoy sharing another meal there, but also because this is exactly the kind of thing that is so easy to do with a fully automated Customer Acquisition, Retention and Referral System.
“Somebody has got the message !” I muttered.
Indeed, the death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated !
Italic Marketing can advise you on how to use email marketing in your business. To find out more, call us on 0117 911 4187, or contact us here.
Sources:
Email graphic: iker at sxc.hu
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