Email: Alive and Well – Email is dead, they say. We say not so fast. Email is not only alive and well, but it’s still the preferred mode of communication. Many companies rely on email these days, even if it’s as an adjunct to their other online and offline marketing offerings. That’s because email has been proven time and again as an effective way to communicate with customers and entice them to further trust your products and services.
When you compare email performance to other platforms, you’ll see that email consistently outperforms the rest. You’re competing with yourself, essentially, for open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. However, knowing what those numbers mean and how they can help you is another matter altogether.
So how do you measure up? There are tools out there that can help you. For instance, MailChimp gives you monthly updates of email marketing statistics, illustrating things like open rates and click-through rates. You can then use this information to further hone your email marketing strategy to get even more customers.
Using proven measurement protocols is key is determining your growth or lack thereof in this area. You should also know your audience implicitly, what they want and how they want to receive and interact with messages from your company.
Understanding What Customers Want
No matter what industry you’re in, you have to know your audience. Did you know the preferred method of communication for most customers is via email? This is even over other more modern platforms such as social media. And they definitely don’t like phone calls. Studies show, in fact, that two-thirds of consumers prefer email over social channels when it comes to interactions from the brands they trust.
And with the prevalence of smart phones these days, with people able to access their email second to second, this gives you almost a real-time interaction with your customers that may come in handy for them when they are out and about shopping. Seventy-five percent of shoppers say they use their smart phones when deciding where to shop and which consumer decisions they will make.
Email is a way to develop meaningful and long-term relationships with consumers that transcends other platforms of communication. Plus, email can be viewed across all devices, from desktops and laptops to phones and tablets. Consumers have consistently shown that they want their email to be tailored to them and their needs. That’s where personalization comes in.
Customized Attention
Email has been a preferred mode of communication for many companies for many years simply because it can be personalized to the recipient’s experience. Relevancy and customization are critical in garnering your audience’s attention throughout the customer lifecycle. However, personalizing their experience is impossible without gaining insight into who they are and what they want.
The Hyper-Personalized Experience
In order to deliver a so-called hyper-personalized experience over email, you need to invest in the right CRM software to help you achieve your goals. For instance, email marketing and automation provider Campaign Monitor recently acquired Tagga’s customer data platform to result in a way to give companies a truly unique CRM (customer relationship management) system.
Know How to Deliver
While sending emails to customers may be old hat to you, there’s a lot more to the process than simply hitting the send button. You need to have a good understanding of channel performance, especially as it relates to deliverability. For example, Kickbox is an email technology provider that helps people perform email list maintenance and verification of their contacts from a central dashboard. As a result, you can expect to see better email deliverability, engagement and conversions.
Deliverability may be giving you a problem. After all, it’s not an exact science. There’s spam complaints and blacklisting to worry about, for one. However, there are solutions that can mitigate those problems significantly, such as platforms that offer customizable, real-time notifications to help you determine the source of those problems before they become bigger issues. This is a great way to nip lack of visibility in the bud.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line is, email must be a critical part of your company’s marketing and customer management strategy. In order for your brand to be embraced by your customers, you need to deliver your message where it will have the most impact, and that starts with email.