The reign of email is far from over

• Reddoordesigner

In recent years, email marketing has taken a bit of a battering. To many marketing movers and shakers it simply didn’t hold the appeal or possibly the glamour of social media. Imagine the marketing possibilities of being able to talk directly to your audience and getting their feedback and thoughts instantly. Being able to build a relationship and really engage with your audience in ways never before possible. And that’s true, social media in all its forms has opened up a whole new level of transparency and accessibility – but it doesn’t have to come at the expense of email marketing.

Good email marketing has always, and still does, meet many of today’s marketing ‘must haves’.  It is direct, targeted communication that should contain relevant and valuable information for your audience. The style, tone and content of the email should reflect the sender’s brand personality and values. Meaningful emails can help develop a relationship and build trust.  This post from MarketingLand includes a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit stating marketers spend significantly less budget on email marketing than any other digital channel – despite the fact email consistently demonstrates the highest ROI.

Social email is the new email

It is possible that email’s reputation has been tarnished because it was all about selling – pushing your message hard to an unsuspecting and unwilling audience. But social media has changed all that and clients and leads expect a completely different approach. We know that conversations, content and credibility are key drivers in establishing trust. We know that we have to demonstrate expertise and commitment – not simply talk about it. And this knowledge should be translated into email marketing that resonates with your audience. Email can and should be an important component of your marketing mix. It should reinforce and reflect your social media strategy, not replace it.

Bombarded with emails? Really?

One final thought. The usual complaint about emails is that people get “bombarded” with them. In a world where we can receive over 250 tweets every hour (we’ve just counted and we’re only following 390!) it seems impossible that even one email a week could be considered bombardment. And that brings us neatly to the subject of quality versus quantity – but that’s for another blog (or perhaps an email).