When the good times roll, it is easy to yield to the temptation of experimenting with cutting edge tools.
But when times are tough and budgets and teams get slashed, marketing re-evaluates budget allocation to concentrate on programs that yield the best results. In this recession, email marketing is one of a handful of tools selected to bear a substantial portion of the revenue generation burden.
Why? Here are ten reasons:
(1) Breadth of coverage. It is possible to touch a great number of people with a single blast.
(2) Scalability. The costs can be as high or as moderate as you want to make them. Increasing the size of the lists usually results in a moderate increase in monthly fees from the email distribution service.
(3) Optimization heaven. Email is supremely suitable for refinement through a/b testing. Even marketing geniuses must test because there is just no way to predict responses. It is the road to rising effectiveness and better ROI.
(4) Standards exist. Email is universally used, and has been now for some time. There are a lot of metrics and benchmarks available for many industries that help gauge success.
(5) Identifies prospects. Each recipient and respondent is known, at least by their email address. Online behavior can be tracked even if real names are not known. At some point, if the prospect is interested enough, s/he will yield actual personal details.
(6) Easily targeted. Email is the ideal tool for addressing distinct verticals and/or segments with different copy and creative for each one. When obtained through opt-in tactics, email can touch people who have a genuine interest in a company’s offering.
(7) Produces instant results (almost). A well oiled email machine will be able to tell within a few hours, and certainly within days, if an email campaign has reached its goals.
(8) Highly measurable. Did we say measurable? Because it is quantifiable by nature, email on its own is capable of washing away the image of “fluff” that marketing has with some non-believers.
(9) Can be automated. Marketing automation tools like Eloqua, Manticore and many others can make fast and reliable lead nurturing a reality even with a limited staff.
(10) Linked to Content Marketing. Providing free, relevant content is emerging as one of the most important trends in Marketing, especially in BtoB. Email is a very effective medium to advertise the availability of valuable content that is of interest to specific groups of prospects.
That’s a lot of advantages when you are trying to concentrate what is left of your marketing budget on just a few reliable tools. Email marketing can be labor intensive, especially when you start multiplying targeted campaigns. But effectiveness is guaranteed when it is well managed.
Tags: demand generation, direct marketing, email marketing, lead generation, Marketing ROI, vertical marketing
