What Change Makes Email Marketing a Big Con?

 We all know that change happens in the world, in the country, in our business, in our life. 

For example:

Our country has a new President, who introduced several changes; some see these changes as good, but some people see these changes as detrimental.

Companies have increased the use of artificial intelligence replacing a live person for an AI with that all-important initial phone call and website contact: some like this as they seemly get immediate help, but some say this only adds to their frustration when trying to resolve a problem.

Larger and more expensive TV sets are available to accommodate 8K, however little to no 8K shows have been produced to use this capability.  Is the cost of a bigger TV set worth waiting for something that may never happen?

The landscape of education is different, schooling has become more of a challenge.  Are children really doing well with online teaching or is their education leaving them months behind from where they should be?

The digital landscape, the way we market our goods and services has changed: adding several social media channels to consider.  As these platforms grow and morph into the latest “advertising phenomenon” marketers are faced with new marketing decisions.  They need to select the best platform for their business and decide how much they are willing to invest in both time and money in a fluid industry such as social media.  

There is only one platform that has shown to produce great returns for a marketer’s investment of time and money – a platform that has remained constant, reliable, and cost-effect with immediate results, email marketing.

There is nothing wrong with using multiple platforms for marketing.  However, it would be impossible to employ all of them; marketers must select the right one to use to discover new ways to build relationships and grow that revenue.  Email marketing should always be on that list.

Email marketing isn’t perfect, but it’s close and has paved the way for thousands of companies to grow their revenue. Since the first email campaign sent in 1978.

Here is a brief list of marketing tools with the pros and cons available to the email marketer using Dundee mailinglistservices.com

The Welcome Letter: 

The first email you send to your customer should be a Welcome letter.  When someone subscribes to your email list, there are three reasons to acknowledge their new membership with a timely well thought out Welcome email;  to thank your new member for joining your list, set their future expectations by explaining the purpose of your email list and most importantly – to start a subscriber relationship with them.

Pros: Welcome letters are noted to have a high open rate creating a loyal following from those  who read it.

Cons: There really isn’t any cons unless you forget to send one.

The Email Campaign:  The Digital World has created a consumer who is well informed, selective, and expects more for their money.  Today’s shoppers demand some degree of personalization from the brands they patronize, and even from those they don’t.

Pros: An email campaign is a digital brand awareness canvass in itself.  You have the ability to control the content as well as who receives your message and when they do.

As you work on your newsletter layout and content creation, keep the goal of your newsletter in mind.  Prioritize the message with well-crafted content, pointed call-to-action using the perfect template that accentuates your brand.

Cons:  You have to know when to stop writing.  Content should be informative and relevant.  Too much information, images, and links may not load properly for your reader or worse yet too intimidating to read. Bad subject lines may cause your email to end up in the trash. You may be labeled a spammer if you buy lists or add people to your campaigns without their consent

The Segmented list:  Segments are portions, or fragments of lists, whose members are based on some criteria that each member must meet in order for that member to be included in the segment. Segments increase open rates, clickthroughs, which ultimately results in higher ROI while lowering unsubscribe rate. They definitely increase customer satisfaction with your newsletter.

Pros: It’s easy to personalize and send the right message at the right time with unique tailored emails that speaks directly to them.

Segment improve communication, promote higher ROI, and maintains customer engagement.

Cons: Personalized emails require personal information; this takes time to collect.

The Transactional Email: Emails that are sent to someone as a result of a specific action they take, such as making a purchase, are known as transactional emails.  i.e. When someone signs up for your email list, they receive a response to confirm they actually signed up. 

Pros: This type of email encourages subscribers to complete an action, therefore keeping them engaged with your brand. It also improves communication.

Cons: Subscribers may feel there’s too much required from them to complete an activity, i.e. clicking on a link to fill out another form.

The Re-Engagement Email:  All email marketing lists contain a fair amount of inactive list subscribers to the point where inactive subscribers can make up the majority of an email marketing list.  Inactive subscribers are ones who seemly lost interest in your messages; taking no action on your emails as they have filtered your messages out of their virtual life.  Inactive addresses can be rejuvenated and re-engaged to active subscribers again.

Pros:  You may get some subscribers back, while your email engagement rates increase because you have a more active list (may have less people in the long run)

Cons: You will lose some subscribers.

There are many more advantages and tools over social media, than listed here, but that’s not to say you shouldn’t consider using more than email marketing.  Make email marketing the foundation of your digital landscape and build from there- because email has been shown to be the most powerful marketing tool invented, with the biggest pro: it works!