Is E-Mail marketing DEAD???

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1. 

   Apurva Narang November 22, 2011, 9:24 am

    

   This was a good read… I just beg to differ..  

   a. The cost of sending such emails is as low as 2,500 per 5k emails from a service like constant contact,  and via a dedicated server such mails can be sent within 4k per lac emails, including the Data Cost. So it’s quite cost effective.

   b. Many successful campaigns that i have witnessed are in the B2B space, many of whom have no presence on social media whatsoever. Even in B2C , look at the traffic/ revenue that emailers get many of these e-commerce portals. One may not like them , but it does get them business. 

   There are people out there , CEO’s infact, who have appointed a vendor through the mailer they had received. 

   In one such case they hired a production house , another one hired a communication service provider whose solution was billed in high seven figures.

   There’s an international education meet that cannot possibly reach those 5000 odd colleges without spamming them with mails. And they did infact get a tremendous response via such mailers. 

   So Imho to each his own, we have come a long way and social media is an apt tool to get customers but email marketing is still alive and kicking.  

   Am i against spamming –  yes, do i respond to such emails – no , but that does not stop others out there. 

2. 

   kunal varma November 22, 2011, 10:00 am

   Dear Alok, you have a valid point in complaining against this email. As a person who’s passionate about (and tries to specialize in) marketing, allow me to add my 2 cents here.

    

   1)  First of all, this email is a perfect example of poor and failed marketing

       – A call to action is missing or not easily identifiable

       – Communication is too long (our average attention span for a email is about 5 to 15 seconds). This email would take about a minute to digest

       – The communication is not targeted. Just about anyone is getting this email

   {check out my article on marketing communication: https://kunalvarma.com/?p=59)

    

   2) The team that has executed this campaign has just not thought about what they spent their money on(read: executive in a big company justifying his salary by spending time and money on just random act….)

       – they should have got their hands on a segmented database of clients (meaning: email id of Purchase Manager of certain company in a certain location, that they think needs their product)

    

   Most marketing companies in India or marketing executives in big organizations don’t think about monetizing their marketing dollars.

    

   Email marketing is very cost effective (meaning less money and value for money) if done intelligently. And yes, it’s a thriving market today. Even more solid impact is created by Direct Mail (which is also very much alive and kicking today).

    

   Social Media marketing is still very elusive in terms of ROI. Lot of people (and consultants) claim that they are social media gurus, but I’m yet to see a sustainably profitable business here (i’m a hard core capitalist). Consumer engagements happen but it is difficult to capture and convert leads out of these engagements.

    

   Summing it up: in my opinion, the email marketing business requires smartness and thus few people excel at it. It is still alive and kicking and complements the other new age marketing media.

    

   -kunal

3. 

   Clyde Nunes November 22, 2011, 12:28 pm

   It all boils down to intrusive v/s integrated. anything which is intrusive in today’s day and age will be, more often than not, shut out. this is because the viewer/receiver is empowered & knows that s/he can either switch the channel or delete/mark as spam. 

    

   social media is the epitome of integrated communications. but what we need to ask ourselves is, ‘is our audience on facebook?’ or ‘how often do they visit their linkedin profiles?’ it’s hard to reach them there. but it’s not impossible. imagine if Godrej had invested the time & effort in engaging their consumers (namely CFOs or Admin Heads) via smart solutions. Like an activity where perhaps they could ‘donate their spam/empty their mailboxes’ (forward the mail to Godrej, then delete) for a CSR benefit. For every mail deleted/marked as spam, a needy school would be closer to receiving furniture from Godrej Interio. Thus, making space in one’s inbox/message box will give someone more of it. They can THEN send the audience ‘thank you’ emailers. 

   So, they get their email id (remember the ‘send all your spam’ mentioned earlier) & get some excellent CSR. Not to mention a superb way to demo & showcase their products. 

    

   Or if not the CSR route, imagine creating a competition where the organisations are asked to ‘make space’ virtually with the same mechanism. The organisation with the most amount of space cleared will receive a free makeover worth Rs.XXXXX. This will not only engage the CFO or the head of admin, but s/he will request everyone in the office to ‘clear up space’ as well. The CEO, too will be pleased that that s/he’s got a good deal at the same time bringing the organisation closer as a team. 

    

   Coming back to the point. Emails are still an important tool which aids keeping in touch with your database. Clients are pressurized by unscrupulous media agencies to ‘burn up’ media either because it’s available at a bargain price or will expire at the turn of the new quarter. The creative agencies in charge of ‘churning’ out such ‘creatives’ look at mailers & classify them as ‘not-award worthy’, which is why they’re disposed of at the earliest, possibly by the intern in charge of small copy jobs & making tea. Interestingly, agencies deem mailers as their ‘bread & butter’. A revenue constant. Very rarely do agencies ‘teach’ their employees to treat every single piece of copy or work as essential. Something which C2W drilled into me & which I carry with me today. I might tick people off with my constant pestering, word changes (not the right personality/tone), one pixel shifts & what not. But it’s because a brand pays good money for it. 

    

   I know that this reply was long, but the point I was making had many facets. It’s not just the brand or the brand manager. It’s the entire gamut. The media agency & the creative agency are party to such debacles. So, if you DO want to blame someone, I’d suggest you get a hold of the agencies involved as well. 🙂 

    

4. 

   Abey John November 23, 2011, 12:46 pm

   Alok, this is not email marketing.  This is shit mail marketing.  Undifferentiated purchased lists are the bottom feeder garbage that sits alongside viagra spam.  

    

   Email marketing has the highest ROI of any advertising/marketing medium.  But for it to work you need to know your audience intimately, be relevant, and make offers that resonate.  

    

   There is a case for unsolicited email as Apurva points out in the B2B space.  IF you know the audience and what you have is a close match to what the audience wants/needs.  Now imagine if you had received an email offering a service that will slash your phone costs by studying your phone bill.  Wouldn’t that grab you?

    

   Generally though, your highest ROI is going to come from a list that has explicitly granted you permission to contact them.  Which is where copywriting kicks in and you need to know all the buttons that needs to be pressed in an extended persuasion curve before you can kick back and close.  Email marketing when done right is salesmanship at its finest.  

    

    

5. 

   Ankita Gaba November 24, 2011, 7:50 am

   +1 to your points

   However there are some good uses of email blasts:

   -Interaction with your existing circle.
   -Directing people to the brands social properties
   -Extremely targeted well written mail- a lot of old school managers still take them seriously. Like in the above case a well written email to the CFO/ purchase manager might have done well.
   – Providing an insentive to the reader – A discount on a purchase. This is how I started using zoomin.com. And I use it regulary now.

6. 

   Abey John December 21, 2011, 2:46 pm

   Thought this might convince you otherwise. 🙂

   

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