10 Reasons to Market Via Email Continued

As an overview from the first article I wrote the first five reason to market vial email were: penetration, reach, lifespan, return-on-investment, and analytics. I'm going to finish up with the last five: engagement, integration, promotional, mobility, and personalization.

6) Engagement
You don’t usually hear the words “email” and “engagement” in the same sentence.
A question asked frequently among businesses is: When was the last time a subscriber replied to one of your emails? As a small business, email needs to become the ultimate engagement vehicle, a true 2-way street. We’re not talking about public engagement like Twitter or Facebook, we’re talking about one-on-one with prospects that have clearly expressed interest by joining the business' list.


7) Integration
The beauty of all this is that email and social media are friends, especially Facebook.
If you’re failing to see these potential connections, you’re probably wasting great opportunities not only for growth but to establish cross platform initiatives.

8) Promotional
77% prefer email to receive promotional content, while only 4% prefers Facebook, and LinkedIn users have zero (0%) tolerance for promotional messages. There is a natural perception users have for different networks and how that affects conversion. Facebook for example is viewed by the average user as a place to connect and interact with friends and family. You never hear “I can’t wait to see what Wells Fargo said on Facebook today." Email is perceived differently, perhaps due to its privacy or simply because we’ve grown used to receiving promotional items in the mix with other types.

9) Mobility
While it’s understandable that the majority of transactions will take place on the web, Mobile email already accounts for 13%. These are not small numbers and, while some marketers worry about having to be “compatible”, the smart ones are busy working on a whole new channel to deliver their messages: right to the hand of the subscriber!

10) Personalization
Email has the power to send one piece of content to thousands of people and still have some level of personalization. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, “Segmentation” of your list allows you to separate subscribers in different groups to send highly targeted messages depending on actions taken or specific times.

Recap
Yes, email is the only channel of communication that remains private, that is a direct connection between the business and the prospect, and most importantly, it has an opt-in process that turns it into the purest form of Permission Marketing

I love social media but, as they say, the money is in the list...


So what do you think? Is emailing customers important for marketing? Or is it a waste of time?