Since the explosive rise of the social media, of close to a billion people spending significant chunks of time on Facebook and on Twitter, a large majority of pundits have been predicting that email marketing is dying, that marketers waste their time using email as a marketing tool.
Certainly these are chaotic times, no one argues that fact. DJ Patil's simile between the weather and the current business climate is widely quoted.
"There are some times when you can predict weather well over the next 15 days. Other times, you can only really forecast for a couple of days. Sometimes, you can't predict the next two hours.
The business climate, it turns out is a lot like the weather. And we've entered a next-two-hours era."
And yet the volume of email marketing is up by 21% in 2012 when compared to 2011 with the open rates increasing by over 12%- you might be thinking, "sure, that relates to the personal communication via mobiles, Facebook and Twitter" - but no, this increase relates to business to business email marketing. Surprised?
Many people are so convinced that email marketing is no longer viable that they have stopped using autoresponders- don't be deceived into believing that-email marketing marketing is not only viable but growing at a fairly rapid pace. But are there changes in the way we need to do email marketing? Absolutely, there are many changes galvanized by the fact that over 90% of Americans have a mobile device where they receive their emails.
If there is one priority term to remember about marketing, it is relevance. Our customers expect relevant information that they can read quickly, easily and on any of the media channels where they receive messages. Cross-Channel marketing simply means that we must be attuned to the needs of large and small screens as well as large and small keyboards in creating our messages and newsletters. Customers expect to order as easily from their mobile device as from their desk-tops.
The Facts?
Volume of email B-B messages are up.
Conversions are up by over 10%.
Open rates are up by over 12%
Experimentation with segmented subscriber lists is highly advised in order to activate long dormant list members.
Knowledge of mobile media design is not only advisable but essential for today's email marketer.