All of us receive some sort of email communication from different companies every day some of which I am sure you don’t even read so how effective is this form of communication in a marketing plan?
First of all email marketing is totally measurable. All email marketing software provides you with a report to show how many people have opened the email and how many have clicked on a link. Depending on the software you are using you will be able to see exactly what link they clicked. Google analytics will also show you where people have linked to your website from an email campaign. This is a something that is not possible with postal mailers. Research conducted by the Direct Marketing Association US showed that email marketing was expected to generate an ROI of $42.08 for every dollar spent on it in 2010. As such, it outperforms all the other direct marketing channels examined, such as print (reference). This is an excellent tool to have as you can keep track on ROI’s and also give a follow up call to anyone that has opened the email.
Email marketing can be targeted at specific audiences keeping the content relevant to the person receiving it, which is much more cost effective than producing a number of different printed materials. You can also target a larger audience at a much smaller cost.
It is true that not everyone you send the communication to will read it but the same can be said for any marketing communication sent out, email marketing is a cost effective tool which can be easily measured and should be considered in any marketing strategy.
However it is important as with any form of direct marketing that you follow up and check your reports and follow up on any clicks. If you do not do this then you will have no way of measuring how successful a campaign has been.
