Thursday 31 May 2012


E-mail marketing far from kicking the bucket

It is no secret that each and every person in the marketing world has thought about which type of marketing campaign can give their business the most exposure. Sure there are a lot of strategies that can be followed and can possibly show some return on the time spent on these campaigns, but do they really work?

To try and explain this we should look at what has been done in the marketing world so far and what can be done for future generations.

Door to door

Now this just makes me giggle, to be honest. Door to door sales and marketing is probably one of the most archaic marketing tools.  These salesmen have the worst timing in the world. When I am relaxing at home with friends and family and these people take the time to interrupt or disturb me, they will probably get the door slammed in their face. Door to door marketing is (luckily) mostly dead. People do not take kindly to strange people at their doorstep.

Flyers

Everyone that drives around in Johannesburg or anywhere else in South Africa knows about flyers. I can’t help but feel sorry for those guys handing them out, people don’t actually give them the time of day. On the rare occasion that motorists do take a flyer it is purely out of desperation or preventing themselves from being harassed into taking a flyer. At one stage I had 20 flyers in my car and to be honest when I threw them out I could not remember a single advertisement on any of them. I think it is safe to say that this marketing tool is maybe the least successful, never mind the money that got spent on making these flyers and all the trees that had to make way for the paper to print them.

Bill boards

There are some seriously big, bold and wonderful bill board advertisements out there. Some even have flashy light displays, mechanical parts protruding or rotating. This is great, but honestly when I am speeding down the high way at 120km/h, I really don’t have the time to grab my phone to capture the telephone number of the company. All that you will remember is the pretty bill board somewhere close to the Grayston or Marlboro off-ramp.

Phone calls

This is definitely a far superior way of marketing, to an extent. It has its limitations though, for instance, if I am in a meeting, having dinner or watching television it is very difficult for me to give the person on the other side of the line my undivided attention. More often than not will I cut the person short and I bet you that he will be quite upset about that and won’t bother to phone me again.

SMS Marketing

SMS marketing, in my eyes is definitely almost at the top of my list on successful marketing strategies. It is effective, non-obtrusive, quick and easy. It is lower in cost than lengthy phone calls. It sparks a thought at the back of your mind, you will probably not delete the message and when the need arises the message is easily retrievable.


And here it is the poster child of marketing. Absolutely everyone I know and most of the population in the world have access to the internet and have an e-mail account. It is the quickest, easiest way to get information across. It is also the most affordable way to get your name out there. People communicate over the internet constantly and regularly this ensures that your company’s information and information on specific campaigns can be easily distributed. These types of campaigns get the word out and thus create awareness of your business. People talk and word of mouth has been tried and tested in showing that it works. Studies have shown that in 2016, 80% of the world’s business will be done via the internet. Don’t you think that it’s beneficial to be doing e-mail marketing?   

A lot of professionals will disagree with me on this matter. For some time now it has been debated that e-mail marketing is a dying breed. They are of the point of view that e-mail marketing will make way for the new “in” thing; social media marketing. I beg to differ (my personal view). As earlier mentioned, e-mail remains the biggest means of communication for a lot of people and even more so for CEO’s and people in the business world.

Systems to ensure successful e-mail marketing and just all-round business success

There is a little, well quite big and wonderful thing called eCRM. A lot of businesses have been running successfully on this type of system because of its capabilities and what it can do for a business. Customer Relationship Management, plainly put, is what eCRM is all about. It is a complete business solution capable of handling all your customer related business processes. This includes all data capturing, customer and company records and all necessary details on marketing campaigns.

This is the beautiful part of this system. All the functions are at your disposal for running successful marketing campaigns. CRM systems consist of software that keeps records on your existing clients and prospective clients this allow for leads to get followed up on. Knowing which companies benefit from a specific marketing campaign makes it easier to determine what other marketing campaign to use for a different client base. And then, all that still needs to be done is set your e-mail marketing “tool” in place to reach your clients.

E-mail marketing will survive

To say that e-mail marketing will die out in the near future is very difficult for me to believe. As we said, e-mail is still an integral part of any business and the way these businesses communicate with each other. The future is still looking bright for e-mail marketing. Let’s go out there and spam (legally please – CPA is watching you!) to our heart’s content.

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