For the last 10 years, email marketing has seen a rapid growth and is now perceived to be a pivotal online marketing technique. Cost-effective as a form of direct marketing, a successful email marketing campaign needs careful planning and management. However, the rise of email spam together with email regulations does not always guarantee success and there are several hurdles that need to be overcome.
There are two main issues that need to be tackled: how to get through any spam filters to reach the recipient and secondly to ensure that the content is relevant and distributed in a timely manner thus minimising any negative feedback which can be so damaging to your brand.
One major problem with marketing emails is that they can be associated with ‘junk mail' - they merely antagonise the recipient if none of the content appears relevant. This combined with the ability of recipients to instantly delete emails via either a filter or from their inbox means that response rates are difficult to achieve despite the lower set-up and mailing costs.
Statistics show that the 'open rates' of e-mails have dropped from 36.8% in 2004 to 29.4% during the same period in 2005. Interestingly it is reported that more than 65% of UK companies will boost their online marketing activities this year which indicates that the volume of emails being distributed looks set to grow - thus compounding the problem.
A survey published by Revolution this month reported that 40% of UK companies who had adopted an email marketing campaign had not researched and tested the core elements before distributing the email. It would suggest that since email is relatively cheaper than its direct mail counterpart, less emphasis is placed on testing and segmentation principles. This could have a detrimental effect upon the perception of the brand, particularly if the very method of promoting it is seen as spam.
It is therefore essential to have comprehensive tracking software incorporated within your email marketing campaign program. This enables you to see such statistics as 'open rates' and those links that were clicked on within the e-mail, as well as 'bounce' rates and unsubscribes - all of which are key measurements to rate the success of your marketing campaign.
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