Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category
Email: The power and the glory
Last week Adestra sponsored the 2012 Figaro Email Seminar. The agenda focused on how email is the ultimate outbound channel, and set out with a team of industry experts to instil the lesson that marketers need to ensure their messages are timely and relevant.
We had our own Adestra industry expert, Account Director, Kate Gowers present on; Email: The power and the glory. Below she gives a brief synopsis of what she covered:
30 years ago (way back when the Dead Sea was still only sick), we had one commercial television station, one commercial radio station in London, and we got our news from newspapers and television. Fast forward to 2012 – the consumer of today gets his information from a myriad of sources. He reads his email, watches one of over 500 channels, surfs the net and opens his post. Media has truly fragmented, so the savvy marketer needs to adopt a truly multi-channel approach to keep our consumer’s (limited and transient) attention.
Email marketing is probably the only channel that allows for dialogue – it has the potential to be a true two way conversation. You have the opportunity to reinforce your brand, to educate your customers (or readers) about your offering or industry, to chase that elusive sale, to keep your customers happy and to create advocates amongst your customers (allowing them to do some of your work for you). To achieve all these things, though, you need to talk not SHOUT and ensure that when your programme does initiate response that you LISTEN to what your recipients have to say. Your customers are speaking to you – by opening, or failing to open a message; by clicking (or failing to click) a link and by purchasing (or, you guessed it, failing to purchase) your product or service.
I discuss how best to deliver interesting and relevant (two very important words) content and how best to listen and take note of the response you get.
If you would like to view my presentation, click here.
Email Marketing in the Publishing Industry: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
The first in-depth survey of email marketing habits in the publishing sector, UK Publishing Email Benchmarking Survey Autumn 2011, conducted by Adestra in association with PPA, throws up some interesting data. Adestra’s Henry Hyder-Smith looks at the main findings in his article for InPublishing Magazine.
It shows publishers are doing a number of things right and using email marketing to deliver serious response / ROI metrics, as well as taking steps towards a single customer view. So medals all round and move on to something else? Well, not quite. What is also apparent is that publishers are ignoring some key areas, particularly emerging channels, and lag behind the practices being implemented by their peers in the US.
Lacking some basic email practices and not embracing new channels can be critical for current and future comms activity and needs to be addressed urgently. These are not ‘theoretical’ improvements; these are proven, practical techniques to drive response, particularly sign-ups. Data is king, we all know that. But what are publishers doing to grow it, keep it, clean it and manage it?
Mobile and social drive UK email industry growth – Econsultancy
Following the release of their 2012 Email Marketing Platforms Buyers Guide, a recent post from Econsultancy stated that despite the rise in social media use and consumption, the UK market for email marketing platforms and services was worth £336 million in 2010 and grew by an estimated 15.5% year-on-year to a value of £388 million by the end of 2011.
Adestra’s Henry Hyder-Smith comments:
“With the rise of social media, the talk of the industry
at the beginning of 2011 was all about social media being the death of email. The market has actually grown and the two channels have grown to complement each other.”
“Email marketing has not lost its place in the marketing communications mix, but it has and will have to evolve to fit into the changing times. There has been a rise in email automation to fit into this change, moving from ‘load and blast’ to a focus on relevant and 1:1 communications. The coming years will see email evolve even further, to fit into this social world we are rapidly becoming.”
The email marketing sector continues to flourish, with growth driven by various factors, including competitive pricing and efficiency. Email continues to be highly cost-effective and to deliver strong returns. Growth in this market stems from an increasingly cross-channel approach to marketing, with companies integrating data and insights from a variety of channels to increase the effectiveness of their emails. This is demonstrated by Econsultancy’s 2011 Email Census (published in association with Adestra). It shows that companies are becoming more familiar with the rules of email marketing best practice. Almost three quarters of companies (72%) rate email marketing as “excellent” (26%) or “good” (46%) in terms of return on investment.
How do you rate the following channels in terms of return-on-investment? Econsultancy / Adestra Email Census 2011
To download the 2011 Email Census click here
To take part in the 2012 Email Census click here
To download the 2012 Email Marketing Platforms Buyers Guide from Econsultancy click here
Email: The power and the glory
Last week Adestra sponsored the 2012 Figaro Email Seminar. The agenda focused on how email is the ultimate outbound channel, and set out with a team of industry experts to instil the lesson that marketers need to ensure their messages are timely and relevant.
We had our own Adestra industry expert, Account Director, Kate Gowers present on; Email: The power and the glory. Below she gives a brief synopsis of what she covered:
30 years ago (way back when the Dead Sea was still only sick), we had one commercial television station, one commercial radio station in London, and we got our news from newspapers and television. Fast forward to 2012 – the consumer of today gets his information from a myriad of sources. He reads his email, watches one of over 500 channels, surfs the net and opens his post. Media has truly fragmented, so the savvy marketer needs to adopt a truly multi-channel approach to keep our consumer’s (limited and transient) attention.
Email marketing is probably the only channel that allows for dialogue – it has the potential to be a true two way conversation. You have the opportunity to reinforce your brand, to educate your customers (or readers) about your offering or industry, to chase that elusive sale, to keep your customers happy and to create advocates amongst your customers (allowing them to do some of your work for you). To achieve all these things, though, you need to talk not SHOUT and ensure that when your programme does initiate response that you LISTEN to what your recipients have to say. Your customers are speaking to you – by opening, or failing to open a message; by clicking (or failing to click) a link and by purchasing (or, you guessed it, failing to purchase) your product or service.
I discuss how best to deliver interesting and relevant (two very important words) content and how best to listen and take note of the response you get.
If you would like to view my presentation, click here.
Email Marketing in the Publishing Industry: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
The first in-depth survey of email marketing habits in the publishing sector, UK Publishing Email Benchmarking Survey Autumn 2011, conducted by Adestra in association with PPA, throws up some interesting data. Adestra’s Henry Hyder-Smith looks at the main findings in his article for InPublishing Magazine.
It shows publishers are doing a number of things right and using email marketing to deliver serious response / ROI metrics, as well as taking steps towards a single customer view. So medals all round and move on to something else? Well, not quite. What is also apparent is that publishers are ignoring some key areas, particularly emerging channels, and lag behind the practices being implemented by their peers in the US.
Lacking some basic email practices and not embracing new channels can be critical for current and future comms activity and needs to be addressed urgently. These are not ‘theoretical’ improvements; these are proven, practical techniques to drive response, particularly sign-ups. Data is king, we all know that. But what are publishers doing to grow it, keep it, clean it and manage it?
Mobile and social drive UK email industry growth – Econsultancy
Following the release of their 2012 Email Marketing Platforms Buyers Guide, a recent post from Econsultancy stated that despite the rise in social media use and consumption, the UK market for email marketing platforms and services was worth £336 million in 2010 and grew by an estimated 15.5% year-on-year to a value of £388 million by the end of 2011.
Adestra’s Henry Hyder-Smith comments:
“With the rise of social media, the talk of the industry
at the beginning of 2011 was all about social media being the death of email. The market has actually grown and the two channels have grown to complement each other.”
“Email marketing has not lost its place in the marketing communications mix, but it has and will have to evolve to fit into the changing times. There has been a rise in email automation to fit into this change, moving from ‘load and blast’ to a focus on relevant and 1:1 communications. The coming years will see email evolve even further, to fit into this social world we are rapidly becoming.”
The email marketing sector continues to flourish, with growth driven by various factors, including competitive pricing and efficiency. Email continues to be highly cost-effective and to deliver strong returns. Growth in this market stems from an increasingly cross-channel approach to marketing, with companies integrating data and insights from a variety of channels to increase the effectiveness of their emails. This is demonstrated by Econsultancy’s 2011 Email Census (published in association with Adestra). It shows that companies are becoming more familiar with the rules of email marketing best practice. Almost three quarters of companies (72%) rate email marketing as “excellent” (26%) or “good” (46%) in terms of return on investment.
How do you rate the following channels in terms of return-on-investment? Econsultancy / Adestra Email Census 2011
To download the 2011 Email Census click here
To take part in the 2012 Email Census click here
To download the 2012 Email Marketing Platforms Buyers Guide from Econsultancy click here