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Guest Blog, Laura England: Email marketing – here to stay…
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We have come a long way since Gary Thuerk sent the first mass e-mail in 1978. It might have only reached a few hundred people, but back then, that figure was impressive. Almost 40 years later, we continue to use the same technique to reach customers, staff and stakeholders. Laura England, account executive at technical PR agency, Stone Junction, details its substantial transformation

Advances in SEO, content marketing and sophisticated automation tactics have slowly pushed some traditional techniques into digital obsolescence. Despite this, e-mail marketing continues to remain relevant. Throughout its 40-year life span, the medium has seen some questionable techniques. Nevertheless, a few changes and improvements that come to mind are definitely here to stay.

Responsive design

According to Experian, a large percentage of e-mails are now read on mobile devices – two thirds, to be precise. In fact, the growth in use of mobile phones and tablets is part of the reason e-mail marketing has remained so popular. Without a doubt, most of us understand the importance of responsive design. Despite this, just eleven per cent of commercial e-mail templates are optimised for mobile viewing. If e-mail marketing is part of your marketing strategy, responsive design should be a top priority.

A personal touch

In today’s society, everything is personalised, from TV adverts to Starbucks cups, everything is tailored for you. While personalisation of e-mails certainly isn’t a new phenomenon, we’re finally beginning to see this tactic done well.

E-mail marketing has gained a relatively bad reputation when it comes to personalisation. Even luxury brands have fallen victim to the easy but detrimental mistakes of poor tailoring in their campaigns. While it is true that brands could easily scrap this technique and avoid embarrassing mistakes, according to various studies, e-mails containing personalised elements have transaction rates six times higher than those without. Despite this, less than 30 per cent of brands use this tactic in their campaigns.

Long live the light box

Most of us will have experienced a pop up box on our screens whilst browsing online. Often referred to as a light box, the tactic is a pet hate of some marketers because they consider it a nuisance to the customer. However, using a light box is no different to a call-to-action in your sidebar or including a subscribe option in your e-mails. Perhaps, just a little more direct.

Aside from providing a useful platform to notifying the user of a deal or promotion, the sign-up function through light boxes has been known to expand e-mail lists between five and ten times faster than traditional sign-up fields. For me, that is worth disrupting the browsing experience for a few seconds.

Now, more than ever, e-mail marketing is a tool to be embraced and used to its full potential by marketers. Outliving the likes of affiliate programmes, pop-up ads and classified advertising, there is no doubt that e-mail marketing is here to stay.

Laura England is an account executive at technical PR agency, Stone Junction. The award-winning agency, based in Staffordshire, focuses on public relations and marketing for businesses operating in the technology sector. Laura was appointed the company’s e-mail marketing specialist in 2015.

Discovering content the most popular method with consumers…
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A recent report conducted by the US video platform company, Rapt Media, has found that the majority of consumers prefer to find content themselves, even if the content sent out is personalised to the individual and their preferences.

Surveying 1,000 consumers, the report analysed consumer attitudes to marketing content and revealed that 43 per cent completely reject online ads, and an overall 95 per cent claimed to take some action against receiving ads. Moreover, 67 per cent complained that brands are sending too much content; 55 per cent stating that much of it is not relevant; and 46 per cent claiming that the content information comes across as ‘pushy’.

Read the full report here

Geometry Global Intelligence extends consultancy service to EMEA region…
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The international brand activation agency, Geometry Global, has rolled out plans to extend its bespoke marketing consultancy service, Geometry Global Intelligence to the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA).

Designed to support and advise marketers on a number of key areas including; the customer journey, market analysis and new product development, the service will launch in France, Italy, Russia, Germany, United Arab Emirates and South Africa after a successful piloted 12 months in the UK. Chief executive of the EMEA region at Geometry Global Intelligence, Pietro Leone, commented: “Media fragmentation has significantly increased the complexity of brands’ ability to invest marketing budget exactly where it is needed to drive growth. Geometry Global Intelligence works with clients to help transform their business performance by identifying efficient and effective solutions using a unique methodology.”

Forum Events introduces new Internet Marketing microsite
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As part of a wider campaign to support the internet marketing industry, Forum Events has this week launched a new engaging partner microsite for the marketing industry.

The new design has been carefully planned to create a smoother journey to enable partners to better understand Forum’s unique Summit concept.

In 2015, originally consisting of an annual Summit, the brand has since incorporated eConnect – a twice monthly newsletter providing readers with current and informative industry knowledge.

Head of Marketing Katie Houghton comments: ‘The Internet Marketing microsite is just one of 22 new microsites we will be launching over the next few months. It forms part of a wider strategy here at Forum Events to better inform our partners new and existing of the niche events we run across multiple different industries. It will provide a streamlined solution to understand the event, find out more information and to book on easily and seamlessly.’

The Internet Marketing Summit has seen incredible growth and will now benefit from a platform whereby new and existing partners can keep ahead of the game with industry news, book to attend the Summit online and benefit from targeted advertising opportunities which are built in to our overall partner packages.

The next summit is being held on the 9th May 2016 at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, London. Click here to find out more.

Why ‘brand me’ means integrated marketing campaigns are the future
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The rise of personalisation is no secret; in fact, back in 2013, an article in marketing magazine was questioning how far the trend could go – the question remains and the answer is always the same: further than we ever expect.

For too long, marketing has been split between digital and traditional media, and though the most successful marketing campaigns now function in both spheres, the continuing march of technology and rise of the IoT (internet of things) is likely to force this practice to the fore regardless of how ready marketing departments or agencies are to accept it.

This is not to say that those who excel in one area are somehow underperforming or not offering the right service, just that it is necessary for the industry as a whole to consider how changes in consumer behaviour and interaction with brands will affect them, and how they can future proof themselves by diversifying, breaking down silos or forming partnerships.

The increasing importance of ‘brand me’ to the future of marketing cannot be overstated – especially with the coming IoT revolution, the progress of on-demand media, customisable news feeds and mobile prevalence pushing consumers toward app based interactions. The future of marketing will naturally follow consumers into these apps, into their customised, personalised media consumption and this means that there will naturally be a blurring of the lines between traditional and digital media and mediums of branding.

In this regard, both sections have a lot to offer the other – while traditional media marketing has been utilising the campaign model for decades, attempting to become a part of a zeitgeist (soft-drink, alcohol and sportswear brands being prime examples) through both sales and non-sales oriented promotion, digital media is a relative newcomer to the concept (though viral-marketing and earned media are making great progress), whereas digital media is more proficient in real-time marketing and making use of the incredible amount of granular data available to them.

As television events increasingly become an online phenomenon (think the release of new, whole seasons of Netflix and Amazon Prime series), as apps begin to deliver personalised content to consumers without recourse to intermediary sites, there will need to be a blending of approaches to marketing in the future, taking the best of both worlds to create marketing practice that adds values to brands while delivering to consumers in an increasingly personalised world.

 

Article by John Warner
Content Executive, Click Consult

Click here to find out more about Click Consult