Email Marketing on the Rise

I read an article this evening that was interesting, but not too surprising. It was a survey conducted by Direct Mag. They indicate that 72% of marketing firms are using email to communicate marketing messages. In addition, 55% are planning on investing more in that channel this next year.

I've heard some marketers in my space playing down the effectiveness of email over the past years. However, that just might be an indication of how they're using the channel that is hurting their performance. In today's email space, you have to deliver relavant content. The days of bulk drops with trick subject lines and image only creatives are past. If you're going to play in this space, you have to step up your game. With reputations closely monitored by the major ISP's, you'd be surprised at how quicky you can get blacklisted... but if you do it's likely because of poor practices.

I've found that over 75% of my lead generation is done in conjunction with telemarketing. You can seriously increase your campaign effectiveness and get a lift across the board by using an outbound effort along with your campaigns. With the new Do Not Call regulations adopted in the past few years, many marketers are hesitant to utilize this channel in the B2C space. As long as you ensure compliance with FTC-Telemarketing Sales Rule TSR standards, which requires an established business relationship, you shouldn't have any issues.

In a coming post, I'm going to give some thoughts on a project I'm testing with a client. The campaign will engage prospects with immediate phone follow-up after high-value content is viewed online. This should provide some really interesting insights for those interested in testing this type of technology. More to come...

You can read more about the direct study here...