There is a big debate going on about whether advertising is dead. It may be, to a certain extent (that’s a much longer post) but I’m also certain that marketing lives on, albeit in a very different form than it was a decade ago. No matter where you come out on the aforementioned question, you’re probably in the business of reaching out to your customers or potential customers to increase sales. Today’s topic is an unsexy but highly effective way to do just that. 
I hope you or your marketing folks spend a lot of time on email, but I’m doubtful that’s true. It’s “old” technology, and I think we all sort of gravitate to more recent stuff. It’s not as much fun as video or social media nor as interesting as paid search. It just works. This from the folks at Retention Science:
Although flashier channels like social media and mobile marketing routinely steal headlines, email is still the core of every effective digital marketing strategy…Email marketing generated the highest ROI for eCommerce in 2014, and consistently outperforms other channels in engagement and conversion. Even tech-savvy Millennials prefer to communicate with brands through email; 47 percent of respondents chose email as the preferred channel, while only 6 percent selected social media.
Integral to that statement is the notion of control. People like that they can see what they want to see and unsubscribe if you’re not helpful (how’s THAT for good feedback!). Email is much easier to personalize, and the offers can be fine-tuned. Are you really going to make 100 different videos to reflect the nuances of your customers? Probably not.
Email is one of those things in business that reminds us that the new, shiny object might not be the best use of our time or resources. Building a mailing list is hard, and just using content (fill this out for a free whitepaper or report) won’t do it alone. Great content combined with innovative thinking and smart socialization can help. So can working with another brand that complements yours. The reward, however, is well worth the effort.
A personalized ad, delivered which is requested by the customer, delivered when the customer wants it, and which is highly actionable and measurable sounds like email in a nutshell. It also sounds like a pretty good thing to me. You?
Consult Keith 