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Is there a future for email marketing

Mark Tomkins

For years we’ve used it and abused it. Our inboxes have filled to overflowing so much to the point that more recently ISPs the world-over have ramped up their spam protection level in a bid to reduce the burden of sheer volume of data going through their network and sending all emails that looked remotely like a marketing email right into the junk folder.

The likes of Mailchimp, Dotmailer, Forefront and Communigator to name a few have spent years and millions trying to circumvent this ‘straight-to-junk-mail’ scenario in order to appease their millions of customers.

At one point at the beginning of 2015 when we saw the beginning in Europe of the new privacy and the whole opt-in rule being enforced – we saw some multi-national companies and users of email marketing getting whacked with non-compliance for not having a proper opt-in trail for its database – the Canadian government information office being one of the first to introduce the strict rules and taking companies to Court over breaches in the rules. Some of these companies had spent a lot of money simply going around and buying up lists of email addresses that fit the demographic they wanted to reach and then blasting them with emails until the users bought, unsubscribed or simply binned-off the email address and created a new one.

It was at this point we thought to ourselves ‘is this the end of email marketing?’ followed quickly by, how else are we going to be able to get our messages across to such large groups of people cheaply?

And therein lies the rub – or rather, the cause and effect. Cheaply. The phrase that actually best describes email marketing. What do they say – ‘buy cheap, buy twice?’.

Years ago, when the volumes were much less and there was very little other methods to connect with internet users, email marketing had a place. But like all things, it gets abused and, before too long it became an annoyance and irritation.

With the new rules of opt-ins (or double opt-ins as is actually the case because the user has to choose to be on the list and then confirm that choice by confirming on another email they want to be on a list) the size of email marketing databases are dwindling.

But that could be a good thing.

As a marketeer, isn’t it better to be more targeted and accurate with your marketing – aim the product or service directly the in the individual? And if the list of users reduces to those who are actually only interested in the sorts of things you sell, then you’re going to stand a much better of chance converting it into a sale or enquiry. For long-term customer retention, we think it’s better to get a higher percentage conversion of a smaller group than a lower percentage of a bigger group. It’s not about the size of your database anymore, but your conversion rates.

Dawn of a new email marketing age

mailchimp-resultsEmail marketing providers, such as Mailchimp and new boys on the block, Mizmoz, are now making it easy to be compliant in terms of the way user details are managed, the tools for subscription, unsubscription and preference-setting are much better, easier to use and above all, just respectful to a person’s email address privacy.

Reading the new guidelines of email data compliance, we at Aubergine have rekindled our use of email marketing in particular sectors and are following these new rules and methods with vigour to ensure that our clients get the value for money they need from email marketing at the same time as doing it compliantly and in a respectful way.

With that in mind, perhaps we’ll see a renaissance of email marketing – but one that is used with a bit of respect for the users’ privacy and one that is more civilised and targeted in its approach.

Time will tell.

If you would like to talk to us about undertaking a compliant email marketing campaign, get in touch with us at studio – 01525 373020.