The Great E-mail Renaissance

Pop Quiz….When was the last time you picked up a trade magazine and actually did ANYTHING with it?  Be honest now.  Now I’d like you to think about the last time you utilized social media during your daily routine.  Finally, I’d like you to think of the last time you went through a day WITHOUT receiving, reading (at least in part) or sending an e-mail. 

My guess is that you can’t remember the last time you picked up a print trade magazine BUT you have accessed e-mail and social media in the past 24 hours.  Am I right?

Three to five years ago some experts said that e-mail was dead and had joined print media in the graveyard of past marketing tactics that were no longer relevant.  If you were paying attention last year however, you may have heard rumblings that e-mail was enjoying, to a large extent, a renaissance.  This year in 2017, it’s been pegged as being down right “BACK!!”  My contention is that it NEVER went away and here’s some data as to why.

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that social media channels are leaning into finding ways to promote companies’ paid advertisements over those posts being used by companies for free promotion. Consequently, advertisers are modifying their social media outreach to promote direct sales. As an effect, e-mail marketing is growing again as marketers recognize its strength in the methodical marketing tactic of generating awareness consistently over time. That’s right. E-mail is growing from its already strong position by necessity.

Few would argue that the first step in a successful marketing campaign begins with your audience. Building and communicating with that audience must be the overarching goal for any campaign and e-mail plays a central role throughout this entire process. For further justification, look at what tactics known expert publishers have embraced.  Publishers are first and foremost about audience and how THEY reach their audience is a good indicator as to how YOU should as a manufacturer. 

To put it in perspective, The Washington Post now has over 75 e-newsletters, while The New York Times has 12 people dedicated to newsletters.  Whether it’s the volume of e-mail communication or the personnel allocated to doing it properly, successful publishers will always lead the way to audience access and engagement.  Take notice and utilize them or use them as a model to create your own brand publishing plan.

A recent CMI/MarketingProfs B2B study found that email was rated as the number one success metric for measuring content marketing.  Additionally, e-mail distribution of content is viewed as being nearly TWO times as effective as print and more than five times as effective as search engines.

For the foreseeable future, e-mail must act as the backbone for your content marketing plan.  If it’s not part of your plan in general, it should be if your intent is to engage you target audience in the most effective and streamlined way.