The rapid growth of mobile devices, especially smart phones, is undeniable. With a “smart” phone in hand and wifi/ 3G/ internet, you can do almost everything in anywhere. As this blog entry mentions, email opens on mobile devices have been steadily growing, and also reach the same proportion as email opens on PC/ laptop.
People now are way easier to access to their emails through tablets and smartphones, then should companies take advantage and use more of email marketing? To make the decision, it’s important for every company to understand the good and the bad of it.
The Good?
Email marketing is definitely cheap and effective (cheaper than direct mailing (flyers), effective in reducing the time to reach out to receivers)
Through email newsletter, companies can promote business by sending out discounts or coupons, keeping present customers informed, sending out surveys without annoying customers in stores while they are shopping…
The Bad?
Who to send to? If the business is new and you don’t have a list of certain consumers whom you want to aim, and instead going to buy email lists, your email advertisement may end up in the spams.
Customers’ side, do they really read it? Even if they are current customers of your companies, they may just throw email promotion into the “trash box”. Sometimes, too many email promotion, advertisements in a week and too much information makes consumers not even bother to read.
I signed up for a lot of membership and receive email promotions almost every week. The one that attracts me the most and never end up in the “trash” box is from Sephora. Why? Because they give me a PERSONALIZED products promotion. They use my profile’s info (when I signed up for the loyalty card) and give me suggestions that fit my need and preference. I think that’s really a good method.
Overall, email marketing can be effective or ineffective. It’s all up to companies how to format and deliver the email marketing to the other end – consumers!
Some tips for Mobile Email Marketing specifically can be find here, quite interesting!