These days, a lot of focus is put onto social media and messaging apps, and email has become a less important way of communicating for many people thani it used to be. Before the rise of Facebook and Twitter, email was how people shared jokes, chatted and engaged with businesses, and was also one of the most effective ways of marketing around.

The landscape of work and communication has shifted dramatically thanks to the rapid growth of the internet. Work Life balance has been altered, people communicate and work in different ways. For example, working away from the office and dialling in, trading from home in the UK with platforms such as IG is common. Things may have changed in terms of what we use email for, but actually, this can make email marketing more powerful. Here, we look at whether email marketing is still a good option to include in your business strategy.

Email Marketing Has Come Out of Its 'Bad Phase'

Email marketing was what first introduced the world to the idea of 'spam'. When technology was less sophisticated, most email users would be targeted by marketers with poor techniques and products they weren't interested in. Almost everyone who was using email in the early 2000s has had scam emails (for instance the notorious Nigerian prince emails), or been spammed with marketing for Viagra whether they are in the target market for the drug or not! This was annoying and cast a bad light on all email marketing – unsolicited emails were all seen as a pain and so even the well targeted, legitimate ones became less effective. Now, however, spam filtering has become quite effective, and people tend to be less troubled by annoying emails. This shift has meant that well applied email marketing can be quite effective, as people no longer have such a negative view of corporate emails.

Less Email Means More Attention

As discussed, people don't use email as much as they used to for personal communication. This means that the average user receives a lot less email than they would have done in 2007. While this does mean they check their email less often and with less urgency, it also means that the emails they do receive don't tend to get as lost in a sea of incoming messages. On social media, people now talk to their friends, family and business contacts more, but they also see a huge number of ads and have become desensitised to their messages. Email is a little calmer, and so a well targeted, well written email now has a good chance of getting the attention intended.

Email Marketing Works Well as Warm Marketing

While it can still be possible to email people out of the blue, what usually works best for businesses is to build up a mailing list of previous customers or website subscribers. This is a very good form of warm marketing and can help you engage more with the people who already have an interest in your brand. In B2B, this can be extremely important as it is always easier to sell more things to old customers than win new ones, and email is now about the most un-intrusive, least annoying form of online interaction. Businesses who care about their financial performance and doing well for their shareholders often use email marketing as a way of keeping those invested in their business informed and engaged, too.

Email marketing can definitely still be a good way to talk to audiences and existing customers, and can actually still be very effective. It is well worth considering if you don't already engage via email.

Tags : Social Media, Email Marketing