Prior to watching this week’s video, I’d have agreed that email marketing is not necessarily a dead form of marketing. On the other hand, I also did not believe it to be a booming marketing tactic either. However, email marketing remains to be one of the most effective methods of attracting and retaining customers. People, like me, do not (or didn’t) realize the power email marketing still holds.
Larry Kim’s Take on Email Marketing
In the expert session video taught by Larry Kim, Kim spoke briefly of the various ways an email might not reach a consumer as originally intended. These include ending up in different tabs the user might not check (such as the promotions tab). This also includes discovering an email went directly to a junk or spam folder. This makes locating a marketed email much more difficult to find.
In addition, Larry Kim presented statistics on the rate of which consumers unsubscribe from these emails. Roughly .5-2% of people that are subscribed to receive emails from a company will unsubscribe per email blast that is sent out. Frankly, that number doesn’t seem that bad, but for a company, losing any business is never a good thing. In order to retain these customers, it is beneficial to entice them to remain subscribed. The reading stated the idea of segmentation, or giving different benefits to consumers who subscribed to receive emails for different reasons.
A Consumer’s Opinion
As a consumer myself, there are certain emails I do tend to ignore. However, when I receive emails from companies I like, I tend to check them out to see what they have to offer. I particularly enjoy when emails deliver coupons or promotional offers.
I cannot be the only person to enjoy receiving emails such as these, and, based on the reading and video, others must feel the same as well. Email marketing is not dead, and has a lively future ahead.