There’s a couple of things I wanted to share with you. First of all, I just launched an Email Marketing guide to help you get started on the right foot following all the CAN-SPAM regulations. Check my list building guide here. Let me know what you think of it in the comments here.

Second, I’ve just gone through an Email Marketing webinar with Marketo. Here I wanted to share with you some of the next steps for email marketing as a function of modern digital marketing mix. Here we go…

Email blast is out of fashion

“Blasts” sounds distractive, which is exactly what push-oriented email marketing has been in the past. Customer is overwhelmed and we can’t continue pushing the info because it only causes resentment. Instead, start by giving something of value to your customer base and focus on pull strategies.

Email marketing: the past and the future

Some say that email marketing is going out of fashion. It’s not true, email marketing is maturing into an important function of a much bigger digital marketing process through marketing automation.

Build your lists wisely

We used to start email marketing with a pre-built or purchased lists. Today it’s considered a spammy activity. To be productive in modern digital marketing you have to start by building a new list of engaged customers. Here’s another shameless plug with my new email list building guide.

Learn from your email lists

Marketing automation platforms today allow to collect customer analytics from multiple touch points. For example, Optify Connect gathers Dun & Bradstreet, Linkedin, browser cache, email metrics and website analytics data of your customers. This allows you to learn more about your customer. Other platforms offering similar functionality are Marketo and HubSpot, in case you wanted to check and compare.

Be part of the 57%

According to the Marketo webinar I’m listening, 57% of product / service research is already done by the time your potential customers with your sales people. This drives several conclusions:

1. The customer is smarter / much more prepared these days and your sales people need to realize that
2. There might be less of a pressure on your sales people because customer has already researched the product
3. But most of all, your email marketing needs to be part of these 57% of research your customer is doing

The bottom line is…

that email marketing is dead is a blasting tool. Successful marketers use email marketing as a lead nurturing technique and part of a bigger digital marketing process powered by marketing automation tools such as HubSpot and Optify.

Again, take a look at my new guide on building email lists and feel free to leave a comment or two here in the post. How did email marketing changed for your over time? Are you planning to start email marketing the right way? Let me know!

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