Knowing the Challenges of Email Marketing

Email is not dead, no matter what some people say, we’ve talked about it before. It is still proven to be an effective and affordable means of communicating and advertising. But that’s not to say that email facing its fair share of challenges.  When looking at engagement, it is imperative to understand the potential challenges of email marketing before being able to put together an effective campaign.

The Abundance of Information

The internet is easy to access, as we all know. In a few clicks, I can have a plethora of information literally at my fingertips. But this ease of use and over-abundance of information might actually counteract each other.  Users have suddenly been faced with an overwhelming amount of information that they do not have enough time to process. A bit of foreshadowing came in 1971 from an economist, Herbert Simon: “In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a [death] of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”

In all, it is imperative that as marketing experts we pay close attention to the phenomenon of Attention Economics when formulating email marketing plans. Simply stated by Matthew Crawford, “Attention is a resource; a person has only so much of it.” Treating attention as a commodity is a good way to start thinking about what to put into your emails.

Don’t Ignore Today’s Cross-Channel Marketing

Companies that are looking to engage their customers to need to be looking to interact with them across many channels: email, mobile, social, display, print, etc. Being relevant with your brand across the various channels of which your customers interact will bring credibility and influence to what you have to say in the eyes of your (potential) customer.

Today’s buyers are multi-taskers by nature. They are able to interact with multiple brands across various channels almost simultaneously.  Traditional email service providers are not equipped to handle this level of engagement.  The latest school of thought is to embrace email as a platform to tie all of the channels consumers use together. The building that trust in your brand across media is vital to building a relationship with your audience.

Knowing what your audience is already doing and where they are doing it will help grow your email marketing strategy.  Remember that your audience is inundated with information on a daily basis. Become a trusted advisor by providing relevant content across multiple platforms. And speak to the various platforms; your tone makes you relevant and trustworthy. Treating people’s attention as a limited resource will go over well. Give your audience the information they need and want in a precise, aesthetically pleasing way.

Tie your whole marketing strategy together via your email campaigns. Allow consumers ways to connect to you where and when they feel the most comfortable.