I spoke with a representative for Campaigner who turned me on to an interesting reflection on the year's trends and challenges for small business email marketing, as well as some predictions for 2009. I thought these would be worth sharing.
2008
"Many small businesses looked beyond mass/blast email tactics and practiced more targeted and relevant 1to1 communications," says Campaigner.
They say that there were some big trends in Targeting and Personalization. "More small businesses began using segmentation tactics to improve targeting and email marketing performance," they say. "Small businesses not only addressed subscribers directly by name, but also used personal/profile data offered by subscribers to personalize/customize content and messages according to individual preferences."
The challenges that small businesses have faced, however lie with deliverability. There is of course always concern with SPAM filters, and over the past year, businesses have depended largely on email service providers to help them overcome this issue.
2009
According to Campaigner, 2009 will be the year in which businesses take more of the initiative themselves for following email marketing best practices. "The recession will spur entrepreneurship as professionals who are laid-off will from large corporations start their own businesses," they say. "These start-ups and sole proprietor businesses will rely heavily on email marketing. The trends for improving email marketing performance through better targeting and personalization will continue, resulting in more strategic integrated email marketing campaigns."
Their predictions for 2009 include upward trends in:
- Email automation
- Integrated campaigns, and
- Back-to-basic list management
Email marketing is said to be one of the top marketing methods for small businesses during the holidays. For some tips on email marketing, please check our articles here (you can even subscribe to our email marketing articles by RSS if you like...might be a good way to keep up with the happenings over the next year and see if these predictions hold true).
How Are Small Businesses Marketing For the Holidays?5 Key Ingredients to Surviving in Online BusinessSmall Business Marketing Unleashed - The Tip of the IcebergKeep Your Online Business Alive in 2008Why More Businesses Are Turning to Email MarketingWays Online Forum Participation Can Benefit Your BusinessOften Overlooked Places To Leave Your Stamp OnlineAre You Using Your Business Cards to Socialize?Marketing Through ContestsEmail Marketing Still Has a Place in Your Marketing Arsenal
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Comments
Going Against the Herd
herd bucker
Yeah - I agree going against the herd is a good thing; however how much of a 'herd' are we really talking about here? I mean, I assume we're talking about bricks & mortar small businesses here - and I don't know many in my town that have a clue that you can even do marketing with email.
So once some of them get on board, the trick to going against the herd then becomes integrating online and offline marketing. Keep doing the email - it's not worth dropping just because others are doing it, but add some direct mail component, or voicemail, or something like that to the mix.
I think an integrated approach is always going to be lightyears ahead of the competition - I don't know many small businesses that will ever develop a full on integrated marketing campaign.
Mail marketing is quite hard for starters
Small businesses making REAL email marketing for pinpointed campaigns would like to go through. But big spammers just destroy the path.
Some of our Montreal clients would like to reach out other Montreal companies through purchased email databases, we are generally against such practices for SPAM reasons, but because they are so pinpointed, we manage to prepare their email campaign so no SPAM complains are filed and they get VERY high ROI.
A well prepared campaign reaching low volume but high quality will build small business opt-in database, so they can move on the golden path.
Business marketing is going
Business marketing is going through a singificant change and challenge with the onslaught of internet marketing. Many are using tricks that are not supporting the whole of business approach. As we move into 2011, there are now many businesses who are in fact employing strategies that incorporate business networking and customer service development. How they use email, social network systems and search enging marketing is still in its infancy.
Email as part of mulit-channel strategy
Cal Stevens makes some good points here. Direct mail (snail mail) has proven to be one of the most effective marketing tactics for businesses of all sizes, especially during a recession. And combining email, direct mail and local advertising as part of a multi-channel strategy can get great results. (Full disclosure - I'm with Topaz Partners, Campaigner's PR firm.)
To be honest, I dont think
To be honest, I dont think that email marketing will have much impact. Mike at the regcure guide.
Email marketing
Email marketing has been
Email marketing has been among the effective ways to promote your products. However, I'm not sure if it will remain that way. You are right though that gathering those email addresses are quite a pain. alvin
Email Marketing Strategy.
Email has always been the top performing marketing channel in the past ten years. What's been missing is a willingness to understand that permission based email is way different from spam email. You can't believe the number of potential clients I talk with who have a desire to just buy a list and blast away. In my experience this method just doesn't produce good results because there is no relationship there between the reader and the sender. Without a relationship I don't think you can do effective email marketing.
Well I am trying to use
Well I am trying to use email marketing as a new way to improve my business nowadays.
Best regards,
Mike Crabe.
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