On the Delivra blog, we've written several times to the fact that email marketing is not dead and is very much alive. Of course, there still exists the occasional nay-sayer that argues that email marketing is dying out.

A recent article by Steve McGrath of Big Dot Media offers some great examples to explain why email marketing is not dying out; in fact, he states that it's merely changing.

I love the part, in particular, where he says: "Email marketers have to work smarter not harder to combat the distractions of today's modern social media and spam filled world."

It's so true, although there may be "distractions" pulling the attention away from email marketing. There are ways for email marketing to stay relevant and even work along side some of these "distractions."

Steve highlights a number of various ways to improve your email marketing efforts to ensure that they can combat through those distractions. Listed below are a couple of examples. (Click here for the article.)

Segmentation. I agree that segmentation is a great way to personalize an email. In the article, McGrath points out that "an email should contain some kind of personalization, even if it just says 'Dear <name>' at the top".  Although, yes, that's a starting point, I have to point out that segmentation is much more powerful than that and can be used to add a lot of personalization to your marketing if done correctly - using an email marketing service provider like Delivra can help you learn more about how to use segmentation to send targeted emails to subscribers.

Transactional Emails. These are a great way to increase open rates because they are sent via a timely manner. Say for example that someone signs up for your newsletter - send them an email that thanks them and provides them with what they should expect from signing up.

Here are some further thoughts:

Social Media. I don't see this as a distraction for email marketing if these two tools are set up to work harmoniously with one another.  Social media can be a route to encourage people to sign up for your email marketing campaign.  You can easily place a sign up form on some social media platforms that people can fill out quickly to become a subscriber.

Mobile Marketing. Email marketing can work really well with this new marketing channel.  There are several ways, in fact, that mobile marketing can play a role in your email marketing campaign.  For example, partaking in simple best practices can improve how your emails render on a mobile device.

Clickstream tracking. Clickstream tracking is a great way for email marketers to be proactive - especially for online retailers.  For example, a marketer can see, using purchase tracking, that a client has looked at a particular item on their website, but didn't follow through with a purchase.  The email marketer could send an email encouraging them to buy with an offer.

To read the rest of the article and learn more about why email marketing is not dying, click here.

For more information on how to implement some of these tools and make your email able to combat distractions, contact Delivra today!

Lavon Temple | Marketing