Recession Proof Emailing

The recession is putting increased emphasis on ROI in marketing campaigns. So, email stands out as a key tactic for marketers this year.

According to a new survey by Marketing Sherpa (http://www.marketingsherpa.com/) the recession and budget constraints are forcing marketers to concentrate on tactics that deliver the best return on investment. So it’s not surprising that B2C marketers rank the highly measurable tactics of paid search marketing and email to house lists as the top performers for ROI.

There are some provisions in tough economic times according to their study (however, these are general rules of thumb that should be followed in any economy).

Be careful not to wear out your house lists with repeated messaging and offers. The competition for space in the inbox likely will be more intense than ever in 2009. That will require the creation of more efficient and relevant email campaigns, through techniques such as:
o Creativity
o Personalization
o Segmentation
o List management
o Testing

Email plays a central role in generating and nurturing leads, according to the survey.

First, an explanation of this chart: The bubbles show the relative importance of specific marketing tactics in lead generation and lead nurturing. The ‘x’ axis shows the percentage of marketers who said a tactic makes a major contribution to lead generation. The ‘y’ axis shows the percentage of marketers who said a tactic makes a major contribution to lead nurturing. Finally, the size of each bubble represents the percentage of marketers who engage in each tactic.

House email stands alone at the upper right corner of the chart, with the most marketers saying it makes a major contribution to both lead generation and lead nurturing. That prominent position is understandable – email can be the primary vehicle for a marketing campaign or an enabler of campaigns in different channels.

Email messages support event registration, content downloads, newsletter subscriptions, community membership and interaction, and more. As an email marketer, your contributions to those integrated campaigns will be as important to your organization’s overall success as are your solo emails and newsletters to your house list.