Just found this research on email marketing, before we dig in, let's understand the sample

"The report was based on data from a survey conducted in December 2020 among 298 marketers (40% of whom work for B2C firms, 31% for B2B firms, and 29% for hybrid B2C-B2B firms)."

Then the big conclusion is

"Marketers say personalization (43% cite) and data quality (39%) are the most important characteristics to improve for effective email campaign optimization."

The report shows that the two most important elements of email marketing is personalisation and data quality.  They go hand-in-hand.  I received an email to "Claire" the other day, and I of course, deleted it.  Even the follow ups they kept sending me, I deleted. Why would I answer even follow up emails to "claire"?  Data quality is therefore key.

The other is personalisation, if I detect that an email has been sent to more than one person, then I delete it. That may be harsh, but if you cannot be bothered to know me, why should I be bothered to know you?

I therefore "get" the fact that personalisation and data quality must be the two biggest issues in email marketing.

Let's imagine a world ...

Indulge me.  

Let's imagine a world where you could get to me direct, so personalisation.  In fact, you could get hold of me whenever you wanted.  Like a direct line to me. Are you imagining? 

While we are imagining, how about we imagine a world where the data you have on me is always up-to-date.  When I change jobs, you get the most up-to-date data, better still, I update it.  There is no cost to you to get the most up-to-date data on me.  Now that is cool. 

You therefore have a database of contacts, that is always up-to-date and you don't have to buy lists to update it and it's always up-to-date.  Now that would save time and effort, right. 

What if I told you this already exists.  It's called Linkedin.

100% Personalisation and data quality already exists

A client of ours has just gone through the our social selling and influence course; 6 people, in 3 months have grown their network by 5,000 people.

Put it another way, they have grown their "email" database by 5,000 connections.

(Worth mentioning the difference between contacts and a network.  Contacts, similar to an email list, they may not even know who you are.  A network, will remember me.)

NB: Come and look at my Linkedin profile and I bet you will remember me, but I digress. 

This client, used the Linkedin connection experience as an excuse to have a conversation and build a relationship.  I could push the boat out and maybe say that even some of those they have built some trust.  Just think, rather than having a list of emails where you "hope" somebody may have some connection, here is a list, where the people remember you, maybe know you, maybe like you, maybe trust you. 

Just think about what you could achieve, if you scaled that across your sales team, in fact all your employees?  It's the choice of heroes. 

Just think you could carry on, pushing out bland messages, hoping people will read them to your database.  Where you hope, with the best manipulation methods out there i will open your email.  Let's hope I do, I won't, but let's hope I do.

and we know hope isn't strategy

But I cannot measure email marketing!

I asked a marketer friend of mine why he did email marketing and he said "I know it's a waste of time, but I give the reports to the board and it makes it look like we are doing something".

In terms of measurement, I can tell how many likes a cohort of people have achieved, how many comments they have achieved. These figures added together, gives you the number of opportunities for a conversation.  Let's not forget that conversations create sales.

In addition to that, on Linkedin, you have the number of views and you can measure the growth of your database.

By the way, we tripled the number of SQLs (sales qualified leads) for this business.

I have a feeling email marketing won't get you that. 

Yes but Tim, we are different, we are a different industry, etc. etc, etc

We all know that as humans, one of our superpowers is making excuses.  There is a "r" in the month, it's the wrong time, we are different ..... we have heard them all.

The thing is, while you are making excuses, your competition is working with us for digital dominance.  Digital dominance is a blog for another day.

Let's talk about your email budget

Wouldn't you be better off, putting that budget and effort into building, long term, 1-to-1 relationships?  Let's not forget that people buy from people they trust.

It's clear from this research is that email marketing is craving all things that social / digital / remote / virtual selling can give you.

Maybe it's time to switch that budget? 

Now here's the challenge

How about we run a pilot, we take some of your sales team through our social selling and influence methodology and we go head-to-head with your email campaigns.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Just give me, or one of the DLA Ignite team and hour of your time and we can walk you through what we are doing in the form of case studies, what we are doing for other businesses to transform them to digital.  No hard sell, just practical examples.

DLA Ignite is a global business and we understand that a "cookie cutter" approach to digital does not work, we have to take into account local language and cultural sensitivities.  Which is why we have built teams across the globe, that can support you by country and industry sector. 

For more information contact me here, visit our website, or visit our Linkedin company page and contact one of the DLA Ignite team members.