Research has shown that emails that have a discount or "savings" offer associated with it, are more likely to be shared and forwarded amongst friends, family and your social network.This trend makes sense as word of mouth gains in importance as an effective form of advertising. Direct incentives for sharing emails have proven to be ineffective in promoting sharing.Moreover when you combine email with other social media like Facebook,Twitter or Linked In, there is greater impact. Email marketing has proven to be most effective in the Creating Brand Awareness stage of the marketing function as we get informed about new offers/ events via email. This further highlights the point, that no one single form of media can be expected to achieve a marketer's desired results, but when used in combination with other marketing channels and as part of an integrated marketing mix,gains exponentially in effectiveness. An interesting article about this can be viewed here- http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008868&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5ed4
As a social enterprise that provides adult training courses, I have two arguments.
ReplyDelete1) Email marketing must be coupled with other marketing channels to be effective
Email marketing is one of the most frequently used channels for a social enterprise as it also serves as a good branding building efforts. However, it is almost difficult to have good ROI for each email marketing campaign without combining with other marketing channels. In a recent email marketing campaign for a seminar, the event is very well received in a span of two weeks. This is possible because the campaign is a combination of SEO, SEM, social media, online marketing, print advertising, and mobile advertising.
2) Promotions or discounts do not bring about higher impact in ROI
With limited marketing budget, the social enterprise depends greatly on email marketing to bring in sales. Every month, the electronic mailer will share the promotions or discounts for selected programmes. However, this is not very well received as it received very few leads, very high bounce rate and low click-thru rates. The company is not able to combine several marketing platforms each time, as it is very costly.
Question:
1. How could a social enterprise or a company with tight shoestrings to bring about higher ROI?
2. Each emailer shares a list of programmes and events to the recipients. How could one track the effectiveness of each programme and event in the emailer?