Email marketing is nowadays one of the most effective tools of direct marketing from a cost/ result perspective.
Its main advantages are the possibility of monitoring the behavior of users and the low costs compared to other more “traditional” channels. We can identify two types of use of email marketing on a professional perspective.
On one hand the monetization of databases, consisting in generating databases, buying email addresses, and sending third-party advertising. These practices are very lucrative as well as controversial, and could be compared to commercial post mail. The mechanics are simple: make sendings to generate profits and replace the users who unsubscribe by new ones. Fortunately, legislation protecting users from fraudulent emails “antispam”, legislation is becoming more strict leading to a better experience. This legislation means that companies can only use email addresses from users who have opted-in to a database (accepting the terms & conditions and the privacy policy), and the database must be properly registered with the Spanish Privacy Agency.
On the other hand we have list management. Any company that owns a website, either with corporate information or as a platform for selling products or services, has the ability to capture user’s information (most common is email, and can be supplemented with other fields such as full name, gender, city, zip code, etc…). Once the database is created, a structured and regular communication with these contacts has to be established. Emails that are sent should be attractive to users, both in form (original design, balanced ratio of images / text) and its background (ex: with exclusive deals for members of the database). The objectives are:
- In a first phase, increase the loyalty of users through emails that are relevant to them and provide themvalue. In order to do this, all unsubscribers and non-openers will be deleted, as the objective is that these emails give a real added value to the members of the database.
- In a second phase, turn loyal users into clients. Once we have a segmented database of active users (as we have been eliminating users who had unsubscribed and/or not opened), the goal is that this users become clients by purchasing the product/service. At this point, exclusive offers and/or promotions play a key role.
At the moment, many companies that have databases of customers are not monetizing them. This trend will change in the coming years due to the big potential of email marketing.