2009 The Right Time for
Email Marketing

Recent economic events spell hard times for business and in particular for marketers. Traditionally in a recession it’s the marketing budget that bears the brunt of the cutbacks. According to an Epsilon survey of senior US marketers in September 2008 79% agreed that during a downturn marketing budgets get chopped. And it’s the same the world over.

Sounds like bad news doesn’t it?

But it pays to remember that consumers continue to consume. They might be looking for a better deal than before and they might be more selective about who they do business with but ultimately they continue to make purchases with businesses they trust.

So it’s up to marketers to make sure they communicate efficiently and effectively with their customers to reinforce the value and equity of the brand.

So how do you communicate clearly and cost-effectively while being able to prove the return on every marketing dollar? It’s not new; it’s not rocket science; but it is proven and is quite possibly the most measurable marketing activity ever.

Email is consistently ranked by marketers in the top three online marketing tactics for return on investment, behind only search engine organic and paid search advertising.

When you consider that almost all internet users use email at least weekly (2007 survey USC Anneneberg School Centre for Digital Future), more even than regularly surf the web, and that in New Zealand over 64% of households have access to the internet (Census 2006), it’s clear that email is ideally positioned as a way to reach customers and prospects.

• Over 64% of New Zealand households have internet access
• Almost 96% of internet users check email at least weekly
• 86% of internet users open opt-in emails
• Email ranked as second most acceptable consumer marketing channel
• Email ranked as one of top three marketing tactics for ROI
   

Despite the proliferation of unrequested email communications, customers who have opted in to receive communications are surprisingly loyal to these emails. In a 2007 poll by MarketingSherpa.com 86% of US adult internet users said they opened their opt-in emails with and even more impressive 55% saying they did this “always”, “very often” or “frequently”. Clearly customers are comfortable with email as a marketing channel, which is backed by the results of a survey in February 2008 by ExactTarget in which email was ranked behind only direct marketing as an acceptable consumer marketing channel.
 

So for retention and communicating with existing customers and prospects email is an ideal medium, especially in times when the demands for accountability are high and budgets are tighter than ever.

HotMedia’s Email Marketing is a comprehensive service that helps you target your email marketing tactics for maximum effectiveness. We don’t believe in doing anything just because it’s what has always been done.

After all as Paul Maidment, Editor of Forbes.com says, “If something works, build it. If it doesn’t, kill it.”

Email works. We know because we use it too.

Isn’t it time you tried HotMedia Email Marketing and got the best returns possible?