Many have been programmed to think that just because it is new, it is then therefore better. And in many cases with respect to technology this is probably true. Well, I’m not necessarily sure that is true when it comes to Business Email Marketing. The Internet has given us so many things;  Ebay, Amazon,  Youtube and something called Email. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. Email has opened up virtual worlds in terms of communicating with people for both personal and business matters alike. It seems that everyone is on the internet and also likely to have at least one email account.  However with this explosion of email usage, along came with it the proliferation of email marketing and of course the exploitation, which had both good and bad ripple effects in the business-to-business and consumer marketing world. It’s a great, cheap, fast marketing medium but because it’s new and sleek doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better than what we had before in Direct Mail? Thought I would create a little head-to-head battle Royale or something…Old vs. New…I can hear the promoters now…okay maybe not that tantalizing.  But I thought I would toss it around a bit, try to see which business marketing vehicle would survive the challenge to be crowned, well, better.

Yes, e-mail is by far the cheapest method of communicating available…at the moment at least…and the clear advantage over direct mail is that you can send a message/offer to thousands of people with the push of a button. Direct mail is a little more labor intensive, if you will, having to print something, put your marketing materials in envelopes, get them addressed to each and every individual,  and yeah, pay for the cost of mailing them as well.

Rd#1. Business Email Marketing

Business email marketing might be cheaper, and appears to be easier, but there is more to it than meets the eye. First you need to be sure you are emailing the right person or it will end up being be deleted almost immediately. Then you need to be concerned about the “Subject Line”  and what is contained in the body of the email related to the subject line. Ugghhh. Spammers are creative, using various subject lines with little relative subject matter to back it up or a hint of being targeted to the right audience. You don’t want messages from your company ending up on the “Spam List”, never to have another email message read by that person ever again. On the other hand, direct mail doesn’t have such filters so it is not as easy to block as junk email, plus it isn’t automated. It will more than likely get to the person. How it will be received or read is another thing, but still more likely to make to its target audience.

Rd.#2 B-to-B Direct Mail

Not to go on a tangent, but people tend to abuse a good thing which is another reason why people may also respond negatively to email marketing. It is not only because of all the spammers, but also the endless amount of crap that is being sent; from porn to dating to online degrees to life insurance to you name it..in the end people are being inundated with untargeted, garbage…albeit easier on the environment to recycle!  Plus all the fraudulent online schemes we hear about on the nightly news segments. People are starting to develop a negative impression on business email marketing and are starting to just simply delete emails they don’t recognize, if the Firewall doesn’t get to it first, which is a whole different subject. All because of a few bad apples. On the other hand, direct mail is seen with a little more respect and is part of our daily routine.  And people actually enjoy picking through their mail and opening things to see what surprise might be inside. Don’t  you?!

Furthermore, business direct mailing has a more personal feel to it (and it takes time to personalize it which is gotta count for something!) and people tend to enjoy getting mail more. Don’t worry if you didn’t know. Even market researchers have remained puzzled by this phenomenon as to why people tend to have warmer feelings towards direct mail. Plus, an added benefit to b-to-b marketing is that more than one person might see it! 

Rd. #3 B-to-B Direct Mail

However, business email marketing purists might ask about the potential of snail mail getting screened out by gatekeepers such as an Admin before getting to the target audience? Plausible that in the business-to-business marketing world their respective target audience, decision makers, would perhaps have administrative assistants and thus the propensity for their mail to be pre-sorted prior to reaching its intended audience. Therefore, email would be better in this regard as it reaches the target audience directly.

Rd. 4 Business Email Marketing

It would seem we have a split decision. Actually didn’t think it would end up this way at the beginning. Both business-to-business marketing mediums make compelling cases as to which is a better vehicle, generally speaking. Here in lies perhaps the better question which is to ask; for what? Each medium is solid in terms of its overall and general effectiveness although each is particularly good, and better than the other, in certain cases or situations. For example, I might choose direct mail in customer acquisition campaigns and generating sales leads. However I would perhaps choose email as a more effective tool to communicate with customers and those individuals who have provided you with their information looking to receive future communications from the company. Or even simpler, use direct mail to communicate with people who you don’t know but would like to…and email with individuals who already know your business, product or service at least in some capacity.

Technology has made it even easier to construct full-blown email marketing campaigns. However don’t rest on your marketing laurels and fall into “marketing content traps” that make your emails unreadable, uninteresting and obnoxious. Below are a couple of pitfalls to avoid.

1. Annoyingly excessive use of punctuation marks, ALL CAPS, symbols, etc…Stay away. People will more than likely interpret it as SPAM and delete your message without giving it a second thought…or so you hope, otherwise it could be worse and be labeled “spam” so future emails get sent directly into the Spam Folder. Plus it is pretty tacky. It is extremely difficult to express emotion in an email and don’t think by using the aforementioned tricks will get it done. It takes more than some tricks to have a successful email marketing campaign.

2. Non-descriptive and uninviting Subject Line. Interesting I have this next behind the use of “annoyingly excessive use of punctuation marks…”. However you can still create interesting and enticing subject lines without having to add some cheesy flare to it using ALL CAPS!!!! Don’t scream at me. Tell me, the customer, why I should read your email. What benefit will it have for the customer? Keep them interesting as possible as it will help improve the open rate…but don’t try and deceive. Be honest and upfront or risk having your customer send your company’s future messages into the dreaded Spam Folder.

3. Content that is too long. People don’t want to invest a lot of time reading an email, or much of anything really in this day and age, but especially email. As much as possible, Emails need to be short, sweet and to the point. People are simply more inclined to read shorter, more concise emails even if they don’t respond to an offer or reply to the message. They will at least read it and perhaps respond at a later date. If the message or article requires more space simply summarize the point and use a link to your website where people can go read the rest later.

4. Repeating the same message over and over again. Repetition is good in some ways, and I would recommend staying in touch with your audience. However, if in your email marketing message you continue to say the same thing, well, ever heard the expression; fell on deaf ears? People will begin to tune you out and when you actually have something pertinent, it will be missed. Try to keep the messages a little fresh so that people will continue to at least open them and see what you have to say.

5. Poorly constructed and cluttered layouts. Too many people think that they need to have all these images, links, and colors in their email for it to be deemed “good” or have a chance at it being successful. Again, know your audience. People tend to enjoy more simplified, easy to read and navigate emails. Cluttered or simply emails that present themselves as being too busy overwhelm people thus having a tendency to be trashed immediately. Now these tactics may in fact enhance the email, but as my dad would always tell me; everything in moderation. Too many images and links are distracting. You would hate it if it distracted the reader from your main point, wouldn’t you?