Getting the conversation going is only an email away

There are few places today that an email can't go. Most people with an online presence have a personal account, while companies that are tech savvy establish email addresses for all employees to encourage communication and make them accessible 24 hours a day.

These same qualities are what make email marketing so useful to business advertising. Not only can a large number of customers be reached simultaneously wherever they are, but there's no money spent on postage, no extra funding being put forth on creating additional ad materials and no time lost in distributing physical fliers or forms.

Making yourself known

Creating an online email campaign can help a company increase visibility through universal access on smartphones, tablets, PCs and other devices that go everywhere with people during the course of a regular day. What's more, they're becoming far more popular than paper advertisements and written copy, according to Gartner.

ZDNet recently published the results of a study by the research group that showed mobile computing devices are reshaping the communication marketplace and removing paper from the equation. The Gartner research found that most discourse now is being controlled electronically, with email as the most favored form of connecting for adults, followed by online news and social media. Not having to carry around papers, deal with clutter or be inconvenienced by the extra item make consolidating all this discourse onto a tablet or smartphone more appealing to consumers.

"We do not believe that the 'paperless home' will prevail, but it is clear that the 'less-paper model' is the new reality," said Gartner's principal researcher Meike Escherich.

For those considering an advertising strategy, this would make email marketing the most obvious choice to reach customers. Not only do people prefer this method of messaging more than other similar tools, but the shift away from offline devices indicates money would be better spent on email and Internet campaigns.

Spending that works

Creating an email campaign is easy to do with the right guidance and can reach thousands of clients quickly and easily. Not only will this mean money saved, it will also still result in heightened customer awareness of products, services and special events that people might otherwise miss out on.

Apparently, though, it's businesses that have really been missing the boat on email marketing, as Yesmail Interactive just released the results of a flagship study on these campaigns showing that businesses are missing out when it comes to capitalizing on Internet marketing. The results showed that companies aren't thinking like consumers when it comes to their online strategies and could be missing out on a serious return on investment by failing to properly engineer marketing drives.

"Capitalizing on leads and studying consumer habits are essential in seeing conversion for email campaigns," said Marty Wesley, a senior product manager. "A successful campaign targets consumers and focuses on seeing that ROI. You have to make sure you're driving customers in the right direction with advertising materials."

Yesmail's president, Michael Fisher, said in a statement about the company's study that enterprises aren't taking this advice to heart, however. Even though there are tools available to assist in crafting email marketing strategies that are likely to benefit business, even industry leaders aren't moving fast enough in the right direction. These companies need to be more proactive in pulling customers in with targeted advertising solutions, a goal that is easy to achieve with the right campaign ideas.

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