Two of email’s great attributes are its flexibility and ability to deliver dynamically targeted messages in a one-to-one fashion. These characteristics, combined with the rise of social and mobile channels, are poised to make email more powerful than ever, but only if marketers think strategically and holistically about these channels and leverage each to strengthen the other.
Within the “mocial” (email, mobile, social and local) landscape, there are three key trends to consider:
- Social media is emerging as an effective broadcast messaging channel.
- The process of checking and reading email is changing with the emergence of mobile.
- People are moving in and out of different mocial channels throughout the day.
Here are five key roles for email in a mocial environment:
- Deliverer of complex, personalized offers. Email remains the only medium through which you can send highly personalized offers to customers based on demographics and recent Web, email and purchase behavior; incorporate cross-sell recommendations; pull in customer reviews of specific products; and serve up real-time A/B split test images.
- Extender of social and mobile reach. Savvy marketers can use email to grow followers and fans, increase app downloads and/or explain the benefits of your local check-in program.
- Portal for nurturing and conversion. According to several recent studies, email continues to be the channel consumers prefer for promotional messaging. Because of its ability to target, use dynamic content and move consumers in and out of nurturing programs or tracks, email will continue to be the most successful channel at producing profitable conversions.
- Transactional messenger. For all their strides, social and mobile remain less robust communication experiences than email, making email the best vehicle for delivering private transactional messages ill-suited for social arenas.
- Increaser of share of wallet. Boosting customer loyalty is essential to increasing lifetime customer value. Given its unparalleled ability to leverage customer data to engage brand advocates and encourage repeat purchases, email will remain the channel of choice for growing share of wallet.
By shifting your email program to focus on highly targeted, behavior-triggered messaging, you’ll ensure you get the most out of the channel in this changing mocial landscape.
