The number of spam emails received by consumers has fallen to a 12 year low according to a Symantec report earlier this month. It reports that less than 50% of mail received by consumers is now found to be junk. This news will be welcome by many, not least the email marketer who may now see a surge in the effectiveness of their email campaigns.
Spam can be described as the junk of our generation and unfortunately email marketing is often seen as guilty by association. Spam is an unwarranted email, it is unexpected, undesired and usually completely inappropriate to the recipient. The consequences of spammers unloading millions of emails into inboxes worldwide is that people are less likely to open an email which is not personal to them. Spam takes a scattered approach to marketing, send a message to as many people as possible and see who bites. It’s the internet equivalent of deep sea trawling, catching all manner of humankind in the hope that one of them is their target consumer.
With less spam stealing consumers’ attention away it’s now more likely that they will hear your message, but in order for your email to be effective the message needs to add value to your customers’ lives. The email needs to be relevant to them and well timed. Spam has trained us to have low tolerance for irrelevant, ill-timed messages.
We live in an increasingly busy and connected society where many of us receive hundreds of emails each day and sifting through them can be a task of goliath proportions. Consumers are often overwhelmed by the number of emails sent to their inboxes every day. The sheer volume often means that any messages that aren’t personal to a consumer often get deleted immediately. Therefore the consequences of a reduction in spam is that the send time for your email could be easier to get correct and customers will spend more time viewing interesting messages rather than deleting irrelevant spam communications.
I would caution however that this is not an excuse for marketers to get lazy. The success of an email marketing campaign still relies on its relevance. The decline in spam may have cleared a path for your email marketing campaign; however if you don’t know your destination of when to arrive, your email is going to get lost. To fully engage with your consumers you need the perfect mix of targeting the right people, at the right time and with the right message.
Luckily for online marketers, the tools at your disposal have become increasingly sophisticated; ensuring you select the correct demographic at the optimum time and target them with the right message has become easier thanks to data science. The best marketing has always been data driven and as our society increasingly spends and uploads their life online, a huge amount of data is now at our fingertips.
With the help of data science, marketers can effectively build a campaign that is valuable to their consumers. Sending a message to a customer which they feels add value to their life increases the loyalty they feel towards your business, an aspirational goal for any marketer.
Another benefit of this data science led approach is the ability to anticipate what your consumers’ requirements are at different points in time. You can predict the buying behaviour of your consumers and therefore target them at specific times when you know that they will be looking at buying your product. By providing them with the information they require, right when they need it, you suddenly become useful to them. Your email adds value to their life which in turn fosters loyalty towards your company. Another upshot to this is that they are likely to view any further communications from you in a positive light.
The reduction in spam has given marketers a rediscovered opportunity to connect with consumers via targeted email campaigns. We now have the chance to build upon this advantage that the decline in spam has given us. We have the opportunity to speak to consumers and for them to hear us more clearly; however if the message they receive isn’t relevant there’s a high possibility they will switch off. An untargeted, ill-timed and irrelevant marketing email is the next spam.
My recommendation for taking advantage of this opportunity is to capitalise on the moment, and not take it as a time for you to put your feet up. Seize this moment to fine tune your communications and back it up with information that allows you target your consumers.
Only contact your customer when you have something to say to them. Constant messages may make people switch off to your communications. Your knowledge of your consumer is paramount to this, as it informs your content and timing.
The send time of your communications can be hugely influenced by the communications sent by your competitors. It is worthwhile to test different send times to find the optimum time for your emails. I also recommend assessing your audience engagement over time to see the impact the decline in spam has had on their behaviour. This information can then be used to further solidify your email campaign, allowing you to connect with, and engage, your target audience. Information is power, make sure you use this to fuel your email marketing campaign.
There is now a golden opportunity to revive your email marketing campaigns. With the correct mix of people, message and timing, the moment is ripe for a revival in email marketing and its rebrand in the eyes of your consumer. Take advantage of this moment before it passes you by.
By Simon Farthing, Head of Consultancy at Profusion.
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