Many marketers and web masters seem to be of the opinion that email marketing is dead.  However, marketers that have abandoned the 'batch and blast' approach have found that to be untrue.

91% of us still use email on a daily basis - many of us having more than one email address.  with recent studies showing that sales from email marketing have quadrupled since 2009, it's clear that email marketing is still alive and well - it's just a matter of getting it right!

The key is to engage your customers, providing relevant information, and encourage dialogue.  So how do we do this?

The main problem is that we are all bombarded with emails, and a lot of spam.  So how do legitimate marketers get their message across?

Email blast is dead

Email blasting is where you gather all of your email contacts into one list and send them irrelivant information, or just keep hitting send, send, send until you drive them into hitting the spam button.  Blasting aggrivates customers.  Most of us have audio alerts on our phones when a new email is received - nobody wants their phone beeping every 5 minutes!

Use the tools you have

There are a lot of tools available to us that can assist with understanding the behaviour and requirements of customers.  If you aren't utilizing analytics, surveys and segmentation, then you are potentially alienating the very people you want to communicate with.

As a marketer, you need to understand your customers and provide them with the information they find engaging and relevant.

That is your challenge.  If you don't have the time to follow some best practices, then for you, email is most certainly dead as a marketing tool.

Best practice tips:-

1. Run your Opt-in campaign again. If you regularly send emails, and are noticing a lot of your messages are bouncing or being returned as spam, it may be time to run a re-opt in campaign.  This will weed out old email addresses and ensure that your message only reaches people that want to receive them.
   
   You may lose a lot of email addresses from your list, but you want to be sending emails to people that wish to receive them don't you?  Besides, you are risking your reputation by sending emails to people that don't want them!
    
2. Rebuild trust. Now that you have your trimmed down email list, it's time to rebuild your customers trust.  You can do this by emailing them the information they have specifically asked for!  If a customer has clicked on the 'send me your latest catalogue' link - then that is all that they want.  Check which users want regular catalogues, latest news or product updates, and only email the information they have requested!
   
   It's ok to use these emails to market new products, but by focusing on building the relationship and trust will lead to more business and sales!
   
   Another way to build trust is to inform the customers when you will be emailing - and stick to the schedule.  Are you emailing new products weekly?  Latest news monthly?  Keep the customers informed!
    
3. Segment and optimize your campaigns. As we have said - the days of bulk emails are over.  You need to ensure that your emails are getting to the right audience.  Ask the people on your list what they would like to receive!  Talk to your developer about segmenting your email lists.  The majority of customer relations management software allows you to create multiple groups - use that feature.  Or your web developer can create the functionality for you to do the same on your website.
    
4. Provide value. Don't make your emails all about you.  Customers like to see some value!  If you can provide interesting, educational or engaging content, the customer will want to read it!  If your emails are all about the 'sell' then you will lose subscribers quickly.
   
   The most effective emails are personal, and solve a problem or is educational.  If you follow these three things as much as possible, your subscribers list will grow naturally over time as more people share what you have to say.

As you can see, email marketing isn't dead - if you can use a lot of readily available tools to engage new subscribers (and therefore new customers) in a way that listens to their needs and provides solutions for them.