Is Email Marketing Dying a Slow Death?

Email marketing was actually one of the first tools adopted by marketers for online marketing campaigns. There were a number of reasons as to why it became such a huge success when it was initially introduced.

Innovations and technological advancements have brought in new tools and techniques that are now being widely adopted. These drastically improved the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of marketing campaigns and allowed marketers to generate more profit.

When email marketing became popular, it seemed to me that it was the best solution for any business to target a wider audience in the most cost-effective way. It appeared to be the best mode of digital advertising because it was interactive and could generate feedback from customers.

The Replacements

However, email marketing is now being replaced by more efficient and effective methods and tools. In fact, the first tool which started replacing email marketing was text message advertising. It works on the same principles as email marketing but on mobile phones instead.

Then came a time when social networking websites were launched and internet users started subscribing to them. These websites opened up new opportunities for marketers by offering them something which emails could never offer.

Marketers needed to target specific audiences based on a number of factors including behaviors, geographical locations and demographic distribution. These websites offered them a chance to customize their campaign according to their audience. Email marketing was always more focused on mass marketing strategies.

Reasons

Other online marketing tools and techniques became available as well. For example, blogs have now become an extremely popular marketing tool being used by a large number of businesses all over the world.

In essence, email marketing was never able to target a customizable audience which became a huge drawback. Also it did not allow consumer generated content to be shared online or even two-way communication between businesses and their customers. Feedback could be received but could not be addressed individually.

The Verdict

Because the new online marketing tools have provided a solution to all these problems, the campaigns are now even more effective than they ever were. Cost reduction is a definite possibility while using these tools and targeting the relevant audience is much easier this way which in my opinion is the biggest advantage.

Some businesses are still using email marketing as a tool for advertising but they do not rely on it completely. Email marketing is being used as an additional tool rather than a primary tool in a particular campaign. I believe that for some companies email marketing is dying a slow death and will soon fade out completely. For other companies it will remain as just one of many marketing tools to reach their customers with.

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• More Targeted Messages Means Better Email Marketing Results (blogs.constantcontact.com)