Social Email Marketing

When talking about cross-channel marketing we often think about digital and social media, while forgetting offline channels and customer interactions. Although a lot is happening online and mobile communications, emerging technologies and social media are very hot (and important) topics, cross-channel marketing and its challenges are not new.

In 2005, the MIT Center for eBusiness published a report, called “The Cross Channel Impact of Marketing Communications”. It showed that the cross-channel impact of marketing campaigns and programs was already a hot topic then, among others, because of the Internet.

All online channels, as they existed then, formed a challenge for cross-channel marketing and for a global and holistic look regarding the identification of the sources where customers and prospects came from and how their buying journey developed throughout all possible interactions.

In this post by Epsilon‘s Kevin Mabley, customer and recipient preferences are the center of the (email marketing) relationship. We publish it with many thanks to The Email Institute.

The days of batch-and-blast marketing are over. Today’s savvy consumers want—and expect—the commercial communications they receive to be timely, relevant and based on their previous interactions with the brand or program.

They expect marketers to know what interests them and provide customized offers and information based on these interests, both explicitly stated through preference centers and implicitly stated through past purchases and previous interactions. The good news is technology is available to facilitate this activity, and marketers certainly are capable of providing content that meets consumer needs.