Posted by John Vinson

I can’t help but roll my eyes whenever I hear ‘Email is dying’. This thought generally stems from social media experts who think they’ve stumbled onto the next big thing. I’m not downplaying the significance of social media, however email is here to stay. Judging from Campaigner.com’s latest survey, small businesses still find plenty of use with a direct email campaign.

According to the survey, 46% of the small businesses questioned relying on email marketing to help find new customers, and retain current ones. Of the businesses surveyed who aren’t currently using email marketing, 36% stated they would begin doing so in the next 12 months. The online survey gathered responses from over 250 small businesses, ranging anywhere from 1-20 employees.

The small businesses which were surveyed, provided reasons as to why they rely so heavily on email marketing:

– Inexpensive/effective way to reach out to new prospects and customers
– Generates a fast response so I can tell if a campaign is working
– Effective way to build customer loyalty

The reasons provided by these businesses really drive home the significance of how relevant email marketing currently is. The direct contact one has with a customer is so much closer with email than social media. When a person opens up an email, you know they’re interested right off the bat. With social media, it can be tricky to really grab a person’s attention as there’s less direct involvement. Which is why loyalty is such a key ingredient to running a successful email marketing campaign.

Although email marketing is still growing strong, many businesses have concerns with the practice. They listed these concerns in the survey:

– Concerns that my customers will view email marketing as spamming
– Too many email campaigns are filtered out by spam filters
– Poor response rates

Steve Adams, Vice President of Marketing for Campaigner, had this to say about the study, “The survey results show that email marketing is now a mainstream tool for small businesses to stay connected to customers with informational e-newsletters as well as sales and promotional offers to drive sales.” he continues, “We also hear the concerns and challenges small businesses have voiced in their responses. Campaigner addresses these challenges by offering free advice and tips that help small businesses get started and follow email marketing best practices that lead to success.”

Small businesses definitely look to be the driving force of email marketing. The spam problem has become large enough that there are services specifically tailored to help businesses get past the problem. I’m just wondering how many studies it’s going to take before some people realize email marketing is here to stay.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 8:30 am and is filed under Advertising, Email, Marketing. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: John is a staff writer for WebProNews.