Your customers and employees are now in a world where they have never been so connected. Smartphones are everywhere and mobile is now the remote control for the world around us, with the marketing and advertising industry having gone through rapid change. Attention has moved away from traditional media towards more digital forms, meaning this growth has meant firms need to rethink their strategic approach.

The shift from traditional to digital forms of media

According to Connor (2015), marketing agencies were expected to spend $540 billion worldwide on advertising in 2015, led by a 15.7% growth in digital media; with television, newspapers and magazines either on the decline or showing stunted gains, offering further proof that traditional media may be on its way out. This became evident when in 2004, The Economist mentioned traditional forms were no longer delivering due to the diversity of media and the emergence of new technology, notably the internet. This is due to as Joines (2003) suggests, consumers are spending more of their time online. As technology advanced, internet users no longer kept logging in and out of profiles, they are now constantly connected anywhere, anytime, with mobile the key frontrunner.

Why mobile?

The growth and usage and acceptance of mobile is growing notoriously. As the below graph shows, mobile has overtaken desktop for the number of global users.

 

The increase of mobile vs. desktop is attributed to the smartphone usage souring, as shown in the graph below where shipments of smartphones, according to Statista (2016), are expected to reach over 1.7 billion by 2018, a tenfold increase from the amount of shipments in 2009 meaning by 2017, an estimated 34% of the world’s population will have a smartphone, a figure that was at less than 10 percent in 2011. This upturn in the smartphone is attributed to the growing popularity of several key operating systems, namely Android and iOS.

The affects this is having on advertising and marketing

The increasing smartphone usage means advertisers and marketers need to align their strategies and campaigns to a more mobile-centric direction. For example, Google prioritises mobile-friendly websites in search results. This shows how many service organisations are making sure they are meeting the changing needs of their consumers, meaning firms need to make sure their site is mobile-friendly to increase their brand awareness on mobile.

Smartphones have become large sources of data where advertisers and marketers can target promotions at individuals due to the data they transmit. Location tracking is key for targeted marketing. There is concerns with this as mobile phone users treat location as a privacy concern (Limpf and Voorveld, 2015). In 2012, 19% of mobile phone owners turned off the location tracking feature because they were concerned that other individuals or companies could access that information. That figure rises among smartphone owners, 30% of whom have turned off location tracking (CMO Council, 2015). Smartphones also provide masses of information on preferences and tastes, meaning advertisers and marketers have the ability to be much more specific in their advertisements and marketing campaigns, offering a more relevant and targeted message to the user, making mobile the ultimate medium for one-to-one marketing as Tsang, et al, (2014) suggests.

This trend has led to consumers expecting this increased targeted brand advertising, using their phone to consult them in everyday decisions, with 73% of people always having their mobile device with them (Facebook research, 2015). Speed and relevance of advertisement has become essential, and to make an influence on the decision-making process of the consumer, advertising needs to increase value according to Haghirian, et al, (2005). If this value is not added, it can result in a consumer consuming another brand.

To read more affects this has had on advertising and marketing, click here.

It is not all thrills

Chaffey (2015) states that data shows that smartphone add-to-cart and conversion rates are much lower than those for desktop, showing the impact of mobile on advertising and marketing depends on the type of industry the organisation operates within. For example, this statement is important if you’re making the business case for a mobile-responsive site, as budget may be better spent on other areas that add more value.

Biswas and Mousumi (2014) back Chaffey up by stating the experience of shopping at an online retailer varies according to perceived ease-of-use and information quality. In some cases, the experience of shopping at a particular online retailer through a mobile phone is so negative that consumers prefer to make purchasing decisions at physical retail outlets.

The lack of standardisation in mobile device technologies is a problem, as they vary in screen sizes, operating systems and browsers. This makes mobile phone marketing a nightmare as material has to be compatible with that device.

With the technological advancements and the increased use of apps, retailers have to tackle ‘showrooming‘ where consumers visit a physical store to research products, but use their smartphone in-store for price-comparison, often resulting in them buying it online (Fulgoni, 2013), affecting the revenue of physical stores.

Click here to see more challenges mobile phone marketing faces.

How should mobile marketing be approached?

According to Chaffey (2015), the implications are clear – if you’re not able to reach your audience through mobile search or display, or you’re not providing a satisfactory mobile experience, you will miss out compared to your competitors who are. As Cohen (2016) suggests, this shows advertisers and marketers need to be present on mobile so customers can find you when and where they’re ready to engage with you. This can be done through mobile websites (65%) and mobile apps (65%), which top the B2B mobile marketing tactics, as shown below by the study conducted by Regalix on the ‘state of B2b mobile marketing, 2015‘. This tactic is backed up by Perez (2014) who states the majority of digital media consumption now takes place in mobile apps, according to a new study in the US released by comScore. This means mobile apps consume more of our time than desktop usage, accounting for 52% of the time spent using digital media. Combined with mobile web, mobile usage as a whole accounts for 60% of time spent, which is staggering and a great opportunity for marketers.

Overall, smartphone usage will continue to grow as shown above, but understanding how and when consumers are using them is crucial for advertising and marketing campaigns, especially as apps are driving the majority of media consumption activity, and mobile has altered, according to Fulgoni (2013), the manner in which consumers make buying decisions and how they complete transactions. This allows marketers to ‘push‘ information to consumers with relevant geographically-targeted messages; or they can deliver ads when the consumer accesses a mobile website. As smartphone data collection and analysis technology becomes more sophisticated, the speed and relevance of advertising and marketing campaigns will be significantly more important; as Vatanparast and Asil (2007) investigate, advertising activities supported by mobile devices allows companies to directly communicate with consumers without location or time barriers. If competing brands reach consumers with a relevant message at the precise moment when it is needed, they will have made that crucial first impression, meaning your brand, along with many others will will be trying to play catch up.

The Internet has moulded who we are as consumers, increasing the accessibility of information with digital becoming a top priority for marketers, while traditional channels lag. At the same time, traditional media still remains an important part in our lives, allowing us to watch what we want, when we want. For marketers and advertisers, it’s important that a balance between both can be found.

See the latest digital marketing trends to watch for in 2016 and beyond 

 

To read more, you may find the following articles interesting:

Smartphone Revolution: There’s An ETF For That

In Less Than Two Years, a Smartphone Could Be Your Only Computer

Why are phones continuing to get bigger?

2016 Mobile Marketing Trends Every Marketer Needs

References

Biswas, A., and Mousumi R. (2014) Impact of Social Medium on Green Choice Behaviour. Journal of Marketing Management 2.2. p95-111. Print.

Chaffey, D. (2016) Mobile Marketing Statistics compilation [Online] Available at: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/ [Accessed: 20 Apr. 16]

Cohen, H. (2016) 2016 Mobile Marketing Trends Every Marketer Needs [Online] Available at: http://heidicohen.com/2016-mobile-marketing-trends/ [Accessed: 20 Apr. 16]

Connor, J. (2015) Global smartphone shipments forecast from 2010 to 2019. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/24/digital-advertising-climb-tradional-media-trouble_n_6930958.html [Accessed: 20 Apr. 16]

Facebook Research. (2015) The thumb is in charge [Online] Available at: http://insights.fb.com/2015/10/26/the-thumb-is-in-charge/ [Accessed: 20 Apr. 16]

Fulgoni, G. (2013) The Top Ten Burning Issues in Digital [Online] Available at: https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/The-Top-Ten-Burning-Issues-in-Digital#growthofsmartphonesandtablets [Accessed: 20 Apr. 16]

Haghirian, et al, (2005) Increasing Advertising Value of Mobile Marketing – An Empirical Study of Antecedents. Journal of System Science.

Joines, J., Scherer, C., Scheufele, D. (2003) Exploring motivations for consumer Web use and their implications for e‐commerce, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 Iss: 2, pp.90 – 108

Limpf, N. and Voorveld, H. (2015) Mobile Location-Based Advertising: How Information Privacy Concerns Influence Consumers’ Attitude And Acceptance. Journal of Interactive Advertising 15.2. pp 111-123.

Perez, S. (2014) Majority Of Digital Media Consumption Now Takes Place In Mobile Apps [Online] Available at: http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/21/majority-of-digital-media-consumption-now-takes-place-in-mobile-apps/ [Accessed: 20 Apr. 16]

Statista. (2016) Digital advertising expected to climb, while traditional media may be in trouble. [Online] Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/263441/global-smartphone-shipments-forecast/ [Accessed: 20 Apr. 16]

Tsang, M., et al. (2014) Consumer Attitudes Toward Mobile Advertising: An Empirical Study. International Journal of Electronic Commerce. p65-78

Vatanparast, R. and Asil, M. (2007) Factors affecting the use of mobile advertising. International Journal of Mobile Marketing. 2, 2, 21-34, Dec.

According to Gupta, et al, (2006), many agencies are increasingly generating revenue from the creation and sustenance of long-term relationships with their customers, which can be measured by customer lifetime value (CLV), which is defined as the total worth of a customer to a business over the entirety of the relationship. In an agency environment, marketing can maximise CLV and customer equity where Venkatesan and Kumar (2004) state, CLV can be used as a metric for customer selection and marketing resource allocation by enabling managers to maintain or improve customer relationships proactively through marketing contacts across various channels and to maximise CLV simultaneously. This is due to customers who are selected on their lifetime value providing higher profits in the future, over those who are selected on other metrics.

But what makes CLV so special of a metric? According to Skok (2009), he states the biggest reason start-ups die is because their customer acquisition costs vs their customer lifetime value costs often look like this:

This can be attributed to many businesses focussing on transactional customer value, and not investing in the experience that happens after the conversion. This shows the importance of relationship marketing which can be defined, by Gronroos (1994), as identifying and establishing, maintaining, and enhancing, and when necessary, terminating relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a profit, so that the objectives of all parties involved are met. Relationship marketing has moved from transactional marketing to a one-to-one marketing method that values the needs of the ‘people’ involved within a series of exchanges, increasing the CLV.

How to calculate

Knowing the CLV of a client is a good indicator of how prosperous the relationship can be, against those offering single projects or a retainer contract. Click here to see how HubSpot looks beyond a variable to estimate the costs and opportunities for a client in the long-term by showing how it is calculated for an agency client.

Benefits of focussing on CLV

CLV can have many benefits for customer selection and marketing resource allocation. The following points highlighted by Clark (2010) show the benefits of focussing on CLV and how they can be incorporated into strategic business decisions:

• CLV for different customer segments – different customer segments have different CLVs. Resources can be allocated by employees being able to focus on those with high CLVs. It can also be used to decide whether to follow up on individual customers.
• Market communication – as John Wanamaker said: “I know that half of my advertising costs are wasted. I just wish I knew which half.” Organisations can achieve better results by choosing target groups, communication channels, and the message to be delivered using CLV. Companies can move from the mass transactional marketing method to a more relationship marketing method allowing direct customer communication.
• Managing the sales force – CLV could be used to allocate sales resources, by focusing on those with high potential CLV.
• Marketing campaigns – once the customers are identified, marketing resources can be allocated by focusing on those customers with above-average CLV. Cross-selling campaigns can be targeted at customers who have been defined and selected using CLV.
• Market segmentation – as Kim, et al, (2006) state, it’s useful for market segmentation, strategy development and the allocation of marketing resources for acquisition, retention, and cross-selling.

The above shows that with CLV, it’s possible to use this as a metric for customer selection and marketing resource allocation for a B2B agency.

The challenge of CLV for an agency

With multiple ways consumers can engage with brands, and the ease for consumers to switch agencies, the barriers to measuring and acting on these are challenging. Chahel (2014) backs this up by identifying that the multichannel digital age is hindering brands and companies from calculating CLV, with Econsultancy’s new ‘Building Loyalty and Driving Revenue in the Digital Age‘ report looking into the issue further. Having surveyed almost 900 agency and company respondents, they found that the vast majority agreed that CLV was an important concept, but just 42% said they were able to measure it. Some stated:

“It’s difficult to put in place, particularly if a brand has many different product categories,” says Neil Costello, head of marketing at Aviva.

“It’s difficult to calculate because there are so many different parameters and demographic and macro influences that will shape the calculation process.” (Chahel, 2014).

Below shows what was hindering the respondents’ ability to increase CLV:

One of the challenges is that many organisations simply are not set up to manage lifetime value, with 35% of respondents saying the siloed nature of their organisations and lack of coherent marketing hinders their ability to increase CLV.

With the study finding that each industry sector has its own challenges in building CLV, as each is different, in the future, to improve their CLV, 64% believed improved customer experience would make the biggest impact:

 

Other limitations of the CLV formula is that it does not measure changing customer revenue and costs over time as according to Malthouse & Blattberg (2005). It assumes that the retention rate is stable and does not change over time, making it an inappropriate method for companies pursuing increased loyalty marketing goals. As the formula is measured ‘now’, it does not apply discount rates to future customer revenue and costs resulting in the value being overstated (Fripp, 2015). This can negatively affect an agency, as some work is on the basis that they can offer discounts on future jobs due to loyalty, but others work on a set price structure, so this will affect the company depending on what pricing strategy they use.

Click here to see other metrics that could also be used

Is CLV worth it?

As the above shows, and Rust, et al, (2000) state, CLV has a central strategic importance for an organisation, with more and more managers discovering that their most important asset is not the company’s inventory, but its customers. But many are finding it difficult to measure. Venkatesan and Kumar (2004) suggest that there is potential for improved profits, when managers design resource allocation rules that maximise CLV if managers allocate marketing resources efficiently across customers and channels of communication, but these need to be effectively identified first.

Overall, CLV is important for organisations, but only if measured accurately. Charlton (2014) states that 89% see customer experience as a key factor in driving customer loyalty and retention, while 76% see CLV as an important concept for their organisation, which backs up Econsultancy’s ‘Building Loyalty and Driving Revenue in the Digital Age‘ report.

Many organisations as according to Skok (2009) have business model failure when the cost to acquire customers exceeds CLV, showing that to have a successful business, organisations must have the ability to monetise those customers with a well balanced business model as shown below. But to have this successful model, CLV must be measured accurately and effectively which is proving the hindering factor for many agencies.

 

To say that CLV is the only metric you need is a strong statement, but it is a front runner. Why? Because if you don’t know how much your customers are worth, you’ll never know how much to spend on acquiring or retaining them. It should not be entirely relied on as the only metric, but should be a main focus in your strategy.

You may find these other articles of interest:

10 tactics for increasing your customer lifetime value and loyalty

Customer lifetime value prioritises customer experience management

Choosing the right metrics to maximise profitability and shareholder value

References

Chahal, M. (2014) The challenge of customer lifetime value. [Online] Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/64659-just-42-of-companies-are-able-to-measure-customer-lifetime-value/ [Accessed: 19 Apr. 16]

Charlton, G. (2014) Just 42% of companies are able to measure customer lifetime value. [Online] Available at: https://www.marketingweek.com/2014/06/04/the-challenges-of-customer-lifetime-value/ [Accessed: 19 Apr. 16]

Clark, P. (2010) The 16 business benefits of customer lifetime value. [Online] Available at: http://www.thewisemarketer.com/features/read.asp?id=119 [Accessed: 19 Apr. 16]

Fripp, G. (2015) Advantages and imitations of the simple clv formula. [Online] Available at: http://www.clv-calculator.com/customer-lifetime-value-formulas/simple-clv-formula/for-against-simple-clv-formula/ [Accessed: 19 Apr. 16]

Grönroos, C. (1994) From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing. Management Decision, Vol. 32 Issue 2, pp.4 – 20

Gupta, S., et al, (2006) Modelling Customer Lifetime Value. Journal of Service Research 9.2. 139-155.

Kim, S. et al. (2006) Customer Segmentation And Strategy Development Based On Customer Lifetime Value: A Case Study. Expert Systems with Applications 31.1. pp 101-107.

Rust, R., Zeithaml, V., and Lemon, K. (2000) Driving Customer Equity. New York: Free Press. Print.

Skok, D. (2009) Startup Killer: The Cost Of Customer Acquisition. For Entrepreneurs. [Online] Available at: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/startup-killer/ [Accessed: 19 Apr. 16]

Venkatesan, R., and Kumar V. (2004) A Customer Lifetime Value Framework For Customer Selection And Resource Allocation Strategy. Journal of Marketing 68.4. 106-125.

I am sure many organisations can relate to hitting publish on their blog and expecting the comments and shares to be rolling in. But instead it’s the opposite with minimal or no activity. According to O’Dell (2011), many consumers choose to follow a firms blog to keep tabs on the brand they love, the expertise they share, along with, as according to ‘Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report’, turning to blogs when looking to make purchases (see image below). Organisational blogs are ranking higher in trust and influence over other online services showing it is important to increase a blog’s following.

 

 

As Fournier, et al, (2012) states, the creation and management of customer relationships is fundamental to the practice of marketing, with a keen interest in relationships: what they are, why they are formed, what effects they have on consumers and the marketplace, how they can be measured and when and how they evolve and decline. Blogs can have huge impact on business success with effective intelligence and planning.

Reasons for operating a blog

• Companies blogging have 97% more inbound links
• 92% of companies blogging multiple times per day have acquired a customer from their blog
• B2B marketers who blog generate 67% more leads than those who don’t
• 23% of total Internet usage time is devoted to social networks or blogs
• 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog
• 33% of B2B companies use blogs – don’t fall behind 
• Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that don’t

The above shows how influential a blog can be and the impact it can have on readers. As Walker (2016) explains, a blog is where you can point social media fans and followers, accumulating a vast amount of information for existing and potential customers; where your expertise and thought leadership will really stand out. Business blogs can allow the firm to engage with people and build the brand, increasing their following.

Although many organisations realise the potential of blogs and encourage their employees to blog, a good proportion, as according to Aggarwal, et al, (2012), are skeptical about losing control over this new media. Companies fear employees may write negative things about them, leading to a reputation loss. Therefore, companies show mixed responses towards negative posts on employee blogs. Aggarwal, et al, (2012) research reveals a potential positive to negative posts. Their analysis shows negative posts act as a catalyst and can exponentially increase the readership of employee blogs, suggesting that companies should permit employees to make negative posts. This is largely due to employees writing a few negative posts and many positive posts, meaning the increase in readership of employee blogs should be enough to offset the negative effect of a few negative posts. Therefore, not restraining negative posts to increase readership should be a good strategy in increasing the organisations blog following. This is due to, as Dean (2010) suggests, blogging captures the users in intensive networks of enjoyment, production, and surveillance.

If you have not yet started your blog, the following ‘how to start a business blog in 5 steps‘ will help you start your content marketing journey. Check out the top content marketing blogs.

Methods for increasing your blog following

Once your organisation has set up their blog, you can increase your following with a number of techniques:

• Garrett Moon states companies are not sharing their content anywhere near what they should be. As many will miss the initial communications, you need to share each blog multiple times. For example, you may tweet or Facebook share your post as soon as you hit publish, but this needs to happen on multiple occasions. The below image produced by Garrett Moon shows how you can easily double your traffic from social media. Some may see this as being spammed with the same content, but others will see it as the value promised as they may not have recognised initial communications. You should change the message on each post and tailor it to the social media used.

• Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to 30% showing a method in improving traffic to your blog is by sticking at it.
• Matthew Barby states that to increase your following, the key is to get influencers to write for you, with his guide to achieving this.
• Ross Hudgens investigates how 73% are not using a powerful Twitter tactic and not getting the text right. It is essential to get the text right to encourage followers to click on your post.
• With blogging and social media, organisations can improve their SEO as these generate inbound links (DeMers, 2015), generating referral traffic to websites, helping increase awareness, and leverage influencers to help grow your business.

To find out even more ways to increase your blog following, click here.

Conclusion

It is easy to build a blog, but hard to build a successful blog with large traffic. With 33% of B2B companies using blogs, it is essential that your organisation also operates this form of media, as you do not want their following to grow massively and leave your company behind. As blogs are becoming more important in consumer buying decisions, as Muntinga, et al, (2011) suggests, consumer empowerment shows the consumers ability to promote a brand and convince peers with their own social network, like Twitter, that it’s worth purchasing, creating engaging electronic-word-of-mouth. Both social media and blogs complement each other and should be used in tandem to increase a companies following. It’s difficult to maintain an active social media presence without access to high-quality content, which is provided from blogs. Sharing others content is good, but you want to be directing the reader to your own website to increase your following. As you share your blog on social media, you increase traffic to your website, and ultimately your blog following.

 

For further information, you may find the following sites of interest:

How to easily double your traffic from social media

21 tactics to increase blog traffic

The 5 golden rules of blogging and why you should follow them

 

References

Aggarwal, R., Gopal, R., Sankaranarayanan, R., Singh, PV. (2012) Blog, Blogger, And The Firm: Can Negative Employee Posts Lead To Positive Outcomes?. Information Systems Research 23.2: 306-322.

Dean, J. (2010) Blog Theory: feedback and capture in the circuits of drive. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

DeMers, J. (2015) The Top 10 Benefits of Blogging On Your Website. [Online]. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/05/28/the-top-10-benefits-of-blogging-on-your-website/#2715e4857a0b30d059325b65 [Accessed 14 Apr. 16]

Fournier, S., Breazeale, M,. Fetscherin, M., Keller, K. (2012) Consumer-brand relationships: theory and practice. International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS).

Muntinga, D., Moorman, M., Smit, E. (2011) Exploring motiva­tions for brand-related social media use. International Journal of Advertising, 30(1), p13–46.

O’Dell J. (2011) Why do people follow brands. [Online] Available at: http://mashable.com/2011/06/30/why-people-follow-brands/#ZnZCIgE0vGql [Accessed 13 Apr. 2016)

Walker, C. (2016) How to start a business blog in 5 steps. [Online] Available at: http://writtent.com/blog/how-to-start-a-blog-a-step-by-step-guide-to-creating-a-business-blog-part-1/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2016)

The problem many companies make is that they think e-newsletters are a simple and easy marketing tool to deploy. But they are so much more; it needs to be engaging to the tens, hundreds, or thousands of people in your mailing list, engaging your leads and customers, selling more products and services (Chaffey, 2006).

Look how in B2B marketing, e-newsletters outperformed traditional promotional marketing campaigns

 

Before we go any further, we must establish whether an e-newsletter is right for you as you don’t want to  waste time and budget on this, as Fifield (2008) suggests, there will always be leakage in marketing spend but you must identify where it can be minimalised. According to HubSpot (2016a), you must do the following to determine if this approach is necessary:

• First do some industry research – are there successful email newsletters that people like to subscribe to? With the resources you have available, could you be successful? This is essential as the industry you operate in may not be the type that recognises e-newsletters as a good source of information.
• Examine your business’ goals. What are they trying to achieve – increased leads? Retain customers? Increased brand awareness? If your business goals do not align to what an e-newsletter can achieve then this is not the best approach. Check out the potential they can offer.

If your industry or organisational goals do not align to email newsletters, your time might be better spent creating something else like a lead nurturing email campaign or content for your blog.

Benefits of e-newsletters
To understand if e-newsletters can work towards increasing brand exposure, we must look at the benefits:

1. The time and effort it takes to produce a B2B campaign using offline direct communications like telesales or print is staggering. E-newsletters turn communications into a quick and easy way to reaching out to your target audience.
2. E-newsletters allow real-time messages with instant delivery unlike other campaigns like postal.
3. Personalisation can take place, increasing the customer journey and experience with many dynamic opportunities. Personalising e-newsletters is less challenging than creating separate postal, print or advertising campaigns as customers can be segmented into smaller groups for personalised messages.
4. According to Kompella (2015), e-newsletters allow A/B testing where two different versions of an email can be sent to see which performs better. Check out ‘A Guide to A/B Testing Tools’. This can allow an agency to test which approach improves their brand exposure.
5. They are trackable and can be measured on open-rates, click-throughs, new-subscribes, and unsubscribes (Weil, 2002), with the ability to track sales and user engagement. Online email marketing solutions like MailChimp can provide valuable information to measure these metrics.

Click here to download HubSpot’s free guide to creating email newsletters with even more tips

Disadvantages of e-newsletters

To make sure e-newsletters have a positive impact on exposure, you need to consider the disadvantages to then be able to overcome them:

1. Recipients inbox’s get clogged with email. To cut this down, servers have spam filters that could result in your e-newsletter being marked as spam. With approximately 79% of permission-based emails reaching the inbox, spam filters are working harder than ever (MailChimp, 2016). Click here to read MailChimp’s guide on how to avoid spam filters. It is extremely important for those investing in email marketing to fully read and understand CAN-SPAM laws regarding opt-out requests from customers (Mohammadi, et al. 2013) to make sure laws are not broken.
2. Some subscribers may be signed up to the e-newsletter with more than one address, and some read by more than one person, making measuring results difficult (Brownlow, 2016).
3. Recipients must have an option to opt-out, creating an easy way for subscribers to stop viewing your e-newsletter (Wagner, 2016). This means you may not be able to get your brand in-front of some of your target audience via email, affecting brand exposure.
4. Readers can become disengaged if the organisation tries to sell to them all the time, or if the content is not relevant, as this can be frustrating.
5. Creating a loyal following that reads the e-newsletter is difficult. With many involved in the circulation of content in such a networked culture, ‘stickiness’ which can be a measure for success is not always achieved (Jenkins, et al, 2013).

How can agencies take advantage of e-newsletters to increase credibility?

To overcome these disadvantages mentioned, Dave Chaffey (2006) has published a ‘Total e-mail marketing’ book looking at how to maximise your results from e-marketing, emphasising on developing relationships with existing customers, and acquiring new customers. To see how others have overcome these disadvantages, look at ‘The Top 100 Email Marketing Campaigns‘ according to Campaign Monitor. Jenkins, et al, (2013) agrees with Chaffey stating that companies need to adapt communications from ‘hearing’ to ‘listening’ to create meaning in the communications produced. This will help improve ‘stickiness’ of e-newsletters. If this is achieved, participatory circulation can result in the e-newsletters being forwarded to friends and colleagues, increasing the brand exposure.

Lee (2012) states it must be easy to subscribe, which can be linked to your website, blog, or social media channels. It’s important to tell subscribers what to expect and how often to expect it as this has a big impact on whether recipients will set time aside to read your e-newsletter. To increase ‘stickiness’ and brand reputation, e-newsletters must be what the reader wants to read – segmentation can take place to target certain subscribers through effective planning. The subject line is vital in increasing open rates, according to MailChimp (2015), the best subject lines are short, descriptive, and provide the recipient with a reason to open the email.

To look at more tips on email marketing, click here.

According to HubSpot (2016b), e-newsletters can make a large impact on revenue; with those who buy products marketed through email spending 138% more than those who did not receive the email offers. This shows that marketers need to execute their e-newsletters effectively to gain full advantage, but if executed ineffectively, can have a negative impact, with Banasiewicz (2013) stating, successful tracking and analytics of data can help overcome this negative impact. A main mistake organisations make is sending too many or too few e-newsletters, these need to be monitored to make sure the reader is keeping up to date with the brand but not overwhelmed. Another mistake is that bounce rates are not monitored with companies surprised to find that less than 50% of their email newsletters were getting to their recipient (NetXtra, 2016), so to increase brand exposure, these need to be monitored regularly.

To investigate the most common mistakes, click here

Great customer service is about giving people what they want, when they want it, in the most efficient way possible with Day & Hubbard (2003) stating, customer relationships have gone digital. This logic can be represented in e-newsletters. They are a great way to keep clients up-to-date on industry news/company actions, and as according to Nielson Norman Group’s report, readers feel emotional attachments to their e-newsletters (Corkery, 2013), showing it’s a great tool to take advantage of and encourage repeat business, and increases brand exposure if executed properly. There is easy-to-use software that includes everything you need to create, send and track results of email marketing campaigns. Click here to see HubSpot’s key tips in improving your e-newsletter that people will actually read. 

 

So yes, e-newsletters do help increase brand exposure, but only if executed properly.

 

Want to read more, you may find the following interesting:

The 25 Best Email Marketing and Newsletter Apps

Email Marketing Benchmarks

Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing

The Beginners Guide to Starting a Newsletter and Email List

References

Banasiewicz, A (2013). Marketing Database Analytics: Transforming Data for Competitive Advantage. New York: Routledge. 

Brownlow, M. (2016). Email newsletter metrics. [Online] Available at: http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/emailnewsletters/metrics.htm [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016]

Chaffey, D. (2006) Total E-Mail Marketing. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Print.

Corkery, C. (2013). 7 Golden Steps to Creating an Effective Email Newsletter. Verticalresponse.com.com [Online] Available at: http://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/7-golden-steps-to-creating-an-effective-email-newsletter/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016].

Day, G., and Hubbard, K. (2003) Customer Relationships Go Digital. Business Strategy Review 14.1. 17-26. Web.

Fifield, P (2008). Marketing Strategy Masterclass: Making Marketing Strategy Happen. Hungary: Elsevier.

HubSpot. (2016a). How to create an email newsletter people actually read. [Online] Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/guide-creating-email-newsletters-ht [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016]

HubSpot. (2016b). How to create email newsletters that don’t suck. [Online] Available at: http://offers.hubspot.com/email-newsletters-that-dont-suck [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016]

Jenkins, H., Green, J., & Ford, S. (2013). Spreadable Media : Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture. New York: NYU Press.

Kompella, K. (2015). A guide to A/B testing tools. EContent, 38(7), 30-31.

Lee, K. (2016). 15 email marketing tips for small businesses. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/katelee/2012/10/15/15-email-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses/#230596c7384f [Accessed 13 Apr. 2016]

MailChimp. (2016). How to avoid spam filters. [Online] Available at: http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/how-to-avoid-spam-filters/html/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016]

MailChimp, (2015). ‘Best Practices For Email Subject Lines’. Available at: http://kb.mailchimp.com/campaigns/previews-and-tests/best-practices-for-email-subject-lines [online] Accessed 13 Apr. 2016

Mohammadi, M., Malekian, K., Nosrati, M., & Karimi, R. (2013). Email Marketing as a Popular Type of Small Business Advertisement: A Short Review. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(4), 786-790.

NetXtra. (2016). Email newsletters: 10 mistakes to avoid. [Online] Available at: http://www.netxtra.net/insights/email-newsletters-10-classic-mistakes-to-avoid/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2016]

Wagner, N. (2016). Disadvantages of Newsletters. ehow.com [Online] Available at: http://www.ehow.com/info_8347778_disadvantages-newsletters.html [Accessed 7 Feb. 2016].

Weil, D. (2002). Measure the success of your e-newsletter. [Online] Available at: https://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2138278/measure-success-your-e-newsletter-part [Accessed 11 Apr. 2016]