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IMC ReportIntegrated Marketing Communications

Discipline

Email marketing

Messages to people who asked to hear from you, from newsletters to automated journeys.

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Email marketing sends messages to people who asked to hear from you, from newsletters to automated journeys. The list belongs to the brand, not to a platform, which makes email the core of keeping a relationship going: retention, repeat purchase and nurture. It works only with permission, careful sending practice and measures that reflect what people really do.

  • Email marketing
  • CRM and loyalty
  • Content marketing
  • Messaging marketing
4 channels carry one message: Email marketing, CRM and loyalty, Content marketing, Messaging marketing.

Email marketing rarely works alone: the disciplines it usually works with, reaching one person.

Start with the 101Email marketing 101: the whole pictureHistory, how it works, where it is used, what it costs, the rules, its limits and when to choose it, with every claim sourced.Read the 101

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What matters when choosing

  1. A clear sign-up and a record of each person's consent.

  2. Sender authentication and a one-click unsubscribe in place before the first large campaign.

  3. Segments and triggers drawn from the brand's own customer data.

  4. Measures based on clicks, sales and holdout tests, since privacy features inflate opens.

  5. Platform pricing compared on the list size you expect next year, not today's.

Questions to ask vendors and agencies

  1. How do you protect our sender reputation and keep complaints low?

  2. How do we stop mailing people who no longer read, and how often do we test frequency?

  3. Which measures will you report now that open rates no longer show reading?

Common mistakes

  1. Buying lists, which fails consent rules and drives complaints.

  2. Mailing everyone every time, including people who stopped reading long ago.

  3. Treating the open rate as proof that a message was read.

What it is good at

  • Reaching people on a list the brand owns.
  • Messages timed and targeted from the brand's own data.
  • A low cost per message, with clicks and sales that can be traced.

What to watch for

  • The list grows only as fast as people sign up.
  • Mailbox providers can filter or reject mail from a careless sender, and one bad campaign can hurt the ones after it.
  • Writing, data and deliverability work cost far more than the sending.

How it is bought and priced

Email platforms charge by contacts held, messages sent, seats or plan, and the sending itself costs little per message. Most of the budget goes to people for writing, design, data, testing and deliverability, in-house or through an agency retainer.

Typical disciplines

Platforms that fit (11)

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