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With the rise of social media as a preferred communication tool, is email marketing still effective for promoting artists and boosting sales? Explore the role of email alongside social media in an integrated fan communication strategy.
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Is EmailDead? Is Email Dead?
Is email still relevant? “As social media proliferates and becomes the peer communication method of choice for many of our consumers, is email still a relevant means of promoting our artists and driving sales?” Yes Is Email Dead?
Social media is great for eCRM… • By opening more communication channels with the consumer, social media puts us in a much stronger position to build a relationship between fan and artist (the core principle of eCRM) than when we could only send emails • As you’d expect, this is a good thing Is Email Dead?
…but it’s not great at everything • However each of these channels (email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) has different strengths, so the appropriate communication method will vary depending on your objective • If you want to publicise a free gig happening in London in 3 hours send a Tweet or SMS • If you want to sell a £45 boxed set, take some nice photos and send them in an email which follows best practise principles for driving clicks to retail Is Email Dead?
What does this mean? • The key to a good eCRM strategy is to incorporate all appropriate channels into a single fan communication strategy • By knowing which channel to use in a given situation and accepting that any one channel is not a replacement for the others, you will have happier fans and drive more sales Is Email Dead?
Still notconvinced? Is Email Dead?
Targeting and personalisation • Email allows much more accurate targeting than social media and experience has shown that good targeting is key to driving sales through eCRM • Email campaigns can also be personalised on an individual basis to a much greater degree than social communications, which strengthens response rates Is Email Dead?
What about the fans? • An email address is necessary to access any social network, so a consumer that uses social media will also have an email account which they are likely to check • A high percentage of our target audience use business email addresses which are unlikely to be replaced by social media any time soon Is Email Dead?
Email is compelling • Email is still by far the best digital medium to showcase our products and convince consumers they are worth investigating. Is Email Dead?
Evidence? • The benefits of email marketing are clear to Apple, Amazon and many other market leading companies that make millions of pounds with email campaigns • Our database is growing, our response rates are high and we are effectively driving sales of music and merchandise through email • The financial value of Facebook fans and Twitter followers is still up for debate, whereas email has a reliable track record of driving sales Is Email Dead?
What makes the difference? • As with anything, the potential of fan communications to sell our products will depend on the quality of the campaign, regardless of the channel being used • Unfortunately our email mailing lists are often neglected until the point when we want the fans to make a purchase, which unsurprisingly yields low response rates • By engaging our fans with high quality eCRM campaigns, email marketing will continue to be a vital aspect of our digital marketing strategies Is Email Dead?