Mailing, also known as email marketing, is a tool that will help us boost your income and today we tell you why.
Many organizations have been forced to innovate and employ all kinds of techniques to reach a minimum of sales. Thus arrives the mailing, whose objective is, in addition to maintaining contact with potential customers, to minimize losses.
A few days ago HelloMrLead asked Jose Argudo, Marketing Director with experience in the sector and author of the book Most effective sales texts, what was your opinion of mailing in attracting customers and why companies should devote a part of their investment.
So we could know a point of view that left us with great tools through questions that today we want to share:
Photography by marketing director, Jose Argudo.
What role should mailing have in an organization? Does this strategy serve all types of companies?
Mailing is primarily a communication tool, so it can be used both to maintain contact with customers and to sell, with equal effectiveness.
In the pandemic we could see how many businesses used mailing to communicate with their customers (and suppliers), reassure them and explain what they were doing to cope. That has been very useful for these companies.
On the other hand, many have continued to use it as a sales tool, with great success. In my opinion, seen from this perspective, yes, it is very useful for all kinds of companies.
Are more and more companies aware of the potential mailing has for their brand? And what would you say to someone who hasn’t yet implemented it? Why should I start?
Mailing has been one of the most effective tools for marketing companies for many years. What is possible is that some companies have seen in the pandemic as an excuse to start using it. Perhaps the changing situation has forced them to act.
I would say to a company that if you already have customers, a very effective way to get sales is to send mailings to those customers. You can make a lot of money working that list, but the funny thing is that many companies don’t.
What is the most common mistake made when using mailing?
There are several but one of them is that some companies prefer to buy a database of contacts (of dubious quality) instead of working with their own list of customers, which offers much lower profitability.
The other most common error is not understanding the medium and sending mailings that are simply images, as if they were a flyer printed on paper and that usually does not work.
We have less and less time to check our email. Do you think all this affects customer engagement?
Do we really have less time to check the email? Perhaps younger people don’t check the email as much, I don’t know. But the first thing that happens when you start working is that they create an email.
If anything, I would say that today the mail is consulted more than ever.
We consult the email:
- To see if we have job notifications
- To view notifications and purchase trends
- See notifications from some social networks / forums / daily summaries
- Track our favorite sites and their offers
- Emails sent by friends and colleagues
Continuing with the context of the previous question: mailing vs. social networks. Do you think the technique will have to adapt and change in the future?
Unfortunately there is no debate here. Social networks with their algorithm changes have achieved that there is practically no return of use (except in exceptional cases) if there is no large economic outlay.
On the other hand, there are many email marketing tools that offer free accounts. That is, what you publish on a social network, surely if you do not pay you will only see 5% – 10% of your followers. If you send an email, I won’t tell you that 100% will see it, but 75% – 90% will.
If you want something to reach your contacts, social networks are not reliable. And in my day to day use both, you have to use all the tools at our fingertips.
Since we’ve touched on inbound, aside from social media, are there certain channels you think are appropriate for lead generation? Do you think corporate blogs add value or only serve to improve SEO? What do you think of podcasts?
This depends on each company, but I have always considered that you have to use all the tools at our disposal.
Blogs are still very profitable if they are used well, of course. Perhaps what I have noticed is that more and more effort is needed. But this will be the case on all fronts.
Many new companies are emerging, as many are being digitized. Competition is certainly going to go higher, not lower.
You comment on podcasts, and yes, it is true that they are a useful marketing tool, but as in the rest of the cases, they are going to become more widespread and therefore it will be more difficult to stand out there.
My recommendation for companies is that they select well the medium that they believe will be useful and that they dedicate efforts there, and that they do not diversify too much (if they have no means).
A small business almost without resources can not have a podcast, a YouTube channel, Instagram, blog, etc, the best.
How could we take advantage of medium and similar platforms?
I am not a big fan of such networks. I’ve always thought that the effort spent on these platforms would be much better spent on the company’s own blog.
It is a personal opinion, perhaps not shared.
Newsletter as part of the mailing. Is it ethical to send it without the person subscribing? Is the importance of Lead Nurturing and lead conversion going down via this channel?
Well, I won’t talk about ethics, but my personal opinion and the experience of 10 years, tells me that sending cold newsletters is much, much, less effective, and in some cases problematic, causing serious economic losses to the company that performs this action.
Blocked domains and blacklisted, reduced campaign effectiveness. Such actions can cause many problems in the short and long term.
As for the importance of lead nurturing, we see just the opposite, more and more companies are emerging that are doing this job very well. Through the blog, for example.
On the other hand, I don’t think the importance of lead nurturing is being lost. There may be companies that want immediate results, but those that work for the medium and long term, work well.
Do you want to implement mailing in your company?
