Today, my e-mail inbox consisted of common e-mails that I seem to receive daily. Emails from my professors- updating grades and assignments, from the rebel mouse site- delivering me my fellow students' blogs, from organizations that I am involved in- informing me of recent happenings, and from Tobi- providing me with my online shopping distraction for the afternoon. Notice that Tobi was the only email from a company that was trying to sell me something.
So I began to question: Why don't more businesses utilize email as a tool to market their product or service? The answer came quickly to me: most of them do, but they just aren't effective in doing so. Upon several occasions, I have approached the checkout counter of a store and have been asked for my email information. I always politely decline releasing my email to the salesclerk, because I can already foresee the flood of annoying emails that I will surely receive, directly after providing them with my contact info.
What's worse is trying to unsubscribe from the irritating messages. You're taken from one link to another, until you forget your original intent. Once I have finally unsubscribed, I usually never think about those promotional emails again. AKA they failed.
So how does a company make an effective email for their brand? I think the main key, as with any advertisement in general, is to not annoy or overbear. As a college student, I already receive about twenty emails daily, so I do not appreciate the five repetitive and useless emails that I used to receive from Old Navy, telling me about their 'awesome' deal on jeans that week.
I would narrow it down to one email daily (at the very most). That's one of the main reasons that I am still subscribed to the mailing list for the online clothing retail store, Tobi. They consistently send one email a day, around the same time. That way, I know what to expect and when to expect it. They do not bombard me nor do they pester me with a constant insistence to visit their site.
Another way that Tobi's emails have successfully gotten me to buy their product is through their simple, consistent, and easy-to-navigate design. They provide me with a daily list of new clothing items that I can scroll through effortlessly and click on, if I am interested. The list consists solely of pictures, which may be another main factor of the message's success- lots of pictures, little words.
Also, more recently, a huge part of producing an effective design is making sure it is compatible on mobile devices. This article presents a study that found that mobile email viewing has jumped to 51 percent, but only 12 percent of company email newsletters and messages are compatible with mobile devices. Personally, I check and read most of my emails on my iPhone and later return to them to respond on the computer. With the Tobi emails, I am able to easily view them on my mail app on iPhone, without delays from downloading or significant layout changes from the desktop design.
I think that mobile email, and email in general, may be a top contender as a medium for marketing with huge potential. If a company can create a system where they engage the potential consumer through a user-friendly message, without pestering them, then they will surely see positive results.
It's time to ignore the myth that e-mail is becoming outdated and take on the network as a tool for marketing- even if this tool may need to change the face of their emails from the past. Businesses need to encourage consumers to subscribe to their mailing lists, once again, and offer an enhanced email experience that is beneficial for both customers and providers alike.
And if email isn't your thing, feel free to unsubscribe. (it should be easier with gmail's new feature)
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