Engagement! That’s the new buzzword in email deliverability. ISPs and web based email services want you to engage your subscribers. They want to see action and interaction and they have the mechanisms in place to track and trace it. How is it related to the integration of social and email?
Is the increasing importance of engagement new in email marketing? In a way it is. In a way it’s not. Engagement is defined by actual outcomes so isn’t engagement what email marketing in the end is all about. Whether it’s a click, a send-to-a-friend or a social share: engagement is what we have always wanted, isn’t it? And engaging – or relevant or persuasive if you prefer – tailored content has always played a key role in it.
Social kills email? Ignorance and misinformation kills success!
One of the blogs we launched and integrated here, Social Email Marketing, was the first one that focused on the integration of social and email ever, back when everyone was still saying social would kill email. Some people are still saying it, can you believe that? It has been nearly 5 years since that debate started, that’s an eternity in “Internet time”. Is it maybe because when people keep blogging about it, they continue to have many retweets and views?
The problem is that those who still debate over the death of email due to social can also be simply ignorant. The main problem, however, is that this way they misinform. Email is even cited as a crucial part of inbound marketing now. It used to be the enemy of inbound according to many. HubSpot, the big defender of inbound now even blogs about email marketing since they added ESP features to their software…
If marketers still haven’t understood that it’s always about a mix and solid content that’s…engaging and about customers instead of just channels, they really should wake up now!
The real power of the social and email integration
Social isn’t going anywhere. Neither is email. Of course its’ use is changing, everything changes all the time. Yesterday it was social and today it’s mobile, multi-screen and much more. We already know how much mobile impacts email usage.
Engagement shouldn’t be a challenge for email marketers. The outcomes should be. And that goes for all forms of marketing: ‘engage’ is the word nowadays. It used to be ‘convert’, ‘persuade’ or ‘convince’.
Whatever it is: if the outcomes are not there, it’s bad, no matter the channel. So, engage. But put the customer first and make sure you serve the dish he wants. As a person and in a personal way. How well do you know your email subscribers to get up close and personal?
If you don’t see that social and other channels can help in understanding them better and doing better, you haven’t understood the real power of the integration of social and email. If you have, your deliverability problems should not be that big. WDYT?
