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Evolution of the Power of Email Marketing

Remember the days before email marketing? When direct mail and telemarketing were the best options to reach the widest demographic in a specific geographic region? That began to change about 45 years ago when Raymond Tomlinson sent the world’s first email, and now 4 billion email accounts will send an estimated 200 billion emails this year! Who could have imagined that? And, this number is expected to increase by 3-5% every year. Looking at these numbers, it’s clear that email marketing is crucial in today’s business environment, so let’s take a more in-depth look at how email became the marketing force it is today.

Before the internet, direct mail was the main way to target your audience. This method was time consuming, though, and not necessarily cost effective. These documents had to be sent to the printer (which could be quite costly), and then you needed to pay for the postage to mail them out. Then, with no analytics or metrics to go by, it was a guessing game as to whether the message you were trying to convey ever reached the intended target.

The introduction of the internet has obviously changed the marketing landscape, and drastically. Hotmail, which opened in 1996, was the first free personal email service and would revolutionize the way marketers communicated with their customers. Marketers could send large amounts of data to a wide range of potential customers via sending mass emails.

The mass email style of marketing led to consumers being inundated with unsolicited mailings, prompting email marketing to be more regulated in 1998 by the Data Protection Act, which gave consumers an opt-out option. In response to consumer demand for less spam mail, AOL began to give customer complaint information to email service providers in 2004. This allowed savvy marketers to use the complaints as a metric by interpreting consumer complaints.

You can’t follow the evolution of email marketing, of course, without discussing the mobile phone. In 1992 the first smart phone was introduced. By 2012, over 40% of all marketing emails were opened via a mobile device. This became a game changer for marketers.

You can now send emails with specific targeting directly to the audience of your choosing. Along with this benefit, marketers can receive real time feedback from their email marketing program that lets them know the effectiveness of their campaigns. Another key evolution: personalized email marketing campaigns.

Boost Dealer Loyalty through Targeted Email Solutions

AutoAwards has an email solution that engages customers and inspires dealer loyalty, which means you can enhance your bottom line by having experts – AutoAwards – support your automotive digital marketing program. Our marketing expertise in the automotive industry is second to none and will set you apart from others. The AutoAwards’ eCommunication targeting allows you to interact with your customer by delivering the right message at exactly the right time.

Find information on our eCycle targeting program to boost dealer loyalty here.

Then contact us online to discuss your automotive digital marketing needs or call us at 302-696-6000.