Why marketers should get personal with email

Announcing a new email marketing capability as part of the agency's digital services, Middleton says that personalising messages, integrating channels and constantly innovating is critical to create relevant emails that boost sales.

"It's surprising how many businesses still do one mass email blast without segmenting their databases for customers at different stages of the sales lifecycle," says Middleton. "Other businesses make the mistake of sticking with a trusted recipe that isn't always keeping up with changes in digital marketing and advertising platforms, formats and channels."

A study by Forrester Research, 'Innovate with email to create competitive advantage', shows 40% of marketers believe failure to innovate email marketing will result in a loss of customers.

"The best emails are personal and businesses should tailor messages to the different needs and wants of their customers - in sophisticated campaigns, even adapting mails to the online history of a customer's click-throughs, browsing and purchasing," says Middleton. "Email automation is another powerful way of responding to a specific online customer action or behaviour in a super-targeted way."

She says businesses should also consider the whole customer journey and not just focus on creating the perfect email - where will the customer click through to from the emailer? "Customised landing pages where customers can go directly to the product featured in the email can increase conversion rates by more than 25%."

"According to McKinsey's iConsumer survey, email use declined 20% between 2008 and 2012 as a consumers spent more time communicating on social networks, instant messaging and mobile-messaging apps," says Middleton. But social media and email marketing can work very well together to convert interest into sales, she explains.

"For example, links to social media profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook in the email content can extend the conversations with your customers online, while embedded social sharing buttons can make the message go further," she says. "The growth of social media shouldn't be seen at the expense of email marketing.

"Of course, email marketing success all depends on good data so incorrect and outdated information doesn't undermine your results," says Middleton, whose agency offers social media management, search engine optimisation and content marketing with blogs and videos, in addition to database management.

"The most important consideration for businesses," she says, "is to regularly review campaigns to quickly extract key insights from your efforts and figure out how to change your plans to take advantage of the unexpected learnings."

Email marketing drives real returns for businesses that invest in becoming smarter at making every message count. One of DUO's first email marketing clients have already been able to achieve double the industry benchmark for open rates in the professional services space.