Email media is fast emerging as the pre-eminent element of an effective digital marketing strategy, says MD, Tess Sulaman, adding that Petra is a specialist in strategy, analytics and measurement. He is recognised as an industry expert both locally and internationally in this field and has developed methodologies for optimisation of online presence currently in use today by some of South Africa's biggest brands.
Email media evolving
"Over the period, many changes have occurred that have transformed both email and the digital marketing space. For a while, it was not inconceivable for one to be persuaded by the argument that suggests email is just another platform for communication, one that is complimentary to many other digital platforms, each vying for the top spot as the primary digital communication medium," says Petra.
"Over the years, email media has evolved, perhaps the most of the mainstay digital marketing platforms still around, and is now a major force in the digital marketing and communications space. What is certainly not in question is that digital marketing and communication interventions will in future become the primary method by which we communicate and engage with our target audience."
A US-based business magazine's 2014 survey of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs)'s opinions on future trends indicated that they (CMOs) expect to spend more than 75% of their marketing budgets on digital platforms.
"It follows therefore that the primary digital marketing platform and activities will dictate the shape of marketing in the not too distant future," adds Petra. He says what drew him to Rocketseed was the fact that in recent times, email media has begun to receive the kind of attention that social media used to get when it first burst into the marketing scene a few years ago.
"The world over, marketers and communicators are beginning to realise that to develop content that can be integrated, coordinated, and measure their impact accurately as well as disseminating it at a mass scale on a single platform, can no longer be achieved without placing email media at the centre of it all.
"It comes as no surprise then that strategists like me and content developers have started a mass migration from traditional digital and design agencies into email media solution providers. They have realised that the future of digital will be driven by email media, and they want to be a part of it," concludes Petra.
