EDM – Email Direct Marketing

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The rise of email direct marketing

In the past, emails were but a simple, yet powerful creation. Never before had the world been able to send a letter to someone for it to reach them within minutes. For emails, this was sometimes possible in just seconds. It was the dawn of a brand new era. An era of an all new form of communication was unleashed upon the world, starting with the very first email, sent on May 3rd, 1978.

It wasn’t long before marketing experts and businesses saw the massive potential of this new system for their campaigns. How to do it, however, remained a mystery for most of those except for talented programers.

Eventually, the age of the EDM, or Email Direct Marketing, was born.

Issues with EDMs

The fantastic potential realised by digital letters was realised globally. Soon enough, people began to market their businesses via this new medium. This was primarily done using emails collected from their websites. This often resulted in mixed results.

Before Spam laws and junk filters were introduced, people could send e-mails containing practically anything. This, of course, was a problem. Once spam filters had been put in place, however, it became a bigger problem for legitimate emails. Sometimes these spam filters would result in legitimate emails labeled as spam due to image attachments, or attachments in general. This is a problem that still exists to some degree today. This means that EDM’s must be created in a certain way to reach the inboxes of those who wanted to see it. Rather than being filtered out to the junk folder.

In addition, those who sent unsolicited emails to those who didn’t want them, there was formally no way to remove themselves from the lists.

Nowadays, unsubscribe functionality, as well as modifiable spam filters and laws in place to protect consumers, EDM’s have become a normal part of businesses. But how to properly use this impressive feature was a subject of popular debate. GDPR regulations introduced in the EU in 2018 mean that consumer’s data is about to become more protected than ever. And with good reason.

Emails as part of your omni-channel marketing strategy

It also serves as part of omni marketing – a marketing strategy aimed at all forms of promotion such as social media, website banners, catalogue promotions, etc. Web Designers, Graphic Designers and Developers can now create EDM’s using beautiful graphics and fantastic layouts to maximise Email performance.

Companies now have e-mail databases for a reason in order to develop and nurture their consumer base. The value of having a growing, nurtured database of customers is important in businesses, as it often serves as the lifeblood of such. That, and offering exclusive consumer content to these customers, such as one-day deals just to subscribers, helps to make it that much more valuable for potential growth.

With such a powerful medium at our fingertips. What better way to take advantage of it than sending professionally made e-mails to clients?