Are iPad and Android Tablet Changing the World of Email Marketing Communications?
Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on May 13, 2010
iPad Tablet
Email marketing pioneer Jeanniey Mullen points out the characteristics of user markets that gobble up new technology like the iPad and Android Tablet in her recent ClickZ article New World Email. She refers to this set as “adventurous fun people who like to try new things” and who are also “socially connected.” Her point being really that it is important to properly segment and maintain your contact databases in order to conduct effective email marketing campaigns, such as one that will take advantage of this group and it’s particular mindset.
Mobile communications devices have been around for a long time now. Archos, for example, has had a consumer mobile tablet product for at least 6 years or more. I bought one to easily transport my digital photos. It has internet access and mobile communications through WiFi. The real change is the emergence of social networking sites and more sophisticated mobile communications applications. Consumers are always the first to jump on the new technology bandwagon. Industrial and commercial businesses, in comparison, have to justify the investment based on a need or an improvement in the way something is accomplished. Courier companies already use tablets. Many businesses are adopting them as a portable POS system or for sales presentations.
HTC Android Tablet
It is definitely important to understand the possibilities that are provided by new technologies. It is, however, less important to understand what the hardware does and more important to understand what the applications allow users to do. It will be interesting to learn how the industrial market place continues to adopt the new mobile technologies. Right now as an industrial marketer you are best served by taking advantage of social networking sites like Twitter, Buzz, Facebook and YouTube, for example, to garner an understanding of what your target audience groups are thinking about by either “listening in” on conversations or commencing ones that yield the kind of information you’re after. Additionally, take some time to learn about the new mobile applications and see if they are useful in helping you get the right message to each of your target audience groups.
Ms. Mullen wants us to understand that it is important to know your audience, segment your contact lists, and strike while the iron is hot. Investigate whether iPad and Android Tablet technologies open up the possibilities for you to do that effectively. Even if your crowd is not the “adventurous fun” and “socially connected” type, the new world of email marketing may very well be mobile communications. The phenomenon is definitely worth a proper investigation.
Sweet, I was searching for something along the lines of this. I was wondering, do you think newsletters are still an effective way of marketing online? Does anybody still use them successfully and actually get readers?
Cheers!
Lauren
Yes Lauren. Newsletters are extremely useful but require that you closely manage and build your subscription list. The more targeted your newsletter the better. Industrial verticals, for example, continue to use newsletters to address very specific topics. This helps to increase and maintain readership because they have an identifiable focus that ensures the reader doesn’t have to sift through irrelevant topics to get to what interests him specifically.