Email is King

According to an infographic shared by AdWeek courtesy of Smart Insights, email remains the best tool for improving customer communications and loyalty (appropriate timing given the topic of last class).

Personally, I pay attention to well worded, timely emails, more so than reports or white papers I have to find and download, or social media engagement.  If you can catch me on the train in the morning with something that I perceive as valuable, then there's a good likelihood I'll read the entire email.  Content based marketing is key and email is still the best way to deliver this message.  This infographic seems to support my conclusion, with email checking in with the highest rated digital channel at 51%, vs. SEO at 45% and paid search at 34%.

The article also outlines 3 key steps for managing digital marketing:

1. You need a digital strategy and plan, preferably integrated into the broader marketing strategy
2. You need to manage integration of digital activities through a transformation program
3. You need to invest in optimization

"The State of Digital Marketing in 2015" also shows a couple of additional interesting statistics:

• the growth rate of internet usage (3 billion people, 40% of world population)
• 91% of search is done through PCs, with 80% (and growing) through smartphones
• Smart TVs are the leading "emerging" device, at 34%
• Smartphones had the lowest sales conversion rate, followed by tablets and desktops