Direct marketing has a long history, and the art of sending the appropriate message to the right people has changed through time.
With the “first” instance of mass marketing dating back to 1892, when Sears, Roebuck & Co. sent out 8000 postcards (and earned 2000 purchases as a result), the concept of engaging customers through targeted and individualized campaigns continues to spark marketers’ interest.
It’s also not surprising. With several studies highlighting the benefits of tailoring and personalizing client engagement, it’s no surprise that interest in the subject of email marketing is on the rise.
72% of the population Only a small percentage of consumers respond to marketing messages that are tailored to them.
80% of frequent customers say they only purchase with brands that tailor their shopping experience.
Though we’ve come a long way from postcards and newspaper ads, and can now use a slew of tech-savvy techniques to get the message out, we still want the same thing in 2021: customer attraction and conversions, and with the tech side of things always improving, the number of ways we can send out mass advertising is always striving to improve.
But this blog isn’t intended to be a “marketing history lecture.” No, a simple Google search will yield such information (one notable exception: The History of Advertising: A Timeline).
No. Instead, we’ll give you an overview of EDM & Email Marketing, as well as a look at it in the context of one of our favorites, Zoho, notably Zoho Campaigns.
Email Marketing vs. EDM
Let’s start with the two most common email marketing modifications.
EDM, or Electronic Digital Marketing, is a more tech-savvy version of “conventional” Email Marketing.
The term “email marketing” means precisely what it says on the tin. Email marketing refers to any process that involves sending emails to clients, and according to Wikipedia, “an email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing” in its broadest definition.
Theories and concepts don’t always transfer to practical application, so to put it another way, email marketing is the process of sending emails to promote your brand and message.
A methodology that is now heavily integrated into the business processes of the majority of companies.
Email marketing is used by 87 percent of marketers to distribute content.
For 81 percent of SMEs, email is their key source of customer acquisition.
The more technologically advanced EDM is the other player in the field. EDM, which stands for Electronic Digital Marketing, is essentially email marketing with additional steps.
And it is the extra steps that ensure additional engagement.
Traditional email marketing can be considered a key player in EDM.
Whereas email marketing is direct action, EDM is a strategy that incorporates various software to improve the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign.
These integrated techniques, which include approaches such as:
Advertising on Social Media
Campaigns for Re-marketing
Initiatives for Pay Per Click
Text Message Promotion
Advertisement on the street
Zoho Campaigns
So, let’s tone it down a notch. What does all of this have to do with Zoho Campaigns, and where do Campaigns fit into this EDM Matrix of applications?
What exactly does it do, and how can you use it?
Zoho Campaigns is a stand-alone email marketing application that enables a variety of email marketing functions. It’s intended to maximize campaign customizability, reach, and engagement, and, as Zoho puts it, “provides a toolkit to meet your email marketing needs.”
Overview of The Toolkit:
Campaigns:
- Sending out campaigns is, as expected, the first function that Zoho campaigns allow you to do. As the most basic feature of any email marketing software, you can set up your email and list of recipients or contacts, as well as schedule a time to send the emails.
- However, it does not end there. Zoho Campaigns provides metrics and details on everything from the number of people who opened the emails to how many of them bounced.
- Furthermore, Zoho Campaigns recognizes that no two campaigns are the same. Each has a distinct purpose and set of requirements, so you have the option of selecting one of four types of campaigns.
- As previously stated, regular.
- Where social media marketing is concentrated.
- Advanced; branching out to other applications.
- SMS; the capacity to deploy direct marketing campaigns to your clients’ cell phones
Automation
You’re probably expecting a lot of automation if you’re using dedicated software to manage your systems, and Zoho Campaigns delivers. With built-in capabilities such as creating complex task flows and utilizing webhooks within the CRM, automation should be its middle name!
E-Commerce
Zoho Campaigns is designed for any business that wishes to use email marketing. This extends from B2B businesses like us to B2C and online retail businesses, as evidenced by Campaigns’ built-in e-commerce feature. This caters to e-commerce needs such as responding to potential interests and reaching out to previous one-time customers, as well as targeting specific product interest groups one at a time!
A/B Split Testing
- In the present era, there is constant innovation and constant wondering, “What if?” There are also decisions that marketers must make. Theme: Black or White? Is the tone formal or informal? Should the banner appear at the top of the email or after the introduction?
- Zoho Campaigns’ A/B Testing Function is designed to help in these situations. It aims to provide you with the tools you need to test these options for yourself by conducting A/B testing on your clients and analyzing their responses using key indicators such as CTR and Engagement rates, and finally determining whether or not you should use Comic Sans font in your emails!
An EDM VIP with Zoho Campaigns
As an email marketing software, Zoho Campaigns has a lot of features, but its greatest strength is its EDM functionality. Zoho Ca Zoho Campaigns facilitates multiple complex streams to further the EDM process when combined with a native Zoho CRM integration.
Zoho CRM
- From simple CRM activities and follow-up reminders to complicated autoresponders, there’s something for everyone., Zoho Campaigns x Zoho CRM is more than just a versatile combination that provides the framework for making the most of your CRM data.
- On the other hand, as a result of the default integration, all CRM contacts are easily exportable and manageable as lists in Zoho Campaigns, making the task of sending out hundreds of emails much easier!
- Zoho Campaigns facilitates multiple complex streams to further the EDM process when combined with a native Zoho CRM integration.
- Campaigns, as part of Zoho’s One Suite, has default integrations (powered by Zoho Flow) that allow it to work seamlessly with a variety of Zoho applications.
The Zoho suite has several apps:
- Zoho Creator (Sync and send campaigns using data from unique creator apps!)
- Zoho Recruit (Send out recruiting emails faster and automate the entire process!)
- Zoho Survey (Use a personalized approach to reach out to survey participants!)Zoho Forms (Instantly respond to form submissions!)
- Zoho Books (Send out those accumulated invoices all at once, and perhaps get fancy by automating follow-up reminders via the CRM!)
- Zoho Analytics (Utilize existing data and further analyze campaigns to maximize outreach and campaign effectiveness.
- Many other Zoho Apps can be integrated with the EDM for a variety of purposes, including making sense of mailing data and targeting focus groups of respondents.
Compatibility with non-Zoho software
So far, we’ve just looked at Zoho Campaigns’ Zoho-based applications, disregarding its incredible non-Zoho interoperability.
With native corporate apps, Zoho Campaigns makes no distinction and extends its massive ease to big companies in any industry. This encompasses a diverse range of marketing and social media tools, such as:
Evernote
DropBox
Google Drive is a cloud-based storage service.
WordPress\sWooCommerce
So, to sum up, this blog, that’s all there is to it. That is where the brilliance of Zoho Campaigns can be found. It not only serves as a standalone Email Marketing solution, but it also allows for the advancement of EDM operations through seamless integrations with a wide range of in-house and out-of-house apps.