Not-so-artificial intelligence

If your company’s mission is to progress in the digital space and you have realized the importance of being a recognized brand online, then you will most probably have an online strategy in place which includes many, if not all of the following.

Website – In the late nineties and early 2000s, websites were synonymous with making millions. Soon though, clients frowned upon this expensive piece of oblivion. When the riches didn’t come, they quickly dismissed the internet as a fad, and it fell flat on its face quicker than you could say Enron! Of course, when something is this good, it will quickly rise from the burnt binaries and re-established itself as a marketing messiah. But, we were told, it would take something extra to drive the traffic to your site.

Newsletter – So you managed to gain a permission based database of loyal followers and your monthly newsletter provided them with critical information pertaining to your industry. Occasionally you managed incentive based reaction to stimulate and ultimately, engage your user base to the extent that it becomes a critical part of their business intelligence, securing customer loyalty and cross / up-selling opportunities for your business.

Blog – Then came 2007 and the new kid on the block arrived. Blogging became an (inter)national phenomenon, a “must have” for every business looking for success online. WordPress, a free publishing tool, became the market leader and soon millions occupied the online space. The standard run of the mill blog templates soon fell out of fashion though as every second person became an online editor. This led to industry trend setters realizing the opportunity to commercialize their development skills and “up-market” corporate communications.

Social Presence – In addition to blogs, social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Zoopy managed to engage a large section of your target audience for hours on end. Of course, the next logical step was to create a presence on these platforms too. A clever chap told us that our target audience doesn’t have an inkling of a desire to visit our site; we have to take our site to them. So we did.

You’d be excused if by now all these have become a bit tedious, excruciatingly hard work and consuming more time than your informal (yet ridiculously important) golf meeting on a Friday afternoon. The digital space is evolving and new software is populating faster than the Chinese. Mobile solutions and micro-publishing platforms can be found in different shapes and sizes, demanding an increased amount of time, yet they seemingly perform the exact same function. How annoying. But we did that too!

To get your brand to this stage you have spent thousands upon thousands upon on something we’ve labeled new media. But alas, have you missed something? Have you ignored the old guard? Unfortunately, yes. It’s called e-mail. Fortunately though, for once, you have been doing the work all along. If you’re anything like me, you send between 400 and 800 e-mails per month.

What if all your e-mails carried your brand, your value proposition, your PR, latest special offer and ways to connect with recipients? What if it did it automatically as soon as you press the send button? What if it costs you no extra time, only the time and effort it takes drafting your mail?

E-mail branding is nothing new. Much like marketing, the principles remained the same throughout its existence. However, evolving from your standard e-mail signature to the different psychedelic templates each of your staff have installed,  e-mail branding and marketing have become intelligent.

Intelligent in a sense that now, each of your e-mails sent is a marketing and branding opportunity embraced. An opportunity to stimulate a reaction from your recipient(s), whether a prospect, current client or staff member.

E-mail branding is the missing link that closes your marketing loop. It has the capability to complete your chain of marketing hot spots and tie it into your daily communications.

Does your e-mail work as hard as you at marketing your company?