Why MailChimp Is Killing Auto-Responders: The Rise of CRM
New features in MailChimp's services are making auto-responders things of the past. How? And what does this mean for digital marketers at small businesses?
New features in MailChimp's services are making auto-responders things of the past. How? And what does this mean for digital marketers at small businesses?
There are three basic kinds of email marketing that we small businesses do.
We send a regular, basic email. This is the type of email that Constant Contact, Vertical Response, MailChimp, and other email marketing companies lead in.
Next up are emails that are auto-responders. Companies like AWeber lead in this space.
The third type of email is powered by marketing automation CRM companies, such as Infusionsoft, Marketo, and HubSpot.
A few weeks ago, MailChimp announced an upgrade to its email marketing services and that was moving into the world of marketing automation.
Their new service is a powerful blend of emails that can be sent via triggers based on a mouse click within an email, a website, and more.
Why is this special?
Some marketing folks have proclaimed the death of email marketing for years. While “email” is not dying, what smart companies are doing is replacing “traditional email marketing” with marketing automation.
Email marketing is ONE way. Auto-responders are limited; marketing automation provides limitless personalization.
Properly implemented marketing automation, built in a solid marketing strategy, enables you (the marketer) and the client to have an unlimited number of awesome possibilities.
Marketing automation enables you to use the power of mass communication, yet provide a very personalized experience to your audience.
While auto-responders are a step to personalization, marketing automation provides more dimensions and a wider feature set enabling you to “micro-target” and “micro-personalize” your marketing communications.
The more narrow and personalized your marketing can be, the more you can personally educate a prospect or customer to buy from you.
Email marketing is not dead. But auto-responders sure are.