Keep up email and content marketing in 2014

Field service organizations may have a mobile workforce and automation software in place, but they need to maintain marketing initiatives to keep interest in the business alive and well. Phil Frost, a co-founder and managing partner of Main Street ROI, wrote on Business 2 Community that he does not believe email marketing is dead and thinks it will actually grow along with other new forms of technology.

It may be smart for businesses, especially those that deal with customers as much as field services, to start building strong relationships with customers via email, he wrote. Personalization will be a key toward having a strong bond with people going forward and businesses will have the ability to do this with the amount of information on clients they get via field service automation software.

Stand out from the crowd and engage
Personalization will likely help your organization stand out, as a recent survey by Agilon found that 65 percent of businesses do not shift the email frequency level by customer group. Half don't recognize the cost is of losing a customer from their email list. Having knowledge of just how important every interaction is and striving to be sure those who receive these emails are only getting information pertinent to them will put any company steps ahead of the competition.

Email may actually be the preferred method of communication by many customers, as a report from ExactTarget found that 77 percent of people said they prefer to receive their marketing communications through email accounts they subscribe to. While personal communication is starting to see a drop-off for email as a main way of communications, it is seen as valuable by clients when dealing with businesses.

"Some people are moving their social communication over to social media and text, but they still use email to do business," Frost wrote. "In other words, your customers want you to send emails, not tweets or texts."

In an interview with Simms Jenkins of ClickZ, ExactTarget's Chad White said businesses need to start thinking about their email marketing campaign in terms of volume, as it is far more complex than that. In his view, those who are more engaged need to receive more messages, but if someone is simply receiving emails and not doing business with the company at the moment, messages should be less frequent. It may seem obvious, but it is imperative to win customers over by email rather than annoy them.

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