Email marketing stays strong

Email is no longer "cool." Many may believe that it has outlived its usefulness and that they should shift their marketing efforts exclusively to social media. This could be a critical mistake. As The Plain Dealer recently reported, email is still a channel with a massive demographic appeal and an important way to reach out to customers.

Social media can be effective, but it can also be difficult to start. Business owner Greg Jurcisin told the source that gaining momentum for social connections with customers can be slow and daunting. He suggested social program development can be hard without a dedicated professional to run the accounts - an indulgence small companies may not be able to afford.

Data quality could make or break email marketing. Sending good content to a well curated list is a great way to reach people. Sending weak messages to a list populated with unused addresses or double subscriptions is a recipe for weak response. Of course, as the source indicated, the same content needs persist even as media format shifts.

There are many information mishaps that can weaken email lists. According to Business 2 Community contributor Margaret Spencer, 30 percent of marketing data is bad. Combing thorough databases and cleaning them up could be a strong sales choice.