Although I do not like "catechisms" about marketing or any other subject, sometimes they are necessary to recapitulate interesting thinkings and refresh your memory. You must keep in mind what people say in your sector.
Current trend for successful business is the orientation to the customer. Marketing has to rethink itself to get to the point. Now, corporate communication must be organized on terms such as:
1. Inbound. Customer approach exceeds product approach
2. Initiative. Customer decides when and how contact us.
3. Customers identification. We need to articulate new mechanisms to select customers
4. Customers Intelligence. We must develop tools to get knowledge about customers and guide our product towards them.
5. Interactivity. We must maintain a constant interaction with the customer through any channel.
6. Marketing and product / service customized.
7. Investment. Treating the customer as an asset whose profitability will return in the medium-term or long- term.
8. Identifying new business opportunities, such as cross-selling or creating new product lines
9. Retention rates. Give the customer a differential value (individualized treatment, personalization service ...)
10. Impact on the income statement. The cost of achieving a customer is more than maintain one .
The e-mail marketing becomes the perfect tool to help you in the change towards a customer orientation. Do not discards it as a piece in your corporate communication strategy.