Is email marketing dead? Is the realm of digital marketing now a game of convoluted keyword and content technology controlled by search engine giants and social platforms? Maybe—but we’re advocating that email campaigns, well written and well-conceived—are here to stay. The medium, albeit a digital grandpa compared to other online communication, has legs as a seriously powerful outreach instrument. It’s true that it’s managed to adapt and stay relevant. Everyone has an email (or two or three), and so long as that is the case, the inbox is still a relatively personal portal where you can take potential customers and clients on a journey, and work to stay front of mind. A lot’s changed since Ray Tomlinson sent a message across networks and used the @ symbol for the first time in 1972. These days, we send a staggering 74 trillion emails every year, and these numbers are on the rise too, across various age groups. So here are just 4 reasons why you should keep on clicking send.
People really like relevant, curated content sent to their inbox
Apparently, consumers prefer email for communicating with brands they are connected with. Email is also the dominant communication tool for professionals. Some 95% of professionals use email, making it ideal for business to business communication. Though, insight also suggests that consumers get way too many irrelevant, annoying emails from brands. And it’s also easier now for consumers to fight back, with changes to email apps making it easier for them to block emails they don’t want. As with any marketing campaign, EDMs that are personalized, and provide some value to the consumer, will be the most powerful, the most opened, read, and remembered. Knowing your target audience, and composing and writing campaigns with them in mind is key. Think about the email campaigns you’ve enjoyed reading, or taken time to peruse, and why?
Powerful and affordable email marketing and automation services are within reach
Not only do your customers want to hear relevant, rich information and news from you in their inboxes, you’ve now got access to a vast toolkit to shape your email campaigns. From Aweber, to MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and Active Campaign, there are now so many email marketing platforms that allow you to easily design, strategise, automate, and monitor success metrics of your email efforts. You’re only trouble is decided which service is best for you and your business.
Email has measurable, real ROI—and it’s pretty impressive too
This comparison of email versus social media, says that email outperforms social media in terms of spend and return on investment. And when consultant marketers were asked to rate nine digital marketing channels based on the ROI they generate, email marketing had a stunning rating of 69% (45% rated email marketing as “Good”, while 24% rated it as “Excellent”) in a report put together by GetResponse. So while the statistics vary, email marketing comes out on top across the board, delivering actual, tangible ROI.
Thanks to rich data, email marketing can now be a stricter science
Chad White from Litmus says “Data science is making email marketing smarter by powering stronger personalisation and automation”. For Chad, the sort of ‘set it and forget it’ approach is dead. Email marketing, backed by rich data, is now a robust marketing power tool, that doesn’t have to rely solely on implied preferences. Depending on what email marketing platform you choose to use, you can tap into a range of insights and learnings. Now, you can make more strategic use of your customer’s voiced inclinations through ‘preference centers’ and progressive profiling, and regularly recalibrate based on this data intelligence. Want more? Stay in touch and subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.
