“More than 34% of the people
worldwide use email. That’s about 2.5 billion people. It’s predicted to
increase to 2.8 billion email users in the next 2 years. Yup, email’s popular.
The Radicati Group, who came up with that info, also reckon that the world
sends about 196 billion emails daily. Out of this 196 billion emails the
majority, 109 billion, is business email.
Let’s put it simply. Email
marketing is a vibrant and powerful way to connect with people. Bringing it
home, think about your own experiences. Do you even know anyone who doesn’t
have an email address? You probably receive a number of HTML emails each week
(I sure do). You read them, get inspired by them and even look forward to the
next one. Email is a big part of our lives. A very big part.
Email marketing is also a very
personal way of reaching your target customers. Messages from your friends and
family are sitting next to email updates from your company. That’s why email
marketing works at it’s best when it is personalised. Email can be tailored
to customer actions so that every communication is relevant to their interest.
You can cover topics like changes in your company, victories, request feedback
to your customer – this list is virtually endless. With 2.5 billion users,
email isn’t going anywhere.
Still thinking Email Marketing is
not something for your company? Let us give you 6 reasons why Email Marketing
is a channel you should not be ignoring.
1. More effective than social
media (for customer acquisition)
Don’t get us wrong, social media
is an extremely important component in any business’ marketing strategy. Social
Media is a great channel for interacting with your audience and strengthening
your personal relationships with them. And because of that, it is an important
first step towards reaching your ultimate goal – the conversion.
But when it comes to converting
people into members, customers or supporters, email marketing is the way to go.
A study by Custora from 2013 found that customer acquisition via email
marketing has quadrupled in the four years preceding 2013. Email marketing then
already accounted for nearly 7% of all customer acquisitions that occurred
online.
2. Economic and Cost Effective
It’s easy, effective, and
inexpensive. Email marketing allows business owners to reach a large number of
consumers at a rate of nearly nothing per message. For small-business owners on
a budget, this makes it a better choice than traditional marketing channels
like TV, radio, or direct mail. You don’t have to take my word for it. A joint study
from Shop.org and Forrester Research found that 85% of US retailers
consider email marketing one of the most effective customer acquisition
tactics.
Compared to traditional marketing
efforts where printing, postage etc. can take up a lot of cost for your direct
mail campaigns. With emails, you are still able to create the same imagery with
the added benefit of having follow-up information instantly available with one
click to your website.
Perhaps just as importantly, with
the correct maintenance of an email list,
the cost benefits increase as does the ROI through the closer relationship
established with the recipients. Together with the higher response rates that
email marketing attracts, you, therefore, get more positive responses, more
quickly and at a lower unit cost! Win – win situation!
#3 Personal and Customisable
In email marketing, what you’re
really doing is segmenting your audience into lists, and sending each list a
tailored email message that resonates with your reader and can provide them
with something of value.
When you write a post for one of
your social media channels, you address your audience as a whole (“To all of
our fans, we would like to say..”). But by using your email marketing software
correctly, it allows you to address people individually by name, split certain
topics only for certain members of your list and eventually arrive privately in
their personal inbox. According to research from Adestra in 2012,
emails with subject lines that include the recipient’s name are 22.2% more
likely to be opened.
Email does not have to be SPAM –
and it should never be! It can be used thoughtfully to build loyalty and trust
in your brand. Email marketing
is important for building relationships with prospects, leads, current
customers, and even past customers because it gives you a chance to speak directly
to them, in their inbox, at a time that is convenient for them. Be friendly and
personable. You are not invading their space if you have chosen your message
and your recipient wisely.
#4 Action Oriented
Whether you realise it or not,
everybody is trained to do something with an email -reply, forward,
click-through, sign-up, or even straight buying. Think about this! Email is
transactional by nature and you can use it to direct traffic to your website
and ultimately drive sales. As you develop your small business or startup
marketing strategy as a whole, using email will allow you to see results
straight away.
#5 Measurable
There’s no guesswork in email
marketing. When you use any email marketing software, you can track who opened
your email, which links were clicked, and how many people unsubscribed. You can
easily get a picture of how your email campaigns are performing, make
adjustments and improve your effectiveness. Email marketing metrics are
important to remember as you monitor and measure your internet marketing
strategy as a whole.
A lot of email marketing software
allows for split testing of your emails. As A/B testing comes from direct mail,
it should go without saying that A/B testing in your email marketing campaigns is
essential. A/B testing can reveal a great wealth of data about your
subscribers. Do they generally respond better to tempting subject lines such as
“Free”, “20 percent off”, or “Now on Sale”? Or, are they more open to a softer
intro, maybe informing them of what to expect in your email. All these things
can be tested, measured, learned from and improved upon.
#6 Mobile devices allow people to
check their email constantly
Because mobile devices have
become so common, people are checking their emails all the time—in line at
Starbucks, during their office commute, in the waiting room at the doctors
office, at the grocery store, everywhere.
A study last year from
Exacttarget reports that 91% of people use their smartphones to access
their email. This compared to 75% of the people who use their smartphones for
social networking. Not using email as part of your internet marketing strategy
means you are missing out on a channel that a majority of the world uses!
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