As various digital marketing strategies continue to advance, the recurring question emerges: “Is email marketing still important?”
In a nutshell, yes. Crafting a robust email marketing strategy facilitates reaching and connecting with your target audience in a personalized manner, bolstering sales at a cost-effective rate. Amidst the transformations in other platforms and media, email marketing tools empower your business to reach customers more effortlessly than ever.
Here are my top 9 reasons highlighting the importance of email marketing and elucidating how it can significantly benefit your business:
1. Stay in contact with your audience
Emails possess the capability to keep your customers well-informed. Consumers can conveniently check their emails at their own pace, fostering a sense that your business is mindful of them. An email could be as straightforward as expressing: “Hi, you’re on our mind, here is a special offer!”, or “Here is an update on recent happenings.” Individuals who have willingly subscribed to your email list have already demonstrated a commitment to receiving such messages. Therefore, they are likely to appreciate these emails, provided you offer content worth reading, consequently elevating engagement with your customers.
2. Reach customers in real-time
According to Litmus, 54% of all emails were opened on a mobile device. This holds considerable weight and should be factored in when devising any marketing strategy. A growing number of consumers rely on their mobile devices not only for emails but also for accessing various other forms of media and information. Moreover, well-designed emails exhibit higher conversion rates on mobile compared to any other medium. Catch their attention on the go!
3. People engage with emails
For over 40 years now, email has served as a crucial form of communication. Over the years, it has rapidly evolved into one of our primary communication channels. We’ve all been conditioned to respond to emails in various ways, whether it’s replying, forwarding, clicking through embedded links, deleting, making a purchase, or signing up. We typically take some action with the email. Armed with this knowledge, you can utilize email to direct people to your website, prompt them to pick up the phone and call, or initiate any other call to action. In fact, over 25 percent of sales last year were attributed to email marketing.
4. Email marketing is easy to measure
Most email marketing tools offer the capability to track post-campaign activities comprehensively. You can monitor delivery rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates, click-through rates, and open rates. This empowers you with a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of your email campaigns, aiding in the decision of whether to adjust, refine, or eliminate specific campaigns altogether. These metrics should not be overlooked; they constitute a crucial element of your internet marketing campaign as a whole. While numerous studies suggest “optimal” numbers, the actual benchmarks depend on your industry and target audience. If your customers not only desire but anticipate daily emails, it’s imperative to deliver. However, inundating customers who prefer no more than one weekly email may escalate your unsubscribe rate. It all boils down to understanding your customers and delivering valuable content.
5. It’s affordable
Yes, we understand you’ve been anticipating this. You can connect with a vast number of consumers for less than pennies per message through email marketing. The cost per (potential) conversion is incredibly low in email marketing, making it astonishing that every company doesn’t actively participate.
Email marketing services like SendGrid charge $0.0006 cents per message at their Platinum Marketing Email level. MailChimp allows you to send up to 12,000 emails a month for free, with scalable plans for growing businesses and high-volume senders. Another email marketing company, Vertical Response, provides free email marketing up to 4,000 emails a month and 1,000 email contacts, along with subscription services for higher-volume senders.
While it undeniably offers a significant ROI, it might be prudent to hire someone to manage these efforts. According to Shout It Out Designs, with a 15,000 email database, your company would spend about 152 hours per year managing the campaign. This encompasses writing, drafting, scheduling, sending emails, addressing queries about offers or concerns, and handling database maintenance tasks such as adding and deleting members and updating information.
6. Allows for targeted messaging
Now, let’s delve into the importance of email marketing concerning lead nurturing—sometimes referred to as email lead marketing. The core concept revolves around the fact that potential customers are situated at various stages of the buying cycle. Some may be in the consideration stage, while others could be in the research and compare stage, and yet others might find themselves in the ready-to-purchase stage. Crafting buyer personas proves invaluable in determining the type of content suited for each step.
Segmenting these customers into appropriate email marketing lists empowers businesses to target these groups more effectively. Customers require information to progress through the buying cycle stages; delivering the right content can facilitate this progression. It’s all about guiding these prospects down your sales funnel—not merely swiftly, but efficiently.
7. Increase brand awareness
Nope, social media isn’t the sole platform contributing to a company’s brand awareness. Possessing a customer or prospect’s email address signifies one thing: they’ve expressed a certain level of interest in your business. Email marketing empowers you to heighten that interest level and elevate brand awareness by staying top of mind.
This doesn’t mean bombarding every customer with four daily emails; that’s a surefire way to garner customer dissatisfaction. Instead, implement email marketing strategies that highlight your engagement in the local community. Frequently, companies focus solely on relentless product promotion in email marketing, neglecting the crucial aspect of brand awareness. In doing so, they miss the opportunity to cultivate customer trust and infuse a sense of personality into their brand.
8. It’s timely
Speaking of sell, sell, sell…
Indeed, one of the advantages of email marketing is the potential to sell your products, provided you approach it correctly. It’s crucial to leverage all the customer data and information at your disposal. Sending customers a special offer on their birthday or informing them that their favorite dish is now half off proves much more effective than merely sending them a menu.
This email marketing strategy can also encompass seasonal offers, enabling you to promote a holiday special or an annual sale. Ensure you create a sense of urgency for any offer—customers are significantly more inclined to make a purchase when a deal is about to conclude.
9. Everyone (almost) uses email
A Hubspot survey reveals that 91% of consumers actively use email. This statistic alone should be compelling enough to motivate you to explore this tool. Unless your industry accounts for the remaining 9% (hint: it doesn’t), email presents an incredible opportunity to reach customers. Not only can you provide them with discounts, specials, new products, and more, but they can also share and forward those emails to anyone they’d like. A strategic email marketing approach involves encouraging customers to share offers as much as possible—remember brand awareness?
Email holds particular significance in the B2B world, constituting the primary form of communication for a staggering 73% of businesses.
One of our recommended email marketing partners is Hubspot. They offer a free trial. Give it a try; it will open new doors for your business.
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