Email marketing is often counted as one of the victims of the social media marketing rise. It’s perceived as old fashioned and obsolete, with people even claiming “why the hell would you spend even the slightest part of your budget in it?”. Well, though certainly it isn’t as popular as it once was, email marketing is still a great and (dare I say it) safe bet and you should consider using it for your overall online marketing strategy.
Before you tell me to get out of here, just listen. Perhaps you share this negative view on email marketing because you haven’t seen the countless improvements e-mails have seen during recent years. So, first, stop living in the past. And second, let’s review the enhancements and advantages your business could be enjoying if mails were part of your online strategy. Shall we?
Amazing Reach
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. E-mails can get to millions of people without you wasting a dime on their distribution. And, today, practically everyone owns an e-mail address. In fact, recent estimates predict that worldwide email accounts will reach the 5 billion mark by the end of 2017. Given that almost 80% of email accounts active today are from consumers, well, you can do the math as to how many people you can reach with this channel.
Strategic segmentation
Since everyone has an email account and email accounts are required to log into everything from social media to games platforms, they’ve become a goldmine for data gatherers. That should mean something to you by now – more information about customers mean more possibilities to sort them out accordingly. Thus, you can use that data to filter out the people that might be interested in your message and talk only to them, increasing your marketing efficiency.
Easier to create, share and track
It’s true that sometimes we marketers tend to be over analytical about any possible scenario regarding our actions. That’s why we try to control over every little detail of an e-mail marketing campaign to end up with an endless string of calculations. That doesn’t have to be like that at all! Some of the most successful email campaigns are the simplest in all of the possible senses. An email with great content will surely be read and shared, so make sure to keep it simple yet engaging. Besides, email campaigns are very easy to track. Thus, you’ll learn open, click-through and conversion rates at a glance, which if you’re able to read correctly, will suggest improvements on the whole campaign.
High engagement rates
This is closely related to segmentation, so if you did your homework you’ll end up enjoying this great benefit. Knowing who to talk to (by improving such segmentation and using opt-in email lists) will turn your email efforts into a much more effective force. Again, it’s all about how well the email campaign is built. A good subject line, a great tagline or juicy promotions delivered right to the proper email inboxes will surely reach audiences that are eager to engage with that sort of communications.
Increasing ROIs
At the end, it’s all about the ROI, isn’t it? Well, if you are good at targeting your audience and refining your mail campaign, you’ll surely see more engagement which in turn will increase your ROI. If you’ve done all of the above but don’t see a change in this important value, then there’s something you’re not doing well. Revise your entire process and see where are you failing, since an email marketing strategy well carried out almost definitely ends up in a higher ROI.
Unfortunately, many marketers have abandoned email marketing almost completely. They were dazzled by social media and they were fooled into thinking that traditional marketing isn’t functional anymore. Don’t make the same mistake! The spotlight might not be on email marketing but that doesn’t mean this method can’t deliver great results. But, hey, you don’t have to take my word for it. Try email marketing in your next campaigns and see for yourself!
