Is Email Marketing Dead?

Do you think that Email marketing is dead? Okay, before asking this question, let me ask you one more question. Do you see your emails daily or not? I am sure you do see your emails daily. Right?

If you ask me this question then I would say that I check my emails multiple times a day. I mean if you are a freelancer then you can't afford to miss out a day without checking your emails. Hehe! All freelancers can get this. Lol! Just kidding, it has nothing to do with a profession.

All people check their mails atleast once a day. Okay, lemme give you the stats and I am sure you will believe me after this. Are you ready? Okay, so it is found that there are 4 billion email users as of 2020 and these stats would be reaching 4.6 billion by 2025 and this is stated by Statista. Isn't it such a huge number?

Of course, it is. Also, you will be surprised to see another stats which states that 99%of people check their emails daily. So, now also you think that people don't check their emails after seeing these stats? No right?

Believe me, these stats are enough to tell that if you are not using email marketing for your business to reach out to your customers then you are missing out on a lot of great opportunities.

Okay, in the further article let's discuss more on this and I promise you that if you are a person who thinks that email marketing is dead then this myth of yours gotta end after reading this whole article. I literally promise you.

My Opinion

Yesterday, I was just thinking that if one day social media gets banned or your account gets deleted then by what means you will connect with your followers? Then does it mean that all your followers won't get a chance to talk to you anymore? Isn't this is something so scary?

I mean it is surely so scary thing for a creator who has spent his time and energy in creating that account on social media which is worth following and if that account gets vanish in a second then it's not less than a nightmare. Right?

But, you know what if it happens one day that all the social media platforms get banned then if you already maintain your email list then you need not to worry because the people who follow you for your content and knowledge will be staying connected with you forever. So, if you haven't started building your email list then you are missing a lot of great things.

Trust me, if people don't check social media then they do check their emails daily and if you are a marketer, content creator or entrepreneur then start building your email list if you still haven't started out.

Honestly speaking it really does wonders and I am speaking it from my experience. Emails are the first thing people check in the morning as soon as they open their phone and not social media.

My story

This year in the month of March I started building my email list and believe me I started out instantly when a thought which I mentioned above came to my mind. The thought was that if one day social media gets banned then still I should have one medium by which I could talk to my followers and literally emails are the best means as people check it daily.

It's been almost six months now, and I have figured out how email marketing actually works by being less salesy and by giving more knowledge and value to the people through your emails.

Trust me, if you do email marketing then you will get that how it works and not just by talking about email marketing. Practical knowledge above theoretical knowledge. It took me almost three months to understand how it works and I am still learning a lot about it as I am doing it.

I usually send the newsletters regarding the topics which I know. In these six months I have figured out the timings when most of my readers open the mail and believe me people say that send the emails in the morning as people open the mails in the morning itself, no doubt about it, but what I think is that if your mail is knowledgeable and valuable plus less Salesy basically more for the people's benefit and less for your own benefit then people will be opening at anytime of the day.

It's just that it's the matter of gaining the trust of people and building your genuine community which of course takes time and effort but after that, everything flows smoothly.

Now, I am sure that you have seen so many people talking about the email marketing of Zomato. Hehe, right? Why it is so?

It's because their emails are so catchy, creative and it's somewhat out of the box. Right? Their newsletters are so personalized and it is so less Salesy and more creative and visually appealing too.

Okay, so let me ask you one thing that did Zomato gained credibility in just a few months? No, right! It took them more than two years to gain the trust of the people and that's why they are now The 'ZOMATO'.

So, if you have started doing email marketing and it's just 2-3 months then you can't say that people are not seeing your emails and your open rate is so less, believe me, you gotta work hard without quitting for atleast one year and if your strategies are so good then no one can stop you to be a pro in email marketing. It almost took me six months to figure out how email marketing works and also I got two clients by this.

So, if you aren't doing email marketing then you are totally missing a lot of great opportunities. Also if you want to read my newsletters and if you think that they will help you in some or the other way then you can subscribe to them here- https://www.shaggywrites.com/newsletter

And see you on the other side. Hehe!!

Types of Email marketing

Newsletters are not only the type of email marketing that you can send to your customers or readers but there are so many different ways to leverage email marketing.

Lemme mention some of them to make it easy for you:

1. Informational Emails

There are many further types in this category which are as follows:

a) New Content Announcement Email

Whenever you publish your new content be it an e-book, article, blog, podcasts and a YouTube video then let your readers know about the same and you can let them know by sending the emails regarding that with their links attached where they can read, watch or listen to your new content.

Just make sure it shouldn't look so salesy.

b)Product Update Email

Whenever you launch any new product, let your customers know it but make sure you offer some value to them in return because people often don't read such emails very regularly as they think that for you a business matters the most than the customers.

Hehe! So, refrain from sending such emails too frequently.

C) Digital Magazine or Newsletter

This is what I talked about in the section 'My story' in detail which usually people love to read provided that you make it interesting for them to read it.

d) Event Invitation

If you are hosting any webinar/event in the coming days then you can send this information to your readers through emails and let them know that on what topic you are hosting the webinar/event with what all things they will get to learn from it.

Remember that people want to know the advantages that they will get on attending the webinar/event, so focus on that. Give them a reason to why they should attend your webinar/event.

e) Dedicated Send

It is basically the mails where you give the link to the people where they can register themselves for the upcoming webinar/event that you are hosting.

f) Co-marketing Email

It is the mail where you collaborate with the other companies for a particular event or a launch or a promotion. So, in this mail you not only talk about your business but along with that you also talk about the companies you collaborated with.

In other words, it's cross-promotion. The main advantage is that your subscribers come to know about the other companies with whom you collaborated and the email subscribers of the other companies come to know about you. So, it's a win-win situation.

g) Internal Updates

These are the types of emails which you usually send to your employees and the main aim of sending to them is to let them know about any new updates made by the company in which they are working as employees.

So, if you are sending such emails then make sure that employees should get the clarity on what new updates are all about. Formatting plays a major role here, basically, it plays an important role in any type of email. So, focus on the formatting part too.

2. Confirmation Email

These are the emails which confirm that your transaction or subscription was successful.

3. Thank-You Email

Do you say thank you to the people who help you or do something for you by taking out time from their busy schedules? Of course, you do. So, why forget to send the thank you and welcome mail to the people who subscribed to your site or newsletter or downloaded your e-book by taking out time from their busy schedule?

Believe me, you can't afford to miss it. Say them a thank you by sending it through your emails. Also while making such emails make sure you provide the links to the site/e-book for what they subscribed to. It will keep your subscribers in mental peace.

Not even kidding it does trust me. It's not manually possible to send the thank you mail to each individual who subscribed to your newsletter by yourself, so use the automation tools for sending it.

MailChimp is the greatest one. So, these are the different types of email marketing you can't afford to miss out leveraging especially in today's time if you are a content creator, marketer or entrepreneur.

Uses of Email marketing

If you still doubt, that what all advantages you will get if you will start with email marketing then here are the five points to make your doubts vanish:

1. Build trust

If you are sending good quality emails that are less salesy to your subscribers then believe me you gain their trust. Okay let me ask you one question- Would you believe that company who send the emails which solves the problems of customers and provide value or who sends the mails which are too salesy and that always talks about the promotion of their new products?

Of course, the answer is the first option that you gonna believe that company who focus more on providing the value through their emails to the subscribers. Right? And, trust me by this thing a company gains the trust of its customers.

2. Enhances your sales

If your subscribers are interested in your mails regularly, the new products you launch and they think that these products gonna solve their problems and they are ready to invest in that product, then for sure, it boosts the sales. Isn't it?

Many businesses got the advantages by leveraging the email marketing properly.

3. Strengthens the relationship

If you are using email marketing properly then trust me you build the strong relationship with your customers because by sending proper emails to your subscribers and customers you stay in their minds and they remember you.

Remember that people always remember those people for the long time who reached out to them through mails rather than reaching out to the person by sending the DM on social media. Atleast I remember those people who reached out to me personally through the mail.

4. Generate leads

If you are running your own business then the best way to reach out to your customers personally is through emails. Sending them personalized emails works like wonders. Believe me, not all people who are on your email list is ready to buy your products so by seeing the metrics you can easily find out the people who want to buy the product from you.

If you DM your customers on social media then you can't figure out who is really interested in buying your products as you can't see the metrics and track them which you can see otherwise if you send the mails.

So, email marketing plays a major role here.

5. Looks professional

Sending emails to the customers/readers looks more professional than sending the normal DM's on social media because you can insert your company logo with certain information about the company which you can't do otherwise. Emails make it more personalised.

So, if you again think that Email marketing is a waste of time then give me one more chance to prove you wrong and I am sure I will be successful in doing that. Just the thing is you just keep on reading further as you are doing it till now.

Is Email marketing really dead?

Many people think that sending emails to your customers/subscribers is just so old fashioned way to communicate with the audience and it's basically due to the rise of the social media.

People think that every person checks social media daily and posting about your business there bring more opportunities than just sending the mail.

Believe me, this is just so wrong. As I said earlier, people check their emails daily and it's not a guarantee that they check social media daily or not. Okay, so you think that I am saying it wrong and you don't trust me then let me tell you some stats which will make sure you believe in the thing that I am saying.

These are the ratios of the average engagement you get on social media. On Facebook average engagement rate per post is 0.16%, on Twitter its 0.046%, on Instagram it's 1.73% and when you talk about emails then it's 22.86% which means that the organic reach on social media is just decreasing as the days are passing as compared to mails.

Also, as you know every social media algorithm works very weirdly and the reach and engagement of the posts which are paid are much higher. A few weeks back LinkedIn algorithm too changed and it added the feature to promote the posts, so now somewhat organic reach is decreased on LinkedIn too.

But, emails won't behave like that. It will never be dead. Do you know which marketing technique brings more ROI?

It's none other than email marketing. Yes, you heard it right even more than influencer marketing. Funny right? But it's absolutely true! If your email marketing is on point and effective then it brings an ROI of 4400% which is too huge. But, the thing to be kept in mind is that you need to spend a lot of efforts+time and also some money to get this ROI. You maybe thinking about why you need to invest money? Right?

It's because you gotta hire a good content creator who writes the email in such a manner that it attracts the customers if you are not a content writer yourself. Along with the hiring part you need to invest in some tools too, to track the open rates of your emails which gives you a clear cut idea that how many people in your email list are really interested in your business. So, do you still say that email marketing is out of fashion?

If you still say yes then believe me there is something wrong with your strategies. So, make sure you change your strategies and when you do you will surely see the results.

But, honestly speaking the results are not immediate, you need to put a lot of effort and time to see the results through email marketing. So, just keep experimenting what works and keep innovating, that's the key.

How to leverage Email marketing correctly to get the results?

If you are a person who wants to start leveraging email marketing then you gotta read these seven tips carefully with open eyes.

So, let's get started:

1. Curate your email list

You maybe thinking that how to get more subscribers now, right? But, as they say, quality>>>quantity. Getting ten people who always open your mail is far better than getting 100 subscribers who don't even care about opening your emails.

It's easy to get hundreds of random people who subscribe to your emails when you promote them but believe me, it's hard to get those ten right people who are really interested in reading your emails, so for that, you need to know your audience well and for sure it will take a lot of time but keep experimenting.

Once you get those 10 right people then everything flows smoothly and word of mouth does wonders. The less time-consuming method to let people subscribe to your emails is to make a 'subscribe to your newsletter' button on the landing page of your site at the bottom or also you can use pop-ups on different web pages to let people know that you have your own newsletter too and then they can subscribe to it.

The other best way is to give people something in return when they give you their email ID's. Now you maybe thinking what you can give them in return? So, when they give you their email ID's then you can send the thank you mail with the link of your recent podcast episode, blog, article and your recent e-book. Giving value without expecting much in return is the only best way to grow organically in this digital world.

2. Create an eye-catchy subject line

What's the first thing a recipient sees when he gets your mail? Is it obviously the subject line. Right? So make sure that your subject line should be catchy, curiosity provoking and personalized. Try writing your subject line in a casual and conversational tone. A few weeks back I ran an experiment with my newsletters wherein one mail I wrote the subject line with putting an emoji at the last and in another mail subject line I didn't put any emoji.

Do you know what results I saw? Which email has a higher opening rate? You will be shocked to know that mail with the subject line having an emoji in the last has more opening rates than the mail where the subject line didn't have any emoji. So, try using a relevant emoji at the last of your subject line.

3. Send mobile friendly emails

When I tracked on which device most of the people open my emails I got to know a very shocking thing. You know what, I got to know that most of the people open my emails on their phones and not on the desktop. So, make sure that your emails should be mobile friendly and easy to read on phones as well as on desktop.

4. Visually attractive

Do you love to read the mail which is not formatted properly and which only have text in it? Of course not right? So, think of your readers the same way. As a content creator you need to create the things in the same way you, yourself would love to read them.

That's the best hack to become a great writer. Adding Gif's, memes and videos will make your email looks so amazing and attractive. Now you maybe thinking that memes and Gif's looks so unprofessional. Right? No, it doesn't if it would be then no one would ever love Zomato's email marketing. Isn't it?

So, without hesitating add relevant Gif's, memes and videos to make it more attractive. Here are a few examples to make you believe the thing that I am saying. Just look at these pictures.

The first mail is just full of links and I didn't understood its meaning till now. Lol, that's why have made a meme on it too.

The second mail is sent by Zomato and it's so creative, funny and at the same time visually attractive.

The third mail is so well formatted with proper white spaces and also have added the images which are relevant to the topic. I love this newsletter a lot.

Btw, you can subscribe to this newsletter if you want to as this newsletter will keep you updated on the tech news and what's all happening in the tech industry. Here's the link to subscribe- https://shreyanssingh.substack.com/

5. Track your results

Collecting data is very important in today's time to track your success. So, it's a great idea to invest in some tools with the help of which you can track that how many subscribers are opening your emails and who all are interested in reading your newsletter.

Trust me, never hesitate to flush out those subscribers who don't open your emails. But, before doing that you can ask them for their feedback via sending emails if they don't open that also then flush them out. The aim should never be to get a huge email list but to create that email list in which open rates are high.

6. Personalized emails

As they say, personalization is the key and the statement is so so true.

Always personalize your emails before sending them to the subscribers. Add their names in your emails, greet them and ask them how they are doing. Believe me, this seems so small thing but it is what the audience wants from you.

Care for your audience and they will care for you.

7. Structure of your emails

Structuring your emails is the most important thing you need to focus on along with the other points mentioned above.

Add white spaces while writing your emails, don't write long paragraphs. Believe me, no one gonna read it. Add proper CTA's at the end without forgetting it.

The tone of the content you write should be conversational. Try adding stories when you create the content for your emails. Storytelling does wonders and it stays in the mind of people for a long time. Refrain yourself from sending the mails too often.

You can send it weekly or monthly but never send it daily. If you are sending the emails daily, then it looks spammy even if it is not. So, frequency also matters a lot.

So, these are the seven tips that might help you to get started with email marketing.

CONCLUSION

Let me ask you the question again now- Do you think that email marketing is dead? Do I need to prove it more?

If you still say yes then believe me you till now didn't get what email marketing actually means.

It wasn't dead, it isn't dead and it wouldn't ever be dead, just that you need to learn how to leverage it properly and get the results. That's it and that's the thing!!

Thank you for reading it till the end. Hope you found it helpful.

If you liked it then share your thoughts in the comments below.