The importance of Email Marketing

Let’s cut right to the chase, email marketing is a massive part of any small, medium or large business. Everyone has an email address and everyone uses one. According to The Radicati Group who conducted a survey in 2015 more than 34% of people worldwide use email. That’s about 2.5 billion. Yep that’s right 2.5 billion!!! They also reckon the world sends out about 196 billion emails a day. So if you have a message to get across email is the way to go.

A few more stats to make your brain rattle:

• Employees spend on average 13 hours a week in their email inbox – McKinsey and Company.
• Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter – McKinsey and Company.
• Email marketing software is used by more than 82% of B2B and B2C companies – Campaign Monitor
• Over 53% of emails are opened using mobile devices – Campaign Monitor
• Emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened – Campaign Monitor
• Email Marketing has a ROI of over 3800% – DMA
• 92% of online adults use email, 61% using it on a daily basis – Pew Research

Everyone has seen or at least received a html email from their favourite company or from a mailing list they might have subscribed to. But if you’re a business looking to send out a newsletter or this month’s special offers designing or implementing a marketing strategy or a campaign may be a little daunting. Which is where professional marketers come in. There are however mailing software you can use if you feel like attempting it yourself. The two main ones would be Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor. But there are alternatives like Pardot, 1PointMail, AutoPilot ect ect.

So why is email marketing so effective? Well let’s have a closer look …

Email vs Social Media

A statistic I found interesting is email or e-marketing as its also known is far more effective in generating customers than social media platforms.

According to Forrester Research 90% of emails get delivered to the intended recipients inbox, whereas only 2% of your Facebook fans will see your posts in their news feed.

Economic and cost effective

Email marketing campaigns are cost effective especially when compared to the more traditionally known channels like TV, radio and direct mail. Taking direct mail as an example you are saving on paper, printing and postage when choosing to connect with your customers via email. Another key factor is having follow up information available to your customers in an instant with only one click within your email.

Also there is ROI to think about. The beauty on email marketing over other channels is the benefit of having a link to your landing page. How cool is that right? Customers see your offer and whallah they are on your site and in the sales funnel for the desired product/service. You can then of course track their every movement.

Salesforce’s report noted that 49 percent of marketers (up from 20 percent in 2015) claim email is directly linked to their business’s primary revenue source.

Make it Personal

With email marketing you can customise your message to tailor to the customer’s needs and wants. Also, you are basically segmenting your audience into different mailing lists. Were each list has tailored subject lines and content.

Campaign Monitor discovered that “emails with personalised subject lines are 26 percent more likely to be opened, and marketers have found a 760 percent increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns.” I have personal experience using email marketing (mailchimp and Campaign Monitor) and I found by personalising the campaigns I generated new customer accounts weekly, which went from 2 in previous years to six when I started customising.

According to Chadwick Martin Bailey the two key factors when analysing open rate are the company who has sent you the email and the subject line. A catchy subject line is extremely powerful and must not be overlooked.

Take action

Decide what you want to get from your email marketing campaigns. Ultimately you want to increase your ROI. But, the beauty of email marketing is you also have other choices to make. Especially for new or small business’s this can be a great way to build some brand awareness. Also do you want to drive more traffic to your site? Are you generating more leads? Do you have a new service you want to promote? Make a decision on what you are going for and tell your customers about it !

Its Measurable

You’re missing a massive trick if you are not measuring your data when it comes to your entire internet marketing strategies and not just with your email marketing. When using email marketing software they allow you to track pretty much everything you need to know. You can also install Google Analytics to further fry your brain cells with extra information and data charts.

For example, you can track: open rates, click through rates, analyse your unsubscribe list, where and what links were clicked within your email. The list in endless. And of course it allows you to A/B split test your campaigns. You can then decide what subject lines work best, what image links are clicked on most. All of this information is important so you can make the desired changes and adjustments in your next campaigns.

Optimise for mobile

How many times have you checked your email from your mobile device today? Probably at least once, right? People are checking their emails from everywhere so optimising your email marketing campaigns for mobile is critical. Also having your potential landing page optimised correctly is very important. OutBoundEngine conducted a survey saying over 71% of people will delete the email immediately if not displayed correctly on their preferred mobile device.

Wrapping it up

I hope this article has given some insight on the importance of making the most of email. So choose your target audience, personalise your campaigns, don’t forget to split test and happy marketing.

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