We’re all surrounded by myths.
Whether it’s about bulls getting enraged by red cloaks or that the Great Wall of China is visible from the moon, the reality is that neither of these statements are true.
However, most people choose to believe these myths to be real because they don't find it useful enough to go deep into details to debunk them once & for all.
So, being a part of a growing digital agency in Dubai, my focus is on demystifying digital marketing perceptions that impact thousands of companies worldwide.
The Myth:
Email Marketing is dead.
The Reality:
“Email marketing is the king of the marketing kingdom with a 3800% ROI and $38 for every $1 spent.”
I’m not going around preaching the effectiveness of email marketing in my own words.
The statement above was, in fact, released by Campaign Monitor who swear by email marketing campaigns as their bread & butter.
If that statistic wasn’t convincing enough, I’ll throw another one at you by McKinsey – one of trusted advisors to the world’s most influential businesses & institutions.
Here’s what their research suggests:
“Email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Twitter and Facebook combined.”
The graph below speaks for itself.
You know what’s more appalling?
It’s the amount of people (marketers) searching for “email marketing is dead”. The intent of those search queries may have conflicting purposes, but one thing is for sure – there’s a lot of rust we need to get off the benefits of email marketing & its usability in today’s age.
Almost 8 million results about a statement that should’ve been pretty clear by now – given the speed of commercial transactions and digital awareness in the market.
Nevertheless, I’ll give you 9 reasons why Email Marketing is your best friend for growing your business and being a powerful marketing tool.
1) Email is the #1 preferred communication channel.
As the renowned digital guru from India, Deepak Kanakaraju states – “At least 91% of the consumers check their email on a daily basis and 72% of the consumers prefer email as their source of business communication.”
Since emailers are non-intrusive as compared to calls & text messages, their effectiveness levels go higher than any other form of marketing communication.
Being the preferred mode of communication worldwide, leveraging email marketing can help you build relationships that last. The right email sent to the right list can harbor a sense of trust and acceptance to your message. This is the benchmark every business wants to reach.
With the help of regular and content-rich email shots, the sender (whether it’s a brand or individual) is able to create a rapport with his/her subscribers that no other marketing platform can foster.
BONUS TIP: You should keep your emails relevant and spam-free. Don’t ruin your subscribers’ inboxes with too many useless emails that they won’t open anyways. The secret is to make them eager to receive emails from you.
2) An evergreen tool to stay in touch with your customers
Don’t just run email marketing campaigns for the sake of completing your digital marketing cycle.
Instead, harness the power of mail to generate active customers, stay in touch with them and obtain their feedback.
Once you’ve landed into the inbox of your target crowd, you’ve won half the battle. The other half depends on how well your email has been constructed and how much it resonates with your audience.
Doing it right can give your business a level of connection far superior than that of social media or phone calls.
Remember – your customers would eagerly wait for your emails if they know it’s useful to them. You might find this hard to believe but many clients often look out for emails from their favorite companies and stores.
A study by Nielsen reported that 28 percent of online shoppers in the US subscribe to emails in order to stay informed about products and services that matter to them.
Another survey by Loyalty360 mentioned that almost 60 percent of mothers in the US would eagerly subscribe to email updates from brands that offered rewards.
3) Increase online sales and reverse the “abandoned cart effect”:
I’d like to support this statement with a statistic from Deloitte, a leading consulting firm:
“65 percent of consumers agree that email coupons are important for grocery shopping online.”
On a similar note, a survey by Shop.org stated that 64 percent of US Internet users have printed a coupon from an email.
The numbers are in favor of email marketing being a powerful tactic used in the e-commerce business.
In fact, email marketing has the highest conversion rate of a whopping 66% as compared to social media, direct mail, and other forms of marketing.
Abandoned cart effect??
If you’re a victim of your customers adding items to their cart but abandoning it before checking out, I’ve got some great news for you.
You can send automated emails to those customers who may be discouraged by the cost of their total shopping cart and thereby decide to leave empty-handed.
Offer these customers a last-minute checkout discount that’ll instantly make them change their mind and reverse all your checkout losses into profits.
Here’s a great example of one such email by Ashley Bridget, a Canadian brand that decided to reward its customer with a 65% discount code.
If you were in place of this customer, an easy 65% off your shopping cart could easily brighten up your entire day. There’s very less room for argument about lack of conversions if you regularly entice your clients at the right time.
If conversions are what you’re looking for, then email marketing is what you need.
So, go ahead and set up some e-coupons and online vouchers for your business and watch your revenue skyrocket in the near future.
4) Higher reach than social media
You won’t believe this, but email is actually the best way to get more sales, although social media seems to be overpowering the digital marketing spectrum.
Here’s the truth: The global average inbox placement rate is 79% - this basically means that your email reaches the inbox of 79 out of 100 people you send it to.
With the rapid decline of Facebook’s organic reach, you can reach only about 1-6% of your total fans! The only way to make Facebook work in this age is by finely targeting your posts and investing money to boost them.
While comparing twitter & email, note that you’re 6 times more likely to get a click through from an email as compared to a tweet.
Although Twitter’s organic reach is significantly higher than Facebook (at around 30%), it’s still not as powerful as email.
So the bottom line is: The reach from an email marketing campaign superiorly exceeds that of social media.
5) Total ownership of your contact list:
If you ask a successful email marketer the following 2 questions, here’s how he/she will respond:
And it’s commonly said, that “The Money is in the list”.
I’m not referring to the list of the winning lottery numbers, but instead hinting towards your subscriber list.
Well, both of them pretty much serve the same purpose of making you wealthy in one way or the other, so the comparison works to a large extent.
Your contact list is your pot of gold, and the biggest factor for the success of your email marketing efforts.
I’ve had clients complain about high spam rates and low open rates which made them disregard email marketing for a while, until I found out the core problem. The list!
Their database was full of outdated contacts and to a certain extent people who didn’t voluntarily subscribe to receive emails from them. No wonder their emails went to an uninterested audience resulting in dangerously low CTRs and conversions.
Your digital list is exactly like any other asset you have, except that it’s intangible.
A good list containing enthusiastic and loyal fans is built over time with trust and content relevance.
That’s why, I can’t stress enough on creating and owning your list. The best part is that it’s yours forever.
Unlike social media accounts, that can get suspended, hacked or blocked, your list cannot be taken by anyone. This one factor is strong enough to establish the victory of emailers in the digital arena.
Ryan Holiday, a best-selling author, marketer & entrepreneur lists down the steps you need to take to build an email list from scratch.
6) Relatively cheaper than other marketing channels.
Email marketing is like an investment that pays off by leaps and bounds.
First, setup a CRM software (Hubspot is a great all-in-one marketing software with an email tool built within) and then produce content and focus on growing your list.
Apart from this initial investment, there isn’t much expenditure from your side as compared to social media advertising, television & media buying, printing and outdoor hoardings.
To top it all off, an automated email sender (done using marketing automation software), reduces the time and effort to send out all those emailers.
This helps you channelize your time better and use that time to focus on monetizing other aspects of your business.
When it comes to the ROI of emails, studies have proven that Email > Social Media.
Furthermore, the stats by ChiefMarketer state that ROI of email marketing is 28.5% better than of direct mail.
7) Send highly targeted emails using segmented lists.
Targeting an audience through social media advertising can be a little tricky because most of the time, you’re not aware of the exact users who’ll see your ad.
But in this case, since each contact in your list is a real person, the targeting is extremely accurate, enabling you to send personalized emails to the right person.
With a handy email marketing tool, you can segment your list based on interests, customer stages, demographics and so on. This process of list segmentation ensures higher conversions and ultimately higher ROI, because each of your email newsletters would have a personal touch to it.
If you already have a database, check out how to segment it in order to run higher quality campaigns.
8) Emails prompt customers to take action.
Whether it’s replying, forwarding, clicking links or downloading content, emails naturally elicit some form of action from your audience.
As you include straight-forward calls to action (CTAs) as well the benefits of choosing your brand, you will start noticing a visible upward slope in your campaign performance.
Since this is an action-oriented form of marketing, you can notice and measure responses very easily in order to conducts tests to find out what works and what doesn’t.
BONUS TIP: Always add CTAs in your emails, as this helps in keeping your audience immersed with your product or service.
9) A blessing for mobile customers.
According to this infographic by Online Psychology Degree, 90% of people sleep with their phone next to them.
That means, waking up next to their mobile devices, too right?
Technically, mobile phones are the last thing someone sees before sleeping and the first thing they see upon waking up.
That combined with an increasing number of people using emails on their phone makes email marketing the perfect way to get attention towards your brand.
As a business owner, or someone in a similar role, you can start reaching customers on mobile devices and find success in doing so because of factors like:
Conclusion:
Ever since email was invented in 1978, it has been a boon for marketers for all sorts of businesses.
With increasing competition in the digital landscape and the cluttering of social media channels, email marketing continues to be the most trusted marketing tool till date.
For more comparison between email and social media effectiveness, head over to this article.