Life or death: email marketing

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Marketing is constantly evolving to stay up to date with consumer behavior. Things were already moving to a digital landscape; the pandemic elevated that to lightspeed to fulfill consumer demands. Does email marketing still hold a place in the current climate? It does. Having an ironclad email marketing strategy allows you to reach your audience in a way that feels more personal and can help increase and affordably boost sales. The beauty lies in the fact that everything has evolved so much in the past months, including the tools that allow you to run an effective email marketing campaign, making it easier than ever before to get out there truly. Below, we have put together some of the reasons why email marketing is still so vital today.

In the know

Suppose you already have a customer base that you have dealt with in the past or even have a mailing list of potential clients that are semi-interested in what you can offer and do. In that case, email marketing is a great way to keep them informed about what is coming up or any new offers that you have running. A real bonus point is that an email can make someone feel as though you were thinking about them, they would have signed up to your email list, so they are willing to accept them as long as the content is worth reading!

We’re engaged!

An email has been a form of communication for over 40 years and is still going strong. As time has gone on, the usage of email and adoption has grown substantially; we all use email in some fashion. It could be to click through to a piece of content on an email, forward some information, or even register/sign up to a different website; we tend to use email all the time. Having this information, you can use email to enforce a call to action, either picking up the phone to call, visiting the website to order, or anything else. Over 25% of sales last year were related to email marketing; you need your slice of the pie.

On the go

The devices that people have used daily have changed too; with everyone having a supercomputer in their pocket, they can do incredible things quickly. Emails are no exception; in fact, Litmus stated that 54% of all emails were opened on a mobile device. This usage will continue to grow as we consume information and media in different ways. It is important to note that email campaigns designed well for mobile use have higher conversion rates than any other channel.

Keeping costs down

Email marketing has always been well known for how cost-effective it is. The cost per conversion is meager with email marketing. Some platforms even let you start for free. While the platforms themselves can be pretty low-costing, it is essential to note that the amount of time needed to create and optimize email marketing campaigns is rather lengthy. Some companies believe that a database of 15,000 addresses needs around 152 hours of work a year to manage the campaigns. That includes writing, drafting, scheduling, sending, etc. Then it would help if you thought about the inbox management side of it, so it may be worthwhile having someone look after it for you.

Hit the target

One of the most solid points about email marketing is the ability to target specific groups with ease. When not all customers are at the same stage of the buying process, you may need to put together a strategy covering the different stages of buying. The steps you must consider are the awareness, consideration, ready-to-buy stage, and the aftersales process to get the most out of your email campaigns. By having a proper strategy that segments your customers based on where they are on the journey, you are nurturing the leads to maximize the potential ROI. The more information a customer has, the quicker and more efficient they can move on to the next step of the consumer journey.

I want results

There is nothing worse than putting so much effort and energy into something to try and push the business forward, but then you have no idea how well it has worked due to a lack of analytics. Email marketing is straightforward to measure. Depending on the platform you use, you can see the number of emails that bounced (allowing you to remove those from your list), open rate (helping you identify how well your opening line worked), clickthrough rate, conversion rate, and more. Over time, you will hear different ‘ideal’ numbers, but they will also vary and change depending on industry and target audience. Sending too many emails to customers that expect only once a week will create a spike in un-subscribers, whereas not sending enough will take a dip in engagement. Know your audience!

The final word

Email marketing is a fantastic tool that should be in every business’s toolbox. It can generate brand awareness, buzz, customer loyalty, and, more importantly, sales! Before you do jump into it, make sure that you understand your audience and customer and put together a strategy and a goal. Without a specific purpose, it will never be enough. After you get more fluent in email marketing and giving the best punch you can, you can start getting email automation into play to follow your customers every step of the way. 

 There are so many different channels that you can use to reach your audience; email marketing is one of the most time and cost-effective methods, so you can then use your time more effectively. Get out there and start emailing!