Email Marketing
Aletheia Digital Fulfillment • Jun 18, 2021
You may not believe it, but marketers use email to distribute their messaging more than any other channel. There's a reason why.
Does Email Marketing Really Work?
With so many different channels to market through, it may seem far-fetched to say that email is one of the most effective--but it's true!
Just think about how many people you know without an email address. Probably not many, right?
Sure, there are a lot of people who have no interest in social media, don't regularly watch online videos, and couldn't tell you what their favorite meme is, but odds are good they have an active email address.
According to Statista.com
, there are 4.147 billion email users across the globe.
Even with so many people using email, you might still be skeptical about the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns. That's understandable, as there are so many newer and flashier marketing channels.
Why would marketers send out emails when they could be posting engaging content on their Facebook or Twitter pages? There are actually a few reasons why:
- Meaningful Customer Relationships: One reason email campaigns work so well is that the recipients of the email (usually) actually want to be a recipient. They have subscribed to the emails for one reason or another, so marketers are able to get their message directly to the people who would benefit from seeing it. Marketers can cater their content to an audience based on their position in the buying journey. Maybe the goal of the email is to retarget users who filled their cart with items before abandoning it. Or maybe it's simply to gain traction with consumers who have not yet bought anything from a business. This level of personalization helps to foster more substantial relationships between the consumer and the marketer.
- Cost Effectiveness: Now we get to the nitty gritty of why marketers favor email: it's cheap! Studies have shown that email marketing yields an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. Math never was my forte, but it's easy to see how that kind of ROI would be attractive to marketers. So attractive, in fact, that 47% of marketers consider email to be the most effective marketing channel--more than any other channel. That's not to say that email marketing is a magic wand that will launch your revenue into the stratosphere, but, when done right, it can be a serious game-changer.
- Growth of Business: The bottom line is that marketing with email can fast-track your sales growth while also improving brand awareness and customer retention. Email is great for informing customers about new sales or products, and then calling the customers to action. It can be so powerful, in fact, that 60% of consumers have said they made the decision to purchase a product because of an email the company sent them. If you want to grow your business while maintaining tight control over how much you spend, email marketing is the way to go.
How to Make Email Marketing Work
While it is evident that using email to market can help your business grow, there are some things to keep in mind if you want to make a success out of your marketing campaign:
- Purchasing Contact Lists: Depending on what kind of email marketing you are engaged in, you may want to consider purchasing contact lists. At Aletheia Digital, we make good use of available data to get the best reach with our email campaigns by purchasing contact lists for our clients. Some email marketing involves sending mass numbers of emails to contacts whose information was on a contact list. There really is no escaping the fact that your email address is on a list somewhere and you will receive ads from countless companies. But the simple fact is that these campaigns work. If you are really trying to build your brand image and connect with your customers on a more personal level, it's good to build your contact list organically. But in terms of hard numbers, purchasing lists is a great option.
- Create Mobile-Friendly Emails: Ensuring that your emails look good across all devices is a must. This is a good rule of thumb when designing websites, too. With 56% of online traffic taking place on mobile devices , it's a given that your emails will be viewed on phones. If you are sending poorly optimized emails, it detracts from your message and results in a loss of credibility on your business's part. Before you send any email, check to make sure it looks great on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices--which leads me to my next point...
- Test Your Emails: This may seem like a no-brainer, but it's well-worth mentioning just because of how important it is. Before you send an email to a customer or prospective customer, test it out! Send it to yourself to make sure it opens without any issues and looks the way you want it to look. It's good to test it across multiple platforms, too. Maybe the email looks right on Gmail, but not in Outlook. There's nothing worse than working tirelessly to craft the perfect email, only to send it out and realize one of your images won't load or the formatting has changed. It's best to tackle those kinds of issues before the email goes out.
- Analyze the Results: Whenever you are running any sort of marketing campaign, whether it's through social media, direct mail, targeted display ads, PPC, email, etc., you need to measure the effectiveness of the campaigns. This means looking at the results and determining what works and what doesn't. Do more recipients open your emails when you send them in the mornings as opposed to the afternoon? Are you getting too many unsubscribes? Are people clicking on your Call to Action? These are the kinds of questions you can answer with dedicated analysis of the campaign results.
- Deliver Great Content: This is another good practice that transcends email marketing to all forms of marketing. If you are delivering a message through your ads and emails, it needs to be a message that people will care about. Don't think that people will just be happy to read your email in their downtime. Convince them to open your emails by delivering consistent and high-quality content. After all, content is king!
Should Your Business Be Using Email Marketing?
Many business owners may question whether or not they should focus their time and effort on email campaigns. While it may not be the most exciting form of advertising, it is a proven strategy that gets results at a low cost.
Small businesses would especially benefit from email marketing, as it can act as a catalyst for growth. Its cost-effectiveness is also helpful, as many small businesses don't have a large marketing budget.
Another great thing about email is that, unlike social media posts, you aren't limited to a certain number of characters. Although it is best to keep your emails concise, you have more freedom to include as much content as you would like.
Of course, email is only a part of digital marketing. Integrating your email campaigns with other strategies is always good. For instance, if you plan on using social media to run a contest, you can use email to advertise it directly to your customers.
There are a lot of good reasons to engage in email marketing for businesses of all sizes. I went over a few of them, but the list goes on and on. With email, you can increase traffic to your website, thereby increasing sales, all while gaining credibility with customers and prospective customers.
If you like the sound of that, then maybe it's time to invest in email marketing. Your business will thank you!
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