A leading digital marketing agency in Auckland recently suggested that many businesses are ignoring the power of email marketing. The ecommerce agency says that email marketing is a leader in lead generation yet a lot of small to medium-size enterprises are not aware of that fact and therefore, they’re oblivious to the undoubted reach of the humble email.
Half of the global population uses email – that’s about four billion people. And if you think those numbers are impressive, check out these ones:
- – It’s been calculated by one marketing company that brands receive an average return of $44.25 for every dollar they spend on email marketing.
- – After being exposed to an effective email marketing campaign, consumers spend an average of 138% more than they would after seeing marketing on other mediums.
- – The average consumer is estimated to interact with 11 brands through email every day.
- – 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device.
- – In a recent survey, 73% of millennials said they prefer communications from businesses to come to them via email.
- – Marketers who have used segmented campaigns say they have as much as a 760% increase in revenue.
- – 78% of marketers say they’ve noticed a marked increase in email engagement over the last year.
- – 80% of business professionals believe email marketing increases customer retention.
- – 59% of respondents in a study said marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.
For all of those impressive statistics, a lot of businesses around the world are still very slow to embrace email marketing. Perhaps in this day and age when digital marketing is considered cutting-edge, they see email as a bit old-fashioned and not in sync with modern thinking. Nothing can be further from the truth.
A well-run email marketing campaign will pay maximum dividends through minimal investment. The ROIs associated with this form of marketing bear that out. At the same time, it gives a business a chance to reach customers through a point of contact that they use every day. And because email marketing allows for segmentation into different lists according to things like interests, products and services, it allows for more personalised and engaging marketing messages.
There’s a school of thought that social media has rendered email marketing obsolete. That’s a misguided notion. Email is still one of the best ways to promote content, engage with customers and convert prospects into buyers. As a matter of fact, the relationship between social media and email marketing is a potent one. You really shouldn’t have one without the other. There’s no doubt that connecting with customers through social media is an extremely effective way to build relationships and grow your brand. However, there’s an overwhelming amount of objective evidence that confirms email is a far more effective way to convert customers. As such, any business that doesn’t have an email marketing strategy in place does so at its own peril.
