You’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you? If you haven’t, let us bring you in on a little secret – email marketing is reported to have died a slow, painful death at the hands of social media marketing.
While that “news” may shock you, it’s important to remember that it’s just a rumor. The truth is that email marketing is alive, well and ready to be a vital part of your overall digital marketing plan.
Are you skeptical about the continuing effectiveness of email marketing now that so many people and businesses are using social media? If so, consider the following statistics:
- Email only sits behind personal recommendations from colleagues and industry thought leaders as the most influential source of information for the members of a B2B audience
- When it comes to communicating about business, 86 percent of people would rather use email instead of another form of communication
- 59 percent of marketers in the B2B realm cite email as their most effective tool for generating revenue
- When considered on a per email basis, welcome emails generate 320 percent more revenue than other messages
- People who buy products through email spend approximately 138 percent more than consumers who don’t receive offers via email
- Consumers who subscribe to receive emails from brands are 300 percent more likely to share content on their social media pages compared to leads gotten through other means
- 80% of retail marketers say email is their most effective tool for customer retention. Social media was the second most popular choice, with just 44 percent of retail marketers saying social media is what works best at retaining customers
- 77 percent of consumers would rather get promotional messages that require their permission through email instead of direct mail, text messages, social media or the phone
What You Can Do with Email Marketing
Clearly, email marketing truly is alive and well. Here are some of the things you can do through email marketing:
Build and enhance your relationship with your clients
Email marketing allows you to send personalized messages to people who’ve already expressed an interest in your company, goods or services by sharing their email address with you. With email marketing, you can segment your recipient list so that subscribers only receive emails that are directly relevant to their lives, wants and needs. You can send exclusive offers, reminders to restock and discounts on items left in abandoned shopping carts.
Increase brand awareness
Every time you send an email, you’re keeping your brand in the forefront of your recipients’ minds. When done properly, email marketing will consistently make your brand be perceived as more valuable, which will increase the likelihood that your subscribers will turn to your business for the goods or services they need. In other words, this is a great way to turn your subscribers into qualified leads, your qualified leads into customers and your customers into loyal brand advocates.
Reach your target market in a cost-effective way
With no printing or postage fees and no need to pay for advertising space, email marketing is extremely affordable compared to other forms of marketing, such as PPC ads or direct mail.
Track and understand the behavior and preferences of your subscribers
Email marketing yields actionable metrics you can use to fine-tune your marketing strategy. You can track your delivery rate, open rate, click-to-deliver rate and your subscriber retention rate, just to name a few of the key performance indicators you can monitor with email marketing. These KPIs provide valuable insights into your subscribers’ behavior, interests and preferences, information you can use to determine the kind of content that resonates the best with your target audience and prospects.
Monitor the exact ROI of your email marketing campaigns
The Direct Marketing Association reports that email marketing earns an average of $40 for every $1.00 spent on the activity. This means the ROI for email marketing is higher than it is for social media, display and search marketing activities.
Enjoy your content being shared
Isn’t it great when people tell others about their experience with your brand, goods or services? With email marketing, it’s easy for your subscribers to share the messages they get from you with a simple click of their forward button. When your email recipients share your messages with others, they’re acting as your brand advocates and helping your brand earn credibility and gain increased exposure.
Integrate email marketing with other media
When you integrate one form of marketing with other media, the combination can amplify the results of your marketing. And that may certainly be the case if you integrate your email marketing with your social media. Integrating email marketing and social media can be as simple as including social share icons in your emails, providing content your subscribers will want to share on their social media pages or offering a deal that includes referral rewards.
Generate more leads
Because email marketing makes it easy for people to forward your messages to their own contacts, it has the power to generate more leads if your subscribers’ friends and family members also sign up to get your emails. Email marketing has the ability to generate even more leads if you integrate it with social media.
How Our Email Marketing Services Can Help
If you’re ready to tap into the value of email marketing and enjoy the many benefits it can provide, you’ve come to the right place. At Musselwhite Marketing, we believe email marketing is one of the foundational pillars of successful digital marketing, with the others being your website, content, online ads, video, social media and reviews and testimonials.
If your overall digital marketing plan doesn’t have all the pillars just mentioned, it will not be as effective as it could be. If you want to have a highly effective digital marketing plan, Musselwhite Marketing can help with every pillar that should be in place to support your comprehensive marketing efforts, including your email marketing.
If you’d prefer to learn the skills necessary to improve your digital and email marketing on your own, we can help with that, too. We offer in-depth training for people who want to learn about the nuances of digital marketing.
Whether you want a team of experts to handle your digital and email marketing for you, or you want exhaustive training that will help you improve every aspect of your current marketing plan, contact Musselwhite Marketing today!
