Many people view email marketing as old news. Some may even think it’s a waste of time.
But don’t be fooled by the naysayers, email marketing continues to be one of the greatest channels to produce ROI.
According to a report by eMareter, 81% of people said email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention.
The report also stated that “Email’s usefulness was followed by that of other digital tactics like organic search at 62% for acquisition and social media at 44% for retention—both rated effective by far fewer respondents than chose email.â€
Who doesn’t want customer acquisition and retention, right? If you’re unsure about email marketing and how it can help your business, you’re in luck!
In this post, we will discuss why you should be marketing your business with email.
Email is a Popular Choice for Consumers
In a 2017 consumer email report by Adobe, results showed that consumers are spending 5.4 hours each weekday checking email and it is still their favourite communication channel at work.
Email gives brands a great opportunity to cut through all the noise on social media and talk directly to the customer, and consumers are thankful for it. But don’t just take our word for it. The report claims that 61% of consumers said they prefer to receive offers from brands via email.
The report also highlighted some things to avoid when email marketing.
- 34% of people said they are frustrated when brands suggest items that don’t match their interests.
- 40% of people want email marketing to be more informative and less promotional.
- 21% of people said they get frustrated about a brands poor mobile optimisation.
- 50% of consumers say they hate when brands send out emails too often.
Why do consumers like email marketing so much?
Convenience
Everyone has access to email on their smartphone, making it convenient for customers. People can receive an email from their phone and redeem the offer then and there.
Builds Relationships
Unlike social media advertising, email marketing is quite personal. A good consumer email will be personalised to your customer’s needs and wants. You can cater your emails to your customer’s preferences and buying patterns.
Cheap
Email marketing is one of the cheapest forms of advertising you can do. You have the ability to instantly send offers and sales to your customers without spending a cent!
Email Helps to Reach More Mobile Customers
Let’s rephrase that. Email helps to reach more mobile customers when the email is optimised for mobile.
In a study by Campaign Monitor, it was revealed that emails that were formatted incorrectly were deleted in less than 3 seconds by 70% of people.
When optimising your email for mobile you should consider avoiding:
- Oversized or out-of-place images
- Too much text and not enough breaks
- Multiple column layouts that aren’t mobile responsive
- Lack of alt text for when signals are poor
You should try to:
- Keep it simple
- Limit your images
- Optimise your text
To avoid these mistakes it’s best to get a responsive email template. Be sure to test it out before you click send.
Mobile First
Today, emails are opened more on mobile than desktop. Reports suggest that mobile is responsible for at least 50% of all opens.
Of those open rates, emails that are personalised are opened at an average rate of 18.8% compared to emails that aren’t personalised at 13.1%.
Optimising your email for mobile and personalise your email is very important!
Drives More Traffic to Your Website
Driving customers to your website is the goal for just about every e-commerce website, right? Email can help increase your website traffic! We’ve made a list of suggestions to help get more traffic to your website through email marketing.
Begin with a healthy subscriber list
When starting out, you want to have a healthy subscriber list. Don’t buy subscriber lists, you want to build a community of people who are interested in your brand. Many brands use an opt-in procedure before adding people to their email list. This helps to build a list of people who are already interested in what you’re providing.
Make sure your landing pages are styled to the email
When people click on your email and are taken to your websites landing page, make sure it is an extension of the email. Don’t take them to your home page or about page. Transitioning from email to your website should be a seamless experience for the customer. Keep this in mind when using an email template.
Define your list based on customer interests
Make sure you are sending out emails that are catered to the interests of your customers. Check out the example below of our you can better define your audience by asking a few questions when they sign up for email.
Email Marketing Services
Ready to begin email marketing? There are a bunch of email marketing services that are easy-to-use and quite cheap.
A great tool to use is called MailChimp – a marketing platform for small businesses.
With MailChimp, you can create emails and landing pages, create Google and Facebook ads. You can also segment your subscribers, complete A/B Testing and view reports.
Below is a complete list of features you can use with MailChimp.
You can view the pricing for MailChimp here.
Do you use email marketing for your business? What have you found to be successful? We would love to hear from you in the comments.
