Importance of Email Marketing
Why Email Marketing? What is the importance of doing email marketing for business?
First let’s look at the statistics:
For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on email marketing investment. (Experian)
82% of consumers open emails from companies. (Litmus)
There are 3.6 billion email accounts in 2013. (The Radicati Group, Email Statistics Report, 2012-2016)
By 2016, the number will reach 4.3 billion. (The Radicati Group, Email Statistics Report, 2012-2016)
Email Marketing is Easy to Implement and Cheap
That’s right… well it’s not exactly cheap, but it is relatively affordable compared to other marketing solutions. With an email marketing campaign you get an ROI of 28.5%. Nowadays, you can implement an email marketing campaign from $0 to $15/month. Email applications like Mailchimp, which has a free limited plan for up to 2,000 subscribers before you have to upgrade, allow you to send 12,000 emails per month. While I believe there is no “free” marketing, I also believe that marketing your business does not have to be seriously expensive. Implementing your email marketing can easily be done by you or by hiring an email marketer (which could add cost). Email applications like Mailchimp, Aweber & Constant Contact have an archive of knowledgebase and tutorials that will help you implement your email marketing by yourself.
Create Brand Awareness and Build Long Term Relationships
An email marketing campaign can do wonders for your brand and customer base. With the right type of emails, your brand can become something useful in your customer’s life. Just think of Old Spice and how well that commercial did, or the Dollar Shave Club video that went viral (check it out). You’ll get the same effect with a good email marketing campaign when you set your goals & brand right. Having an endearing brand can create loyalty and long term relationships with customers. Email marketing can also help you get back lost customers, besides helping you find new ones, improving your brand image, and establish brand loyalty.
It’s Wide Reaching, Measurable and Action Oriented
Email can reach everybody, no matter where they are on the planet. And not only that. With the advent of smart phones, mobile devices, wi-fi and 3G internet, you can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere. And what do people do when they go through emails? There’s always some form of action involved when reading an email, whether it’s reply, forward, buy, sign-up or click-through. This means that there is a subconscious association between opening an email and taking an action.
And last but not least, the returns and gains of an email campaign are measurable. You can measure and track statistics such as click-through rates, open rates, delivery rates, unsubscribe rates and bounce rates. This means that you can constantly adjust the way you are running marketing campaigns in order to make sure that you are getting the most out of your investment.
Getting Started
An email marketing campaign can be started right away. However, you have to remember that you are putting your brand out there, which means that you do not want to come off as a spammer, misrepresent your brand or waste your time. This is why you might want to hire a copywriter or a copywriting firm, with which you can discuss an email marketing strategy and get going. And the great thing is that because email marketing campaigns provide measurable results; you will know the exact numbers a company aims to provide you with.
(Image courtesy of renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
As a Web Producer, I possess a diverse skill set that includes web design, graphics, marketing, software integration, and SEO. What I find fulfilling about my role is collaborating with fellow innovative marketers and assisting business owners and organizations in optimizing their digital footprint.
