Why is email marketing important for your business?
Most companies that work toward positioning themselves online come across the same issue – lack of resources and knowledge to start with. And with digital marketing, time works like currency – you need to maintain efficiency in all your efforts. That is the only way to make them worth the investments you make. In our experience, email marketing can be among the most impactful tools for online promotion, especially for B2B businesses. It is one of the better paths a company can take to become the #1 brand in its industry, and the reasons are simple:
- Economic and cost-effective
- Customizable and audience-friendly
- Responsive to mobile device users
- Easily measurable
- Interactive and action-driven
- An automated process
What is the importance of email marketing?
- By definition, email marketing presents the use of emails to advertise a business and promote its services.
However, the reach of it goes beyond that simple definition. Whether it’s building relationships with customers or reaching out to new ones, the use of email marketing helps. With the help of email marketing, companies are able to maintain relations with clients more easily. Also, it offers the potential to reach new customers and generate leads.
So, a business has to look beyond the simple notion of promoting services through emails. After all, emails have been a way of communicating custom messages to the world. It keeps information flowing and can, when implemented properly, be counted among the more efficient digital marketing tools when it comes to converting them into clients or consumers. Not only is it unique and persuasive, but it continues to demonstrate great results when it comes to digital marketing expertise.
6 reasons why email marketing is important for your business
No matter the type or size of your company, tapping into the potential that email marketing offers is not something you want to miss out on. Experience has shown just how valuable a resource it can be, especially when used properly. This is something that our digital marketing agency in New York is well aware of, which is why we invest so much effort into planning and executing email advertising strategies. If you are looking for additional reasons as to why you should do the same, we have seven fundamental ones right here:
#1: It’s budget-friendly and cost-effective
Simply put – email marketing has the potential to reach a large number of consumers at minimal costs per message. It’s inexpensive, simple to use and, most importantly, effective. And for small business owners with limited resources, this is a combination unlike any other.
In comparison with other traditional advertising channels such as TV, radio, direct mail, print ads, etc. – the costs involved here remain the same over time. And even with the introduction of new promotional channels and social networks, email marketing still remains very much in the lead, with over 85 percent of US retailers naming it as the most effective lead generator.
Another thing to consider here is the ROI that this form of marketing brings to the table. Other advertising channels tend to incur more expenses at time passes, whereas emails maintain the same minimal cost. In fact, research by Campaign Monitor shows that for every $1 spent, email marketing can generate as much as $44.
Email marketing has proven to be useful for both small scale and large scale businesses, looking for inexpensive ways to boost lead generation and grow. However, it should also be noted that email advertising efforts do not always result in positive ROI, as it can also cause negative ROI when improperly planned and executed. Overall, the economic advantage of this particular marketing strategy is among the fundamental reasons why one should apply it.
#2: It’s user-friendly and very adaptable to the needs of consumers
By using emails, you can ensure a strong and personal relationship with each of your current and potential clients. How? By giving you the option to speak directly to them through their inbox. You get to be friendly and accommodating to their particular needs at a time of their choosing. And you get to do all this without invading their space or forcing your advertising efforts onto them.
Consumers today are no longer as keen on having to go through their inbox only to find the same advertising emails over and over. Personalization has become a crucial element in boosting open and clickthrough rates as well as overall conversions. Consumers find it far more enticing to see their name in the subject line. According to HubSpot, they are more likely to go through personalized emails than ones that do not include their name.
Customizable through segmentation
By using the data you collect from subscribers and leads, you can easily create a general idea of what it is your target audience expects. That gives you the opportunity to personalize your emails to match those particular needs on a case by case basis. Companies such as yours can improve their campaign content with the use of mobile integration, trigger words, data collected from other platforms, etc. And you can then use all this information to segment your email marketing efforts.
Segmenting your email recipient lists gives you the option to present content that is most appealing to each of your audiences. By doing to, you can increase relevancy, thus lowering unsubscriptions and improving conversions. According to eConsultancy, more than 74% of marketers note that personalized and segmented emails increase customer engagement. When used wisely, it can build loyalty and increase your brand awareness.
#3: It can be responsive to mobile device users
As the overall number of mobile device users continues to grow and evolve, companies should never neglect the importance of mobile marketing. According to Statista, the number of worldwide mobile phone users is expected to go beyond 5 billion by 2021. Therefore, no business can afford to exclude itself from such an enormous source of leads.
Just think how many times a day you tend to check your inbox through your phone. And now consider everybody else doing the exact same thing. Each time people check their inbox, it presents a new opportunity to engage them with your email marketing. While there are certain marketing strategies that are not mobile-friendly, email advertising does not fall into such a category.
However, to ensure the effectiveness of your email marketing on mobile devices, you need to optimize for it. And that means tapping into responsive web design services and expertise:
- Enabling subscribers to view HTML emails;
- Ensuring that any images or videos in your emails are small in format and can be loaded easily;
- Providing engaging content that is short and relevant to the reader;
- Offering clear Calls to Action that can lead consumers to landing pages that are also mobile-friendly.
#4: It offers easily measurable results
Having the ability to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns is fundamental for perfecting those campaigns. With email marketing software such as MailChimp, you can easily gain access to valuable data on the metrics of your advertising efforts. And this data will offer you the option to do a detailed analysis of your marketing efforts and whether or not the email strategies you are using are efficient.
With the help of these metrics, you can clearly see which users opened your email, whether they clicked on any of the links, if they actually engaged (and converted), etc. You can also see if anyone unsubscribed as a direct result of your campaign and how it compared to previous campaigns you had. In fact, having the right software for email marketing can also open up A/B testing opportunities. With these, you can go through various versions of your email (different subject lines, content, images, layout, etc.) and establish which is the most impactful.
#5: It’s interactive and action-driven
Email users are programmed to interact with the messages they receive. Whether we’re talking about a reply-, forward-, click-through, sign up-, or even purchase – people will do it all more easily through emails. Why is this? Because email marketing is transactional in nature. It interacts with subscribers, calling them to take some action and respond. Therefore, using it to direct traffic back to your website is a tactic that can only help you grow your business long-term.
- In fact, popular findings by Campaign Monitor show that transactional emails can be 6 times as profitable and can have 8 times more opens and clicks than your typical newsletter.
And most importantly, you have a lot of room to test out different ideas and campaigns. Instead of putting a “Click Here” sign in your email, you can embed it with diverse content. From promotional videos to useful and interesting content, you can use email marketing to keep your consumers engaged enough to want them to know more about your brand. That will ultimately lead them to your website, where they will be far more likely to take action.
#6: It can be an automated process
Unlike with most other digital marketing processes, automation is not an issue when it comes to email marketing. Not only is it well-adapted to the idea of it, but automating your email campaigns can further their impact and improve their timeliness. Using trigger actions, you are able to automatically send out emails to consumers who:
- left your website without making a purchase;
- visited a landing page without taking further action;
- failed to finish filling out a sign-up form on your website,
- left their cart with items still inside, etc.
Any of these actions can help you automate the email marketing process and send out an engaging email to each of those consumers. It reminds them of the opportunity they might be missing out on and helps you bring them back into the fold. As a direct result of this process, you end up saving time and money by not having to track down these consumers by foot.
With automation in place, you don’t need to obsess over the perfect timing to send a message. You don’t need an alarm clock or reminder as the system will do it all for you instead. All you need to do is track its progress and make modifications to match the needs and actions of your consumers from time to time. And this frees up a lot of your manpower as well – giving your team the time to focus on other important tasks.
Interesting email marketing statistics to take into consideration
- In 2019, global email users amounted to 3.9 billion users. This figure is set to grow to 4.3 billion users in 2023 (Statista, 2020).
- In 2019 alone, 293.6 billion emails were sent and received each day. This figure is expected to increase to over 347.3 billion daily emails in 2022 (Statista, 2020).
- For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of up to $44 (DMA, 2019).
- 81% of small businesses still rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel, and 80% for retention (Emarsys, 2018).
- The average open rate for a welcome email is 82% (GetResponse, 2017).
- Emails with personalized subject lines generate 50% higher open rates (Yes Lifecycle Marketing, 2017).
- Sending three abandoned cart emails results in 69% more orders than a single email (Omnisend, 2018).
- Adding videos to your email can increase click rates by 300% (Martech Advisor’s 2017 data).
- 49% of consumers said that they would like to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis (Statista, 2017).
- When it comes to email marketing, 49% of all emails are opened on mobile devices (IBM, 2018).
Start making your brand the #1 choice with email marketing today
Having read all this, if you think that email marketing is the next logical step for your business, you should act on it. Start making a proper plan of action by looking into new ways of growing your email list, considering the types of content to offer, and how to influence your lead generation process as time passes. There are plenty of resources and insights online but if you wish to save time and effort, consider partnering with Digital Dot. We can help you improve your content, grow your target audiences, and convert them into paying customers.
- If you are ready to take your marketing efforts to the next level, contact us today and schedule a presentation with our team. We look forward to working with you!