Time after time at almost every Social Media/Marketing conference I have attended there has been someone preaching that “Email is dead.” After using Email marketing for a university campus, a couple of non-profits, a mid-sized manufacturing company and a very popular consumer brand, I can tell you this, “Email marketing is still the best, least expensive, targeted, most effective strategy for conversions.”
People will want to read an email when it looks like this.
You just can’t fight the statistics. According to emailexpert, in 2014:
- 95% of online consumers use Email.
- 91% check Email once a day.
- 64% of decision-makers read Emails via mobile devices.
- 71% of mobile purchasing decisions are influenced by Emails from companies
- Email still outperforms Social Media in terms of conversions 40 to 1.
- For every $1 spent on Email marketing, the average return is $44.25.
With what other marketing effort do you see a 4300% ROI?
HubSpot reports that 77% of consumers prefer Email for marketing communications.
Those numbers are actually kind of staggering and even caught me by surprise when I looked at them a little more deeply. Here is a very detailed list of all the numbers if you really want to take a closer look.
Numbers aside, here is why Email is so effective.
Targeted
Your Email lists should include as much information about a contact as possible. So when you want to send out an Email only to your stores JUST in the greater Cleveland area that do a certain sales volume about a special event promotion, then you have that kind of information to target. If you have the information in your Email database, then you can narrow down the list to make it as relevant as possible for everyone getting the Email.
When your contacts get Email from you, they want to know that it will be relevant to your relationship with them. Most people don’t like getting Email for something that has nothing to do with their job or interests. When you finely tune your Email contact list, you build a reputation for only contacting them when it really matters. And that leads to a more satisfied customer who will think of you first when ready to buy.
Plus the more targeted the list you have, the more personal you can get with the contact. That makes the recipient more likely to be more open to what you have in the Email.
Emails have a longer lifespan
Social Media posts have to be repeated often to get the kind of reach or number of impressions you may need to induce some sort of action. That’s because they only stay within anybody’s “view” for a short period of time before they are gone into the infinite news stream. Sometimes that period of time is only a few minutes.
Email, especially if contacts have their own filtered correctly, can stay within sight for a much longer period of time. It’s easier to see at a glance if you have read an Email or not.
When you combine the above statistics with the ease of using third party Email software, Email campaigns become very powerful marketing tools. (I use Constant Contact and Mail Chimp frequently and do not receive any compensation for mentioning them. They’re just that good.)
There are some great benefits to using third-party Email services over using distribution lists through Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, or other Email servers.
Easy to create
Here’s how you add and edit text in Mailchimp
You start with a template that already has sample content and you replace it with your own. You’ll be able to use drag and drop menus. The text areas are very much like word processors you are used to. Images are easy to upload and insert. All of the pieces of a beautiful looking Email can be customized.
Reduce time and effort
Once you set up a template that you feel fully represents your business, then it’s easy to just replace stories and images as often as you want to send Emails. Use the coding offered to create sign-up buttons on your website that will input the contact information directly into your Email database.
There are plenty of automation services available as well to help you move some of these contacts through your sales funnel. For instance, once a person subscribes to your Email list, they get an immediate and automated, personalized thank you Email. Then in a couple of weeks they get another Email because they have or have not taken an action you wanted them to take.
All of this is done automatically after initial set up.
Easy to schedule
As a busy small business owner, it can be tough to carve out time to write and a produce a regular Email campaign. With these tools you can create Emails and then schedule them to go out whenever you want. This way, when you may have content ideas for two or three Emails, you create them and then schedule them to go out and well-separated times. You don’t want to spam you contacts inbox, just because you had a slew of ideas to throw out. Consistency and pacing matter with Email campaigns.
Easy to track
How often have you hit Send on a “blast” Email and wished you knew how many people opened it? Or how many people clicked on a certain link you included? Or watched a video you provided?
This is the most important reason why third-party services are better than normal Email. You have a better ability to track sales and user engagement.
Email performance report from MailChimp
Each Email post comes with a report. You will know how many and who opened the email. You will know how many and what links were clicked on. You will even know what time it was opened to better optimize scheduling future Emails.
Now you have a real idea of how your email is performing. No more guessing. And that’s the kind of important feedback you may not necessarily get with Social Media.
The Bone
As Facebook organic reach disappears, Twitter feeds get overcrowded with marketing messages and other social media platforms come and go, you will always have your Email list for a direct personal invite to someone you have already a relationship established.