Why you should invest in email marketing

Digital marketing has its roots in email. Long before there was Facebook or Twitter, businesses were using email to reach out, nurture and convert new customers. In this article we will cover some of the reasons why investing in email marketing is a good idea for your business.

With all the buzz about social media marketing campaigns, it’s important to make sure that you aren’t overlooking the tried and true backbone of marketing: Email marketing.

Here are reasons to continue and increase the use of email marketing with you customer base.

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere

Social media platforms are constantly moving and changing, and often reach very specific demographic groups. The people that use Facebook might actually be staying away from Instagram, and vice versa. That’s fine if you have a very focused niche market, but if you have a broader customer base, you may have to invest heavily in various social media platforms to reach all your customers.

There’s also a risk that the platform may fail and shut down or be made obsolete after a few years as well as the high costs of advertising on the platforms once they get more crowded.

Almost everyone you’re trying to reach has an email account. Better yet, most people keep email addresses for decades, meaning that you’re not likely to lose that contact with your customers.

Email is direct marketing

Email marketing goes straight to the people on your list. You aren’t hoping that they happen to come across your post, you don’t have to worry that they’ll miss your post if they log on later in the day, and you don’t have to pay extra to boost your post in the social media feed in hopes that more people will see it.

Your email will be directly in their inbox, waiting until they are ready to read their messages. It’s a much more direct way of making sure that your advertisements and messages are seen by the people that they are targeting.

Email sign-ups reach likely customers

No one signs up to receive email about a product or service that they aren’t interested in. Email marketing ensures that the people that are going to see your email newsletter and lifecycle messaging are already potential customers.

This means they have a much higher chance of purchasing your product. It also helps because you aren’t trying to draw interest to your product or “hook” potential customers. People in your email list have generally given their email address to your because they are willing to look into what you have to offer.

Email has a solid ROI

The most recent data shows that the Return on Investment for email marketing is at least 122%. That’s higher than any other digital marketing channel available today. Email marketing can be a low-cost option that allows you to implement messaging tactics with minimal effort. It should definitely get a premium place in your marketing spending and budget considerations. Or course, the better your email marketing strategy and offers, the more you’ll get back.

In many cases, it can be worth it to hire a freelancer or get an agency to help you design a powerful messaging, and then you can set up and manage your email campaign yourself.

There are solid options for free and cheap email marketing software, that will help to bring the costs down even more. But of course we are looking to increase the upside (revenue, profits) even more than only reducing costs.

Email allows you to personalize communications

The wide variety of options for an email campaign make it one of the easiest ways. With social media posts or more traditional methods like print advertising, you must commit to an ad and it can be difficult to change or test if it isn’t working.

Emails can be sent directly to consumers asking for feedback on products that they purchased. You can upsell a customer based on previous purchases. You can talk directly to them based on their known shopping history. You can tailor your emails to be sent when a particular customer should be in need of a new order or give them a coupon for a more expensive version of a service they have already purchased, increasing your revenue.

The ability to personalize and optimize your emails is unparalleled in the marketing world, and much of it can be automated based on your customer data. During this process, it’s also essential to focus on email security to avoid cyber issues in the future.

Email let’s you follow a Data Driven strategy

There is more data available to marketers today than ever before, especially when it comes to email. When you use an automation platform, metrics and analytics are available without having to do anything besides send out an email. While the amount of data that is available may seem overwhelming, it’s important to develop a data-driven marketing strategy so you can take advantage of the valuable insights these metrics provide.

Perhaps one of the best things about email is the variety of elements that can be tracked and measured. You aren’t just limited to counting the number of clicks your ad receives. You can find out who is opening your email, who is using the links in the emails, and who is unsubscribing from your emails.

Data can help inform decisions and better understand your subscribers. For example, you can conduct email split tests to figure out which email ads get the most positive response. After that you can continue to refine the language, images, and special offers until you’ve found a winning combination. You can review unsubscribe data to figure out why your customers are leaving, and even set up surveys to ask them what you can do better.

Don’t let the hype surrounding social media marketing turn you off from email marketing. While both methods have advantages and disadvantages, the simple fact is that email has been tested and proven time and again. Remember not to let fears about spam filters and phishing scams keep you from reaching out to your customers for some of the best returns in the business.