Overview: Email marketing has been around for many years, but is it still worth it with so many other platforms vying for consumers’ attention? Let’s find out!
We’ll get right to it: Despite the advent of social media platforms and the proliferation of billions of websites on the internet, email marketing is still a viable and effective method for spreading the word about your business. Emails let you personalize your message for a targeted audience in a way social media can’t match. Besides, email automation provides deep insights into your customers’ habits and pain points, which is a convenient way to make them click on those all-important links and turn them into loyal customers.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is one of the oldest digital communication modes. And although many other methods of electronically relaying information have sprung up in recent years, the effectiveness of email marketing in digital marketing strategies should not be overlooked.
Email marketing has an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent — meaning it deserves a place in every marketer’s box. It’s clear that email marketing is a great tool to help you grow your business, and it all starts with first building a good email list.
A customized email list helps you to create leads that can be nurtured through the subsequent stages of the sales funnel. This is precisely the place where the process of writing, designing, and sending compelling email campaigns comes into play. From there, you’ll target a specific audience with a few simple segments, keeping them engaged and wanting more.
While there’s a lot of debate about whether email marketing is cost-effective for businesses to keep using or not, it can be a relatively simple and extremely useful method for maintaining steady sales, as well as increasing brand awareness and driving traffic to your website.
Neil Patel, the marketing guru, stated in 2021 that he believes email marketing to be the most effective marketing channel — beating other social media, SEO, and affiliate marketing strategies.
But why this hype? With so many other platforms out there, why is this traditional, relatively old-fashioned technology still one of the most effective marketing strategies? Let’s find out!
How Important Is Email Marketing?
The most frequently-used medium of official communication for businesses today is still email. Any time you apply for a job, there’s a required field where you’re asked to provide your email address, co-workers use email to track the progress of important projects, and emails are sent between businesses and their clients all day, every day.
Emails are also the first thing people check in the morning to verify the tasks they should prioritize and the updated status of a job. Data shows that most people use email on a regular basis, and the number increases every year.
Email marketing is different than marketing on social media in that you can establish and control a consistent list of contacts. On social media, you never know which posts will be visible and which ones will be buried by the algorithm. With email, your message will always land in your recipients’ inboxes.
Marketers tend to forget that emails can serve a purpose other than pushing a service or product. Not every email has to be “sell, sell, sell.” They should also be used to share feedback and success stories from your existing clients. Let people know how your products and services are being used. Not only does this build credibility, but it also helps customers gain a better understanding of what you’re offering.
Every business has to get the word out somehow about who they are and what they do. The need for promotion and marketing is here to stay. Email is so simple and straightforward that it’s a real no-brainer. And a successful campaign leads to greater visibility for your company… which leads to more people signing up for your email list. It’s a beautiful circle!
Along with keeping your audience engaged and building rapport, email marketing strengthens the relationship between buyer and seller by creating and maintaining an ongoing impression of your brand. That’s pretty important, because if your audience isn’t thinking about your brand, there’s no business!
Related reading: The difference between growing a business and building a brand
Is Email Marketing Relevant in 2022?
Yes. We know you didn’t expect an answer this short, but all evidence points to it being a highly effective tool when applied correctly. Email marketing remains the most affordable marketing channel with a huge ROI (return on investment) rate. It’s known that you’re more likely to obtain a sale through an email campaign than through social media platforms when you carefully craft a campaign to reach your target audience. So are you still asking yourself if email marketing is relevant?
Getting Started with Email Marketing:
So we’ve established that email marketing works. But once you’ve built your list of email addresses, where do you go from there? Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating your email campaigns.
Stay human: Remember: The recipient of your email is a human being. Most email campaign platforms allow you to personalize your messages by adding the recipient’s name to the greeting or even the subject line. This can be a quick and easy way to add a personal touch — but don’t overdo it! Using the recipient’s name in too many places might make them feel awkward, or lead them to suspect that you’re trying too hard.
Also, depending on what kind of business you have, it may be appropriate to compose your email copy in an informal way so your audience can see the human side of your brand. They’ll feel like they’re reading text written by a human, not a bot or a slick salesperson.
Use engaging titles: Using interesting subject titles is the key step to increasing open email rates — but keep them on point, non-spammy, and relevant to the contents of the email. If the reader feels duped, they’re likely to unsubscribe and mark your messages as spam — which is the exact opposite of your goal.
Keep messages short: A lot of internet browsing today is done on mobile devices, and that includes email. It’s just a convenient way to stay caught up. For a strong click-through rate, keep your copy concise and to the point. If a reader opens your email and sees a large wall of text, or a message that goes on and on, they’re likely to close it, delete it, and move on. If you’d like to share some detailed information, you’re better off directing your reader to click a link that will take them to a blog post or landing page.
Include clear “calls to action” at the top and the bottom: On landing pages, CTAs are included “above the fold,” near the top of the page. Using the same strategy with email by having strong CTAs (for example, “Click here to place an order!”) in the second paragraph and again at the end will increase your chances of click-throughs.
The bottom line: As the world around us continues to become a digitized globe, the need for impactful digital communication will grow. While trends come and go in the digital world, and individual social media platforms fluctuate in popularity, the evidence is clear that email marketing will be around for some time. It’s reasonable to assume that the use of email marketing will continue growing in 2022 and beyond.
In Summary:
Email marketing is an old method of spreading brand awareness for your business. But it works! When you want to grow your business, a cleverly planned and executed email campaign can be a major element of your marketing strategy.
The team at Creative 7 Designs strives to use creativity, knowledge, and skill to help businesses grow and leave their mark on the internet — and the world! Get in touch with our marketing team today for a free consultation session and understand how you can elevate your marketing plans!