No, email marketing isn’t dead, or even dying. It may not be the cool, new kid on the block but it continues to be a leading channel for delivering ROI. Recent research in the US (June 2016) conducted by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Demand Metric found that email had a median ROI of 122% – more than four times higher than other marketing formats examined (social media, direct mail and paid search).
Agency professionals and in-house marketers worldwide are in agreement about email’s effectiveness, according to March 2016 polling from Econsultancy. Both groups named email marketing most frequently as a tactic able to provide a strong ROI, at 80% and 73%, respectively.
What else makes email marketing so great?
Email allows you to engage with your audience in a creative, personalised way that blog posts or tweets simply can’t. People consume ‘opt in’ email differently than they do other media. Emails wait in an inbox until they’re read or deleted. They can be referred to more than once and forwarded on.
Importantly your email contacts are yours… you ‘own’ them. They are an asset on your balance sheet rather than ‘renting’ space from a platform like Facebook or Google + and then being beholden to their algorithm tweaks or policy changes. Also if the platform fades so does all your hard earned followers or likes – anyone remember ‘Friends United’?
Marketing automation and personalisation…
Excitingly email marketing continues to evolve – it has embraced mobile technology and is the lynchpin of automation and personalisation which is being steadily being improved and being adopted by an increasingly diverse range of organisations. Gratifyingly the advances in automation and personalisation are accessible to even entry level users with providers like Mailchimp and Sharpspring.
When done correctly it is a quick, cost effective, measurable way to stay in touch with your existing and prospective customers through their mobile devices.
So to conclude…
No email marketing is not dead. Yes it is evolving and should be a cornerstone of any business wanting an efficient way to stay front-of-mind with their prospects and customers, especially those with a long buying cycle looking for repeat business.
