Email Marketing: More Than Sending Emails

The face of digital marketing is everchanging, but email marketing remains a hot ticket for gaining and retaining customers.

Email marketing (and, in particular, email marketing automation) continues to be one of the top channels for building and maintaining an authentic connection with your audience.

According to Statista, in 2018 alone, there were over 281 billion emails sent and received worldwide each day. That number is predicted to gain momentum over the next three years.

It’s important to note here that email marketing doesn’t and shouldn’t mean spam! Modern email marketing has moved well away from one-size-fits-all mass sends that used to overload our inboxes and instead focuses on consent, segmentation, and personalisation. When used thoughtfully, it can build loyalty and trust in your brand.

Here’s what email marketing is really about and what it can do for your business now and into the future.

1. Connecting with a massive audience

There are currently around 3.9 billion active email addresses in use. When you compare this with the 3.5 billion active social media profiles worldwide, it’s easy to see why email marketing remains such a powerful channel.

Even if your database is on the smaller side right now (only in the thousands or maybe even hundreds), the opportunity for connection is still great. What’s important is that your audience has an interest in your company and the content of your emails. This is what will ultimately increase your open rate and conversions rather than spamming unknowing inboxes.

2. Using automation to boost conversions

Promoting your business through email marketing gives your audience the chance to make a purchase right from their phone or computer. According to research by Hubspot, 59% of consumers state that promotional emails influence their purchasing decisions.

Furthermore, transactional emails (emails triggered by a user’s purchase behaviour, such as an abandoned cart or order confirmation email) have 8x more opens and clicks than any other type of email. Not bad at all, especially from something that doesn’t require so much effort.

3. Encouraging an increase in sales

The ROI of email marketing campaigns can be enormous. In fact, according to WebFX, the average campaign generates an ROI of over 4400% or a return of $44 for every one dollar spent.

Transactional emails can generate 6x more revenue. Furthermore, customers who buy products that are marketed through email tend to spend more than those who don’t receive email offers at all.

This doesn’t mean you should forget all other types of marketing activities, but it does mean that creating an email marketing strategy and building your email list should be prioritised.

4. Building relationships

Email marketing is an important tool for building relationships with prospects, leads, current customers, and even past customers. Why? Because it gives you an opportunity to speak to them directly, at a time that’s convenient for them, right there in their inbox.

When you post on Instagram, you address your audience as a whole. With the use of email marketing software, you can address your recipients by name. According to Campaign Monitor, emails with subject lines that include the recipient’s name are 26% more likely to be opened.

Plus, you can share specific topics to select members of your database. For example, if you have a special promotion only for your Melbourne-based customers, you can send a promotional email only to those in your database who are based in Melbourne.

5. Generating website traffic

When you release a new product, announce a new service or produce a great blog post, how do you tell your audience? Why, you email them, of course! By creating an email marketing campaign, you can send traffic to your website and potentially improve your SEO.

So, when you’re creating an email that links to a specific product, service or blog post, make sure to include a clear call to action (CTA) so that your readers can click through to your website and find more information.

What’s your email marketing strategy?

The future of email marketing is bright, especially as more of us prioritise checking our email throughout the day, every day.

As a result, businesses can no longer afford to ignore email marketing or waste money on sending emails that just end up in the trash. But in order to see a high percentage of purchases from your email marketing campaign, you have to do it right and ensure that your emails can stand out in a crowded inbox.

Are you ready to start building your next great email marketing campaign? Contact us at Zib Digital today.