Is email marketing dead? Can email marketing still be considered an effective strategy?
I’m sure you’ve heard these myths quite a lot. But let me tell you that email marketing is not dead and nobody is abandoning email anytime soon. Despite the popularity and growth of social media, email is still an integral part of any business.
According to Statista, in 2019 the amount of global email users amounted to 3.9 billion and is set to grow to 4.48 billion users in 2024
As I said email is still here, so is email marketing. In fact, it is still one of the successful and cost-effective ways to run an effective business. Talking about sales, email marketing drives more conversions than any other channel, including social media, online search and direct mail (DMA reports).
In this blog, we’ll talk about the benefits of email marketing and how you can use it as an effective marketing strategy for efficient results.
Benefits Of Email Marketing
Email marketing is used by thousands of business globally, be it a small size business or a large size business. The reason why companies still prefer email marketing is because it has lots of benefits. Here are some of the benefits which make email marketing an effective channel:
- Lower cost as compared to mainstream marketing channels
This is one of the obvious advantages of email marketing and you do not need to pay extra fees which you might have to in case of exposure on billboards, magazines or other channels. As an email marketer, you can also track and evaluate the mails by investing in certain software; but the costs compared to use this software will be much lower than what you would be paying to the other marketing channels.
- Create targeted content
With email marketing, you can personalize your campaigns by creating individualized content based on your target audience. This is important so that you can send the right emails to the right audiences. Email marketing can really help you to customize the content on the basis of your audience’s needs. This can include adding different images or subject lines. Also, you can segment your audience and create a list based on their geography or engagement levels
- Better brand recognition
Email marketing has made it easy for you to brand your emails i.e. you can consistently provide valuable content to your targeted audience. This way your audience will be able to recognize and perceive your mail
- Increase traffic to your website
In order to get more customers to your website, you can use email marketing where you can include relevant links within your email content. Also, use your email campaigns so that you can engage great content available on your website.
Quick tip: Add social sharing buttons in your emails so that your customers can share and promote your content across their own social channels
- Provides real time communication
Unlike other marketing channels, email marketing is the best way to communicate and generate leads in real time. This makes it easier to send timely messages to your email subscribers. Marketing emails also helps in sending last-minute sale reminders that can reach your reader’s inbox and this way they can be aware and take advantage of the offers
Types Of Email marketing That You Should Be Sending
Thinking to start email marketing?
Well, here are some of the types of marketing emails you can use as your marketing strategy
📧 Welcome emails
Suppose you gained a new subscriber, it is important that you welcome them by introducing yourself. Get to know them by asking them their birthdays and other details. Do not forget to ask them about how they feel towards you and your brand. However, even research shows that only 25% of leads are immediately sales-ready, while 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. Nurturing, therefore, is critical for pushing your leads closer to the buying stage.
📧 Digital newsletter
Remember newsletters are not sales pieces that your readers are tired of reading, but they are emails that offer your audience with a real service. Through your newsletter you need to provide product updates, educate them and even try to entertain them. Send these newsletters regularly, weekly or monthly which can include summary of the recent content that you have created
📧 Catalog emails
This is similar to newsletters, but it focuses more on images and short descriptions rather than providing articles. Most of the brands mail the new catalogs or weekly ads to their customers in order to increase sales. The catalog helps you to connect with your online audience and show them all the promotions you wish them to see. Also, it is a great idea to remind your customers that you care for them. This way they will stay loyal to your brand which will ultimately result in sales increase
📧 Brand story emails
An effective way of email marketing is by sending brand story emails. Story telling can serve as one of the powerful tool to take advantage of the emotional side of your audience. This is also a great way to build a connection with your audience by narrating a personal story behind your brand.
The Future of email marketing
As the world is evolving, trends will go on changing as well. You need not be worried about email marketing dying or just disappearing from the business world. You just need to be aware of the latest trends that will help you in the long run. Have a look at some of the latest trends in the world of email marketing:
- Artificial intelligence
One of the current trends in email marketing is the integration of AI in order to create and distribute emails. For this reason, even the small companies are starting to learn AI technologies and machine learning. With the help of AI, you can easily determine the best dispatch time. It also makes it easier to make predictions which help the computer to determine how to use images and how the newsletters and emails will be perceived by the reader
- Dark mode emails
These days’ people are very fond of the dark mode and the fact this is getting popular is because it is easier to read, especially in mobile phones. The dark mode will help reduce eye strain by removing the blue light. So, you can implement this trend to reach out to people who loves to read the content in dark mode
- Omnichannel marketing
This is the process of using both traditional and digital marketing channels to send out messages to your customers which will help in better engagement. Moreover, with this cross-channel engagement, brands can know if they have fulfilled the customer’s requirements, thereby removing the obstacles that might affect the buyer’s purchase decision
- Interactive emails
Another great email marketing technique is the use of interactive emails. Using this, you can add interactive content which means you can add content which will allow your audience to directly be able to view the products and shop straight from your email instead of linking out a landing page. This will make it easier for your customers to directly purchase the products directly from the mail and will create less hassle.
Wrapping Up
Before sliding into your audience’s mailbox, pause and think which email strategy should I use? Then go about and start constructing an effective email. Use some of these strategies to make an appropriate choice of the type of email and how to go about using it.
What are your thoughts about email marketing? Tell us in the comments below