Email marketing. It’s one of those digital buzzwords that’s been tossed about since the dawn of the desktop. Today, it’s basically a force of habit for many digital markers – pinging a glitzy sales pitch out to a ten-thousand strong database of potential clients.
But do mass marketed emails still have a place in a world where there has never been more content competing for miniscule attention span, and our inboxes have never been more clogged?
As we hurtle towards 2022, it’s time to take stock of where email marketing fits in a modern marketing strategy. Here’s our expert opinion on whether the mass mailout is here to stay.
Spoiler alert – don’t ditch that database just yet.
A Recap on Email Marketing
If you’ve never dabbled in email marketing or need a quick brush up on how it works, then stay tuned.
Email marketing is a specific channel of EDMs (Electronic Direct Mail) and has been a staple of the digital marketing toolkit for over 40 years.
It all kicked off in 1971 when a marketing exec called Gary Thuerk pinged out a mass email to 400 business prospects. $13 million in generated sales later, and Thuerk had become the face of the very first – and highly successful – email marketing technique.
Today, the marketing approach is a little more refined, not to mention a tad more privacy-conscious. But the overall gist remains the same. The aim is to target a high volume of potential customers to build relationships, and in turn, increase overall sales.
As one of the oldest forms of digital communication, some marketing professionals have questioned whether email marketing still has a place in the modern digital marketing world.
Is Email Marketing Still Effective in 2022?
Yes, email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing tools – even 40 years on.
Sure, the rise of social media revolutionised the way customers and businesses interact. Not to mention the impact live chats and dedicated customer-service centres have had on communication lines.
What is it about email marketing that allows it to remain so effective in such a saturated communication landscape?
It comes down to a numbers game. With over 4 billion email users worldwide, it’s hard to top the reach of an email.
Emails have an average open rate of 22.86% and click-through rate of 3.71%. While over on the socials, engagement rates rarely crack 0.6%.
In fact, a study by McKinsey & Company found email marketing to be up to 40 times more effective than social media. And when looking at how this translates into purchases, they found the buying process happens three times faster via email than on social media.
It’s not just socials that EDM’s are blowing out of the water either. According to Yeildify, email marketing holds the highest ROI of any digital marketing avenue, outranking SEO, PPC, and content marketing. We’re talking a return of $38 on every dollar spent.
Benefits of email marketing include:
- A direct line of communication
- A cost effective form of mass marketing
- Ability to personalise messaging
- Built in analytics for performance measure
Despite all these wonderous claims, your email marketing efforts will only ever pay off if there is a method to the madness.
Tips to Create a Successful Email Marketing Campaign
Establish Your Goal
Before you even set foot into the email-sphere, you’ll need to have a clear idea of what you want your mailouts to achieve. Common goals include:
- Boost engagement via educational content
- Increase customer loyalty
- Increase brand awareness
- Announce promotions or new products
Understanding the purpose behind your communication will help determine what you’re putting out, who it’s going to, and how often.
Source A Solid Platform
The main benefit of email marketing is its huge payoff without having to fork out bucketloads of time and money. Fortunately, there are some genius platforms designed purely to automate and streamline the mass email process.
Programs such as Mail Chimp and Campaign Monitor are about to become your newest marketing mate.
Here’s why we love them:
- Template approach to campaign creation (perfect for graphic design novices)
- Integrations with software you already use (WordPress)
- Allows you to segment your audience
- Provides in-depth analytics on campaign performance, including open rates, bounce rates and click-through rates
Don’t Overwhelm Your Audience
Now that we’ve got you revved up to take on the email masses, it’s important to keep that enthusiasm in check. Slide into those inboxes too often and you’ll have your readers sprinting to the unsubscribe button. Not often enough and you risk falling off their radar all together.
There’s no hard number to shoot for. What matters most is ensuring you’re always providing valuable content. If you need somewhere to start, we suggest a twice monthly approach. Gauge your customer’s response via your platform analytics and revise where necessary.
If you’re eager to board the email marketing bandwagon but are already stretched a little thin, we’ve got you covered. Wordly’s team of prose-savvy tech-spurts can turn a bounce into a clickthrough with ease. Get in touch to find out more.
