With the myriad of new, newer and newest social media platforms popping up here, there and everywhere, is there still a place for email marketing?
- Are you still using email as one of your marketing tools?
- Do you test your own company emails on mobile devices…do they look good and read well?
It is predicated that by 2017 there will be close to 5 billion email accounts , with 247 billion emails sent every day… and email still being the most popular activity on smartphones among users aged 18-44, let the stats speak for themselves!
- Email is often nearly 40 times better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter
- In some cases, email conversion rates are 3 times higher than social media
- Email marketing is still delivering highest Return On Investment – for every $1 spent on email marketing (the average return is $44.25)
It is no surprise then that 69% of companies believe that email marketing will continue to be one of the key channels for delivering Return on Investment. This is echoed by 73% of marketers who believe that email marketing is core to their business. Phew, that’s a lot of statistics!
But not all emails are equal! Gone are the days of the traditional newsletters, which go and on (and on) with all your monthly activities and achievements crammed into a single email. Good email marketing means short emails which are more of a teaser and link back to your website and/or blog. Did you know that 48% of emails are opened on mobiles, which is why shorter emails work better (don’t you just hate having to scroll up and down on you mobile?).
So, email marketing is very much alive but note, it has evolved. Here are a few tips on how to not only keep your emails alive but also fresh and engaging:
- The email is a short teaser – Keep the content short and simple and reserve the nitty-gritty details for your website and blog where interested readers can learn and enjoy more compelling content
- Use responsive templates – Web based email tools such as ConstantContact and Mailchimp offer beautiful templates, which resize according to the devices used to open and view the email
- Review analytics – Both ConstantContact and Mailchimp offer free analytics, which allow you to analyse who and how many people have opened your emails and clicked through on a link to read more (proof which of your marketing tools work best!). These insights can help you improve your email content and email marketing strategy.
A final note – keep in mind that we are not saying that you should ditch your social media activities for email marketing. Key to all this is the integration of all your digital activities. Social media, website, blogs and email marketing have to work hand-in-hand and should be part of a wider digital strategy… did someone say ETAG Digital Strategy Workshops? In October….?