When it comes to digital marketing, especially outbound marketing, we strongly recommend integrating email newsletters into your strategy. Unlike many social media platforms, where organic reach has tumbled into the single-digit percentile, email marketing reaches every one of your subscribers. Moreover, it keeps current customers engaged, reminds hot leads that you’re still the best choice for the job, and positions your company as a leader in the field.
By and large, email marketing is the most effective, scalable, outbound marketing option. Find out why digital newsletters are such a smart choice by learning about the prevalence of email, the measurability of this medium, and why it’s critical in a mobile-first world.
Nearly Every American Uses Email
According to the market research firm, Radicati, there are 3.9 billion email users globally. That’s more than half the world’s population. More specifically, OptinMonster found that nine out of ten Americans over the age of 15 have an active email address.
Whether people are using a vintage AOL email address or fully-loaded Gmail account, email is a method of communication in which the vast majority of us are engaged.
Individualize Your Messaging
Unlike organic social posts, where posting takes a “one size fits all” approach to promotional messaging, email opens the doors to personalization.
It’s rarely a good idea to “blast” the same message to your entire email list. A general rule of thumb is this: if it feels like you’re spamming your audience, you probably are. To increase open rates and minimize unsubscribes, emails should not only be helpful, informative, and/or entertaining, but they should also be individualized.
To ensure you’re delivering relevant content, you can/should segment your contact lists and tailor your message to each specific group. This segmentation can be accomplished by manually tagging contacts, using prior campaign clicks and actions, and sorting by subscribe dates and times, to name a few.
Individualizing your messaging is critical. The Direct Marketing Association found that segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue.
When creating a signup form for your emails, consider requiring at least a first name to be entered along with a person’s email address. Such a seemingly trivial requirement will be pivotal when personalizing your emails.
Experian found that emails with personalized subject lines with a person’s name have an average 26% higher unique open rate than non-personalized emails. Personalization is even more critical for industries such as retail and travel, where a personalized subject line can provide an average of 37% and 65% unique open rates, respectively.
The ROI Is Unbeatable
According to research from SuperOffice and The Association of National Advertisers, B2B email marketing delivers a $40 return for every $1 spent. Moreover, the Data & Marketing Association found that for B2C, email had an average ROI of $38 for every $1 spent.
To put that into perspective, Google Ads generates an average of $2 for every $1 spent for both B2B and B2C. Even Facebook advertising, which requires a significant organic content effort, only has an average ROI of 450%.
McKinsey recently noted that email is nearly 40 times that of Facebook and Twitter combined. All of this is not to say that these other initiatives don’t work; it’s just that email marketing has to be a core element of strategy.
Easily Measurable
Everyone is looking for proof in the pudding, and email marketing makes it easy. With email platforms like Mailchimp, DotDigital, and Constant Contact, you’ll have enough data to satiate even the most KPI-hungry business executives. Even the most basic of email platforms will give you stats on:
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Create a Branded Journey
The point of email marketing is not to spam people. It’s a way to take your audience on a branded journey and create new interactions, touchpoints, and personalized experiences.
It’s for this reason that email marketing works best when you’ve developed unique and contextually relevant landing pages for your contacts to visit rather than a generic service or product page. Product and service-specific landing pages can increase conversion rates by more than 25%.
Additionally, it’s critical that these landing pages, along with your emails, are mobile-friendly. Google noted that a whopping 96% of consumers say they've encountered sites that were clearly not designed for mobile devices. That’s a disconcerting statistic, considering that 50% of people reported that they would use a business less frequently if the website wasn’t mobile-friendly.
Conversely, if you provide a smooth mobile experience, you’ll be rewarded by your audience. When people visit a mobile-friendly site:
- 74% are more likely to return to that site in the future
- 67% are more likely to buy a site's product or service
Make Your Email Marketing Werk
If you want to provide a mobile-friendly, conversion-focused email strategy for your business or organization, contact Werkbot today. When you werk with us, you’re not just contracting with a seasoned agency, you’re gaining a strategic partner and brand advocate.