For years I have heard: “Email is dead”, but I would argue the opposite, and there is data to prove it.
Email is alive and in my opinion, is the most powerful marketing channel. Yes, stronger than social media or SEO, because it brings more benefits to the table.
Here are a few of them.
1. Email Marketing has high ROI
Research shows that email marketing can bring over $40 for every $1 invested in it, resulting in over 4000% return on investment.
The return on email marketing is higher than keyword ads, banner ads or other marketing channels.
Investing in email marketing is a no-brainer but not everyone doubles down on it, most people just send an email campaign once in awhile.
Instead, you should keep the focus on delivering more targeted emails for the right people (use segmentation) at the right time (use email marketing automation).
2. You have complete control over your audience
Another reason why email marketing is important is that you have complete control over your audience.
For example, if you build a strong presence on Facebook and Facebook says that you no longer have the right to use your page, it can ruin your business because you will no longer have an audience.
And the same can happen with Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or any other third party presence that you have.
On the other hand, having an email audience is something that you own 100%. If for some reason you do not like your existing email marketing provider you can export your email audience and move to another one.
However, no one can take that away from you as long as you keep it safe. Speaking of keeping your email audience safe, I would recommend exporting it regularly and backing it up in a secure location like Dropbox or any other backup service.
3. Email Marketing provides higher engagement
No one can argue the fact that as long as you keep your list clean and deliver good content, it can provide much higher engagement than any other marketing channel.
If you own a Facebook page you have to pay for exposure, your tweet can easily get lost in your follower’s feeds, and advertising is becoming more and more expensive.
Email Marketing, on the other hand, can offer you high engagement without spending a lot of money on it.
For example, open rates are generally between 15% and 30% for email campaigns, but they can go over 50%. I have personally had email campaigns with approximately 60% open rates which is pretty impressive.
This means if you have a regularly pruned email audience list (those who no longer open emails) of 10,000 people, you can get 4,000 – 5,000 people opening an email campaign, which represents about 40%-50%.
This study of Facebook shows that only about 25%, or even less, of those who liked your page can see your posts.
If you have fewer people that see your posts, fewer people will click on them.
But, with email marketing, you can get about 15% of your audience to click on your emails.
With more clicks in your emails, you will get better exposure for your content and more sales for your products and services.
4. Quickly reach your audience on mobile
Mobile has already surpassed desktop computers in usage since 2014; if you want to be visible to your audience, you need to be on mobile.
According to a Pew Research Center report, 88% of smartphone owners are using email on their phone making it more used than social media.
For this reason reaching people on mobile is much easier with email marketing than social media and advertising; especially if you are doing it for business purposes.
Summary
To sum up, here is why you should double down on email marketing today:
- You get a higher return on investment with email marketing, $40 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
- You own your audience and have complete control over it.
- Email marketing offers higher engagement, resulting in more exposure and sales.
- You reach your audience on mobile much easier with email marketing.
I hope you enjoyed the first email in the series, look for the next one tomorrow when I am going to share with you strategies that will help you get 10,000 and more.
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