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Is Email Marketing Dead?
Have you heard that email is dead and social media is the place to be? Social media is a great way to connect with people and share your messages, however, before you ditch your email marketing efforts, here are a few things to consider:
- According to Marketo, 94% of people say the main reason they get online, is to check their email.
- Email marketing drives $44 for every $1 spent.
- The average order value from an email is 3 times higher than social media
- According to a survey by OptinMonster, Marketers say the ROI (actual sales) from email is far greater than social media
We send out a monthly newsletter for a number of our clients who report nearly instantaneous clicks, inquiries and sales. There appear to be good results from a bare minimum effort.
How to Start Email Marketing
If you don’t have an email marketing strategy in place and don’t know where to begin, here are some things to consider:
Target Audience
Do you already have a list? Do you need to build one? Some people have a stack of business cards that could be converted into contacts on an email list. This doesn’t need to be a tedious job. For instance, there are scanning apps available to scan the card and create a contact list to be imported into a mail service. Use the power of your website to collect opt-ins – visitors who agree to get emails from you. A good way to ethically bribe people onto your list is to provide something of value to them, such as useful information or discounts. This is one of the best ways to get started. Additionally, you can also pull contacts from your contact list on your computer or phone…people with whom you’ve communicated in the past.
Pick an Email Service
It is not recommended that you create a massive distribution list on your computer’s email software. This is one way to get your email address blacklisted. A better option, is to utilize a cloud-based email service, such as Constant Contact. We’ve tried many services, such as MailChimp, Mad Mimi, Aweber, Drip, GetResponse and more. Constant Contact has become a favorite for us, because it is very easy to use with beautiful templates, they have great deliverability stats, there are a lot of features, and their customer support is top notch! They even call you to help you get started!
Messaging Strategy
Not sure what to say? A good goal is to provide 90% value and only 10% promotion. Education adds value. Statistics and reports add value. Humor and fun add value. Decide what value you can add before you write a single word. Next, plot out the content for your emails. Some options might include: sending a monthly newsletter or an invitation to a webinar or event. Or, inform them about important changes/news in your industry. All of these content ideas are well-received. It is important to know your audience and what THEY want from you, because that makes an email campaign successful. This will likely require some well-spent time researching and/or surveying your audience.
Measure Results
Every platform has analytics to report the results of your email campaigns. Things that are typically measured are: the number of opens, clicks (on links), bounces, unsubscribes and spam complaints. Look at this data regularly to help fine-tune your messaging tactics. If a particular topic, event or article gets better results than another, you can pivot your content accordingly.
Be Consistent – Reaching the right people with the right message should be consistent. Automating emails is one way to do this. Create an autoresponder series which drips out email messages at an interval you choose. Or, pick a day of the week or one time per month to email consistently. This schedule must work for you or you won’t execute it. Another option is to hire a digital marketing team like ours to design, write, test and send your emails for you (shameless plug!).
Nearly every business can benefit from some sort of email marketing…so, you see – it’s not dead yet nor do we see it dying any time soon!
Additional Resources:
https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/infographics/24-email-marketing-stats-need-know/
(Full Disclosure – some of the links in this email contain an affiliate link, which means if you sign up with them we may get a small referral fee. Thank you.)