Why Should Email Marketing be Your Strategy for Successful Marketing
What is the inherent value of a Facebook follow, YouTube subscribe, LinkedIn follow, or email sign-up? While it is difficult to put an absolute value, we can still do a comparative analysis. And the best way to judge that would be to figure out which channel generates the most business. Surprisingly, despite all the hype and sky-high valuations of various social media firms, an email sign-up is still worth more than hundreds or thousands of followers on most social media platforms. Why is that? Simply because email as a channel has more intent, while social media, by its nature, is distractive. People check their emails to find out if they are missing something important. On the other hand, social media is a place where you go for entertainment. Even social media channels ask for email IDs as the first thing to create an account. They know that email is where the important work gets done. And this is where the importance of email marketing comes in.
Comparing Trends
Over the last 10 years, social media engagement rates have been falling. Currently, SEO is facing the challenge of zero-click searches. Even paid digital ads have seen a worsening of ROIs (Return on Investment). If you put aside the initial hype around different social media channels, can you recall any brand that has succeeded purely on the back of organic social media? You might remember an example or two if you push yourself. But it would be really hard to remember anymore. In all this, email marketing has held its ground. The average open rates have consistently been between 20 and 30%, while the click rates usually vary between 2.5% to 3.5%.
Why is Email Marketing Still Significant?
Emails are considered to be important. The data shows that the average email marketing ROI is 36x. That’s one of the highest ROIs across any channel. Comparatively, performance marketing gives a 4x to 6x ROI (that too if it’s set up well). And if you attempt to calculate an ROI for the effort it took you to create a social media following, then one email is considered worth at least 100 new followers.
Sure enough, not all emails are read or generate clicks. But there are other benefits to email marketing. To begin with, emails are great at building brand trust, getting repeat customers, upselling, and more.
That Doesn’t Mean You Can Spam People
Surely, a 36x ROI is a deeply enticing proposition, but you can’t expect to succeed using email as an outbound channel. Many people and businesses have burnt their hands trying to maximize their benefits by sending out bulk emails as an email marketing strategy. It simply doesn’t work.
Spam filters have been around for a long time, yet email regulation has been getting stricter and harsher. Any attempts to send out bulk emails to random strangers can backfire heavily. This can not only blacklist your domain, but you can also attract financial penalties from regulators.
Instead, Use it Like it Should be
Just like it takes time to build a following on social media, developing your email marketing mailing list also happens over time. People sign up primarily for two reasons:
- You have something great to offer (immediate gratification).
- Your domain interests them and they wish to stay updated (long-term benefits).
And that’s great. However, before you figure out what to say, figure out who you are talking to, why they need to listen to you, and when exactly they need to hear it. Putting it simply, you need an email communication strategy.
A deeply thought-through communication strategy will help you not only structure your thoughts but also help people understand why your audience can trust you to solve their problems. Simply writing, “Trust us” or showing 10+ big brands isn’t sufficient. Think deeper, speak your audience’s language, and keep the conversation going.
While emails lack the coolness factor of social media, they more than make up for it through a higher ROI and long-term engagement. On most other platforms, an algorithm is omnipresent in judging, moderating, and sometimes even suppressing the content you want to share. No other digital channel assures you of a one-to-one connection and audience visibility like emails.
So, the next time you think about figuring out the right channel for growing your business, do consider the underrated but heavy-hitter: email marketing.
Write to us at content@emeritus.org
NOTE: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Emeritus.
