Have you heard the one about email marketing? You know, the school of thought which claimed that it would slowly decline as social and digital communication channels took hold?
This prediction has proved to be wide of the mark, with email marketing continuing to thrive and serve as one of the four most effective drivers of digital traffic.
If you still buy into the idea that email marketing is moribund, you may therefore be missing out on the chance to grow your business. To help convert you, here are four compelling statistics that underline the true value of email marketing in the digital age:
1. Email Marketing Delivers an Estimated ROI of 4400%
While it is easy to be dazzled by the diversity and real-time nature of integrated social media profiles, it is important to remember the core metrics of any successful marketing campaign.
The most obvious of these metrics is profit, as marketing must effectively mobilise your target audience while translating into a positive ROI.
In this respect, there is evidence to suggest that email is the single most effective medium for marketing your business. According to studies, email marketing delivers an average ROI of 4400%, with a $44.25 return for every single $1 spent.
Much will depend on your execution, of course, with the use of personalisation and informative, dynamic content central to optimising the ROI of your email campaigns. Mobile optimisation is also a key consideration, especially with more than 55% of all emails now accessed through a handheld device.
2. There Will Be 4.9 Billion Active Email Accounts by the End of 2017
Of course, the delivery of an inflated ROI means little if you are unable to reach a large or motivated audience through your chosen marketing channel. This is why social media marketing has proven so popular during the last seven years, with Facebook alone now boasting 1.71 billion active users each month.
Email can more than match this, however, with a total of 4.9 billion email accounts expected to be active across the globe by the end of this year. This will represent an increase of more than one billion since 2013, and it highlights the growing popularity of email as a core communication channel.
So while you will still be required to target specific demographics through email marketing, the sheer volume of individuals who use email on a daily basis enables you to maximise the amount of consumers that you reach within each segment. With the use of personalised content and in-depth consumer data, you can also optimise the number of leads that are successfully converted across your audience as a whole.
3. U.S. Consumers Interact With an Average of 11 Brands Through Email Each Day
By itself, the revelation that U.S. consumers interact with an average of 11 brands through email each day means relatively little (even though this is a trend that is repeated across the globe).
When placed into the correct context, however, it offers yet another compelling reason to prioritise email marketing in the year ahead. Consumers only interact with an estimated nine brands through Facebook on a daily basis, and eight through the popular Twitter platform. This underlines the fact that customers have become increasingly receptive to branded communications through email, particularly as the security measures and filters utilised by major platforms such as Gmail and MSN have improved over time.
Not only this, but email has also benefitted from the emphasis that brands have placed on content marketing during recent times. After all, companies have looked to refine all aspects of their content in the quest to get higher on Google, with the need to create in-depth, personalised and topically relevant copy more pressing than ever. These principles have also been applied to email, which in turn has allowed brands to engage customers and convert them more effectively.
To capitalise on this further, strive to customise your email content to include the name of each recipient. Beyond this, ensure that your calls-to-action are placed above the fold and not overly promotional, as they should offer a natural hook and relate seamlessly to the nature of the content.
4. Email Marketing Was the Single Biggest Driver of Black Friday Transactions
We have already touched on the potential of email as a profitable marketing tool, and this was nevermore evident than during Black Friday in November 2015. In fact, email marketing accounted for a staggering 25.1% of all sales that were completed on Black Friday, while the rate of e-commerce transactions also increased by 16.1% during the same period.
This is a statistic that supports the impactful nature of email marketing, and more specifically its unique ability to generate and convert a relatively high number of leads. With a growing number of consumers now receptive to branded emails, carefully crafted and well-timed communications can have a significant influence on real-time customer behaviour (the below example underlines this, as it was a real-time promotion targeted at customers during a typically quiet Thanksgiving evening).
This not only means tailoring personalised email content that is relevant to specific events and consumer holidays, but it also demands a precise approach to the timing and the presentation of your correspondence. Specific consumer demographics are more likely to access their emails at different times, for example, while 43% of respondents under the age of 30 cite design and layout as the most important conversion factor.
Email Marketing Lives On
So there you have it; four statistics which make compelling (and not to mention interesting) arguments for the use of email marketing to reach your audience!
With the data on your side, is there really anything stopping you from building your email list with confidence and improving your ROI?