Since its inception, email marketing has never truly been seen as fashionable. But it works. For many businesses, email still remains one of the valuable and impactful tools in the marketing mix. Phill Manson, Director at PAASE Digital discusses exactly why email marketing is thriving, not dying.
We have all heard the phrase ‘email marketing is dead’, and at 50 years old we could all be guilty of thinking it’s a tool that is ready to be shelved. Since its inception, email marketing has never truly been seen as fashionable. But it works. According to HubSpot, 73% of Millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email and 59% of consumers said that emails influenced their purchase decisions. It’s not dead quite yet – in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
For many businesses, email still remains one of the valuable and impactful tools in the marketing mix. In fact, it is an absolutely essential piece of the mix and it’s likely you are not unlocking its full potential. In fact, one of PAASE’s clients has seen an increase of 1,662% in email channel revenue in a 12 month period.
Email is NOT an acquisition channel
The sooner businesses stop viewing email as an acquisition tool, the better. It should be about creating custom retention, loyalty and converting customers at the right moment instead. Sure, Facebook ads give your website ten times the amount of traffic, but email gives you five times the number of sales.
Ask yourself what is more important – vanity metrics or actual sales that ensure the long term survival of your business? Social media – organic and paid – is still a crucial part of your marketing mix, but use it to grow your database. Email is where you can build that loyalty and ensure you are actually converting customers and communicating with them at the right time.
It’s all in the data
Building a good email marketing strategy is like building a house – you have to get the foundations right before you get to decorate it. If you don’t get the foundations right first, you are going to end up homeless in a few years time. The same goes for your email marketing strategy. Data is the foundation and it’s important that it is captured effectively from the outset. In addition, you need to practice good database hygiene to ensure the customers on your list are people that really want to be there.
Once the email campaigns start rolling out of the door, you can begin to gather data to inform your A/B testing. A deep dive into your data will quickly provide the insight you need to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Interpreting the data and applying it to your future campaigns is then key to a successful email marketing strategy.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint
Good things come to those who wait and when it comes to email marketing this couldn’t ring more true. So many businesses just aren’t realising the full potential of email marketing and what it can do for their revenue because they think it’s failed before it’s even got started.
Patience is key and the right objectives behind the strategy are also essential. So many businesses embark on an email marketing journey without doing it for the right reasons and are stuck chasing a large database instead of creating emails that truly convert. It’s time to take a step back, look at your data and get your customers to the top of your funnel.
Email marketing is far from dead, in fact, it’s far from dying. If you do it well and with purpose, you will be able to give your marketing mix a new lease of life, one that positively impacts your bottom line, time and time again.
By Phill Manson
Director
PAASE Digital