A quick google search for ‘email marketing is dead’ turns up a mere 6,710,000 results. With so many ways to target your audiences, there are marketers out there – and you could be one of them – that are wondering, are emails still effective?
The graph below shows the activities people in the UK use the internet for, and the results outline that sending/receiving emails and finding information on goods and services were the top two activities carried out by all age groups. You can also see that the use of email on the internet shows no signs of slowing.
If you’re on the side of not being sure about using emails for business, then you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, we’ll be going through the reasons and facts to show why emails should be an integral part of your marketing plan.
Email is still the most popular content channel
Did you know what we send around 74 trillion emails each year, and this number is going up.
Last year, in 2017, people sent on average 269 billion emails per day! The graph below shows the number of sent and received emails per day worldwide from 2017 and how emails are expected to rise further to 2021 (in billions).
Email is perfect for mobile
More than 80 per cent of the world’s internet users use and access the internet with a smartphone. The convenience of working from your mobile device instead of being tied up at work on the computer is very appealing, and the way businesses are heading. More than 83 per cent of smartphone owners say that they use it on the go to check their email.
Email automation is still ahead of every other channel
Automation allows marketers to set repetitive tasks, freeing up time to focus on other jobs. Email marketing still has the highest ROI (return on investment) than any other marketing channel. When a businesses switch from manual emails to automated and segmented emails, they see an over 700 per cent increase in revenue from the same campaign. So by personalising emails, and adding in more segmentation and targeted emails, you’ll see an increase in your ROI.
People would actually prefer to be contacted by email
For business to customer communications, not only is email not dying, but consumers actually prefer it. Using email for business purposes, a mind-blowing 77 per cent of customers prefer marketing communications to come through email, while only 5 per cent choose text messaging and 6 per cent select social media.
More than 60 per cent of your customers would prefer to be contacted by brands via email, which is shown in the data below:
Final thoughts
Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is NOT dead. If you’re not using email marketing in your business, then you’re missing out on an extremely valuable opportunity to market your business. For a marketer to think otherwise, could mean you’re missing out on a massive chance to communicate with your customers.
It’s important to also note that GDPR is changing the way we acquire and store customer data. It’ll affect your email campaigns. Come May 2018 businesses must all adhere to the new rules concerning personal data and consent. See our articles about GDPR, including this checklist to get your business ready.
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If you have any questions or comments about this post, please fill in the comment box below. Or send me an email: shale@bonline.com.