1. £30 return on investment for every pound spent [1]
For most businesses, there are few factors that matter more than the return on investment. The UK-based Direct Marketing Association carried out a survey of its members and found the average return on investment, for email marketing for every pound spent was £30.01 [1].
2. 86% of consumers like emails from companies they know [2]
According to marketingsherpa.com, 86% of consumers would like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with at least monthly, and 15% would like to get them daily [2].
You therefore can send your messages instantly to people who want to receive them; just think about that for a second!
3. See results within minutes
Email is nearly instant; we all send them every day and know its speed.
Businesses can start seeing responses within minutes of the emails being sent, as a good campaign should create a sense of urgency and convince subscribers to take immediate action.
Whilst it does take time to craft and effectively manage effective email marketing campaigns, you should not lose sight of the speed of email and the opportunities this presents.
There are many advantages to email over other forms of marketing:
1. Low Cost
Email is much lower cost than other marketing channels, with no postage, printing, or ads to pay for.
2. Easy to create
Email does not need a large team or huge technical know-how to be very successful.
3. Easy to share
Your subscribers can very easily forward your messages and promotions to a friend at a click of a button.
4. Easy to target
Target your email subscribers based on their specific likes and previous purchases.
5. Fast customer action
Take advantage of impulse buying, with your subscribers able to enquire or buy with a couple of clicks.
6. Speak to your fans
Remember that your subscribers have asked to receive the emails you are sending them.
There are few mediums that allow immediate marketing direct to potential buyers like email.
Email is often discounted as it is familiar and commonly misused. Though it has been a constant ever-growing form of electronic communication since 1965 [8]. For the marketer, email offers a huge opportunity because it is so widely used.
If you know the details of your subscribers, then it is easier to send messages that they are likely to be interested in, to increase your marketing response.
By default, you will know far more about your existing, and past customers than you will about new potential customers.
Even if you only know what they previously purchased, this gives them a head start on new prospects.
Plus, sixty percent of global consumers with Internet access prefer to buy new products from a familiar brand rather than switch to a new brand, according to a study from Nielsen[10].
Email is powerful because you know already something about the person you are emailing, plus they are more likely to buy from you than a company they have not previously heard of.
So, you can target people on your email list, by only sending them information and offers that they are likely to be interested in.
This is a very efficient form of marketing if done properly.
Have you ever received a special offer from a company via email and acted on it immediately? Are you getting fast responses from your email campaigns?
The very nature of email is speed. We all scan our email inboxes quickly deleting the stuff of no interest; though we would not be doing this if we were not looking for something of interest.
The key for your marketing is to be sending out emails your subscribers want to receive, such as:
You are only limited by your imagination.
The more you know your customers/clients, and the more targeted the email that you send them, the more you will enjoy a fast and positive response.
Email is communication with your company’s fans, not selling to unknown people. The purpose is to build trust, then proportions will be successful.
Too many companies view email as a source of selling, rather than building a relationship.
Today we are all bombarded by marketing messages from every angle: email spam, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, website banner ads, website pop-up ads, YouTube Ads, TV ads and the list goes on.
It is easy to get overwhelmed by this bombardment, but most of us quickly filter most out by only listening to people and companies we trust.
Email is an extremely effective way of building this trust. If you concentrate on giving people what they want and adding value, then when you do share promotions and offers they are much more likely to listen.
Email continues to give great returns to those who use it well.
Many forms of digital marketing have been and gone, but email continues to be extremely effective for those who use it to build relationships, and take advantage of its low cost and ease of use when compared to other forms of marketing.
It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one [9]. Are you saving money by targeting existing customers?
Many companies forget that an excellent source of new business can be their existing customers and past enquirers.
Depending on the size of your business and how long you have been collecting data, you could have a large valuable database ready for mailing.
Email marketing only incurs the costs of the management and content creation, avoiding such things as:
The software platforms are user-friendly, so sending out emails does not need to be complicated. We can do this for you or set this up for you.
The fact that email is so easy is its greatest advantage and disadvantage.
So many email campaigns are poorly planned and fail.
We often add most value to our clients by helping them:
This gives a structure to all emails to be sent out.
Social media has thrived on the nature of people to share with others. Businesses often forget this huge benefit of email.
If your companies email messages are genuinely useful and add value, it is likely that some of the people you send your emails to will share them with others.
People often mix with other like-minded people.
Let’s say for example you are a plumbing company that specialises in new domestic boiler installations, and you have a large number of homeowners as past clients.
It is likely that those homeowners will know other homeowners.
So, if your messages are of genuine interest, and if you give people an incentive to share, you may be surprised how many people will share your emails with others.
Most businesses already have lists of past enquirers and customers, even if not in electronic format.
The potential value of this resource should not be underestimated.
The first job with any list is to organise it into names, email addresses, and any other useful data you have, such as gender, age, previous purchases, etc.
Start collating your list!
If you currently do not have a list you have two options:
See our discussion of these options below.
There are a large number of ways that you can start capturing customer and prospect details to building your email list, some ideas include:
There are many companies that sell email lists, and this does look like a very appealing option compared to the more time-consuming option of building a list from scratch.
There are though many risks which could cause very low returns; disadvantages include:
Direct email marketing can work very well when the recipient has subscribed and trusts the sender.
When buying a list, you have no relationship with the recipient, so by default, the campaign will be less successful.
The concept of email is simple, but the practicalities of sending out 1,000’s of emails raises many technical challenges, which means this cannot be done without robust software.
Below some of the challenges that will be faced if you do not use good email management software:
For any company that is going to use email as part of its marketing mix, a professional email management platform is essential.
In addition to getting around the technical challenges of sending out 1,000’s of emails, email platforms will help you manage your campaigns better and find out:
This will help you to optimise future campaigns to increase their performance.
You can also schedule messages to be sent at specific times.
There is the cost of the email management software, which can start from as little as $10 to $199 per month (more for large volumes).
You also need to budget for other work relating to setting up and managing campaigns, such as: