Why is Email Marketing still effective today?
Email marketing is a subject under much scrutiny. The biggest question facing marketers is where the best bang for the buck is going to come from. Every day that passes puts more pressure on discovering cost effective means of reaching new customers and convincing old customers to return in the future. Email marketing provides the most direct avenue to this end for pennies on the dollar, making it the most relevant and easily the best option for many marketers today.
Close to 3 billion users access email accounts every day to the tune of over 196 billion emails every day. Of these, over 60% are business-related messages. So other than sheer numbers alone what makes email marketing the right choice today?
- It is cost effective: For literally pennies a day marketers increase their reach to nearly 34% of the entire world. (2.5 billion people)
- Versatility: Everyone has a smartphone these days. 91% of them use their mobile device to check their email daily.
- Action Oriented: Emails are intrinsically action oriented; they require a response which gets the ball rolling towards creating a conversion.
- Measurable: Emails are trackable. You can see who has opened, read, deleted or clicked on your ads and even who has unsubscribed. That’s valuable data wrapped in a marketing campaign.
- Personal: Emails can reach extreme levels of personalization to target your customers as directly as possible. You can include names and preferences and even reference recent browsing history.
- More Effective than Social Media: Social Media is the phenomenon of the 21st century affecting billions of people worldwide, but studies show that for acquisition, email marketing is more effective than even popular social outlets.
- Coupons drive sales: Email coupons drive sales to your site, especially when users are able to sign up for sales relevant to them, increasing interest beforehand.
Increase Mobility, Increase Sales
As mentioned, the world of mobile users is expanding rapidly. With a nearly constant resource for obtaining information and completing actions in the palm of their hand, consumers are opting to access the majority of their online data via mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets now greatly outweigh traditional methods for online transactions. Increasing your responsiveness to mobile markets keeps your product presented at its best in front of the largest market on the planet. By taking advantage of built-in features of mobile devices, you can further personalize the experience for users.
Can the SPAM
The single largest hurdle in email marketing is understanding Spam and avoiding that tag for your business communications. Spam is not only detrimental to your chances at conversion, it promotes your business in a negative light and can be subject to severe criminal penalties. A single Spam message can incur up to $16,000 in fines under the CAN-SPAM Act. It’s very important to understand the law and your business’s liability under it. More so, just because a company contracts its email marketing to an outside provider, does not provide an insurance against the violations. In these cases both the originating company and the third party provider can be held liable.
Compliance with CAN-SPAM comes down to a few simple requirements:
- Eliminate deception in the subject line and header information. An email sent for the purpose of commercial use must identify itself clearly. This needs to include identifying information for the company, domain name and originating email address. Clearly label the message as an advertisement and ensure the subject line accurately represents the contents of the message.
- Make sure your opt-out method is clearly visible and simple to initiate. It is unlawful for a user to have to navigate more than one page past your email to opt-out of further emails. Furthermore, you have 10 days to comply with the request and no customer information can be sold, even to mailing lists after the request is made.
- Finally, stay on top of what your hired assistants are doing on your behalf. As mentioned, the relationship between a third-party and the advertising business is not distinguished by the law. Both parties are accountable.
For a more detailed guideline on the CAN-SPAM Act, visit this page to a get a Compliance Guide for Businesses.
In conclusion, email marketing is one of the most powerful tools at the disposal of companies today to reach a growing market of engaged users with personalized ads that drive greater conversion.
There’s more to it than simply typing up a message and sending it out to an entire recipient list. Personalization through modern tools, tracking programs and responsive design ensure your message gets noticed, opened and most importantly acted upon in a positive manner.
By observing the Spam laws and formatting marketing communications, your messages will avoid being trapped in increasingly powerful filters and defend your company against possible prosecution for failure to comply with government standards. With these observances even the all powerful Social Media platform can’t drive conversion rates like the most common form of modern communication.
