According to the latest statistics, there are about 4.6 billion internet users in the world today. The dawn of the technological era has seen a great shift to the digital world, not only by individuals but also by organizations. Today, almost every process is automated, and everything can be found on the internet.
Given our digital dependence, it will be right to note that marketers are turning to digital strategies at a super-fast pace. It is estimated that up to $146 million will be spent on digital marketing by 2021, and so you can imagine how big this industry is predicted to become.
However, becoming successful in digital marketing isn't a walk in the park. With the industry already flooded with techniques and "specialists" trying to outsmart each other, you need to have a fool-proof strategy in place. With dozens of tools and platforms available, a savvy marketer needs to figure out how to combine the different efforts to form a solid digital strategy and yield good results.
While various digital marketing strategies yield different results, one thing for sure is that the cornerstone of every digital marketing plan is email marketing. Despite the cyclical allegations that email marketing is dead, it is still one of the most powerful marketing strategies around. Furthermore, it can easily be integrated to run alongside other marketing campaigns one has in mind.
This form of marketing can help you reach more customers and on a more personal level to build solid relationships that you'll require when moving them through the sales funnel. Email marketing has been proven to have an incredible return on investment (ROI) of anywhere between 3800% and 4400%. This is a lot, particularly for a strategy that is claimed to be "dying" or even "dead".
Of course, for you to get such types of results, you need to work extra smart and use email marketing strategies that work. Luckily, there are many methods that you can employ, as there isn't really an end to successful strategies. Moreover, you can also learn more tricks through the online courses and learning platforms.
Through this post, you'll come to know the importance of investing in email marketing, and how you can tie it with other marketing strategies to get the best results.
The advantage of email marketing
Even though there are many other digital marketing strategies at your disposal that can yield good results, none matches the ROI you get from email marketing.
While most of the small businesses use Facebook as their most preferred marketing channel, other studies indicate that consumers prefer email marketing as the primary channel they receive brand offers. This is also backed by other statistics that prove email marketing to be having a higher ROI and engagement:
- Email is 40 times more effective in new customer acquisition than other social media marketing channels - McKinsey
- Email marketing has the highest conversion rate of 66% - DMA
- An important message is five times more likely to be seen on an email than social media posts - Radicati
- 72% of consumers prefer receiving promotional material via email, unlike only 17% that prefer social sites such as Facebook - MarketingSherpa
5 reasons why email marketing is important for your internet marketing campaigns
Still doubting the importance of email marketing for your company? Let us give you five reasons why email marketing is something that you should not be ignoring:
1. Email marketing is more effective (than social media) for customer acquisition.
Social media is an important marketing tool that any business out there should invest in. It is an excellent tool for companies to interact with their audience and strengthen personal relationships with them. However, when your ultimate goal is conversion: converting people into customers, members, or supporters, email marketing is your best shot.
A study by McKinsey revealed that email is a significantly more effective way to acquire customers compared to social media. Apart from people taking emailed offers more seriously, consumers that purchase products they see on their emails spend 138% more than those that didn't receive the email offers.
2. You own your list
Unlike social media, the people that receive your email marketing content are from your list.
3. Personal and customizable
Another reason that might motivate you into investing in email marketing is the fact that you can segment your audience into lists, and send them a customized, personal message that resonates with them. This way, you are in a better position to provide value to them.
When writing a post on social media, you will be addressing all your audience at once (including those that don't follow you too), e.g. "To all of our fans…" This type of message might not perform so well, as far as conversion is concerned. Some people might feel "left out", hence, the chances of converting become minimal.
However, with email marketing, you can customize an email to fit the exact needs of the individual. You can personalize the message to include their names and arrive in their inbox privately.
4. Action-oriented
Did you know that we are all trained to do something with an email? There are lots of actions we can take after opening an email - reply to it, forward, sign-up, purchase, or click-through a link. Email is often transactional in nature, and you can take advantage of this by directing the traffic to your site or to take any action you require.
5. Keeps you top of mind
Did you know that 91% of consumers are regular email users? Most of these people often check their emails daily, compared to social media which one can go days without checking.
There are many other reasons that would convince you to try out email marketing. You'll even come to realize that email marketing is more cost-effective compared to social media marketing.
Tying email marketing with other digital marketing strategies
The ultimate goal of any digital marketing strategy is to build brand awareness, find new leads, increase customer retention, and of course, increase the revenue. Digital marketing solutions vary, and there is no one-size-fits-all technique. However, you can combine several strategies to yield even better results.
Whenever someone mentions digital marketing, many things come into play. But in most cases, they often mean the following:
- Content marketing - to have a vibrant online presence, it is crucial to create great content that connects with customers from the awareness stage, up to the purchase and retention phases. There's a lot to consider in terms of coming up with great content, from blog posts, how-to-guide, infographics, etc.
- Social media marketing - most consumers use social media, so it is important to go where your customers are. Using social media is a great tool to help businesses engage with their customers, announce new products, offers, and many more.
- Organic and paid search - your customers can find you on search engine search results either organically - through techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO) or paid search where you pay to appear on the top SERPs pages.
- Email marketing - you can use email to attract and retain customers easily, with personalized messages.
- Online events - hosting online events such as a webinar will help you to establish credibility. It is also a great source of data collection, as you can request your customers to share information like their contact address, job titles, etc., upon sign up.
All these strategies bear results (differently) in increasing brand awareness, targeting new leads, and finally increasing the revenue for your business. So how can you tie email marketing with some of them? Here are a few tactics you can use:
Social media
Most email service providers will enable you to add the premade footers with social media icons that link to your pages. Whenever you send an email, you can add the icons or add links where you can ask your readers to click and follow you. You can also easily embed posts from your social feeds and user reviews on the email, which can help convince the reader to purchase from you.
Content marketing
Using emails to market your content is an excellent strategy to achieve more results. Whenever people subscribe to your mailing list, they have technically given you permission to market your products to them.
However, you should be more careful not to come out as too salesy. In a study conducted by MarketingSherpa, 19% of people unsubscribe from mailing lists when a brand is constantly trying to sell them something. Even though this was the ultimate goal for asking them to subscribe, it shouldn't be your priority.
You can take advantage of such an opportunity to share your recent blog posts, tutorials, podcasts, and other useful content to them.
Webinars
Whenever someone subscribes to your mailing list, it means that they are genuinely interested in your content and are more likely to take whatever action you ask of them. They are more likely to respond to and sign up for your webinars and other virtual events you may host. In contrary, most people will not see your event posted on social media, not unless you promote it (which will cost you).
Final word
A sound digital marketing strategy can help brands to drive traffic to their websites, increase brand awareness, and ultimately increase sales. Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies that a business can invest in. It is undoubtedly the glue that holds your digital marketing strategy together.
However, to succeed, you need to integrate different marketing strategies for an even better campaign. As digital marketing is an ever-evolving channel, you may need to upskill yourself and don't be left behind.