Rumors Of The Death Of Email Are Highly Exaggerated. I remember reading a couple of years ago that email was dead. People weren't using it to communicate any longer; instead, they were on Facebook, Twitter, and texting each other. And now, of course, there are all these other services that integrate graphics and video with just a little bit of content, like SnapChat, Vine, and Instagram.
Email, though, certainly is not dead, at least not where businesses and smartphone users are concerned.
Email Continues To Rule Business Communications
Consumers may like the latest social media app and many have, in fact, reduced their use of it, although Hubspot reports that 91% still check their email at least once a day.
With data from Epsilon, Direct Marketing Association, Marketing Sherpa, and Alchemy Worx, Hubspot also tells us:
- 54% of all email sent from businesses is for marketing purposes (Epsilon)
- The average clickthrough rate for B2B marketing email was 1.7% in Q2 2013 (Epsilon)
- BUT: email marketing has an ROI of 4300% and is four times more effective than direct mail. (DMA)
- 60% of those very sharp marketers believe email marketing produces a positive ROI (Marketing Sherpa)
- 76% of email is opened within two days (Alchemy Worx)
Clearly, businesses are not about to give up or reduce their use of it. Business Insider and others insist it’s still the most preferred way to communicate at work. I’ve found this in my own research, particularly when I consider B2B marketing. Most social media applications seem to be designed for consumers and B2C and have limited appeal for B2B.
Last year’s iContact study of email marketers at small and medium-size businesses found that 92% shared news about products and services through email. Ninety percent also said they shared news about their own organizations through it as well, and high numbers (84%) engaged customers through email, sent email newsletters (83%) and responded to news stories about their organization through it (59%).
It's Marketing is Measurable
I love email marketing as a B2B tool. There, I’ve said it.
I love it because it uses a medium that business decisionmakers are comfortable with. Heck, many of them grew up with email. Plus, it’s so easy to track where your email has gone and what happened to it. Services like Constant Contact tell you how many emails in each blast you send were opened, what links the reader clicked on, and whether the email was forwarded and much more. That's why The Friedman Group has aligned itself with Constant Contact and offer its wide array of products to its clients.
Email marketing provides a great opportunity to emphasize your brand. Emails can be customized and email marketing providers give you plenty of opportunity to do. Just upload your logo into your account; some services even size it for you. Customize footer space with your contact information, logo, social share buttons, whatever you like.
Providers will track and report to you anyone who asks to be added or removed from your email list, saving you any headaches from antispam monitors.
Finally, the content in your email marketing is easy to integrate with social media and you won’t get “dinged” for duplication.
A Little Polish For Your Email Marketing Success
There are specific steps you can take to make your email campaign even more successful:
- Use email to establish your value to the recipient. Subject lines should be clear on what’s inside—no funny stuff or misleading content. Recipients should recognize anything from you is useful.
- Make your email mobile-friendly. ExactTarget reports that almost 65% of decision makers read email on mobile devices. Among Gmail users, 66% open mail on their smartphones.
- Make sure the summary header is to the point. Be sure to use it, too, as this is the first content that appears on iPhones.
- Add graphics or video. Email with graphics get almost 50% more click-through activity than those without.
So, what are you waiting for? Let us help you integrate email marketing into your current marketing plan right now! Don't waste another minute. As a matter of fact, why don't you send me an email and we'll get started.
