Why You Should Be Obsessive About Email Marketing In The Next 30 Days

For over 20 years, email marketing has been a basic tool for every business with a web presence.

In that time, tons of new methods and technologies have come forward in the digital marketing arena.

It might make you question if email marketing is still relevant.

The answer is a resounding YES!

Email marketing is not only still relevant, but it’s something you need to get obsessed with right away.

Let me share the reasons why.

Email Marketing Isn’t Going Anywhere

Email marketing is a tactic that’s only evolved over time.

There have been tons of innovations in the medium that allow your strategies to be smarter.

It’s a growing, proven, adaptable marketing tactic with a unique ability to connect with an audience. Click To Tweet

Targeted campaigns, list segmentation, automation, and advanced metrics make the data you gather on your customers easy to use in your campaigns.

And, with an estimated 4.2 billion people expected to be using email by 2020, you can bet that email providers are going to keep investing in that smart technology.

Most people – about 90% – check their email daily.

That means you have a pretty good chance of catching them in their inbox.

It’s a growing, proven, adaptable marketing tactic with a unique ability to connect with an audience.

It’s going to stick around for a while.

There Are A Ton Of Good Reasons To Get Obsessed With Email Marketing

With an estimated 281 billion emails sent daily, there is plenty of data about how effective emails are.

That number also suggests that email marketing is still effective.

But exactly how effective?

That’s exactly the kind of information we’re going to explore today.

I’ve not only got the ways that email is more effective, but I’ve also got why it’s more effective.

You won’t have to take my word for it either.

I’ve collected the data that backs up the claims.

These are the reasons you need to get obsessed with email marketing right now.

It’s Effective At Getting New Clients

For starters, email marketing is one of the best ways your small business can get new customers.

You’ll find interested leads through your blog and other content, but you’ll need to communicate with them in order to convert them.

That’s where email steps in.

As a part of an effective inbound marketing strategy, email helps to nurture your clients through their buying journey.

As a part of an effective inbound marketing strategy, email helps to nurture your clients through their buying journey. Click To Tweet

That lead nurturing is the best way to convert your contacts into customers.

In fact, according to McKinsey, email is nearly 40 times more effective for new customer acquisition than Facebook or Twitter.

In a world that puts so much emphasis on social media, this can be a big difference for your company.

This is especially true for transactional emails, which can gain you as much as 69% more orders.

That’s a huge difference from a tactic that most people falsely believe is dead.

Your Audience Prefers Email

A lot has been said about people’s preferences for email.

Some small business owners feel like emails are irritating and avoid sending them to their clients.

However, that’s simply not the case.

According to Adobe, 50% of your audience wants to hear from you weekly.

That makes email marketing a no-brainer for most small businesses.

However, they’d like it if your emails were informative instead of promotional.

Since, like most small business owners, you’re likely working on a limited marketing budget.

That means you need to use tactics that people want and like.

Social media can be effective, but you’ve probably noticed that you’re not getting the reach that you want to.

But email gives you that direct line to connect with your leads and customers.

According to MarketingSherpa, 72% of all consumers are looking for promotional and informative emails from their favorite brands.

But why might your customers feel that way?

Email is convenient.

Most people can access their email from the devices they carry daily.

That allows them to easily stay connected with their favorite brands.

It also allows them to redeem coupons and special offers without the need for a printer.

Communication through email is also instant.

Because most people have a 24-hour connection to their mobile device, they can be notified of exclusives and last-minute deals right away.

Other than great information, people are interested in specific kinds of promotional material.

They prefer things like coupons, loyalty rewards, contests, sneak peeks, and free content (think ebooks).

But you have to track to understand specifically what works for your audience.

Pay attention to the metrics that your email provider offers.

Specifically, look at:

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• Conversions

These are going to tell you what types of content your audience wants.

Also, don’t forget to watch your unsubscribe rates.

When you hit spikes here, you’ll know what your audience really isn’t interested in.

Email Marketing Can Be Interactive

People are much more engaged in marketing content that does something.

That’s the interesting thing about email marketing.

With a cleverly crafted campaign, you can send interactive content directly to your customers and leads.

Things like embedded video or animated GIF images can get your audience to pay attention to.

By making your emails interactive, you’ve already engaged your audience before they’ve even clicked anything. Click To Tweet

In fact, just including a video in an email can reportedly increase click-through rates by as much as 300%.

That kind of result comes for a good reason.

By making your emails interactive, you’ve already engaged your audience before they’ve even clicked anything.

They get interested and want to know more.

Interestingly, using interactive content in your email is going to improve the way you integrate other channels, too.

For example, you could include some social links to go with your video, so your audience can share your content through their networks.

The more you can intertwine your marketing channels, the opportunities you’ll have to touch base with your market.

There’s An Opportunity To Be Personal

Haven’t you had it with cold, cookie-cutter marketing messages?

Be it through email, social media, or even television, people want a more personalized experience from marketing efforts.

They want to see marketing that specifically suits what they need and like most.

According to Salesforce, they want it bad enough that 79% of consumers are willing to trade more personal data for it.

I’d be willing to guess you feel similarly, right?

Most email marketing providers allow you all the tools you need to group similar leads and send them personalized emails.

That grouping is important, because the basic levels of personalization, like the first name in an email, isn’t going to be enough.

Consumers want messages, offers, and experiences that relate to their needs.

Thankfully you can use the data you gather about your audience to create real-life customer personas.

You can then target messages to very similar groups of leads that include special offers and communications tailored to their interests.

Consumers want messages, offers, and experiences that relate to their needs. Click To Tweet

You can even use their past website activity and purchase history to customize the experience further.

Ultimately, you’ll be creating emails that your audience will be more likely to act on, improving your clickthrough and conversion rates dramatically.

Because this kind of customization is so unique to email, the medium becomes all the more valuable to your marketing efforts.

You’ll lower unsubscribe rates and reduce inactive email addresses, too, making sure you get the most value from your email list.

Email Is Great For Mobile

People are on mobile devices more than ever.

Don’t believe me? Think about it.

Chances are you’re reading this on your phone.

If you’re in public, look around for just a second.

You’ll see there are a lot of other people doing the same thing as you: interacting with their phones.

You don’t need a study to see that.

Mobile device usage is part of the reason email marketing works so well.

Most people check their emails from their phones.

In fact, it’s the most popular thing that people use their phones for, even above web browsing and Facebook.

They look at emails on their phones more often than they get directions on it.

That information is according to Facebook.

Think they’d lie if someone was using another service over theirs?

Since email makes up such a huge part of most people’s mobile device usage, it’s a great way for small businesses to reach people away from their desk.

Apps and SMS marketing require a large investment in new software and technology.

But email is something we’re all already using.

Plus, an app or SMS only lets you reach so far for your dollar.

But email still goes to desktop devices and can also go to any other device they’re using.

That makes your marketing investment go further.

Just make sure you’re optimizing your emails for mobile devices.

Adestra says that 70% of people delete emails from their phone if they’re not optimized within three seconds.

That makes an average of half your email list that will trash your unoptimized email.

As you optimize your emails, remember to keep them simple.

Too many graphics and too much text can make it difficult to view an email on a mobile device.

Also, make sure you include a call-to-action, preferably one that looks like a button.

That makes the click size big enough for a fat thumb like mine.

Then your customers can interact wherever they are.

Did You Know You Can Automate?

Automation is a huge part of the email marketing discussion, and it’s going to be for some time.

It’s one of the few forms of marketing that gets better with automation.

Automating your emails helps to improve their relevance and get them sent at the right time.

Specific automation tricks, like action triggers, can help get your email to the client at the perfect time.

Imagine how effective it would be to send a sales email or a customized special to a site visitor right after they gave you a critical buying indicator.

Like when they visit the pricing page.

Think about it this way.

97.6% of first-time site visitors are going to leave without buying anything.

How are you going to bring them back?

That’s simple. You’re going to automatically send emails with content that interests them.

If you’ve got great incentives, site visitors are going to sign up for your mailing list.

You’ll get an opportunity to communicate with them in the future.

One of the first ways to do that is with a “welcome email”.

Imagine how effective it would be to send a sales email or a customized special to a site visitor right after they gave you a critical buying indicator. Click To Tweet

The minute someone signs up for your email list, give them something automatically.

Like a basic discount.

You might also set up a drip campaign.

Drip campaigns are automated email series that play into lead nurturing.

They go out during a specific period offering helpful information to leads that aren’t quite ready to buy.

These campaigns are great for keeping your company in front of your leads until they make a buying decision.

One of the most effective kinds of automated emails you can send is the abandoned cart email.

That’s the transactional email I mentioned earlier that can boost orders as much as 69%.

It automatically sends to someone who filled a cart in your e-commerce store but didn’t buy it.

There are tons more ways automation can improve your email marketing, and that helps you spend less time doing it yourself.

It’s Simple To Measure The ROI

One of the biggest challenges for a small business is to find marketing tactics that work.

You can’t know what works if you can’t measure it.

Thankfully, email is easy to track over time.

The metrics are simple and easy to understand.

No guesswork involved.

On average, email marketing has a 4400% ROI according to Campaign Monitor.

Your standard analytics tools, provided by your email service, will probably help you see that.

However, there are more advanced tools out there.

You know, if you want to better understand what’s happening.

Paying close attention to what happens with your emails gives you the chance to improve as time goes on.

You’ll be able to make things work more effectively when you understand it.

By tracking as much information as possible, you’ll better understand what drives your audience.

Paying close attention to what happens with your emails gives you the chance to improve as time goes on. Click To Tweet

If you’re lucky, your email software will have the ability to A/B test.

That’s going to allow you to examine minute differences, like different call-to-action texts, that may get your readers to respond even better.

Then you’ll really know how to make your emails rock.

Email Marketing Is Really Affordable

On the flip side to a great ROI, you need a marketing method you can afford.

In most cases, email marketing takes little investment.

ExpertSender suggests that email marketing is usually less than 20% of the marketing budget for most companies.

That’s a tiny amount of money, considering most companies are only allotting 7%-8% of their total revenue towards marketing.

That makes email the first logical choice to help you market on a budget.

The exact cost of your email marketing is going to depend on a few factors, like whether or not you can handle any of it in-house.

You’ll need to be able to analyze the data, create a strategy, find campaign opportunities, and figure out who will put all the pieces in place.

That might not make sense to do in-house.

The exact cost of your email marketing is going to depend on a few factors, like whether or not you can handle any of it in-house. Click To Tweet

In that case, an outside agency may be a better choice.

Usually, that’s going to cost a little more up-front, but the time it frees up for your team might make you more money than the agency will cost over the long-term.

Their experience will likely speed up your results too.

That’s going to be great for your bottom line.

Email Is Great For Distributing Your Other Content

Coupling email with your other marketing tends to work well.

It works as a delivery method for the information you want your audience to see as a part of the nurturing process.

From blogs to landing pages, podcasts, and videos, emails deliver this content straight to your audience’s inbox.

Content Marketing Institute found that 72% of marketers found email marketing to be the most effective way to distribute content.

That’s great news for anyone who is putting in the hours to make great content.

Here’s the simple way to handle it.

First, send an automated email with a link to your latest content.

Kinda like the one you got for this if you’re on our email list.

It’s a great way to let people know that you’ve got more information for them.

Especially, as I’ve repeated, as a part of that lead nurturing process.

Chances are some of them might even pass the email off to a colleague they think will be interested.

Speaking of the emails you’re sending, have you thought about those?

You should have an email signature in all of them.

Include a link to your latest content there as well.

That’s another opportunity to reach out to people who may not be getting your newsletter.

You can also send an email to any influencers you mention in your content.

That gives them a boost to their ego and an opportunity to put your content out to their list.

When used creatively, email can become a distribution factory for your content.

You can even use it to share your micro content, like your social media pages and podcast.

Get Obsessed With Email Marketing Now And Create Growth

The versatility of email marketing can’t be overstated.

It’s going to provide a ton of growth potential for your small business.

But it’s not going to work if you don’t get absolutely obsessed.

You need to get your strategy lined up and your resources in place right away.

That means putting a big focus on growing your list.

You’ll also need to think about what kind of content you’re going to provide your subscribers.

Most importantly, you’ll need a plan to use that content to influence conversions over time.

It’s time to get your share of email marketing’s incredible ROI.