Like it or not, email marketing is a powerful tool that allows you to directly connect with your past customers and contacts as well as potential leads who have been predetermined to have an interest in your services. This marketing tactic should be a mainstay of every company’s marketing arsenal.
Here’s why:
- Smart phone penetration is high: 80% of the population now owns a smart phone.
- With the rise in this penetration, email open rates have jumped 180% over the last three years.
- The average user spends 119 mins/day on their phone; more time spent than on television.
- Almost 10 of those mobile minutes per day are spent on email.
- 53% of all emails are opened on a mobile device.
- 82% of consumers open emails from companies.
- 93% of people say they use promotions received through email.
Most assume the low-cost nature of the medium is the primary driver to developing an email marketing program. For the most part, it is, mainly because of its ability to send personal and targeted messaging to large numbers of people cheaply. However, the value of email marketing program extends well beyond cost. Other advantages include:
- Immediate feedback/action on a promotional message or offer.
- Gathering feedback in the form of stated (opinions) or behavior (tracking).
- Generating incremental awareness through forwarded content.
- Staying top-of-mind through valuable content so that our brand/message is remembered.
But like most powerful tools, email marketing has to be done right. With the amount of emails that people receive daily, it’s important to know how to make sure email is read, and more importantly, that it doesn’t get marked as spam. Time of day, day of week, frequency, subject lines and landing page optimization are amongst many factors that play into a successful email marketing campaign.
Whether for conquesting or further the relationship with existing customers, email marketing should be in the mix.
