As a former e-commerce business leader, a former SEO and content marketing leader, and now as the leader of a team of brilliant minds in email marketing (seriously, they are sharp), one enduring truth has become incredibly apparent to me: Email marketing is where it’s at.
Email is the most powerful tool you have, and your business will depend on it in 2018. If you’ve got limited budget, throw it at email. Here are three reasons why:
- Your email list is qualified.
Everyone on your email list has already checked a box when visiting your website –– or during the checkout process when making a purchase from you. That means you know they are interested in hearing from you in a way other audiences might not be. Your subscribers expect your email to deliver special deals, product info, sales collateral, and other details relevant to what you’re offering. By checking that box, a user is literally saying, “I might buy from you (again).” Your social media audience may be more passive, which is why investing in email is a safer bet. - You (yes, you) check your email 1,000 times per day. So do your customers.
Okay, so maybe not 1,000 times per day, but enough times to warrant my point. Although constantly checking your email –– right when it pops up on your desktop or when you refresh it on your smartphone/tablet –– isn’t the most efficient way to get through your inbox, business marketers must take advantage of these habits among consumers. The average person checks their email 15 times per day, and a majority check it first thing in the morning. And trust me, I hear those of you who are thinking that people check their social media channels first thing in the morning. While that’s true, too, your social messages rely on algorithms to reach your audiences. Email gives you so much more control when it comes to reaching your audience, wherever they are and on whatever device (and you’ll likely spend a lot less for that reach). Email technology like Send Time Optimization increases your control even more, allowing you to effectively predict when an individual will open their email and to deliver your message right then. - Email is personal on a truly individual level.
With marketing technology companies like Movable Ink out there, it’s easier than ever to drop an email into a subscriber’s inbox that looks like it was intended solely for that individual. Gone are the days of batch and blast (or as I like to call it, the “bazooka method”). We now live in a world where personalization is imperative, whether it be automatically adding a user’s first name or reminding them of the items they were browsing or left in their cart –– and maybe even serving them a coupon for those products. The fact that you can serve an individual with one specific email out of a catalog of hundreds, based on their last interaction with your brand, is mind-boggling. But, it’s a real opportunity, so take advantage of that reality. Also, with shortening attention spans, competing priorities, and life on the go, you need to remind your audiences what they were doing — where they were showing intent.
The list goes on (email is incredibly measurable, actionable, etc.), but you’re probably ready to check out and check your email now yourself. Let me just clarify something very quickly. I’m not saying that your other marketing initiatives (content, social, traditional) aren’t important as well. In fact, quite the opposite. But email is the best way to bring all those initiatives together, to remind people that you exist, that your product exists—that you are there for them right when they wake up or right as they’re winding down to go to sleep.
But how would you know when that is?
Resources: