Although social media marketing is still on the rise and new ways to promote your business seem to pop up every day, email marketing is still thriving and evolving. If you’re in the marketing business and you’re wondering if email marketing is still worth your time and money, the short answer is “yes”.
Social media means playing the algorithm—email doesn’t
Although an estimated 2.9 billion people use social media, (and most of them for more than an hour per day), social media marketing has an engagement rate of barely over half a percent. However, marketing emails can reach up to 85% of your audience, with an opening rate of over 20%.
Since social media reach depends greatly on organic engagement with posts, it can be hard to reach a large number of users without paying big money to boost your post. But all it takes to get your email into an inbox instead of into the spam folder is some simple marketing best practices.
We’ve broken down some email marketing stats for 2020 to show just how valuable email marketing can be with the right execution and the correct audience.
Get more bang for your buck
According to the eCommerce company Oberlo, a solid email marketing strategy is virtually guaranteed to make money. For every $1 you spend, you should expect about a $42 ROI. Of course, results will vary depending on your business and your marketing strategy.
Mobile optimization is your friend
75% of Gmail users access their email solely from their mobile devices. This means that up to 75% of your emails sent to Gmail accounts will be seen on a small screen, rather than a larger computer screen. Optimizing your emails for mobile devices increases the chances of your audience not only opening your email, but reading and engaging with it as well.
SEO and email marketing go hand in hand
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a method of ensuring that your website appears as high up in the search engine results as possible when your audience searches for related content.
Bridging your email content with your website is one step that you can take so that your content is easily Google-able. Including social media links in your email, as well as links to content that incorporates the same words as your website, can help users find your site later if they type keywords into a search engine instead of their inbox.
SEO can seem confusing and overwhelming, but sites like serptheory.com can teach you tried and true methods to boost your rankings and reach more users.
Beware of Tuesdays
Weird, right? Studies have shown that, although Tuesdays boast the highest email open rate, they also boast the record unsubscribe rate. Monitor your open traffic as well as your unsubscribe traffic, and consider sending your emails during peak open rate days that don’t coincide with peak unsubscribe rates.
Make it personal
Although this study was conducted in 2014, Experian’s note that email personalization can bring in up to six times the revenue as form emails still rings true today. Users are more likely to open an email with their name in the subject line, or with a subject line tailored to their personal interests. Email segmentation is also a great way to send out large batches of the same email tailored to specific groups of people.
Email marketing is key for B2B success
Email marketing is the number one channel used by B2B marketers, and for a good reason! Building a relationship between a business and clientele is important. Rather than reaching out through a phone call—which can interrupt a client’s busy schedule or invade their privacy—emails are a form of communication that can be done on your own time, whether you’re on the business or client end of the deal.
Engaging directly with clients is important to build trust and reputation, and email marketing is a cost-effective way of doing so.
What does this mean for you?
Whether you’re already a business owner or you’re newly looking for the best way to reach your target audience, email marketing has been, and seemingly always will be, the tried and true method. If you are currently struggling with your email marketing campaigns, consider changing your tactics, listening to business podcasts, or reaching out to experts with years of knowledge behind them.
We all start somewhere, so why not start with a simple email?
Interesting related article: “What is Email Marketing?