Email Marketing Isn’t Dead, It’s Evolving

The old model of sending batch email to a list is no longer effective — no matter how awesome that list is. And due to the huge success of this “oh so great model”, certain things changed. Gmail for example, has made unsubscribing from annoying emails a lot easier and other email providers followed…

Fast forward…

Email marketing has evolved.

Blogging has evolved, social media has evolved, so why shouldn’t email evolve?

Today, your emails must truly engage your prospects and customers. More importantly, your emails need to fulfill the following five criteria:

1. Your emails need to be trustworthy.
2. Your emails need to be relevant.
3. Your emails need to be integrated across channels (cross-channel communication).
4. Your emails need to be conversational.
5. Your emails need to be strategic.

Sounds exhausting?

Well, here’s the deal:

If you want engaged customers, you’d better think of ways to include all these attributes into your next email marketing campaign. If not, simply disregard all of the above and continue to invest in “hope marketing”.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Co., good old email is a static form of communication. And yes, its reputation has been destroyed by all kinds of spam and phishing attempts.

BTW did you ever get one or more of those “Hi, I’m the Prince of Nigeria and I’m reaching out to you to let you know that you’re the lucky one to get $1 million as soon as I receive your bank details”…. Sounds familiar? Annoying? You bet.

Email marketing had to endure quite a lot during the past years. Check out this short video by comedic duo Trip and Tyler, and you’ll understand exactly what I mean…

Email Marketing in Real Life

OK, so evolution is on the way… and most marketers have adapted their email marketing strategies to meet the new requirements of savvy users.

Time to dig deeper and have a look at the latest stats and numbers…

Six Eye-Opening Email Marketing Stats And Facts That Will Get You Thinking

1. For every $1 invested in email marketing, the average return is $43. [Source: Direct Marketing Association]

2. 91% of consumers use email at least once a day. [Source: ExactTarget]

3. Email is almost 40 times more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined. [Source: McKinsey & Company]

4. Email conversion rates are at least 3 times higher than social media. The average order value is 17% higher. [Source: eMarketer]

5. When asked which medium consumers would like to receive updates from: 90% opted for email newsletter, while only 10% chose Facebook. [Source: Nielsen Norman Group]

6. 48% of consumers cite email as their preferred channel of communication with brands. [Source: Kentico Software]

The numbers are indicating that email marketing is alive and well. The substantial ROI you get from this marketing medium seems to encourage businesses across industries to increase their email marketing budgets, develop and implement stronger email marketing campaigns to finally reap the tremendous rewards this traditional online channel has to offer.

Build Email Relationship Equity

I encourage you to build email relationship equity. The key ingredient is trust.

And the way you build it is through:

• Consistency,
• Regularity,
• By Delivering Insightful and Relevant Information,
• And Providing the Right Mix of Content and Commercial.

Conclusion

Email marketing is way more than just bombarding an audience with as many emails as possible.

Effective email marketing requires you to first get to know and understand your audience’s needs, wants, desires, fears and frustrations so that you can create relevant campaigns that are perceived as valuable and helpful by your users.

Goodbye old-school batch and blast email marketing.

Welcome modern and engaging email marketing.

Over to you…

What are your thoughts about the future of email marketing? Is email dead, or alive and thriving?