Thanks to new marketing platforms — whether it’s ChatGPT or other AI advances to social media avenues like TikTok — it’s an exciting time to be a digital marketer.
At Logical, we like to focus on these cutting edge platforms and new technologies, but at the crux of it, one digital marketing platform consistently performs well: email marketing.
Email is one of the best channels for a return on your investment, with, as a 2020 study pointed out, every dollar spent on email marketing generates $45 in ROI. Most other marketing platforms don’t reach those figures.
Although the numbers are in favor of email marketing, businesses can be hesitant to use it. They think email marketing is expensive (it’s not) or that it requires too much work (it doesn’t). The result? Larger marketing expenses for fewer results.
Email marketing is the cure for marketing ROI woes. Don’t believe us? Here’s a list of 10 major reasons and the subsequent benefits of using email marketing
10 reasons to use email marketing
1. Increase sales
Email marketing has plenty of applications for building customer trust and increasing communication. But at the end of the day, we know marketing is still about the bottom line.
Email marketing is more than just a communication platform: it’s an essential tool that can dramatically increase your sales.
Email is particularly powerful for boosting online and eCommerce sales, whether you’re sending regular email campaigns or your email automations are set up by using workflows.
For example, sending a simple email from an abandoned cart email workflow to users who would have otherwise dropped off your radar can increase brand visibility and remind users to purchase. In fact, half of all customers who open an abandoned cart email return to your site to make a transactional conversion.
Consider offering freebies, coupons, and last-minute sales to your email subscribers, especially in the form of an email campaign. When wallets can be tight, it’s an incentive for buyers to seek out coupons when buying products online. That said, encourage customers to buy more of your products through timely email outreach and see the dollars roll in.
2. Multichannel capabilities
Your customers aren’t on one platform. Thanks to their smartphones, they’re checking email, listening to a podcast, and tweeting at the same time. A multichannel marketing strategy helps you stand out to your users on several platforms, increasing the chance they’ll act on your message.
The beauty of email marketing is that it easily integrates into your multichannel campaign. Use email marketing for multichannel tactics like email blog post alerts, email video announcements, or trigger emails based on social media activity.In fact, a multichannel approach is ideal to see results with your email marketing. If you need a leg up with your multi channel approach, Logical Media Group offers web design and SEO services that give your campaign a seamless end to end experience. However you slice it, email helps you interact with users on several platforms without breaking a sweat.
3. Powerful measurement
As long as you use digital tools, it’s easy to measure your campaign performance. This rings true no matter whether you’re running a social media, pay per click, or SEO campaign. Of course, email is a highly measurable channel that needs to be in your bag of marketing tricks, too.
Any decent email service provider (ESP) will offer analytics that show open rates, click through rates, and other crucial data to measure your email marketing efforts. Most ESPs connect with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms so you can see a well-rounded view of prospects before you contact them.
Measurement on both email workflows and email marketing campaigns is critical to seeing how your efforts directly affect the bottom line. Email is highly measurable and it’s easy to attribute your efforts directly to sales.
4. Build a reputation
Although we’re focusing heavily on sales and ROI, there’s another facet to email marketing in that it gives a boost to your brand reputation and appearance.
Email isn’t just for convincing customers to open their wallets… it’s your lifeline to communicate with your audience.
A buyer puts their trust in you when they subscribe to your email list. Foster that trust with email marketing. Send valuable content that your buyers crave, and ask for nothing in return. It can be as simple as sending a happy birthday email or sending news related to your industry. It sounds counterintuitive, but email marketing helps you build a reputation of value and trust rather than solely seeing subscribers as potential customers.
5. Device agnostic
Sure, most of your customers are probably surfing the web on their smartphones. But they’re also using tablets, smart watches, desktops, and other mobile devices. If you’ve ever run a PPC ad on these platforms, you know it can be a bit of a headache planning for multiple devices. You don’t know what device or app your users will be on at a given time, leaving a lot up in the air.
The great thing about email marketing is that it’s device agnostic. Your users can be on any device and still receive your message. You don’t have to wonder if your users are on Instagram, Facebook, or any other social platform. If you have their email, you know they’re using email.
Of course, you need to design your emails so they appear correctly on any size of screen. Follow these best practices to optimize your emails for all screens.
6. A/B testing
Some businesses think that email is a one-and-done deal. That you only get one shot to create the perfect email before it goes out. Fortunately, neither of these things are true.
The great thing about email marketing is that any ESP worth its salt is going to offer A/B testing, which is also called split testing. An A/B test lets you experiment with any aspect of your email. It’s like conducting a science experiment to see which email performs best.
For example, you might run an A/B test on a few subject lines, preview lines, or calls to action to see which one gets the best open rate or click through rate. Thanks to smart ESP software, you can run these tests and send out the best email for your audience with zero fuss.
7. Improve communication
It’s not enough for businesses to sell products or services. Your business is a brand, and a brand has to have an identity. A crucial part of this identity is communicating — and doing it on a regular basis.
Email marketing, and specifically having a well-thought out and goal-oriented email marketing strategy, gives you the tools to easily communicate with customers.
You can build relationships with existing customers, keep new customers in the loop, and even rekindle relationships with past customers. The best part? All of this can be automated with email marketing, giving you time to focus on the big picture.
8. Personalization
Customers don’t want to be treated like a number. If you’re pumping resources into catch-all social media posts, you’re probably not appealing to customers on a personal level. Email marketing gives you the flexibility to segment and micro-target your audience.
Target users based on their past purchase history, interests, age, sex, or any other demographic that benefits your business. Check out this guide to quickly find this important data in Google Analytics. The more targeted your emails, the more personalized experience you can give customers.
9. Affordability
With all the acronyms we’re throwing around, it makes email marketing seem complex and expensive. But it really isn’t. Email marketing is the most affordable form of digital marketing.
Let’s say you want to promote a new product. You might pump $1,000 into a Facebook ads campaign and see a few conversions. But $1,000 will get you an awful lot of email marketing. This includes the actual email content creation, creative design, and deployment of the campaigns.
Remember that every dollar spent on email marketing generates about $44 in ROI. When it comes to getting more bang for your buck, email is the clear winner.
10. Fad-free
Periscope. Instagram. MySpace. TikTok.
These popular social media platforms have one thing in common: they’re fads. Instagram is still going strong, of course, but the popularity of these platforms comes and goes.
Marketers are at the mercy of how well these platforms appeal to their target audience. Remember the recent Facebook exodus from 2018? Or how about the more recent Twitter (or “X”) departures? That caused many businesses to lose a critical source of lead generation. They had to change their strategy when their customer access was suddenly cut short.
While your customers won’t always be on Facebook, they’re always checking their email. Email marketing is not a fad. It’s the most stable digital platform you can use to connect with your audience. Reach them where they are, and stop worrying about which social platform is more popular.
End of the Day, Why Should You Use Email Marketing?
Email isn’t going anywhere. As the digital landscape changes, email is a constant. Email marketing is an ROI-positive way to build your business with ease. It might not be as exciting as Instagram Stories or as flashy as TikTok videos, but email is still the best marketing medium for your dollar.
Make sure your business is reaching users where they are — in their email inbox.
