Quick — name today’s most effective marketing tactic. Is it posting on TikTok? Or finding that perfect influencer to elevate your brand?
Chances are, you didn’t say “email marketing.” In fact, more than 40% of marketers saw budget cuts to email since the pandemic, believing the adage “email is dead.” But the most recent statistics are clear: for every $1 spent, email marketing returns $42 — and, yes, that’s a 4,200% return on investment.
The Benefits of Email Marketing
“Marketers often say things like ‘Email is dying. Let’s do Instagram because it’s a hot commodity,’“ said Adrian Patel, CEO of MailMonitor, a provider of email deliverability analytics. “But post-COVID, the value of an email has shot up four to ten times.”
What many marketers don’t yet realize is in addition to doing more business and purchasing online, the pandemic has changed people’s behavior around email as well. Throughout 2020 and into this year, people worldwide have been spending their time in front of a screen while social distancing in their homes. As a result, they’ve developed a new behavioral pattern of going into their inbox to pass the time.
“While they are doing this, they are not cognizant that they are spending most of their day in their inbox,“ explained Patel.
An awareness of this recent trend can open the door to new marketing opportunities, regardless of the size of a business.
“There are a limited number of ways to connect to your customers — phone, door to door, billboards — ways that no longer work, especially for tech-forward industries, “ said Patel. “Even non-email marketers need to be aware of that, because leaders at the top of an organization are concerned about advancing revenue year after year. I think email marketing is now critical to that.”
The Biggest Pitfall in Email Marketing
Yet many who are new to email marketing often get a rude awakening after launching their first campaign.
“There is a general assumption that when I send an email, that person will receive it, “ said Patel. “After all, when I send an email to my mom, she gets them! So, someone who is new to email marketing might create a great email with a juicy subject line, press send and … it doesn’t work! That’s a pretty big disappointment from day one. What they don’t realize is that getting that email into the recipient’s inbox is the biggest wall to climb over.”
How to Avoid Becoming Spam
Statistics show that 90% of all email never gets delivered to the inbox. Knowing that this is one of the greatest sources of frustration to marketers, both Patel and Justin Stone of the AMA decided to team up to create Email Deliverability 101, a free webinar to provide a handful of email best practices and tips to make sure your efforts don’t get lost in the spam folder.
“Email marketing can be a complicated space,’” said Patel. “We want to have people show up to the webinar being vulnerable about what they may not know. Often, people can be afraid to ask anything and don’t get what they could out of it. This webinar is a place for learning and to ask those questions. And there are no stupid questions! We want you to amass the knowledge you need and apply it in your business to win.”
Leveraging Email for Business Growth
Email as a marketing tool is expected to continue growing into the foreseeable future. Patel says this will mean more revenue for email providers, marketers, and more money that will circle back to scale and grow those systems.
“Everyone should know how email marketing is actually growing year after year and being leveraged to grow businesses around the world,’ Patel explained. “You don’t want to be left out of successfully connecting to your customers. It’s by far the most effective and affordable way to get the message out for your business.”