Marketers always seem to be changing their minds about the state of email marketing. Rumors that email is dead or at least on its way out have been circulating for quite some time now. But a quick look at the facts can easily put those rumors to rest.
Email continues to be one of the most powerful tools for marketers. In fact, several studies actually show that sales from email marketing are on the rise over the past few years. Check out these quick stats from studies conducted by some of the most reliable email and data management companies in the world:
Email still delivers the highest ROI for marketers.
- from Econsultancy's Email Marketing Industry Census
Per year-over-year analysis, email grows at a rapid 28%.
- from Communicator Corp's Email Benchmark Report
80% of marketers agree that email is core to their business.
- from Salesforce's State of Marketing Research Report
Email use worldwide will top 3 billion users in just a few years.
- from The Radicati Group's Email Statistics Report
68% of teens and 73% of millennials ages 19-34 prefer email over other marketing communications.
- from Adestra's Consumer Adoption & Usage Study
65.7% of opened email has engagement for more than 10 seconds, which is an increase over previous metrics of 61.9%.
- from Informz's Association Email Marketing Benchmark Report
So will this trend continue into the new year, despite all the new forms of online marketing and emerging technologies available to marketers today? Can one of the internet's oldest forms of engagement really still be that effective?
We think so. Here's why:
Email is your customers' preferred way to receive communications from you. Even though personal communication through email has declined with the dawn of text messaging and social media, customers still prefer to receive emails from businesses instead of text messages or tweets.
Your customers shop through email and use it to find deals. People are also more likely to make a purchase from a marketing email sitting in their inbox than a social media post that they have to be in the right place at the right time to even see appear in their feed.
Email marketing is the most sustainable way for brands to stay relevant. Unlike the latest social media fads that die out over time, email has shown its ability to adapt to the changing face of customer experience. With a number of ways to tailor content and include calls to action, email marketing provides endless opportunities to engage your customers with promotions. Email also has the power of personalization - one marketing message can be sent to thousands of recipients, yet be addressed to an individual subscriber by name and previous expressed interest, providing them with the personal experience they expect and desire.
Email provides the biggest reach. Anyone can use it, and it has become as ingrained in our daily communications as the telephone. And with nearly 3 billion active email addresses in the world, you have the most amount of users to engage with than any other marketing channel.
Your list is owned by you and not at the mercy of another platform. Email is the only marketing channel that you can really control, and is therefore one of your most valuable assets. Since it is it's own channel, no one can sell your list out from under you, update your terms, change your creative, or pull the plug on your distribution.
Email's ROI can't be beat. When it comes to ROI, stats consistently show email beating out social media, mobile, display, content marketing, video marketing, SEO, paid search, and every other tactic. Email not only works, but it is cost-effective as well. According to Campaign Monitor's findings, about $38 is generated for every $1 spent!
Hopefully this post has helped you to see how important of a tool email marketing is for marketers and how it will continue to evolve in the future. If you'd like to learn more about email marketing or share your own experience with it, feel free to leave us a comment below!
