In today’s day and age with so many different channels to reach your customers, it’s easy to think that some of the more “traditional” marketing methods have had their day. Take email marketing for example. How many times have you received an email from some database that you have forgotten signing up to, then promptly either deleted the email or unsubscribed from it? If you’re anything like me, the answer is a lot! Because of this, it might be easy to think that email marketing is dead.
What’s the point of emailing your database if they’re just going to delete it anyway? Right?
Wrong.
You might be surprised to learn that email marketing is still as relevant as ever.
Did you know that in 2016, brands sent 149,515 marketing emails every minute? Further to this, the average email open rates across all industries for 2016 was around 25%, which is great! This figure has stayed steady and continues to improve, a sure sign that customers are still interested in hearing from you via email.
Depending on your industry, the average open rates and click through rates will differ. Below is a graph for the 2017 email marketing statistics across all industries.
As you can see, across the board, open rates and click through rates are high. So why is there the perception that email marketing is dead?
The answer is simple: there are so many new and innovative ways to reach customers that more traditional methods of communication are often overlooked. Why send an email when you can reach your customers through Facebook or Instagram targeted ads? Or, what about communicating to them via Facebook messenger, Twitter or even Snapchat?
The reason why email marketing still has a place in today’s marketing mix is exactly for this answer. Often, there are too many ways of reaching your customers. With numerous different social media platforms and digital outlets, and varying consumer behaviours to go with each, there’s a higher level of communication risk and the chance that your message won’t be received.
Instead, email still has a level of habitual behaviour attached to it and it is a medium that, in itself, has not evolved too much. The principal has remained the same: a company sends a message to its customers and based on numerous factors (like time, day, subject line, content, sender, etc) the message is opened or not opened.
While companies do still fight for their consumers’ attention using email marketing, it is more likely that your message will be delivered to your customers, rather than hoping they see your message on social media.
Email marketing still has a relevance in many industries and is not a channel that should be overlooked. Make 2018 the year that you go “back to basics” and properly embrace email marketing! For more information on how to effective communicate to your customers via email, or to get started, get in touch!