All too often people make the mistake of thinking that with the advent of social media marketing came the death of email marketing. This is far from true. Email is still a very important component of any small business marketing plan and there are very specific reasons why.
Email marketing is targeted and cost efficient.
An e-mail marketing campaign is relatively cheap and easy to create; there are no postage fees as with direct mail marketing and no ad-buys as with print, TV or radio (or even Google AdWords). When you invest in these classic forms of marketing you need resources: a creative team to put together the mailers or advertisements and money to buy space for the ads. Email campaigns liberate you from that burden.Email campaigns can be targeted to your specific audience – people who have already expressed an interest in your services or products and are either ready to purchase or want to know a little bit more first. Unlike sending something generic or overly broad into the ether, hoping to generate interest and get a return on your investment, email campaigns are delivered directly to the relevant audience with the right message.
Email marketing also allow for segmenting your contact list, so that you can send specific types of campaigns to specific people based on different factors. For example, if you’re an electronics store and you’re having a sale on video games you can send out an email blast informing your video game clients of the sale. Or perhaps you have an offer only for clients that have spent over $100 on your website.
Email Marketing yields a great ROI
The highly customizable aspect of email campaigns allow you to get your message out to the people that want to hear it, which yields better results. When you factor in the cost efficiencies, your return on investment can be exponential. According to the DMA’s National Client Email Survey 2014, email marketing brought in 40 cents for every $1 spent online.
How do we know this?
We know how email campaigns perform because they are highly trackable. From delivery rates, to open rates, to click rates, there isn’t anything you can’t track with the proper tools (we recommend Mailchimp for small to medium sized businesses). Unlike traditional print and media marketing, you can see exactly how well each campaign fairs. Reporting like this gives you the knowledge you need to make adjustments to future campaigns for even better performance.
