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Are You Ignoring Your Best Marketing Method?
Email Marketing works.
It works on you, it works on me, and it works on your customers. That's why top companies invest so heavily to get it right. Sign up for a few of these brilliant newsletters and you'll see it quite clearly for yourself.
Do you know anyone who doesn't have an email address?
Ok, so maybe your grandad isn't tech savvy, or the old dear down the road. Not everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, or Linked In either, but there are more who have an email account (or 3) than there are on all of the social media hubs put together.
If you answered NO to any of these questions... WHY ON EARTH NOT?!!!
It works on you, it works on me, and it works on your customers. That's why top companies invest so heavily to get it right. Sign up for a few of these brilliant newsletters and you'll see it quite clearly for yourself.
Do you know anyone who doesn't have an email address?
Ok, so maybe your grandad isn't tech savvy, or the old dear down the road. Not everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, or Linked In either, but there are more who have an email account (or 3) than there are on all of the social media hubs put together.
- Does your business run a regular newsletter to a list full of eager, engaged, customers and customers-to-be?
- Do you nurture your sales leads through a well ordered funnel to the point of purchase?
- Do you do your best to ensure that your first time customers and clients become life long loyal advocates for your business?
If you answered NO to any of these questions... WHY ON EARTH NOT?!!!
The Answer is Email
As you plan your 2015 marketing budget, and beyond, you'll want to ensure that email marketing plays a large part in the planning.
Here's the top 5 reasons why:
1. EMAIL IS THE ORIGINAL SOCIAL MEDIA
As we've said, everybody has an email account. It's free, it's easy to use, and it has the essential 'Reply' and 'Share' (hit that 'Forward' button!) features built right in. Simple.
2. EMAIL IS MULTI PLATFORM
It works on everything from iPhones to Blackberries, to the old fashioned buzz and squeal of a dial up connection. There are 897 million mobile email users worldwide, including both business and consumer users (Source: The Radicati Group). Are you so sure your other marketing is getting through?
3. EMAIL KEEPS ALL YOUR MESS(AGES) IN ONE PLACE
Marketing messages are cluttered with so much other 'noise' and attention grabbing distractions. It's easy for your customers to file and sort your stuff into landscaped piles of mess, rather than try and follow you on Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, and all the rest.
4. EMAIL CAPTURES MORE CUSTOMER ATTENTION
It's easy to click 'Like' or 'Follow', but how many of your followers are actually seeing your stuff, first off with the new social media algorithms? If a customer gives you their email address, they are more likely to pay attention to your messages.
The average results for UK SME email marketing campaigns in 2014 were:
However good your social media plans are, you do not engage consistently with over 20% of your followers unless you're paying heavy advertising fees to do so.
5. EMAIL GIVES YOU MORE CONTROL THAN ANY OTHER MARKETING METHOD
You could be kicked off a social media site for violating its terms of service at any time, even by accident - and all your money and hard work will be gone. A site could do a massive redesign that relegates your business to last place, no matter how much you've spent with them on advertising in the past.
But if you're sending your customers email they have chosen to sign up for, the chances are they'll read it, as long as you keep it relevant and interesting for them. You own your mailing list, more so than any other digital marketing tool.
Keep it legal, keep it on topic, and most importantly, keep it coming regularly, and your customers will keep reading your marketing, and spending their money in your business.
Here's the top 5 reasons why:
1. EMAIL IS THE ORIGINAL SOCIAL MEDIA
As we've said, everybody has an email account. It's free, it's easy to use, and it has the essential 'Reply' and 'Share' (hit that 'Forward' button!) features built right in. Simple.
2. EMAIL IS MULTI PLATFORM
It works on everything from iPhones to Blackberries, to the old fashioned buzz and squeal of a dial up connection. There are 897 million mobile email users worldwide, including both business and consumer users (Source: The Radicati Group). Are you so sure your other marketing is getting through?
3. EMAIL KEEPS ALL YOUR MESS(AGES) IN ONE PLACE
Marketing messages are cluttered with so much other 'noise' and attention grabbing distractions. It's easy for your customers to file and sort your stuff into landscaped piles of mess, rather than try and follow you on Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, and all the rest.
4. EMAIL CAPTURES MORE CUSTOMER ATTENTION
It's easy to click 'Like' or 'Follow', but how many of your followers are actually seeing your stuff, first off with the new social media algorithms? If a customer gives you their email address, they are more likely to pay attention to your messages.
The average results for UK SME email marketing campaigns in 2014 were:
- Open rate: 22.87% (2013 - 21.47%)
- Click-through rate: 3.26% (2013 - 3.16%)
However good your social media plans are, you do not engage consistently with over 20% of your followers unless you're paying heavy advertising fees to do so.
5. EMAIL GIVES YOU MORE CONTROL THAN ANY OTHER MARKETING METHOD
You could be kicked off a social media site for violating its terms of service at any time, even by accident - and all your money and hard work will be gone. A site could do a massive redesign that relegates your business to last place, no matter how much you've spent with them on advertising in the past.
But if you're sending your customers email they have chosen to sign up for, the chances are they'll read it, as long as you keep it relevant and interesting for them. You own your mailing list, more so than any other digital marketing tool.
Keep it legal, keep it on topic, and most importantly, keep it coming regularly, and your customers will keep reading your marketing, and spending their money in your business.