The Most Important Questions to Ask About Email Marketing
Email marketing helps you connect with leads, new & old customers, and prospects that can help you enhance your business. It’s a great opportunity to directly reach their inbox at a convenient time.
If you look at the facts listed below, they clearly show the amazing benefits of email marketing:
- In 2019, the total number of email users was 3.9 billion, and this number is expected to grow over 4.3 billion in 2023, which is half of the total population of the world. This clearly indicates the large audience you can capture through email marketing.
- In terms of return on investment, says a report by DMA, every $1 you invest in email marketing will generate a return of $42.
- A case study by Monetate established that 4.24% of email marketing traffic directly translates into a sale compared to 2.49% of search engine traffic and 0.59% of traffic from social media.
Considering how businesses are increasingly using email marketing to create an impact, it may seem like a deceptively easy task at the first glance. However, once you get into its trenches, you realize the hidden complications.
To help you save the hard work, we have covered some of the most important questions about email marketing in this article that will point you in the right direction.
Let’s start.
Is Email Marketing Still Effective?
Email marketing is one of the most productive marketing tools for any business. It allows you to directly reach your target customers.
Instead of posting something on your website or social media and waiting for people to see it, email marketing allows you to directly reach the inbox of your audience which has a higher chance of engagement.
Even if your target customers don’t open the email, at least they will see the subject line and your company’s name in the sender’s email address. This makes it an effective form of customer engagement.
Is Social Media Marketing Replacing Email Marketing?
Social media marketing has gained immense popularity with the rise of several social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and more.
It is a powerful marketing tool to increase your traction and connect with the right audience. However, it can’t replace email marketing for these reasons:
- Emails provide a level of professionalism without any privacy issues.
- Email inbox provides a one-to-one channel for customer engagement as compared to social media posts which lack this advantage.
- Even with the immense popularity of social media apps, users still spend 2.5 hours every week checking their email inboxes, and 31% of communication in workplaces is also carried out through emails.
Can You Buy a List When Starting With Email Marketing? How to Build an Email Subscriber List?
It may seem tempting to purchase a subscriber list but you should refrain from using one. Here’s why:
- Using a purchased email list means you are violating ISP and email client guidelines. It will generate a lot of high bounces and get your email address marked as spam by the recipients.
- Reputed email marketing services like GoDaddy and Mailchimp don’t allow purchased email lists. So to use one, you may have to use a service that is likely to be already on the ISP blocklist.
- You will also get a low response rate because the recipients won’t know you or your business.
The best way to build an email subscriber list is organically through your blog or social media pages. By continually engaging with your audience, you can drive them to signup for your emails.
To enhance the process, you can also provide incentives such as a free marketing toolkit, ebooks, and discount coupons to the users who sign up for your email list.
Do You Need to Send an Email Newsletter?
Email newsletters are an effective way to connect with your target audience and push sales. When you invest time and effort in sending regular email newsletters, whether weekly or monthly, your audience keeps your business on top of their minds and remembers how you can help.
It also establishes your authority in your niche or field of expertise and builds a strong connection with your existing as well as prospective customers.
So it is important to tailor your newsletters to your unique audience and analyze what works best for you through experimentation.
How Often Should You Send Marketing Emails?
The best approach is to send emails twice a month and then increase the frequency up to once a week.
If your content is equipped with regular offers and promotions, you can also send emails more than once a week as well. However, it’s important to monitor the performance of your campaign to minimize the bounce rate and to prevent people from unsubscribing.
Another important aspect is to evaluate the best time of the day to send marketing emails. Even though it differs from business to business, the general rule is to target weekends and mornings when your target audience has ample time to read their emails.
How to Make Sure Your Emails Don’t End Up in the Spam Folder?
There are specific guidelines you can follow to stay out of the spam folder. For instance, never write in all caps, it seems invasive and offensive.
Secondly, don’t sound like a salesperson trying to sell a product or service to the customer. Instead, your tone should be friendly coupled without any spelling mistakes or spam trigger words.
Remember that an average person will only spend about 20 seconds reading an email, and anything which takes longer than 20 seconds to read is redundant. So make sure to provide any information or a call to action near the top, where it can be seen without having to scroll down.
Another aspect is to provide accurate and correct information. If your target customer finds out that you’re using superficial stats or showing any information incorrectly, chances are that they will report you spam and unsubscribe from your mailing list.
Wrapping Up
Countless variables govern the performance of your email marketing campaign. While it’s essential to understand and apply the best practices, the more important aspect is to know that it may take some time for you to get acclimatized to the diverse customer requirements and find success in your email marketing campaign.
Still curious about how to run a successful email marketing campaign? Connect with our marketing experts or write to us at info@growthnatives.com.
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