Why Email Marketing isn’t dead: Email is a primary tool for lead generation.

With the never-ending tide of Rolex / Viagra emails steadily piling up in our spam folders, it’s easy to think that the time of email marketing has hit its end. After all, its abuse by scammers and spammers led to the rise of better and better spam filters and a more cynical one finger on the delete button audience.

But that’s simply not true.

According to Mailigem, about 89% of marketers say email is their primary tool for lead generation.  That’s a huge endorsement of the power of email marketing, why?  Because TechCrunch reported that 75% of Gmail users check their emails on their phones. People, can access their emails now from anywhere and are doing so liberally.

It’s not even marketers that like email marketing. 77% of consumers prefer email for marketing communications (Hubspot)!  That’s a huge endorsement right there from consumers as to the value they perceive in email marketing. That doesn’t mean you can just send over any tacky old email offering a cheap coupon but what it does show is a healthy industry that is alive and growing.

So this idea that in the days of social media feeds and instant messenger services that email has become a bit of a dinosaur just isn’t true. Email marketing is then far from dead clearly. In fact, not only is it beloved by marketers and consumers alike it isn’t as costly as other marketing methods.

For SME’s especially this is true as it’s a powerful tool, particularly in its admittedly initial cost-free nature, and is essential in cultivating an effective community out of your audiences. Why is that?

MailChimp is your friend

The giant on the block of  Email Service Providers is MailChimp mainly because of its largely free nature. Yes with MailChimp you can organize and segment your lists, design a variety of templates and set campaigns to go that you can easily analyze and manage.

All of this for free.

At least until you hit that 2,000 subscriber count but hey that’s on a list by list basis.

But wait it gets even better than that.

You control the channel like none other!

In a time when consumers are saturated with more content and spam than ever before it’s easy to feel a certain hollowness about everything. It’s all just one more top ten tips, one more instant success claim, one more I can’t believe it’s not butter.

And all of it is splattered across the social media feed, time and time again. It’s called Content Shock, and it’s a serious issue that marketers and bloggers are facing, we went into greater detail about just what content shock is here.

Here’s the thing though: That’s the digital marketing channel you control the most. You can get in front of your mailing list anytime, to talk about anything you want, as often as you want, and with a nearly guaranteed visibility. Pretty cool uh? Obviously, you need to provide value and not harass your email audience but bear in mind that the email industry is still growing by at least 10% per annum (source: Hub post). And channel control has a lot to do with that.

Developing a mailing list allows you to cut through all that noise out there. It lets you strike into your very core customers without having to stand on a mountain yodeling with everyone and their me-too poodle pictures.

Related Read: HOW TO LEVERAGE INSTAGRAM FOR BUSINESS

Just think about it, imagine if you knew you had a massive mailing list of contacts that you knew you could instantly send content too. No need to worry about setting up a massive promotional campaign beyond the newsletter.

It all ties into a process that we call Inbound Marketing in which through sharing authentic and valuable content you address your audience’s pain points and delight them, transforming them into promoters of your business. Email Marketing plays a tremendous role in this factor on two ends.

Of valuable content and engaged online audiences:

• Firstly, you need to create valuable and authentic content that your audience will want. You can’t just develop an emailing list and start sending them junk; you’ll find your subscriber count blocked and your name in the junk pile.
• Secondly, the inbound way is all about community building and emailing marketing relates exactly to that. That is the ethos you want to have going forward, but you have to keep your community engaged and informed. You cannot allow yourself to get lazy or start mass emailing boring templates.

That’s why so many consumers prefer to be targeted via email. It’s highly personal, it’s direct, and above all, it can be viewed in their own time. It’s not an intrusive ad that suddenly flops onto their screen and rapes their ears with sterile jingles nor does it splatter across whatever website is on announcing proudly they’ve just won a free trip to Capetown.

Being so highly personal, email marketing is a sign of trust on the consumers part to you. You cannot allow yourself to get overwhelmed by the power of that direct access and over send content even if it’s valuable. In 2016 Hubspot reported that 78% consumers unsubscribed from a brand because they were sending too many emails.

Stagger your newsletters out, keep your community informed and updated but not overwhelmed. Do that, and you will be on your way towards mastering a field that has an ROI of 4,300% (Hubspot)

Email Marketing works across all industries

I don’t care if you’re B2B, B2C or B2A (business to aliens) Okay well that last acronym doesn’t exist unless your area 51 but the point still stands. While I often hear clients tell me that content marketing just won’t work for them because of their boring niche industry, there is no way that email marketing won’t.

86% of consumers want to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with at least monthly (Hubspot). That point is key here. Consumers want you to email them your content whatever that business is. So even if your company is in the broom manufacturing business you still want to send them your newsletter, whether that’s highlighting your latest discount on all your sweeping needs or offering tips on the most effective sweeping techniques.

The non-intrusive nature of email combined with the sending of valuable informative content and promotional offers all ties into brand building. Protecting and enhancing your brand is imperative, and by showing that you reach out to your customers, you show that you are a that cares for your client. That goodwill can go a long way towards turning possible customers into promoters of your business.

So, email marketing isn’t dead; it hasn’t even stopped growing yet. Beloved by consumers and marketers alike it is an industry that has a ton of mileage any brand can wring out of it. Just remember, as powerful as it is it’s just as easy to find yourself thrown into the vortex of the spam box.

If you enjoyed reading this content, then feel free to check out our site Jobologies for more content on Email Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Social recruitment and more.

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