Email marketing isn’t dead and it’s not dying anytime soon. While its longevity is often debated, for businesses email marketing still plays a vital role in nurturing, acquiring and retaining customers. Here are 5 reasons why email marketing is here to stay.

Email volume keeps increasing and according to Statista data, it will continue to rise in the next few years. Competition is undoubtedly fierce but the ROI is only set to grow. If you want to develop a long-lasting connection and profitable relationship with your customers, get in touch today. Our team of creative and technical problem solvers can help you maximise your returns.

Email marketing helps build customer-brand relationships

Email marketing is the perfect marketing channel for relationship building. It remains the most trusted communication channel for marketers, which is why in the upheaval of the past year it came an invaluable tool for building and maintaining customer-brand relationships. When businesses switched to a ‘people first’ marketing strategy, they doubled down on email as a way to reimagine their brands and tune into their customer’s needs and concerns. At a time when services and information around health and safety were ever-changing, email marketing allowed businesses to enhance their customer relationships. Through personalised emails and offers, brands were able to stay relevant to their customer base.

Email is the preferred communication channel

Not only is email marketing a favourite among marketers, customers also prefer it. In a Marketing Sherpa Study on customers preferred means of brand to consumer communication, email won by a landslide. 72% of customers chose email as their preferred platform, with 61% of participants stating that they liked receiving weekly promotions. While internet use and buying behaviour vary greatly, boomers, gen x and millennials all would rather receive marketing material updates via email. It’s a common misconception that younger people are only interested in social media and can therefore not be reached by email. 73% of millennials regularly use email to engage with brands, often saving social media for friends and family.

Email marketing has a larger reach 

Email marketing is still one of the most efficient marketing channels to use for broadcasting to a wide audience who have shown interest in your products and services. While Facebook has on average 1 billion active users and Twitter 255 million, there are still 3 times more email accounts than there are social media accounts combined. Social media trends come and go but email is here to stay. In the past year when retail and social media were at their most unpredictable, email marketing remained a stable and strong source of sales for businesses of all backgrounds. Its effectiveness is second only to search marketing, with 58% of people reporting that they check their email before anything else online. With 85% of adult internet users claiming an email account, the opportunities for businesses to expand their reach with email marketing are extensive.

Email is more effective than other platforms

99% of people check their email every day. Email is more prominent and widely used than social media and engagement is steadily growing. While the impact of social media is undeniable, it isn’t always a reliable way of reaching your customers. While it’s guaranteed that 90% of your emails will get delivered to your customers, on average only 2% of your Facebook followers will see your posts on their News Feeds. This is part of an effort by Facebook to push companies towards their paid strategies, because organic posts are limited your marketing message is 45 times more likely to be seen on email than on Facebook. Conversion rates for email are therefore three times higher than for social media and with this, the value of the conversion increases by 17%.

Email marketing is easily integrated with other channels

Email is a highly effective business tool but it is best used in conjunction with other platforms. Thankfully email marketing is easily integrated with other communication channels to help your business reach new audiences. Social media and email marketing are most effective when used together, they serve different purposes and have different strengths but they complement one another perfectly. Use social media to grow your email marketing list with opt-in offers and use email to promote your social media channels. Social media is great for building a community and recognition while email can help you convert subscribers into customers through targeted, personalised messages. Together they engage and acquire customers more effectively. 

Email consistently outperforms other platforms in terms of reach, CTR, conversion and ROI. It remains the most cost-effective and efficient form of direct marketing and should be factored into any successful marketing campaign.

The benefits of email marketing are significant but they must be paired with an effective direct marketing strategy. At Strive Digital we can help you get the best from your email database, contact us today to talk to one of our digital marketing experts on how we can transform your email marketing strategy.