Is email marketing dead? With so many modern advertising options to choose from, it can be difficult to decide which will work best for your business. From email campaigns to Facebook ads, YouTube videos, website banners and more, today’s marketing options are endless. But if you consider that email still has the largest pool of users compared to any other medium (including social media), this powerful platform is not to be ignored.
Below are five reasons why email marketing is positioned to stick around, and how it can help grow your business.
Email is a Priority Platform
Looking back on the last 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of social media platforms rise and fall (Myspace, anyone?) Email, however, has remained a permanent fixture in both professional and personal communications with steady, exponential growth in the number of new accounts created year over year. In fact, the majority of consumers admit to checking their email before any other platform at the beginning of each day. And those who start the day off with emails, tend to check their inbox more frequently throughout the day, too.
Email Offers More Control
Unlike crowded social media platforms and websites, a user’s email inbox is far less distracting. Display ads on websites can be hit or miss; we’ve become so conditioned to filtering out visual noise, meaning users might scroll past your ad. But an email is delivered where and when you want it and is presented on a level playing field with all the other messages a user receives.
Email Lists are Built by Marketers
When businesses build an email list, they’re in full control of the data they collect, including age, gender, and other details. Once this user data is imported into an email system, businesses can decide who they filter out, who they contact, how, where, and when. While social media platforms offer targeting options for advertising, marketers rely on users to have up-to-date and complete profiles. Businesses are also at the mercy of each platform’s algorithm to display their ads to the right audience at an opportune time.
Email Platforms are Universal
Social media has a massive audience that’s not to be ignored, but it’s segmented across multiple platforms. Not only do marketers have to separate their efforts across these platforms to reach a complete audience, but they also have to further refine their campaigns on each platform to target their desired demographic. With email, once you’ve built a subscriber list, you only have to segment your audience once for each campaign, without having to repeat the process on multiple platforms.
Email Generates a Higher ROI
Compared to social media, direct mail, and other marketing mediums, email campaigns continue to generate a higher return for businesses. Specifically, businesses find that email marketing has a median ROI of 122%, which is more than four times higher than other platforms.
Social media and other platforms are not to be entirely overlooked when it comes to marketing, though. Many businesses find that these mediums offer a powerful way to initially reach new users in order to build an email list. But with more control in email marketing efforts, this is a medium that’s better used to convert those users into actual buyers.
Michelle Novielli | Contributing Writer
