Digital marketing is more complex than ever. Multiple techniques and channels, all with their own unique advantages and disadvantages, varying ROI and suitable audiences.

With so much out there, why do we bring up email marketing?

What is Email Marketing?

Forgetting the jargon, email marketing refers to the use of email communications within a defined marketing strategy, in order to reach an audience and influence specific business goals.

Emails are used effectively by almost every business, whether that be to generate sales, enhance customer engagement (newsletters), acquire leads, create brand awareness, reward customer loyalty, or retarget cart abandoners.

The most successful email marketing campaigns centre on granular targeting and personalisation.

The importance of email marketing for your business

In 2019, over half the world’s population used email. This figure is expected to increase to more than 4.3 billion by 2023, according to research conducted by INC. In the UK, it is believed that 90% of those between the ages 15-64 use email to send and receive emails daily, with 85% of all UK adults doing the same. (Zivkovic, 2022).

So, email is hardly a thing of the past and its clear to see why…

For 10 years in a row, email marketing has outperformed all other forms of digital marketing in terms of generating a return-on-investment. In fact, for every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI and gives marketers the broadest reach of all the channels available to them.

If you haven’t started email marketing, we highly suggest you do - your competitors sure are! If you want to remain competitive, you need to start engaging your audience.

GDPR and email marketing

The world of email marketing in our privacy focus era is now more complicated. It’s important you utilise email marketing whilst staying within the confines of the law, as set out by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Firstly, its important to establish what rights (if any) your business has to be sending marketing emails to your subscriber lists (email database). Did you receive opt-in consent? Do you give individuals the option to opt-out and unsubscribe?

Secondly, if not already in place, you need to set up suitable opt-in processes across all relevant channels, which meet or exceed GDPR. For instance, newsletter sign-ups on your website or follow up emails to customers after purchase.

Thirdly, your business needs to have a clearcut privacy policy in place, making it clear to individuals how you use their personal data for marketing and how they can opt-out of such marketing material.

Lastly, you need to put into place correct processes that allow individuals to remove themselves from your database. This could be in the form of an unsubscribe button, included within all email marketing material.

What makes email marketing so effective?

It’s Personal: Customers like being seen, heard, and acknowledged. Research has shown that personal emails (segmented) can increase revenue by as much as 760%, due to higher engagement rates. Adding relevant personalisation to your emails is a marketer’s secret weapon.

It’s Cost Effective: Considering email’s unmatched ability to drive relevant conversions, it makes sense that email is an effective marketing channel to drive ROI for your company. In fact, email marketing yields an average 3,800% return-on-investment, the highest of any marketing channel. For every $1 spent, the average business makes $38 back on their effort.

Reach a Vast Audience: Think about social media. How many users are active on Facebook and Twitter? The answer is over a billion. Now, to think that there are 3x more email accounts than there are Facebook & Twitter accounts combined is pretty shocking, but true. So, when it comes to connecting with your prospects, there’s no channel with a greater reach than email.

Mobile customers and email marketing

According to Google, mobile users check their emails 3x more regularly on a daily basis. Additionally, 70% of people will open emails in a mobile app, as opposed to a desktop mailbox. This may seem crazy, but think about it - how many times do you check your phone for emails?

To ensure that email messages work well on mobile you will need to create content with a responsive design: providing subscribers with the option to view images and videos. Included media, such as images and video should be optimised accordingly, so they are quick to load.

It can take as little as three seconds for a user to review your email and decide whether its worth their time reading the entire thing. A poor mobile experience will ensure you lose this potential user’s custom on this occasion. Even worse, they may choose to unsubscribe from your emails entirely, or add your address to their spam list.

When reviewing your emails mobile responsiveness, check for the following:

• All images and links have relevant alt text

• Images have been properly sized and compressed

• Where possible, use buttons instead of inline styling for better UX

Automating emails

Email automation is an effective may to communicate with potential and existing customers, as it allows you to send emails to the right people, at the right time in the purchasing journey.

Examples of automated emails include:

• Order confirmations

• Shopping confirmations

• Abandoned cart reminders

• Birthday discounts

Automated emails allow you to nurture your customers and build strong relationships, all whilst minimising the time your marketing team spends on the process. In a study conducted in 2017, 59% of respondents said that they could save at least 6 hours a week if the repetitive aspects of email marketing were automated.

Interactive email marketing

An interactive email includes elements that allow users to engage with the content via tapping, swiping, clicking or simply watching. Examples of such interactions could be video content, email carousels or even a mini poll.

Think about your inbox – personal or work – the amount of emails we receive in a day is a lot. As a business, you’re fighting for the users attention. Interactive emails, whether it’s a personalised element or multimedia feature, help attract the user’s attention and cut through the noise of their inbox.

In fact, 91% of consumers want interactive content, but only 17% of marketers are providing it to them. This is an astronomical missed opportunity, as interactive content can improve click-through-rates by as much as 200%.

Email marketing can be measured

Email marketing is both effective and efficient, as its performance is easily measured. Email marketing analytics allow your business to see which users opened emails, which clicked on internal links, and which made it through to a conversion event. All email marketing software will allow your business to generate generic and tailored reports per email campaign, which can provide granular results to inform incremental change.

This information is invaluable to the construction of high-value email campaigns. A/B tests can be run to gain even greater insight to the way in which your audience reacts to certain adjustments, fine-tuning your strategy.