Why do you need any email marketing agency?
Is email marketing dead?
The short answer is no. And the long answer is still no. People have been suggesting email marketing is dead for over a decade now, and yet it is still here. It is not going anywhere anytime soon. And in fact, it is still the best tool to use to promote your business and increase revenue. But only if you deliver quality content to a relevant and opted in data set. You need to avoid spamming your audience. Instead make sure you give your email content the focus and time it needs and deserves.
Who still uses email?
Pretty much everyone! You may think that social media performs better than email, with over 1 billion users on Facebook and 255 million on Twitter. But there are around 4 billion email users in the world today (Statista). And having 1,000 followers on social media and 1,000 email subscribers is not the same thing.
The algorithms in place on Facebook limit the reach of your organic posts to around 6%. Whereas the average open rate across all industries for email is 21.5% according to Campaign Monitor. So, if you have 1,000 email subscribers and Facebook followers, 215 people will open your email and only sixty will see your social post. This shows the reach your email marketing can have. This is just an example of a standard industry open rate on a basic email. If you spent time testing and building your email campaign, you could easily increase your open rates. And if you don’t have the time to do this, you can look to outsource this to an email marketing agency. Don’t miss out on the impact of email just because you don’t have the time to create it.
Email marketing for everyone
The best bit about email is it is something everyone can use. Delivering an effective email marketing campaign is not something which is restricted to companies with huge marketing budgets. There are various low-cost tools which you can use to for email design, build, broadcast, and reporting. But whether your email marketing is in-house or via an external email marketing agency, keep one thing in mind. Give email marketing your time.
Focus on building out your customer’s journey. Do you have a nurture programme in place? What if a customer leaves before purchasing an item? Do you have a follow up email flow? The trap most people fall into is leaving their email flow and content to the last minute. Then they just create a piece of copy quickly and press send. Do not fall into this. You can have the most expensive email tools in place and still not generate the results you want. Make sure you build out your copy and campaign flow in time.
Also, consider that your promotions through Facebook and LinkedIn are at the mercy of the third parties who control the platforms. Whereas email is not owned or controlled by one organisation. It is an open form of communication. Of course, there is legislation you need to be aware of and you must not spam your subscribers. But, if you build out your email strategy, you don’t have to worry that a third party will make changes impacting its effectiveness.
Key things to remember about email marketing
There are many things you need to be aware of when it comes to email marketing. We have highlighted the top three areas we think you need to consider:
- Data – Your data is your most valuable asset when it comes to email marketing. And a list of subscribers should be your goal. It is more important than social media as a larger portion of emails are delivered to your audience’s inbox, compared to those who will see your social posts. The advantage of growing your email subscribers is that they have given you expressed permission to contact them. It is not because they performed a Google search and now receive multiple ads in their Facebook feed. They have actively requested you contact them. That’s why email marketing is the most successful format in delivering your message.
- Test – Test, and test again. We know that email marketing drives conversions. 4.24% of visitors purchase through email compared to 2.49% of visitors from search engine (Survey conducted by Monetate). The subject line is the first thing your recipients see. So, A/B test your subject lines, and look at which ones perform the best. You can also use different email templates to see if your audience responds to a different layout. And test different broadcast times and days.
- Analyse – Testing different formats, subject lines and content is important, but don’t forget to look at the results. Analyse which times and formats performed best. Which style of subject line does your audience respond to? You can then take these learnings and build a best practice guide to email specific for your business.
Now you understand the importance of email marketing, as well as the key areas you need to be aware of. What steps should you take next? Do you have the time to manage this? Or do you need to look for support from an email marketing agency?
Need some help?
Still not sure how to build your email marketing strategy? Or perhaps, you don’t have the resource available in-house? We can help. As an email marketing agency, we can provide a full service to support your email campaigns. From developing the strategy and design, to executing and analysing your campaign. We focus on delivering results for your business whilst still meeting the requirements of your customers and prospects. Get in touch to see how we can help you increase conversions and generate revenue for your business.