In the age of social media popularity and the ability to target specific audiences with ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (just to name a few), the question is often asked: Is email marketing still effective? With this question comes the idea that email marketing is possibly no longer relevant in today’s marketing strategy and that there are better uses of your marketing budget.
Well, to that, we would say you are sorely missing out on an impressive marketing tool that can create highly loyal customers. All you need to do is use the right email marketing strategy for your business.
So to answer your question… Yes! Email marketing is still effective in 2021!
Here we’ll look at what email marketing is, why it is still relevant to use in your marketing strategy, and some of the best email marketing tips to harness for your business.
What is Email Marketing
Email marketing is used to connect with current and potential customers to keep them up to date on new products, business updates, discounts and other services. It is used as a way to engage with users who have signed up to your email newsletter, which in itself can give value to the user as businesses can personalise emails that are sent out.
For example, a florist could send out emails every month displaying that month’s popular flower in bloom, giving short tips on how to look after it and how best to display it in your home. The email would then also contain link’s back to the florist’s website where they can order a bouquet of that flower or other flowers. Therefore, the email is giving value, is interesting, and it sends traffic back to their website with a potential sale in the making.
Back when the internet first became popular, email was the new, hip thing that all businesses used to communicate with their customers. Nowadays, email users are much more aware of who they add to their email inbox regularly and will be selective about which email list they subscribe to. Therefore, email marketing today needs to be strategic and done right to properly communicate with your target audience and turn them into repetitive customers.
Before we look into email marketing tips, let’s take a look at why email is still effective in 2021.
Reasons Why it is Still Effective in 2021
When done right, email marketing can be a super-effective marketing tool that engages users and is easy to implement through simple automation tools. Email marketing also helps to keep your brand at the forefront of your user’s mind, but it’s important to be careful not to send out too many emails so that it is considered spam and eventually overlooked by your users.
Email marketing can successfully be segmented so that users are targeted and sent the most relevant emails, whether by gender, age, buyers journey and level of interest.
With it being one of the most cost-effective marketing tools out there, let’s look at some more reasons why email marketing should be a staple for every business’s marketing efforts.
- Almost Anyone Uses Email
Try login to any app, or use any online service without having an email address, and you’re going to find that your life will be a whole lot harder. Email is used as a way of verifying your identity when you want to purchase something online or if you’re going to create a profile on a new app. No generation can avoid having an email address; therefore, you’ll find all ages have an email of some sort. The same can’t be said for Facebook, where all the Gen Z’s have avoided it like the plague. With instantaneous notifications on smartphones that are always in hand, email’s can be read and replied to within minutes!
- It’s Affordable
Email marketing has always been a cost-effective marketing channel, especially with the introduction of bulk emails. This means you can send out emails to as many people as you want at a fraction of the cost of other marketing efforts. Therefore, even if only a few people convert through email, it will still be affordable for you to reach out with a large net in the hopes of catching a few prize fish. What’s more, the upfront cost of setting up your email marketing campaign is minimal, and it’s even less to maintain it over time.
- Increases Brand Recognition
Email marketing helps your brand stay relevant and consistent to your users, who may view your emails once or twice a week. For example, suppose I am receiving emails from a specific custom jewellery company, I may not open every single email, but I might see them every once in a while in my inbox, with an eye-catching subject line. Therefore, the brand is kept at the top of my mind. Next time I need to buy a present for my mom, friend or significant other and I think of jewellery, my brain will immediately think of that brand first! Staying active is vital to keep your users aware of your brand so that they will be more likely to purchase from you rather than your competitor.
- Brings In Traffic To Your Website, Blog or Social Media
Brand awareness is not the only thing that email marketing helps with. Email marketing also brings awareness to your business’s website, blog and social media profiles, helping to bring traffic to them all through the clickable links in your email. Your email can show short snippets of your current blogs or show glimpse’s of your website content, encouraging users to visit your site. Once the user lands on your optimised site, it is way more likely that they will convert. Email’s help by showing your user’s a little bit of your personality and what you are about, therefore engaging their curiosity to discover more about you through your other avenues.
- Automation Makes It Easy
Emails are uncomplicated to set up and automate. By using predefined ‘triggers’, emails can be sent out to your users without you even opening your laptop. These triggers or events can include a ‘welcome’ email after signing up, a product suggestion email after certain products have been viewed, an order confirmation email, a shipping email, a sales email, and so much more! Email automation will save you the time of composing each email and helps you to manage, maintain, and grow your customer base. Simple email marketing software include: Mailchimp, Zoho, Verticalresponse, Sendinblue and many more easy to use and affordable applications!
- Conversions Are High!
With the ability to segment your email lists, you can send targeted emails to your users based on their interests and demographics. You can also personalise each email to your customers, which can help improve the conversion rate of your emails. Email marketing software also allows you to track your performance and gather data on your best-performing emails so that you can repeat that good performance in future emails.
As you can see, email marketing is still an effective marketing tool that should not be overlooked but rather used in conjunction with your other marketing methods. Now let’s take a quick look at the best email marketing tips you can use to create the most fruitful email campaigns!
Top Email Marketing Tips
- Personalise your messages
- Create mobile-friendly emails
- Keep it short
- Simple, clean & organic design
- Give short, clickable snippets of your website content
- Create click-worthy subject lines
- Do not spam, but make sure to follow up
- Insert social media buttons and website links
- Maintain consistent branding throughout
- Optimise your CTAs, i.e. make CTA buttons bright, big and bold
Are you needing to revamp your email marketing campaign so that it is working for you and makes your life easier, instead of sucking all your time? At The Weblab, we are a professional digital marketing company here to give your business the marketing boost it needs to grow. Give us a call to find out more about our digital marketing services today!
