Why we love email and you should too

If you’re short on time

Despite widespread claims of ‘email fatigue’ amongst many marketers, effective email marketing continues to deliver results. Researchers at Emarsys have found that 81% of small and medium-sized businesses use email marketing as their main customer acquisition channel, with 80% of these same businesses also using email as their main customer retention channel. So, rather than seeing email as something which is ‘old school’, and overlooked in favour of newer channels, see it as a key channel in your armor that can drive results cost effectively.

If you want the detail….

The rise of social media has for some businesses meant an overlooking of more ‘traditional channels’ but the rules haven’t changed. It’s not an either or, it’s about an omnichannel approach to achieve your targets. The point is why overlook a channel which is cost effective, and we know customers will respond to it. Statista’s email marketing research has found that 49% of customers would like to receive promotional emails from their favourite brands on a weekly basis.

What it’s good for. It’s a powerful tool to build relationships, connect with audiences and drive sales. Email marketing enables you to identify and sharply define demographics, behavior, and interests with remarkable accuracy. With the advent of a cookieless future and the importance of first party data it’s a way of nurturing your data to make marketing more effective. Email subscription is the most important type of relationship you can have with a customer.

Make it personal. It’s a word often overused but given you are entering a personal inbox, you need to think about who it’s going to and what they are interested in. 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalised experiences, according to McKinsey. By giving you their contact details, someone has a stronger relationship with you than if they followed you on Facebook so personalising your email can have a bigger effect. And it’s not about putting someone’s first name on everything, it’s about understanding engagement and buying behaviour and responding with content that’s relevant.

Automate the hell out of it. 70% of your email activity should be automated, leaving 30% for campaign activity. By automating such a significant proportion you can fine tune the activity and save time and resource in marketing.

Get your data in order. Most email marketing falls at the first hurdle – the data. So, it’s important you get your house in order first to make your email marketing more effective. There are also hidden gems to uncover to inform your strategy. For example, we identified that 75% of a client’s base were only purchasing once from their beauty platform, and by getting 10% to convert to second purchase through email we could drive a six-figure benefit.

We’ve seen some great results from following these 4 simple rules:

• Define goals and target audience.
• Create engaging content that’s relevant and contextual.
• Optimise for deliverability – don’t spam and be targeted.
• Test and analyse results – regularly review the data and don’t be distracted by open rates focus on engagement and revenue.

In practice –

Reigniting Sales for a Web Development Agency

Challenge. With a large but underused database of 12,000 – large but underused. Significant opportunity in the existing base to promote underexposed services and remind clients of available offerings such as hosting and email marketing.

Approach. We revived CRM activity with three timely, contextual emails:

A response to the M&S cyber incident, highlighting their secure hosting services.
A message showcasing their email marketing capabilities, focusing on ROI.
A briefing on recent Shopify upgrades and how they impact existing clients.

The Results:
Immediate enquiry for hosting services
New client won for email marketing
Further meeting booked to discuss platform strategy

Final Word

Keep it simple. Keep it relevant. Email is one of your most powerful marketing assets – and it’s being underutilised by too many businesses.

If you’re not sure where to start, or how to unlock the full potential of email, by being ‘channel agnostic’ and data focused a Fractional CMO or Fractional Marketing Director can help you turn it into a sales machine.

📩 Drop us a line or set up a call here.