Orig Post – business2community.com | Re-Post So-Mark 7/20/15
Marketing has seen immense progress in the four-and-a-half decades since the first email was sent. Improvements like search engine and social media marketing have left companies with no lack of channels to leverage their objective of reaching target demographic. However, in the era of real-time socially driven marketing, companies are still focusing on email as a staple of their marketing strategy. Many small entrepreneurs believe that email marketing is just about adding people to whom they can send a monthly newsletter, which is wrong perception.
In today’s modern world, email marketing has grown to be much more diverse and can be used in a number of ways online to help you make more sales. It can be used for content promotion, blog feed, product information, feature release info, webinars, or any other promotional campaign. If you’re a small business owner or marketer but still confused about effectiveness of email marketing into your business model, we explain it to you. The following 4 factors will testify the need and utility of email marketing for your SMB enterprise.
1. Email is an Easy Way to Reach Mobile Customers:
Gartner study shows that email marketing’s rise in fame was linked to the growing popularity of smartphones, with 74% of smartphone owners checking their emails on mobile device. With the projections of more than 2 billion smartphone owners by the end of 2016; prospects of getting business from mobile turn higher. We already find companies and marketers adopting mobile-focused strategies as 51% email clicks are coming from mobile. In 2014, more than 46% of marketers were using mobile responsive design procedures while building their landing pages and this percentage will surely go up, given the release of Google’s mobile friendly update.
2. It Keeps Customers Informed:
Email marketing isn’t something that marketers do simply because they can and it’s simple. The strategy is extremely effective at helping entrepreneurs and customers stay linked. Nielsen reported that 28% of US online customers subscribe to store or product emails to stay informed. A study from Loyalty360 pointed out that 59% of US mothers would sign up for email updates from brands if prizes were offered. Also, this amazing way to promote your products can be used as an approach to convey content to consumers. You can and should use it as an opportunity to inform people about new products, services and offers.
3. It Provides Actionable Insights:
One of the best advantages of a good email marketing program is the use of comprehensive statistics about your campaign. While we compare this with other marketing channels — like a billboard or TV ad — email marketing metrics give exponentially more data in regards to the success, or failure, of a marketing campaign. Conversions from emails are defined clearly and, thus, are easier to repeat, rather than the vague nature of more conventional broadcast marketing methods.
For an email marketing application, opens and clicks are standard, but you can certainly dig in more and set up multiple metrics to measure success of your marketing campaigns. Checking these analytics offers remarkably valuable and significant insight into what’s working and what isn’t for you.
4. Email Marketing is Inexpensive:
To sum up the best reason to use email marketing: It’s simple, powerful, and inexpensive. Email marketing allows entrepreneurs to reach a huge number of buyers at a rate of pennies for every message. For small entrepreneurs on a budget, this makes it a much better decision than traditional marketing channels like TV, radio, or direct mail. According to a joint study from Shop.org and Forrester Research, “85% of US retailers consider email marketing as a standout amongst the best customer acquisition tactics.” As a buzzword in the industry, it’s stated that for every $1 invested in email marketing, you earn at least $44 return.
Finally, when you’ve decided to run your campaign, make sure you subscribe to the best and low cost marketing platform. You should compare the platforms in terms of features, cross channel integration, 3rd party apps integration, social/mobile/CRM integration, and budget.