Email 2.0 – Email Marketing is not Dead; its Evolving

The advent of the World Wide Web gave birth to everyone’s favorite – Emails. It is an essential method of business communication as it is fast and accessible. But today, we’ve different modes of digital communication, with social media platforms invading the Internet. Perhaps you’ve already come across people saying that email marketing is dying or dead already! But, how about we tell us it’s a myth?

Inarguably, email is way far from being dead. Many business owners ponder whether email marketing is still effective. In fact, it is the hot and new way to maximize conversions. Did you know email marketing offers around 4400% ROI? The level of customer engagement through emails is gradually increasing. Let’s look at some staggering figures that show emails will never die!

– The total number of email users will reach 4.6 billion by 2025, with the number of emails shared each day will reach 376 billion by 2025.
– 99% of email recipients check their emails daily.
– And if you think millennials eat, sleep and breathe social media, then it’s time to know that 73% of millennials choose email to communicate with a brand.
– An investment of $1 in email marketing brings $38 in revenue.

All this data indicates that email marketing is not outdated or irrelevant. Now that we know the power of email as a communication channel let’s dive into why you should have email marketing in your overall business/marketing strategy.

Targeted Features
If you run an advertisement in the newspaper or on television, you can’t control who can see your content. You hope that the target audience views the ad and reaches out to you for more information. However, you can effectively segment your database based on demographics, location, conversion status, or any other data when it comes to email marketing. This filtration enables brands to send targeted emails to customers based on needs, preferences, and lead status. You also can personalize emails for each customer, which can result in higher conversions.

Further, email has strong spam filters, unlike other communication platforms such as SMS, instant messaging platforms (WhatsApp, Messenger), etc. Also, with technological developments, unnecessary emails directly go into spam and provide you only relevant ones. With targeted emails, you can stay top-of-mind of your target audience and drive more business.

Though social giants – Facebook and Instagram also provide targeted ad campaigns features, it boils down to the level of engagement, which we will study in the next point.

Engagement
Undoubtedly, with the rise of social media platforms, many businesses rushed to these channels for marketing and branding purposes. As most of the existing and potential customers use at least one social platform, brands assume that social media marketing is the best way to connect with the audience and increase engagement.

But here’s an anecdote. The overall engagement rate of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is around 0.58%. It’s pretty lamentable, considering the massive number of social media users. But, the harsh reality is that social giants constantly change their algorithms to restrict the organic reach of posts, urging brands to spend on paid ad campaigns.

On the other hand, email’s open and click-through rates across industries are 22.86% and 3.71%. This data shows that you’re missing crucial leads and engagement if you don’t have an email marketing strategy in place. Just make sure that your emails provide value; customers are bound to open those emails and take the required action.

Real-time Mobile Email Marketing
Gone are the days when people would take days to respond to emails. Thanks to instant email notifications on smartphones today, brands can communicate with customers in near real-time. Around 53% of consumers open emails on their mobile phones. Here, brands can capitalize on email’s ability to send personalized messages and deliver value in time-sensitive contexts. For example, necessary information about your travel, changes in your itinerary, receipts of your orders, and much more are easily accessible on email. Hence, brands can engage with customers on various and constant touchpoints, unlike social media posts.

Wrapping Up
Email marketing is still the fireball to bring loads of conversions for a fraction of the cost of other marketing techniques. The cherry on the cake is that it is super affordable with a minimal upfront cost. So, it can be used by everyone, irrespective of the business size. Email is not dying; it is entering its second version – can we call it Email 2.0?