Is Email Dead as a Marketing Technique?

Customer Recognition Programs Pay Huge Dividends

Email has a bad reputation in marketing circles. Given that there are so many other ways to reach potential customers — including text messages, social media, and mobile apps — email has been marginalized by many companies.

 

Big mistake. If you need proof that email is still a highly effective way to reach people, consider this simple question: When was the last time you checked your email account? Was it this morning? An hour ago? Just before you opened this blog?

 

Most People Still Use Email … A Lot

 

Email isn’t dead as a marketing platform. While there are other ways to reach customers that are faster, better, and easier, most people still cling to their email accounts in the same way they keep paying for landlines for their home telephone service or relying on the postal service for daily mail delivery.

 

While times have changed, old habits are hard to break.

 

Startling Statistics Regarding Email Marketing

 

Need more proof that email is alive and well as a marketing tool? Consider this:

 

  • 44% of people who receive email made a minimum of one purchase in the past year based on a marketing email they received.
  • 33% of people say they open an email based solely on the subject line.
  • About half of the people on any business’s email list still open or click on the emails the business sends regularly.
  • 70% of people say they used a coupon or discount code they received via email in the past week.
  • Monday is the best day to send out an email because emails sent on the first day of the week have the highest revenue per email.
  • 27% of people said they wished their favorite businesses sent them more emails.

 

Email is far from dead as a marketing platform. If you want to keep attracting new customers, the road to their hearts is through their email inbox.

Increase the Effectiveness of Your Email Campaigns

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Despite the growing popularity of text messaging, video conferencing, and other more sophisticated technologies, email continues to be an important marketing platform for practically every type of business.

Autoresponders are programs that automatically manage your email campaigns for you. Business owners can input a series of emails, schedule them according to when they should be delivered, upload their subscriber list, and the autoresponder will take care of the rest.

Sequencing Your Emails

Some autoresponders will even manage how the sequence of emails is sent out. For example, if you are sending out a series of emails that are designed to get the reader to take a particular action — such as sign up for a subscription list or download a special offer — once that customer takes that action, you don’t want to keep sending the remaining emails in that sequence.

The autoresponder can be programmed to stop sending the remaining emails in that sequence once the action is achieved. This is usually done via an “if/then” loop: If Action X occurs, then take Action Y.

Moving Customers between Lists

Another helpful task some autoresponders perform is to move customers to different subscriber lists based on the actions they take.

For example, customers that buy a certain type of high-priced product or who are among the most frequent customers of a business can be moved to a specialized class — such as a VIP or MVP group –where they can receive exclusive offers and awards.

Some autoresponders can keep track of buyer behavior and move customers to specified lists according to whatever parameters are set.

Reporting

Another important function of autoresponders is reporting data about the performance of various email campaigns. Having information about how many subscribers opened a particular set of emails, rather than deleting them without reading them, can help fine tune future campaigns to make them more effective.

Reaching More People with Your Email Marketing

With Todays Web Design Content Is King

The purpose of any business email is to convince readers to take some sort of action, whether it is to sign up for a special offer, buy a product or respond with specific information.

 

The most important part of your emails is the Call to Action (CTA), or what it is you want people to do after reading your email. Your CTA could be clicking through to your website, buying a particular product, or visiting your store in person.

 

The CTA should be clearly stated as unambiguously as possible within the body of your email.

 

 Keep It Brief

 

People today find emails to be an inconvenient yet necessary part of communicating with other people. The novelty of reading a digital letter rather than a real one wore off a long time ago. So people don’t have a lot of patience for emails that are long on content but short on substance.

 

In addition to clearly stating your CTA, make sure your emails get to the point quickly. And use brief sentences or bullet points whenever possible.

 

Reaching More People with Your Email Marketing – Every Word Matters

 

People usually go through their emails when they are busy doing something else. Because they have a short attention span, you have only a few moments to get the point of your email across. That means every word has to count.

 

Good persuasive writing understands what motivates the reader. As you write your email, keep in mind what it is your reader hopes to get out of it. It’s your job to convince them that their best interests are at the heart of the email and that your email serves some clearly defined purpose, such as solving a problem that they are having.

 

Writing an effective email can be a great way to engage your customers efficiently, affordably and successfully. Just make sure you aren’t wasting even a single moment of their time.

Tactical Strategies to Get Your Emails Opened and Read

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Emails tend to be brief and to the point, so every bit of information counts.

 

And because people in business typically receive dozens, if not hundreds, or emails every day, using the most effective methods to make your emails stand out can mean the difference between their being opened and deleted without being read.

 

And because people in business typically receive dozens, if not hundreds, or emails every day, using the most effective methods to make your emails stand out can mean the difference between their being opened and deleted without being read.

 

Because people in business typically receive dozens, if not hundreds, or emails every day, using the most effective methods to make your emails stand apart from all the others can mean the difference between their being opened and deleted without being read.

 

The Subject Line

 

The first thing readers see is the subject line, which is where you should offer a brief description of what the email mail message is about. Busy business people will often scan through their lengthy list of incoming emails to find only those that are worth opening. If you leave your subject line

 

Busy business people will often scan through their lengthy list of incoming emails to find those few that are worth opening. If you leave your subject line blank or use a description that doesn’t capture their imagination, odds are your message will never be read.

 

Subject lines should be as specific as possible while still being brief, no more than a dozen words at most. You should avoid using bombastic, superlative words such as “incredible”, “amazing”, “sensational” and other adjectives typically associated with spam messages. Educate your intended reader rather than trying to impress them and you are more likely to have your message opened.

 

Avoid using bombastic, superlative words such as “incredible”, “amazing”, “sensational” and other similar adjectives. Most email services scan incoming emails and will send those with these descriptors right to the “Spam” folder.

 

Educate your intended reader rather than trying to impress them and you are more likely to have your message opened.

 

Tactical  – Using Attachments and Links

 

Perhaps the greatest value of email over other communication methods – such as texting or IMing – is the ability to attach documents such as Word files, audio files, videos, slideshows and others. These are usually attached to the document using the “Attach Files” function and will be listed both under the header and beneath your text copy when the email is opened by your reader. Clicking on either will open the attachment on a separate screen.

 

These are attached to the email using the “Attach Files” function and will be listed both under the header and beneath your text copy when the email is opened by your reader. Clicking on either will open the attachment on a separate screen.

 

Links to web pages, addresses and other locations can be embedded within the body of your email. Similarly, clicking on these links will bring the reader to your intended destination.

 

Using these tactical email techniques will make your emails more likely to be opened and read.