Email marketing. Is it still effective?

Most people think email marketing is no longer effective because of the growth of social media and companies’ related investments — but the statistics tell a different story. Right now, more than 4 billion users use email, and as many as 91% of them sign in to their account every day. Marketing specialists use this strategy in their daily work and encourage others to do so, since this type of marketing guarantees inevitable success.

Email marketing has been around for several decades and is one of the best strategies for staying in touch with existing and potential customers and getting to know them better. By creating individual content that takes previous purchases or inquiry information into account, personalized messages stay relevant and impactful. Using this strategy, return on investment also grows, since the buying process happens up to 3 times faster than in any other digital marketing channel.

Gintarė Milašiūtė, the email marketing specialist at the marketing management agency ‘Expertmedia,’ says that the success of email marketing can be limited by a lack of contacts.

When creating emails, it’s recommended to send them to customers who have already made a purchase before, or to those for whom such information may be relevant. As many as 8% of recipients say they cancel some subscriptions because of too many messages, and a portion of letters end up in the spam folder. To avoid this, it’s important to take care of:

• an intriguing subject line;
• a personal offer;
• an interesting way of telling a story;
• a marketing offer;
• a thank-you.

When using email marketing, it’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaigns you run — to ensure your emails reach their target audience. To analyze achieved results in depth, the following metrics are used:

• open rate — the number of people who opened the emails;
• click-through rate — the number of people who clicked on links inside the emails;
• conversion rate — the number of people who take action after reading an email.

It’s important that these indicators are as high as possible, so it’s recommended to include photos, video or audio recordings, or other interactive elements in your emails to grow customer interest in the content.

Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of digital marketing. Marketing specialists say email marketing is still effective and not at all behind social networks or other channels. It helps reach the goals you set, and the results often exceed expectations because:

• the open and click rates are very high;
• the target audience is reached;
• it’s easy to track and evaluate results;
• relationships are built with existing and potential customers;
• action is encouraged;
• other company channels are promoted (social media, website);
• cost-effectiveness is ensured.

Almost 150 billion emails are sent every day, so it’s no surprise that email marketing remains one of the most widely used business communication channels. By sending emails and newsletters, greater company awareness and profitability are guaranteed. ‘Expertmedia’s’ email marketing specialist G. Milašiūtė believes that, based on forecasts, return on investment will only grow in the coming years — so email marketing will remain relevant going forward.