Utilitarian clothing like t-shirts, jeans, boots and workout gear will never go out of style. Good form and function stands the test of time. Email marketing is no different. Sure, social media is a game changer. However, email marketing out performs social media when it comes to acquiring customers — it performs nearly 40 times better than Facebook and Twitter combined.
Here are the top four reasons why email will always be in style.
1. Email Is Tailor Made to Fit the Customer
Personal makeover shows stress how ill fitting clothes can undermine your personal brand. The secret weapon of style leaders and celebrities is not that they pay more money for high-end designer clothes, it is the fact their clothes are custom tailored to fit them. Tailoring your email messages to the individual can create a more positive impression of your brand, too. A recent study found that 82 percent of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading customized content. Email, long considered a marketing staple, can be customized by location, website behavior, transaction, status and many other factors. Sending a tailor-made email results in 29 percent higher unique open rates and 41 percent higher unique click rates.
2. Email Does Double Duty
Like performance apparel, email marketing does double duty — it can make a person more effective and comfortable at the same time. The trick is to focus on the customer journey. A lifestyle-oriented email message with a user-friendly experience provides a performance edge that is hard to beat.
In fact, four out of five marketers say email is THE most important channel for real-time marketing. Consumers agree. Consumers say email is the preferred mode of communication for hearing about a new product or service, for learning more about a product or service, and for post-purchase follow-up. Email messages can move with a prospect through the sales process, provide important data and drive the prospect to your website for conversion.
3. Email Can Dress Up (or Down) for Any Occasion
One-size-fits all clothes rarely fit everyone, and one-size-fits-all mass communication rarely suits a consumer. Over 75 percent of all email marketing revenue is generated through behavior or trigger-based campaigns. Some common examples of triggered emails are welcome messages, thank yous, renewal messages, product surveys, event countdowns and last chance messages. The last chance message is very effective at moving items from the shopping cart to the shipping manifest. These ‘did you forget’ or ‘your item is almost out-of-stock’ email messages recover lost sales. If you offer a discount via email, 54 percent of shoppers will go back and buy the products they left in a shopping cart. Email lets you reach the right person, with the right offer, at the right time.
4. Email Is an Integral Part of Our Communication Fabric
We are in the Communication Age. Industry experts project that in 2018 there will be more than 2.9 billion email users worldwide. Low-cost and preferred by customers, email is an integral part of the way we communicate today. Email addresses are an accepted requirement for logging in across the web. Consequently, there is a significant amount of personal data tied to the address that enables strategic and targeted marketing. Email’s pivotal role in conjunction with the internet, gives a brand’s communication context and meaning. Plus email marketing is 20 times more cost-effective and has a higher ROI (the Direct Marketing Association estimates a 4,300 percent return).
Email, now 44 years old, will always be in style because its form, function and versatility make it one of the best choices for most marketing occasions.
