10 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is So Important

Email isn’t a new technology. In fact, it was one of the very first means of digital communication to arrive back in 1971. But at 50 years old, email marketing is used today more than ever before.

You may be thinking, “Do people really still use email? Isn’t social media where it’s at for marketing today?” While it’s true that social media is an important channel for any digital marketing strategy, email has several advantages.

First, email marketing campaigns can be personalized to a greater extent than those on social media. Next, costs are considerably lower than for other channels, especially considering the reach and conversion rate associated with email marketing. This is part of what makes email marketing so ideal for small businesses.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a powerful marketing channel, a form of direct marketing as well as digital marketing, that uses email to promote your business’s products or services. It can help make your customers aware of your latest items or offers by integrating them into your marketing automation efforts. It can also play a pivotal role in your marketing strategy with lead generation, brand awareness, building relationships, or keeping customers engaged between purchases through different types of marketing emails.

Why is email marketing important?

Email marketing primarily helps businesses build a relationship with their target audience. In order to grow and sustain, every business needs to:

• Generate new leads
• Convert leads into customers
• Retain existing customers

Email ticks all of these boxes and more. You can generate an email list with email subscription forms, convert leads into customers with promotional emails, and retain existing customers with customer retention emails.

Apart from that, email brings several other advantages to the table. Below are some of the most prominent ones:

1. Email is cost-effective

I’ve mentioned throughout the article how cheap it is to use email compared to other marketing methods. But this advantage is so big, it’s worth highlighting again.

You can reach a large number of consumers for less than pennies per message. And if you have a small mailing list, most email marketing providers will cover you with their free plans.

Mistakes in emails are easy to rectify and don’t cost any additional dollars. Plus you’re essentially giving up all costs of media acquisition. You’re cutting out the middle man and in essence becoming your own media company as email lists are your own private and direct source of communication with customers.

2. Stay in contact with your audience

Emails have the ability to keep your customers informed. Consumers are capable of checking their email when it is convenient for them. It can give them a feeling that you are thinking of them. This email can be as simple as saying: “Hi, you’re on our mind, here is a special offer!” or “Here is an update on what has been going on here in recent weeks.” Those that have signed up to your email list have already made a commitment to receive these notes. So they will likely enjoy these emails and it will boost engagement with your customers.

3. Everyone uses email

over half of the entire planet uses email right now. The mass adoption of email makes it the perfect channel for your marketing. In today’s hyper-digital environment, it’s a safe bet that everyone you come across, and everyone who’s in your target audience, use email.

Unlike other marketing channels like print or broadcasting, email gives you a direct line of two-way communication with your target audience.

4. Reach customers in real-time

According to Litmus, 54% of all emails were opened on a mobile device. This is significant and should come into play when planning any marketing strategy. More and more consumers are using their mobile devices to access not only emails but all other types of media and information. Not only that, well-designed emails produce higher conversion rates on mobile than any other medium.

5. Email marketing is the preferred communication channel.

For many, social networks are a personal form of communication used to keep up to date with friends & family. When people log in to their social media accounts, they’re there to see photos and updates from people they know and care about.

Email, on the contrary, is a much more professional medium and people expect to receive information about products and services through that channel.

According to MarketingSherpa, a vast majority of people want to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media.

6. Allows for targeted messaging

Now let’s talk about the importance of email marketing when it comes to lead nurturing – sometimes referred to as email lead marketing. The main idea here is that your potential customers are at different stages of the buying cycle. Some may be in the consideration stage, while others may be at the research and compare stage, and even others in the ready-to-purchase stage. Creating buyer personas can help you determine what kind of content to create for each step.

7. Email inspires action

Every marketing message carries a call to action. You’re asking someone to acknowledge your brand, sign-up, learn about your new hot sauce flavors, visit your website, make a purchase, etc.

It just so happens that email is a great way to inspire action. You can easily embed call-to-action buttons in your emails. These call-to-action buttons can do a multitude of things. You can use them to:

• Ask people to sign-up for your latest course
• Direct them to your blog/website
• Nudge them toward a sale
• Ask to share content on social networks
• Offer discounts

8. Email is scalable

Scalability directly relates to your growth. In the case of email, scaling is very simple. You scale as your subscribers increase.

The beauty of email is that you don’t need sophisticated measures in place before your email list starts to grow. Almost every email marketing software provides plans that scale as the list grows. This means you don’t pay unnecessary fees in anticipation.

Another advantage of email is that you can scale the actions you take for 10 people, to perform them for 100,000 people without a hiccup.

9. Increase brand awareness