Many may argue that email marketing is no longer one of the best ways to promote a business because it has had its time. However, this is not true. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic also meant that many physical retail companies were forced to move their businesses online to continue the relationship and communication with customers. Emails have, therefore, remained an effective way for businesses to continue to reach out to customers.
So, email marketing remains an effective mean, and business owners still need to invest their money and time into emails. However, if you are going to continue with email marketing, you must understand the strengths and weaknesses of email marketing.
Strengths
● Success can be defined easily
Although it is easy to measure digital marketing channels compared to TV ads or radio spots, which are more challenging to track, it is easier with email marketing than other digital channels such as social media marketing, content marketing, and SEO. The reason for this is because all the data that is needed to help you make the right decisions are presented through several metrics.
All you need to do is measure your click-through rate, open rate, return on investment, and conversion rate. If your campaign is content-based, then another metric that you have to watch is the subscribe rate. Finally, you also need to check the failure stats, such as unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, etc., to help you define your success. However, the first four are the most important.
● High ROI
Apart from the ease of tracking success or failure, and strength of email marketing is that it delivers high ROI. According to a 2016 report by Campaign Monitor, email marketing provides a return of $44 for every dollar spent. They also claimed in the report that automated emails brought about a 320% rise in revenue compared to non-automated emails. Also, email marketing led to a 174% increase in conversion compared to social media.
According to another report, 80% of retail professionals claimed that email marketing is the greatest tool for driving customer retention and acquisition. Unfortunately, there are not many channels that can be used to do both effectively. This shows how effective email marketing is for businesses.
● Generates customer research
Segmentation is one of the reasons why email marketing is very effective. Segmenting customers into different categories allows businesses to send personalized messages to their leads and customers. This will help to increase the engagement metrics and lead to more success. The information that users provide when they decide to opt-in for your email can create customized messages for them depending on their demographics such as gender, age, location, job, etc.
However, you know that you cannot bombard them with several messages requesting their details. That’s not going to end well. The best thing to do is to create quizzes or puzzles for them. This will open you up to more granular data levels, such as beliefs and preferences. You will also be able to separate your active subscribers from inactive ones based on click-through and open rates. This is one segmentation that you can’t afford to ignore.
● Time-saving
Email marketing is speedy and time-saving. The same way URL shorteners create short links for easy management, the use of automation makes it even faster, as emails can be sent to customers in response to their actions on your site. For instance, if customers sign up on your site, you can send them welcome emails. As a result, you are able to keep in touch with less time spent.
5 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
ReadWeaknesses
● Delivery of email design is not guaranteed
Your email design is almost as crucial as whatever message you’re passing with the email. You may have worked tirelessly on a template design that you are so proud of what you created. However, the moment you send the email, you cannot guarantee that the recipient will receive it the way you intend for them too. Given the differences with your email subscribers, the varying browser versions that they use to view the email, and your email going through several servers across different parts of the world, it is unlikely that the email design doesn’t come out the way you want all your clients.
● Potential for churn
There’s no doubt that you can use email marketing to convert prospects into customers. However, it may also be the reason why you lose customers and prospects. When you send out inappropriate messages (maybe by accident), or there’s an error in your email delivery, the customers may unsubscribe, and your brand rating with that customer may drop very low.
● It takes a lot of attention and bandwidth.
When thinking about the idea of email marketing, it appears attractive. However, in reality, several businesses lack the necessary resources to execute their campaigns successfully. Email marketing requires a lot of skill. It is more than one job.
To successfully execute an email marketing campaign, it is essential to have a robust strategy, eye-pleasing design, compelling copy, proper coding, A/B testing, and data analysis. This is more than one job. It requires at least six positions. Depending on how extensive your planned campaign is, you may need a project manager and a quality assurance professional, as well. So, it’s not as simple as it appears.
Email marketing has a high potential for big dividends, but engaging prospects and customers is not accessible. It is not a task for the faint-hearted. However, as an SMB, this should not discourage or deter you. Instead, you should be inspired to give your all to grow your business, starting with the next email marketing campaign and making sure it is successful.
Conclusion
Email marketing is one of the most commonly used digital marketing strategies today. However, it has its pros and cons. We must look into these strengths and weaknesses to realize how to minimize the weaknesses and maximize the strengths.
Author Bio
Thomas Jackson is a professional content writer providing essay help and college essay services at RushEssay and an active member of several writing clubs in New York. He has written several songs since he was a child. He gets inspiration from the live concerts he does in front of close friends and family members.
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