When Emails was first introduced, everyone loved it. But after a couple of decades of Nigerian prince schemes, Spanish lotto scams, and mountains of unsolicited spam (which is never a good marketing tactic), how do people feel about email now? Is it still a worthwhile tactic for small-business owners and marketers to pursue?
The short answer is “yes”. Email is still a relevant marketing instrument that provides many opportunities for businesses who use this instrument properly. Let’s take a brief look at the benefits that emailing offers:
1. Personal Approach
Email gives us the ability to connect with our customers in a timely, personal manner. During the holiday season, email is a method that has been proven to work. In fact, in 2014, the main sales driver for marketers was email marketing, which beat out online search—both free and paid—to become the primary driver of US online sales on Black Friday, accounting for 27.3%.
Always keep in mind that people don’t care for “spam-like” emails. When done correctly, the effect of a single email, sent at the right time, can outshine the effect of an entire marketing campaign.
2. Mobile Reach
According to eMarketer, ”One of the main drivers is the fact that email is predominantly viewed on mobile. Mobile is getting better, and retailers are beginning to get that.”
That means that your emails need to look great on smartphones and tablets, and that users can easily interact with your site, no matter what device they use.
Going into the mobile territory we must clarify that emails are much more effective compared to the texts. You can’t put a large amount of content into a text and you can’t send texts to an iPad or any other mobile device that is not connected to a cellular network. Emails are “cross platform” and will display almost the same way on all devices.
3. Email is Simply Effective
What is the most cost and time efficient way to keep your clients informed? 9 out 10 mortgage specialists will say that the best form is still an email, and studies have proven that they are correct.
Putting together and sending a single email usually takes a minute or two or even no time at all, if you are using a marketing automation software. There is simply no instrument that is as integrated and as effective as email.
4. Costs
Every Loan Officer sends tons of emails every day to keep their involved parties informed: changes in loan status, holiday greetings, congratulations, partner communication etc.
Email marketing allows mortgage professional to reach a large number of clients and partners at a rate of pennies per message. For small-business owners with a budget in mind, this makes email a much less expensive choice than traditional marketing channels like TV, radio, or direct mail.
Moreover, according to the 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, 60% of all marketers say email marketing is producing a positive ROI. 32% believe email marketing will eventually pay off.
5. Life Span
This may sound weird but one of the best things about the email is that it needs to be manually deleted. One can almost guarantee that the client or a partner will notice your email or at least will take a note of a catchy subject line before deleting it, or better yet will continue reading your email.
Social media messages for example, has a very short life span of a message. In a recent study, Wisemetrics (via SproutSocial), revealed that 75% of Facebook post impressions were achieved in just two hours and 30 minutes and, 75% of the “Reach” happens in only one hour and 50 minutes.
Conclusion
As you can see, the myth about email marketing being dead is completely untrue. As a matter of fact, email is still one of the best, if not THE best tool to reach all of your clients and partners cost-effectively, with a personalized, cross-platform message that has a good chance to be noticed!
Please feel free to share your experience with email marketing and your best used techniques in the comments section below.
