5 Reasons Why Email Marketing is Essential for All Businesses
Too many business owners get too easily discouraged with their email marketing results.
Your email list is actually more important than your social media following. Keep reading to learn why. But first, we’ll state the obvious:
If someone took the time to subscribe to your email list, they want and expect to hear from you.
The minimum you need to do is a monthly email with updates and highlights of your business.
A Typical Pattern
Most business owners start the email marketing process with good intentions. They spend hours setting it up (or getting professional help), and the “Subscribe” button is dutifully on their websites. They collect sign-ups at in-person events, too.
The typical pattern is to send a few emails ambitiously, see no purchases or a low “open rate,” and get discouraged … and email marketing falls by the wayside. Don’t let this happen to you!
Get Back on That Horse
If you’re struggling to do at least one email/month, consider our Email Marketing Service to help you do the minimum. It’s worth it. (View sidebar for Email Marketing Data from multiple research sources 1-5.)
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Consumer data:
88% use email every day
39% check their inboxes three to five times a day
58% check their email before they check out social media or the news
74% of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel to receive communications from brands, followed by 72% of Gen X, 64% of Millennials, and 60% of Gen Z.
138% more is spent purchasing products through email than those that don’t receive email offers
59% say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions
47% of email recipients will open an email based on the subject line alone
From a marketer’s perspective:
The average ROI is $40 for every $1 of spend
89% of marketers use email as the primary channel for generating leads
Marketers listed email marketing as the most effective marketing strategy, followed by Paid Search/Ads, Organic Search, Social Media, and Events. 79% of marketers included email within their top three marketing channels.
In a Statista report, 73% of Company respondents and 75% of Agency respondents rated email marketing as an excellent digital marketing channel for ROI.
5 Reasons Email Marketing is essential
Here are 5 reasons why you should work hard to build your email list and engage your subscribers on a regular basis:
1) Proven Interest Leads to Sales: There are many ways for people to discover your offerings, whether in-person, via social media boosts or ads, marketplaces, or from a friend. No matter the method, if someone subscribes to your list in order to see and learn more, that’s amazing.
Getting anyone interested in your products or services is the obvious first step to sales. So not engaging people who’ve already said they’re interested is not smart. Neglecting interested potential buyers is leaving money on the table, period. Sales are never guaranteed, but your odds are much better when you market to interested people.
If you build your email list and get no sales in a year, it means something else needs to change. It could be your pricing, something about your product or service, your tone, needing to create a more exclusive feel, or envisioning new ways of talking about your offerings. Or, just ask the people on your list! Anonymous surveys can be incredibly helpful.
While you should not necessarily compromise your pricing, strongly consider a “loss leader” to gain some momentum.
“But isn’t social media enough?” Building social media followers is also very important, but you should use social media to invite people to subscribe to your email list. Your email list should be a special, exclusive place (see #4 below). Thanks to ever-changing algorithms, many of your social media Followers will not even see all of your posts. But email Subscribers will at least see your name in their inbox, whether or not they open your email. Name reminders and recognition are so important! (See #3.)
2) Long-Term Retention: Not only is email marketing a great way to engage with potential buyers, but it’s also vital for previous buyers. Unless you’re sending out silly nonsense, most subscribers tend to stay subscribed.
This doesn’t mean a subscriber will open every single email. (Learn more about Open Rates below). But the longer a potential or previous buyer stays subscribed, the more opportunity you’ll have to sell your products or services.
Don’t get discouraged by a few Unsubscribers here or there. That’s just life! Focus on the people that stay, and give them something to think about!
3) Name Recognition: Don’t dismiss the power of good old-fashioned name recognition. At a minimum, your business name will keep appearing in someone’s inbox. Even if they never open your email, they see your name, and that’s so much better than being completely forgotten.
4) Your Most Popular Offering: People of all net worths love free and they also like to feel included.
Joining your email list should be marketed as the way to be part of your exclusive, special, magical, world. This is the world where they get previews or a chance to buy your new products or services before the public … the world where they get exclusive deals … where they get special insight into the business owner(s) … or a world where they can help support a cause.
Joining your list should feel like a special experience that’s not to be missed. It should ultimately be your most popular “offering” with thousands of subscribers.
5) Cost-effective: The cost of email marketing systems is incredibly low. The time it takes to DIY create your own emails can be substantial for some, though. Your absolute minimum should be one email/month. Creating thoughtful emails with at least one image and marketing angle requires you to carve out the time and focus to make it happen.
It’s also cost-effective when you consider that it’s the same amount of time (or fee, if you use our services) no matter how huge your email list gets. The more you grow that list, whether it’s 50 or 500 or 5,000 subscribers, you’re reaching more and more people for the same operational cost. And again, you’re still getting name recognition from non-openers.
In Conclusion
If, despite your best intentions, your email marketing falls by the wayside, paying for services is still better than neglecting your list of interested potential and previous buyers. Learn more about our Email Marketing Services.
Learn more: 3 Reasons New Business Owners Give Up on Email Marketing (And Why They Should Stick With It)
1) Email Statistics Report for 2024 from ZeroBounce, zerobounce.net
2) Hubspot Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats, hubspot.com
3) GWI Datareportal, datareportal.com
4) Startup Bonsai, startupbonsai.com
5) Optin Monster eMail Marketing Summary, optinmonster.com
