Stats Show How Effective Email Marketing Remains

If you’re hesitant to try email marketing for your business, you’re missing out on one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to market to your best customers. According to eMarketer, 73% of marketers agree that email marketing is integral to their business. When looking at the numbers, it isn’t too difficult to understand why.

4.1 Billion

That’s the number of email accounts worldwide, and that number is predicted to increase to 5.2 billion by 2018 as reported by the Radicati Group.

69.7%

In the U.S., the percentage of internet users that say email is their preferred method to communicate with businesses.

60%

Marketers that claim email is critical to promotion of their products or services, and 20% say that their business’s primary revenue source is directly linked to email operations.

40 Times Better than Facebook and Twitter

Regarding consumers, McKinsey & Company reports that email is almost 40 times better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter.

81%

And Harris Interactive found that over 80% of US digital shoppers were at least somewhat likely to make purchases, online or in-store, because of a targeted email.

Worried your email will get lost among a bunch of other emails from businesses like yours?

60% of consumers get 6 or less emails a day from brands. Of that, 40% receive 3 or less. You’ll stand out more than you think. Customer acquisition has quadrupled via email in the last four years for businesses. Is your business using email marketing effectively?

At Hot Dot Marketing, we know that email marketing is an essential cornerstone to an effective on-going communication campaign. Building your circle of influence includes creating great content, sharing it on your website out to your social networks and tying it all together with ongoing email campaigns.

How to Get Started

Make sure you’re using an email marketing service. Do not blast out emails to customers using your regular email service. As a business, you’re required to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act which means you send emails out only to people who have agreed to receive information from your business and that you actively remove people who opt out of receiving emails from you. You must provide them an easy way to opt out of your list.

This is very difficult to manage from your desktop email client. Using a service like Constant Contact or MailChimp handles these features for you. In addition, if for some reason you receive SPAM complaints, your personal email service will not be affected. Email service providers can limit or cancel service if you abuse their service. Using a email marketing service like Constant Contact allows you to send emails from their server, and they’ll work with you to minimize SPAM complaints.

Even more importantly, you get amazing reports on how effective your emails are. You can see who read your emails, which links they clicked on, and how many in your list opened it. Information like this can help you come up with better emails and be more effective. This is information you can’t get on your own.

Once you’ve chosen your email marketing service provider, promise to stick to the following rules:

1. Send out only well-designed and branded emails. All email marketing services provide great templates that you can use to DIY your design, but to make sure it looks professional, you need to make sure it’s well-branded and styled properly. If you’re not confident in doing this yourself, then hire help!

2. Spell Check. Spell Check. Spell Check. You will inevitably send out something with a mistake in the email, but do your best to check and double check for errors. Have someone else proofread your work.

3. Be Consistent! Pick a schedule for your campaigns and stick to it. Inconsistent newsletters will cause higher opt-outs when you do send something out. If you don’t think you can commit to doing it yourself, then hire help!

Ready to talk more about using email marketing for your small business? Contact us to schedule a consultation.