5 ways email marketing is still relevant in 2017

As marketers, we must show the numbers and prove the value of our efforts with a cosy ROI. But is this still possible with email marketing?

Harvest Digital
Jul 28, 2017 · 5 min read

This is a repost of an article that was first featured on the Harvest Blog.

By Megan Wrafter, Social & Content Exec. at Harvest Digital


With so many other marketing channels at our disposal is there any point in email marketing anymore? Since approximately half of the worldwide population uses email, even in 2017, I’d say yes.

On average email marketing has a 3.57% click-through rate compared to a mere 0.03% for Twitter and 0.07% for Facebook. So the relevancy of email is pretty outstanding.

As marketers, we must ensure our budgets are divided across the right channels for the job at hand. This way when it comes to crunch time, and we must show the numbers, we can prove the value of our efforts with a cosy ROI.

If you’re either unsure about the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy, or are hesitant about taking the plunge, here’s 5 reasons to convince you otherwise:

#1 Large-scale

Sometimes we experience uncertainties on how to best reach our target audience for a specific activity. For instance, older demographics may not have accounts with certain social channels.

But since you need an email address to sign up for pretty much any digital activity these days, you can be sure that your target audience will have an active email account. Email is a trustworthy channel because our inbox’s act as a verification and confirmation platform for all of our digital activity.

Although there are debates going around for the need of email marketing in 2017, email is trusted by all demographics and trust = value. Since there’s incredible value attached to email addresses themselves, why wouldn’t you use them to send your message?

When was the last time you went a day without receiving one email?

#2 Frequency

The simple fact that we all receive tonnes of email every-single-day proves the relevancy of email as a key marketing tool.

With email marketing, we can send out any kind of message we like quickly and efficiency. A team of designers, strategists and developers are not needed on a day to day basis to send out ad-hoc offers or news announcements.

Yes, we have the same functionality with social but the lifespan of social content is so small there’s no guarantee that your target audience will see your post. With an email, your audience receives a notification and the message will sit in their inbox until they act on it.

Compared to other channels, email allows us marketers to build stronger relationships with our audiences, by listening to their conversations across social and acting via. email marketing to deliver tailored, current and relevant messages.

#3 Cost-efficient

Although to see the best return from email marketing programmes, emails must be 100% optimised for mobile. 2/3s of emails are read on mobiles or tablets so incorporating mobile friendly designs into your strategy is critical.

The age of sending out one general message to all of your database is over.

#4 Personalisation

Segmenting your audience is key to squeeze out all the value from your data and deliver a tailored message to each of your audience groups. Automation programmes also have huge value, but keep it simple — over complicated automations are difficult to manage and analyse.

Most email marketing software’s offer advanced functions to create super visual and appealing content. So once an automation programme is set up for each of your key user journeys, they will deliver consistent, relevant and effective messages to your audience at each stage of the conversion funnel.

Hyper-personalisation and targeted email newsletters will tighten up your ROI since they will amplify customer relationships with your brand, while also continuously gaining a deeper understanding of your customer’s needs. On average a mailbox can receive up to 12 promotional emails every day, so understanding what kind of content your audience wants to consume will help to deliver an optimised automation programme.

#5 Measurement

Compared to other channels, email marketing measurements are all in one place. There is no need to cross reference across other tools. This reduces the time needed for reporting and analysing. You can identify gaps and weak-links in your content quickly and efficiently, while also cross-comparing results from previous campaigns.

These metrics provide valuable insight into your customer’s online activity and should not be put to one side. The results from your email marketing activity can easily link to results from other channels, interlinking your wider marketing strategy and fleshing out the overall understanding of your online audience.

Still unsure if email marketing is relevant? Or not a fan of analysing the numbers? Get in touch! Drop us a message at info@harvestdigital.com and see how we can help you.

Harvest Digital

Written by

We are the UK’s oldest independent digital media agency. No one has a longer track record in delivering high performance digital marketing.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade