Why email is still the best marketing channel

Towards the end of 2014, 73% of marketers claimed that email marketing played a central role within their strategy despite the rise in newer marketing channels such as social media. Here at Maitre, we agree that email marketing is still the king of consumer engagement and have rounded up 4 important reasons why it should always be included within your marketing strategy:

1) It enables you to control how to target your content

Unlike social media which tends to take more of a ‘one size fits all’ approach, email allows you to deliver relevant, targeted, one-to-one content with a higher degree of personalization.

• One way to do this is through using a preference centre where recipients define their preferences for particular types of content.
• Another way is through setting rules to deliver specific content in response to a recipient reacting in a certain way. These processes can be automated and regularly optimised as you learn more about your customers.

2 ) It delivers the highest ROI

Due to features such as personalization, automation, dynamic content and mobile optimization, which have enabled better clicks and conversions, email can generate a great ROI for marketers. In fact, 88% of marketers say email marketing is bringing them a positive ROI (ExactTarget, State of Marketing, 2014)

• In the USA on Black Friday, email marketing was the primary marketing channel for many retailers and drove 25.1% of sales, higher than any other direct marketing channel. (Custora E-commerce Pulse, 2015).

3) It is there when your consumers are ready

Although recent developments within social has made the visibility of posts less dependent on time, many posts still tend to drop off the radar. Using email marketing allows you to completely avoid this issue as even though a recipient may not read an email instantly, it will remain in their inbox until a time when it is suitable for them, meaning that there is a higher likelihood of consumer engagement.

• Recently Forrester’s Nate Elliott discussed this saying “Your emails get delivered more than 90% of the time, while your Facebook posts get delivered 2% of the time…If you have to choose between adding a subscriber to your email list or gaining a new Facebook fan, go for email every time”.

4) It can be used to feed into other campaigns

If used appropriately, email marketing can act as a seam to create cohesiveness among each of your separate marketing channels:

• If you were holding a competition on social media, you could send out a newsletter to your email subscribers informing them of this.
• Including your social media details in your email signature can funnel customers through other marketing channels.
• Use your social campaign, blog or website landing page to drive consumers to provide their email to receive features such as exclusive content or better promotion.

In order to make the most out of using email marketing, it is important to ensure that the needs of your audience are constantly being met by always providing value. Email campaigns should be appealing to the eye, written using enticing copy and include offers such as discounts that your recipients just can’t refuse! Email marketing can be your most effective channel for content marketing but it’s up to you to adapt your strategy to maximise its full potential.