is email marketing dead?

Is Email Marketing DEAD?

The straight answer to that question is a loud “NO.”

Email marketing is still very much alive in this day and age, and it can be argued that it’s even more important than ever. With all other channels being so saturated with both individuals and companies vying for attention, the most important place to be noticed is in the most intimate place on the Internet—a customer’s email inbox.

1. Why Email Marketing Remains Strong

As unbelievable as it seems, email actually has thrice the number of users in both Facebook and Twitter combined. While not everyone may be on social media, just about anyone with Internet access would want to have an email address.

Email is also more personal and is preferred for communication in business due to email messages being less drowned out by noise, thus making it more attention-grabbing than social media. Because email is mostly free and has more users, email marketing is more cost effective in increasing brand awareness.

The results of email marketing is easily measurable as long as you know how the metrics and analytics work. Most of all, you also own your mailing list, thus making it a powerful marketing tool that you can build upon over time.

2. How Consumers View Email

Many prefer email for updates on their favorite brands, thus lending power to newsletters and automated email notifications. Of course, too many emails from you can end up turning consumers off, which may lead to them unsubscribing from the mailing list and other updates. Make sure you have mechanisms in place to prevent spamming them or at least give them a way to mitigate unwanted messages.

Giving consumers ways to personalize how they receive updates from you can do a lot to keep your emails in their good graces. That can then lead to trust, which then can result in them clicking on links to check your website out and whatever you have to offer.

The emails that do best are those giving consumers first notice of discounts, coupons, and other promos for your business. Email services have supplemented this by adding features that automatically categorize emails so urgent emails don’t get mixed with promotional emails. This has made sure less email marketing gets caught in the spam folder, thus keeping email marketing alive.

3. Email in the Mobile Era

Around three quarters of Gmail users check their email on their phones, with 86% of them doing so for personal email and 34% for business email. Therefore, it’s essential to optimize your email content for mobile so it looks right for those users as well as for desktop users.

For both platforms, interactivity in promotional emails becomes more important due to smartphones with touchscreens becoming people’s online interface of choice. You can then collect data from your email campaigns and analyze what your audience is doing so you can adjust your strategy.

4. Don’t Give Up on Social Media

Of course, despite how powerful email marketing remains to be, that doesn’t mean social media marketing is rendered useless by this comparison. Marketing through big social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and so on still works wonders in getting your brand out there.

You can also use these social media channels to grow your mailing list, thus adding to the power of both your email marketing and your social media efforts. You can make use of various tactics like sign up forms, LinkedIn contacts, and so on to accomplish this.