It’s no secret that emails have become a major tool in marketers’ arsenals. According to research, marketers sent out more than 800 billion emails in 2013 alone.
But many question the validity of it:
- Does email marketing actually accomplish anything?
- Do people actually pay attention to the stuff piling up in their inboxes?
- And if they do, do those emails persuade their readers to take action?
These are fair questions to ask. And the simple answer is: yes, email marketing works, as long as you follow email marketing best practices. And it works very, very well.
Check the Stats
These hard numbers show the effectiveness of email marketing:
- According to research by ExactTarget, 91% of consumers check their emails every day.
- Merkle found that 74% of consumers prefer getting commercial communications via email. (ExactTarget’s numbers are even more encouraging: They found that 77% of consumers liked email marketing while text messaging marketing only got 5%.)
- The Direct Marketing Association found that 66% of customers have made purchases online because of an email marketing message. That percentage stayed fairly consistent among age groups.
The Equation of Email Marketing
Facts and figures like those should make it clear how effective email marketing can be. And here’s one more: The DMA’s research showed that email marketing has a return on investment of 4,300%.
That's huge.
That’s the best thing about email marketing—it doesn’t cost you much, but it gives you astonishing returns.
When planned and executed well, email marketing campaigns can benefit your business tremendously. If you can develop an effective strategy, create compelling content and make sure that the content reaches consumers, the benefits you reap may astonish you.
Ultimately, email marketing breaks down to a simple equation:
Low Cost + Results = High ROI
Written by Ben Schultz
Ben worked with the Tribute Media team from 2014 - 2017. He holds a B.A. in English from UC Santa Barbara. In addition to all the great content he wrote for Tribute Media, he is music journalist who has contributed regularly to *Boise Weekly’s* music section.
