I often hear the phrase “I don’t have time to do email marketing” from my clients. This always makes me worry for them and wonder what else could be more important? Granted, there are more important things in business than an email marketing program. Taking care of your customers, balancing your books or just about any day to day operations, but there are few things more important in the long run. Email marketing provides two of the most important business functions, lead generation and sales generation, along with a host of other benefits that are essential to the long term health of a business.
Lead Generation – According to McKinsey & Co. Email is nearly 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in obtaining customers. With 91% of people checking their emails every day it is a great way to get your message in front of a lot of people quickly. Lead generation is almost always a top goal for the marketing crowd and email marketing is a cost effective way of doing just that. Besides being effective at generating leads, email marketing produces quality leads as well. The quality of email marketing leads surpasses even the power of organic search and social media in a study by Conductor. High quality leads for a reasonable price. This sounds like a winning combination to me.
Sales Generation – It is the goal of every business to make sales and email marketing is a great tool to help with that. 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase according to digital marketing adviser Convince & Convert. McKinsey & Co. found that purchases made through email are 17% higher than those made through social media. This is a powerful combination that is often ignored. Potential customers can be reached for a fraction of a penny and we know they spend money on products seen in emails, but email marketing is still seen as a waste of time.
Other Benefits – Another goal marketers consistently try to achieve is “top of mind awareness”. Email marketing is an inexpensive way to help boost your brand awareness with potential customers. An email marketing campaign will keep customers informed about what your brand is doing as well as generate the leads and sales your organization needs. Customers also use email for information. Forrester found that a quarter of adults online in the US value email as a way to learn about new products and promotions and that number is increasing. Educating customers is expensive and doesn’t always see returns on the investment you make. Email marketing helps curb those costs by bringing the education to your clients in a more cost effective manner. Since you can educate and sell in the same email, your campaign can achieve multiple objectives at the same time for a lower price.
Conclusion – I hear “I don’t have time” and I think “can you afford not to take the time?” With an ROI of $40.56 for every $1 spent (DMA), email marketing is a cost effective way to get your brand message out, educate your customers, generate leads and bring in sales. It’s a powerful tool that is only getting better. Email use is still expanding and reaching more and more potential clients. Get your emails rolling and reap the benefits of one of the best business tools available.
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