Sally McGrawI’d been blogging and building my business for nearly six years when a friend told me I absolutely HAD to get an email newsletter going. I scoffed. Right in her face. I mean, all the cool kids are getting their information from Tumblr and Twitter these days, right? Why bother with a medium that’s several decades old when you can focus on the up-and-comers?
But she was right. I launched a newsletter and it boosted my business. And despite the fact that many experts have rung the death knell for email marketing, it’s alive and well. Here’s why:
People Prefer Email
Hopping on to Instagram or Facebook is typically done for pleasure, time-killing, or curiosity about high school exes. And several studies have shown that people vastly prefer to receive marketing information and messages via email. Which makes sense, if you think about it: Email is far easier to control since you can read messages whenever you have time, or delete them without reading. If something is pushed at you through social media, it can feel somewhat invasive.
Most People Have Email
If your target audience is entirely comprised of teenagers, a Twitter-only campaign might bear fruit. But many, many people have never even logged on to Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, and those same people probably have email accounts. Email is the great equalizer, and leveraging it means reaching a larger, more diverse audience.
Subscriptions Mean Loyalty
Since readers and customers must actively choose to sign up and release their contact information to you, that means they’re invested in you. Subscribing to your newsletter proves that they’re loyal, engaged, and interested in your business, blog, or organization. These are your super-fans, the group you can ask for honest feedback, rely on to purchase new products, and send subscriber-specific offers so they know how valued they are.
Deliver Multiple Messages
There’s plenty of evidence that people don’t always open the emails they receive from companies, even those they’ve signed up to receive. But the people that do click through? If you hit them with a visually pleasing, concise, welcoming newsletter, you can deliver multiple messages in a single go. A newsletter can plug a new product, give a CEO update, share a recent Instagram photo, AND direct people to a blog post. Even if your readers don’t care about or act on all items, you’re offering them choices. Try doing that in 140 characters.
Email Marketing Works
A 2014 report that included input from 300 companies revealed that marketers consistently ranked email as the single most effective tactic for customer awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention. A report published in March of 2015 affirmed that email continues to be a leading channel for delivering ROI. And recent statistics have shown that email is a significantly more effective means for acquiring customers than social media. Nearly 40 times more effective than Twitter and Facebook combined. It just works, people.
Email marketing isn’t the perfect solution to every problem, and a segment of your audience won’t give a hoot about it. But email has proven itself to be robust, reliable, and versatile year over year. So let the doubters scoff, and rest in the knowledge that you’re banking on the medium most likely to both reach and appeal to your customers.
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