Organizations are asking the question, is email marketing still effective?, for several reasons.
- Email has been around a long time, maybe its run is at an end
- Other marketing methods appear fresher
- People are overwhelmed by crowded inboxes
- Spam filters make it hard to hit the inbox
- Email deliverability is not easy to manage
Those notions are just the tip of the iceberg making businesses wonder “is email marketing still effective?” We could toss in email list decay and Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection too.
Obstacles everywhere, but I’m going to lay out the case for email’s effectiveness. So you don’t miss out on the benefits of this sturdy form of marketing. And I’ll address those main issues above. Oh, and I have one fact that will convince anyone the effectiveness of email marketing remains intact.
Point #1 Is Email Marketing Played Out?
Email is the oldest form of digital marketing. Many early adopters made a fortune by seeing the value of access to the inbox of customers.
Today, the internet has ballooned to a distraction dystopia compared to early days of the web. Making the inbox one of the few calm places on the web to get your followers’ full attention.
I read recently that an email holds the attention of people about 10x longer than an online ad.
Attention is vital to making sales and email holds attention longer. Nobody signs up to view online ads, right? But millions of people sign up to receive brands’ emails every day.
Point #2 Is Email Marketing Effective as Newer Advertising Options?
Online ads are full of what? Fraud.
Professor Scott Galloway has noted studies revealing up to 88% of online clicks could be fraudulent (bots / click farms).
Plus:
- Experts say nearly half of all internet traffic is bots
- Almost 56% of all online ads are never seen by any human (ClickGuard)
- Ad fraud on ad exchanges costs ad publishers as much as $3.5 million a day (Marketing Drive)
- 36% of businesses don’t even know how much they’re exposed to ad fraud (WFA)
Why is this allowed to go on and cost companies billions? Governments are incapable of keeping up with technology. Painfully obvious in any Congressional hearings on tech-related issues.
More than that though, programmatic online ads are nearly impossible to track. Without going into detail, how would you even know if your Google Ad really showed up 87 times a day like the report says? Even if you could see real proof… how do you know the traffic is real on the sites showing your ad?
Email marketing is still effective because you can see who signs up for your emails and who clicks on them. Yes, there are fraudulent and fake sign-up addresses but you can weed those out. Email gives you control over marketing, unlike online ads full of sketchy entities.
Point #3 Is Email Marketing Still Effective in Crowded Inboxes?
Inboxes are running over. So getting your emails read nowadays is more challenging.
But the good news is you can stand out versus other mailers who fail to use email best practices.
- Don’t buy lists and you’ll avoid many spam issues
- Clean your list regularly unlike other mailers so your sender score stays high
- Let subscribers opt out easily so you avoid spam complaints
- Spend extra extra time on subject lines so your open rate is high
- Segment your top readers and email them more often to boost deliverability
Readers who willingly sign up for your emails will stick with you if you give them what’s promised. And don’t cling to those who lose interest. Better to let them unsubscribe so your message only goes to those still interested and still opening your campaigns.
Point #4 Is Email Marketing Still Effective Versus Modern Spam Filters?
Spam filters are getting ‘smarter’. You should be glad!
Because spammers will get weeded out and your emails (non-spam) will have more free space in the inbox.
Spam filters are not hyper-intelligent, honestly. They check to see if a subscriber is opening your emails and if they are clicking any links. Also, if the reader ever replies to your emails. These key actions help determine if a spam filter kicks your email out.
So lean into getting subscribers to open and click links in your emails. Inbox Mailers is the most innovative email tool for getting higher open rates. You can learn all about it with a free demo. This tool uses your subscribers’ own actions to trigger your emails to send while they are actively in their inbox. Inbox Mailers increases click volume too!
That’s my best tip for winning the fight against spam filters.
What about that undeniable fact that email marketing is as powerful as ever?
Proof in the $$$ Billions
$18 billion is lost yearly as shoppers abandon their online carts.
$18 billion equals about 36 years’ worth of revenue for the Dallas Cowboys!
The proven best way that marketers avoid those major revenue losses through cart abandonment? Email marketing. Moosesend found:
- Cart abandonment emails get high open rates above 40% (pre-MPP)
- Of those opened, 21% got clicked through
- Half of the click-throughs generated a sale!
Email marketing is as effective as ever and the proven abandoned cart email strategy is clear evidence.
Let’s keep going.
Point #5 Is Email Marketing Still Effective when Deliverability is Such a Challenge?
I won’t argue. Email deliverability can be a struggle if you’re not on the technical side of email like I have been. It can be a lot, especially for new mailers.
It would be nice to hit send and know that every one of your subscribers received your email. But there are a bunch of moving parts and boxes to check before that happens.
And sometimes things can still go sideways even when you stay on top of those best practices.
Examples:
- You can’t control a shared IP address deliverability hiccups
- Your email service provider (ESP) can have dips in deliverability
Deliverability within your control:
- Initial authentications (guide here)
- Stop sending to unengaged subscribers
- Scrub your list often
- Pre-test campaigns with tools like ‘mail-tester’
- Beware spam trap addresses
- A/B test subject lines to maximize future open rates
- Find fresh content that keeps readers interested
- Strong calls-to-action to get clicks
- Mobile-friendly emails (70% of your readers are likely using mobile for email ~Validity Podcast)
📪For weekly tips on email deliverability and inbox placement, sign up for Inbox Hacking (sponsored by Inbox Mailers).
Point #6 Effective Email Marketing Versus List Decay
It is part of email marketing. About 23% of your list will decay. Subscribers will become uninterested. Others will forget they signed up or changed email addresses. Some will add a spam tool that kicks you out of the inbox without them realizing.
This is unavoidable.
Combat list decay by continuously growing your list. A sign-up form should be on key sections and pages of your site. Also, request your readers forward your emails to folks they know who would appreciate it. Add a link to sign up in all your email signatures too.
Building and maintaining a good email list is tough.
So don’t go it alone. One of the top copywriting companies noted that their best list-building tactic has been partnering on webinars. This allows them to add subscribers via another brand’s audience (with permission-based sign-ups, of course).
Point #7 Has Apple MPP made Email Marketing Less Effective?
No doubt Apple made email marketing more challenging. Is email marketing still effective though? Indeed. It’s just that email analytics got turned on its head.
Long story if you don’t know much about Apple implementing Mail Privacy.
All you need to know is… open rates are now murky as Apple users opening your email may not be real opens.🤖
Industry-wide open rates were around 20% before the change. Now some reports show open rates 17 percentage points higher – clearly due to opens that are not real on Apple.
My suggestion to mailers is keep using best practices that have always produced high open rates. Quality relevant content. Ensure readers recognize your ‘from address’. Use powerful and intriguing subject lines.
But lean on click rates more than open rates to be sure you don’t keep emailing Apple users who are not really engaged. Check your click-rate benchmarks against other benchmarks in your industry too.
And don’t forget that any reader interaction with your emails helps with inbox placement. Set goals to get replies and get feedback with polls. Contests can increase engagement, as can partnering with a non-profit on a campaign.
Bottom Line on Email Marketing
4 statistics:
- ROI on email is still in the $40:$1 range
- 77% of B2B buyers prefer to be contacted over email (Snov)
- Email is the first check of the day for 58% of people (Optinmonster)
- Email marketing acquired 40 times more customers than Facebook and Twitter combined (Mailmunch study)
Email marketing remains effective. Efficient too as you can see from those 4 statistics above.
Should you rely on just one channel for your marketing? No way.
However, if I had to choose only one option, I would take email. Luckily, we don’t have to choose. We can make email marketing the hub of our strategy and let it feed off other channels.
