You’ve probably heard the myths. Social media is replacing email. People don’t want to share their data online. Millennials don’t use email. Other marketing methods are more successful than email marketing. Email marketing is dead.
Don’t believe these myths. Nobody’s abandoning email. In spite of the rising popularity of social media, people still love to receive emails in their inboxes. Email isn’t dead, and email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways to reach consumers today.
Source: Delivra
Email isn’t dead
Email is an integral part of most people’s lives. There are more than 5.5 billion email accounts in use worldwide, with that number increasing every year. Moreover, more than half of those email users spend anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes each week browsing marketing emails.
There are more people using email than using social media. Pew Research says that 92% of adults who are online use email. That compares to just 79% of internet users who have a social media profile.
There are more people using email than using social media.
Email is undoubtedly more efficient than social media. Forrester Research reports that 90% of email gets delivered to the intended inbox, whereas only 2% of a company’s Facebook followers see the company’s posts in their news feeds.
Email is especially important in business, with the average employee spending 13 working hours each week with their email inbox. According to Pew Research, six in ten American workers say email is “very important” for doing their jobs.
Email marketing isn’t dead
Just as email itself isn’t dead, neither is email marketing. In fact, email marketing remains one of the most successful and cost-effective ways to reach customers. It’s certainly more effective—and efficient—than social media marketing.
eMarketer reports that 81% of retail professionals say email marketing is a successful way to acquire new customers, compared to 51% who think the same about social media. That makes email more than 40 times more effective for acquiring new customers than either Facebook or Twitter.
That’s due, in part, to the high number of people who read the emails in their inbox, compared to the low number of people who see your social media activity. You are 6 times more likely to get click-throughs from an email campaign than you are from a tweet, and a message is 5 times more likely to be seen in an email than in a Facebook post. According to a report by MarketingSherpa, 72% of those surveyed prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to only 17% who prefer social media, such as through their Facebook feed.
When it comes to sales, the DMA reports that email marketing drives more conversions (66%) than any other channel, including social media, online search, and direct mail. The average order value from an email sale is more than three times higher than that of social media too.
Email marketing drives more conversions than any other channel
Does it really matter?
All of this means that email marketing not only isn’t dead, but that it’s as important as ever to your marketing mix. You can reach more—and more targeted—customers via email than through any other marketing channel.
Unlike some “flavor of the day” marketing channels that wax and wane through the years, email consistently delivers quality results. Consumers look forward to receiving your marketing emails, with 61% welcoming such emails at least once a week.
Perhaps that’s why email delivers such a high ROI, with a $44 return for every dollar spent. More than half of all marketers say email is the channel that generates the most ROI for their companies.
What now?
Email marketing is alive and well, and needs to be an essential part of your marketing mix. Turn to Campaign Monitor to create the most successful email marketing campaigns using state-of-the-art planning, creation, and reporting tools.
Looking for more? Find out why marketers need to stop saying “email marketing is dead.”