In the ever-shifting digital marketing landscape, marketers ask themselves, “Is email marketing dead?” According to the statistics, email marketing is alive and well. It’s a thriving tool to drive growth for your business in 2022.
Everyone (at least 99% of everyone) checks their email daily. 58% of people check their email first thing in the morning, and some check up to 20 times daily.
Email marketing is not dead, but your strategy might be. Keep reading to find out why email is still worth it and how you can create a plan that drives results.
Is Email Marketing Worth the Cost?
The most important factor to many Philadelphia area businesses trying to decide on an email strategy is, “What’s the ROI?”
Before investing in any marketing tactic, you want to know that it’s worth the spend. Well, one recent study found that for every dollar spent on an email campaign, you make $36. That’s a 3600% ROI.
Of course, consider the resources you have available before dedicating your resources to a new tactic or revitalizing existing email efforts. A successful email marketing strategy requires quality lists, content, and software.
Instead of diverting your team’s time and effort toward email marketing, consider partnering with an experienced team. The professional marketers at Forge Apollo drive action with HubSpot email marketing. We can strategize and design content that converts for your business.
How to Use Email Marketing: 4 Types of Marketing Emails
Now that you know email provides excellent ROI, how can you leverage it in your marketing? Let’s review common ways to use emails to engage your contact list.
1. Welcome Emails
Welcoming your contacts to your email list is your most important campaign. A study by GetResponse found that welcome emails get an average open rate of 68.59%.
They’re the perfect chance to introduce your brand, share valuable resources, and drive action. Welcome emails get an average click-through rate of 16.05% (3x higher than the average newsletter). So, this is your perfect opportunity to drive sales with a discount code or other specific CTA.
2. Automatic Triggered Emails
Automatically triggered emails are the next most effective type, with an average open rate of 35.64%. That’s because they send in response to actions your contacts take.
Relevancy is the number one driver of email conversions. Your contacts want email content that’s relevant to where they are in their journey. Receiving a pertinent email right after they take action makes them more likely to open and convert.
For example, HubSpot’s marketing software can automatically send your contact an email offer for a product when they visit that product’s page. The email marketing experts at Forge Apollo can help you plan and create automated emails in HubSpot for your business.
3. Abandoned Cart Emails
Abandoned cart emails are one of the most successful types of automated emails. Over three months, one e-commerce retailer recovered $60 million in sales with abandoned cart follow-up emails. They also found those specific emails were over 3x more effective than any other automated email and earned open rates of 41.18%.
4. Newsletters
Across industries, email newsletters get an average open rate of 20.68%. Newsletters have one of the lower open rates we listed here, but they’re still a fantastic tool to connect with your contacts.
What’s the best way to utilize newsletters? Keep content relevant and use our tips for best practices outlined below. Share content that’s more educational than sales-driven to keep your business top-of-mind as an industry leader.
Too many companies waste this opportunity by churning out boring content without personalization for their contacts.
Email Marketing Best Practices
It’s clear that people are checking their emails, but how can you motivate contacts to open and engage with your emails? Let’s go over some best practices.
Timing, Timing, Timing
When you open your inbox to see a pile of emails that came in overnight, you’re less likely to open all of them. Sending emails at the right time is key to catching your contacts’ attention.
Send emails when it’s relevant for your contacts, like we touched on before, with automated trigger emails. For non-automated emails, experiment to figure out when your contacts are most likely to engage. When you schedule emails, keep in mind their timezone.
HubSpot has a feature that customizes sending based on your contact’s timezone. GetResponse found that time zone customization when sending emails increased open rates by 9% and click-through rates by 44%.
Personalize Subject Lines and Content
The best way to drive results with email is to personalize them for your contacts. Personalized subject lines power 29% more open rates than non-personalized ones. Plus, customized content within the email drives 14% more click-throughs and 10% more conversions.
These days, many email marketing tools make personalization easy. The HubSpot experts at Forge Apollo can supercharge your email campaigns with efficient personalization.
Segment for Relevant Content
Again, contacts want content that is relevant to them. One way to create that is by segmenting specific groups of contacts with similar attributes. Segmenting your email lists can provide 760% more revenue.
For example, Forge Apollo targeted an email campaign to relevant contacts for a client in the home improvement industry that brought in $100,000 in revenue. Targeting content to relevant people made them more likely to engage and purchase.
Here are a few examples of how you could break down your lists to offer relevant content:
- Industry
- Buyer Cycle Stage
- Age
- Geography
- Engagement Level
- Behavior
- Product Interest
Create Visual Interest
Are your emails text-heavy? People will skim over paragraphs of text.
Turn text into interesting infographics, compelling CTAs, or various videos. Video marketing propels email traffic to your website without relying on text-heavy content.
Be Mobile Friendly
67% of consumers check their email on mobile devices. Depending on your industry, two-thirds of your contacts look at your emails on their phone.
What do your messages look like on mobile? Even further, what do your landing pages look like once they click a CTA from their phone? Ignoring mobile design is the fastest way to kill your click-through rate.
Keep Privacy in Mind
GDPR regulations in Europe prove that people care about their privacy. People willingly share their information for helpful content, but they need to trust you to treat their data carefully.
As a business, you must treat their data respectfully and be sure you’re following legal requirements. One way to help is to implement subscription centers with the help of HubSpot or other tools so your contacts can control how they hear from you. HubSpot also provides a GDPR feature for emails and their other tools that helps you respect your contacts’ privacy.
Learn from Analytics
All of the statistics in this email prove that email marketing provides us with a wealth of analytics. Create a strategy to pull insights from that data. Adapt your approach to that data for a plan that improves over time.
Bring Your Email Marketing Back to Life with Help From Our Digital Marketing Agency in Philadelphia
Email marketing is certainly not dead in 2022. In fact, with the right strategy and best practices, email can be a significant driver of revenue for your business. Hire Forge Apollo to implement an effective email marketing strategy that delivers results.