Email marketing has been around since the early 1990s and is still one of the most popular ways to reach customers and keep in touch with them. It’s not too complicated to set up and can be managed by just about anyone with basic computer and business skills. It might look like an old-fashioned marketing tactic after Search Engine Optimization and social media marketing.
However, the fact is, email marketing is still considered one of the affordable and exceptional ways to communicate with your audience.
Pros & Cons of Email Marketing
Email marketing is considered one of the simple and effective ways to send promotional messages to your existing or new customers. You can send one or multiple emails to your customers, telling them about your latest offers, discounts, and other services. Most businesses or online platforms rely on email marketing to send out new offers, announcements, discount coupons, and other services related to the brand. Just to make things easier, the LinkedIn scheduling tool has its own email features.
Every marketing medium comes up with both pros and cons. The same goes for email marketing. There are chances that email marketing may appear to be costlier in the short run, but when the results are analyzed, it is much more affordable in the long run.
Let’s start from scratch!
Pros of Email Marketing
Email marketing is presently one of the essential techniques in modern business. Some of the reasons include:
- Inexpensive in terms of start-up costs
- Easy to distribute
- Easy for recipients to respond to
- It can be targeted to particular groups
- Fast to send
Let’s discuss this in detail.
1. How is Email Marketing Affordable?
Email marketing is not only cost-effective but also highly targeted. The primary cost of email marketing is the development of content. Once the content is developed, there are many free email automation tools available in the community that you can use to send your emails to the list of subscribers. You can create professional email campaigns with the minimum of your marketing budget. The second reason why email marketing is affordable is that it doesn’t require a significant upfront investment. The only investment needed is the time to create the content & design of the emails.
2. Why is it the Fastest Form of Online Communication?
Email marketing’s efficiency continues to increase with the addition of new tools to the email marketer’s arsenal. Email marketing is the fastest form of communication because it eliminates the middleman and targets customers with individual messages at regular intervals.
3. Your Audience Regularly Checks It
What’s the first thing you check in the morning? Your emails, right?
The same goes for your audience. According to HubSpot, almost two-thirds of online customers check their email accounts multiple times a day.
Well, you can use social media management tools like sprout social alternatives to quickly create and schedule your posts, so that your audience doesn’t miss out on something important.
Cons of Email Marketing
Coming to the next, then here we have the disadvantage of email marketing. We have narrowed down all the good advantages of email marketing, but we can’t skip the disadvantages as well.
Have a look!
1. The Spam Factor
The most significant disadvantage of email marketing is the spam factor. Some emails are unsolicited, and then they fall into the category of the spam folder. The other reason could be that people usually don’t prefer commercial emails because they aren’t targeted well.
You must also ensure that your emails are up to date with privacy and data protection rules so that customers can open and read them with trust. Unsolicited emails can be a gamble, as some recipients will dislike commercial emails, especially if they’re not well-targeted.
2. Deliverability Issues
What’s the primary reason behind the deliverability issues?
Deliverability issues with emails often arise because businesses don’t invest enough in building and maintaining their lists, several messages sent don’t reach their targeted customer segments. Also, it’s because the terms like ‘free,’ ‘prize,’ ‘money,’ and similar others in the subject line, that automatically fall into the spam category, where your customer or recipient never sees it.
Or in other cases, your email title may not be enticing enough to capture your audience’s attention, and they may find it irrelevant then. To avoid this kind of deliverability issue, you need to avoid using these terms firstly and then make your headline engaging so that the reader can see and skim it.
3. Risk to your Website
Lastly, one of the significant drawbacks of email marketing is the risk to your website. When you send emails to your customers, they may report your emails as the span. Then the email provider declares you and your company web host as spam. Once the company web host addresses you may be spamming the emails, it eventually shuts down your website.
To avoid certain types of risks to your websites, make sure not to create any spam emails.
Now let’s take a look at what statistics has to say about email marketing.
Email Marketing Statistics- What You Need to Know
- 69% of email recipients can use the subject line to tell if it is spam.
- Email personalization produces 6x higher revenue and transaction rates.
- 59% of consumers say email affects their purchase decisions.
- B2B email marketing sees a 23% higher click to open ratio than B2C marketing.
What are the Types of Email Marketing?
There are a number of ways a company can use email marketing. One of the most popular methods is to have a newsletter sent out to their customers, and so they have a way to keep in touch with their customers. They can also have a “newsletter blast” that includes several different items that will be of interest to the customers and a discount to entice them to buy from the company. Companies can also have a “new product drop” where they have a new product release and use email marketing to entice customers to buy the new product. These several types of email marketing help you engage with your audience. It helps you in building a strong relationship between you and your customers.
Let’s have a look at some of the common types of email marketing that can skyrocket your business or product.
- Welcome Emails
- Promotional Emails
- Re-engagement Emails
- Review Emails
- Confirmation Emails
1. Welcome Emails
You may have heard that the first impression is always the last. This example exactly fits here. Welcome emails are one of the essential types of your email marketing strategy because it helps you create a first strong impression of your product or brand on your audience.
These emails are the first ones that subscribers receive once they successfully sign-ups for your emails.
When creating welcome emails, make sure to make them memorable and worth reading. Don’t forget to introduce yourself first.
Here’s an example of Venngage, welcoming their clients warmly and they have shared a short video tutorial of how this tool works. This is how you can get the attention of your customers with the welcome Emails.
2. Promotional Emails
Promotional emails are used to promote new offers, special deals, ebooks, or webinars. These promotional emails allow you to interact with your audience, making and you can make them get interested in the product.
A thing to remember, these emails consist of a clear Call to Action.
Here is another great example of promotional emails. From the visuals to the promotional codes every little detail in the emails looks so appealing.
3. Re-engagement Emails
Re-engagement emails are sent to those who lose interest in your product. You can send re-engagement emails to market your product again so they may get interested in your product again.
When creating re-engagement emails, make sure you ask your subscribers about their experience and how you can improve it further.
Here’s a perfect example of re-engagement emails. Make sure when sending re-engagement emails your email subject line must be catchy so that readers can open it at first.
Image Source: Hubspot
4. Review Emails
Review emails are another important key factor in your email marketing strategy. When a customer makes a purchase decision from your business, you can ask them for a review. Send them a follow-up email so that they can give a positive or negative review of your product.
Make sure you don’t need to force your customers to review instead of asking them to write an honest review. Also, you can filter out the positive reviews using Instagram management tool
Summing it Up!
Email marketing is a fantastic way to generate new leads and bring more customers to your company, but before you go for email marketing, make sure you’re aware of its advantages and disadvantages. It is cheap, efficient, and affordable, but it’s not without its drawbacks.
Be sure to use email marketing wisely to avoid its disadvantages, such as spam and deliverability issues. However, it is the best and most affordable way to communicate with your customers and reach them and is especially effective when you’re in a highly competitive industry.
