FridayFive: 5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Will Transform Your Business
Email Marketing is the most misunderstood, and missed opportunities, of all marketing channels for SMEs.
It has been grossly mis-represented due to the general issue of ‘spam’, and its effectiveness as usually been missed by using it in the wrong way – if ever tried at all.
Email Marketing is one of the core elements of our strategies. Therefore I feel impelled to prove it is worthwhile, and explain it’s use and purpose in a little more detail.
Here are 5 research quotes that bolster the effectiveness of email marketing to your prospective and past customers:
- ‘42% of consumers said the best way to receive ads for sales and specials is via email‘ – Econsultancy (2010)
- ‘54% of respondents in a consumer survey said they had a more favorable opinion of the companies that send them email‘ – Epsilon (Oct 2008)
- “55% of the respondents cite that they expect ROI from email to be higher than any other channel. – Datran Media, “Marketing & Media Survey” (2008)
- “89% of retailers cited email is the most successful marketing tactic overall. – Forrester Research (2009)
- ‘Email’s ROI in 2009 was $43.52 for each dollar spent on it‘. – DMA (2009)
Those statistics may surprise you.
It was research like this that made us realise this was a service clearly needed by SMEs. An estimated 88% of SME websites that we reviewed had no way for the visitor to stay in contact with the business, other than an email address hidden on a bland ‘contact page’. And given that 47% of SMEs still do not have a website, the situation is shocking. Any business that starts using Modern Marketing techniques now, will easily gain a competitive edge with just a few small changes to their website.
In fact, you don’t even need a website…
Consider this:
If you visit your favourite restaurant, and a leaflet is on the table which says ‘Join our ‘loyal customer list’ to receive priority booking and exclusive offers: just write down your email here and we’ll give you a free drink too‘. Would you take it up?
That list is the most powerful marketing tool a restaurant can have. Everyone on that list is highly target (eck, they were in the restaurant). That restaurant owner can inform all of his ‘loyal customers’, at the push of a button, that he will be offering Christmas bookings to them first. He can offer complementary deserts if they bring 4 friends along next time they book. Advertise special events and hold ‘subscriber only’ tasting sessions. The possibilities are endless. And many businesses are transformed by such easy and direct customer relations.
Not only that but, as the statistics above illustrate, customers love it.
If you already subscribe to my email newsletter then you are actually seeing my email marketing in practice. I’m sure you will agree, it is not ‘spamming’. You willingly opted to receive the emails and you are hopefully delighted with the extra guidance and offers that I release to loyal subscribers only (you get actionable guides and tips to help your business).
Click here if you wish to see my email marketing in action, and get 2 free guides that will help your business (you’ll immediately receive the first one, the other will be released in a few days).