Email Crushes Facebook & Twitter
Would you believe it if we told you that there are still a lot of people who don’t have Facebook or Twitter accounts? Conversion rate optimization coach D Bnonn Tennant says, “Email has nearly three times as many user accounts as Facebook and Twitter combined. That’s a whopping 2.9 billion.”
The numbers don’t lie. Clearly, your audience for email marketing is substantially larger than what’s available to you with social media. The smart bet is to make email marketing the foundation of your strategy, with social media campaigns that compliment your efforts and help drive traffic to your primary marketplace.
Email Rocks on Mobile
A major Filament client is experiencing some astounding numbers when it comes to mobile traffic. Roughly 50% of all consumers are shopping on their mobile devices, with approximately 20% of all online revenue occurring on mobile versus desktop. Clearly, consumers are glued to their mobile devices, perpetually opted in and ready to be wowed.
With a consumer convenience factor that’s off the charts, mobile gets an aesthetic and technical boost with the latest responsive email designs. Built to morph effortlessly between formats, the designs look fabulous on mobile – sometimes even better than desktop. Their uncluttered layout makes good design stand out even more. Colors pop and images shine. Product takes center stage and a concise call to action encourages conversion. Give your audience relevant emails designed for their mobile devices, and watch the statistics fly.
Email Packs a Credibility Punch
When consumers go to Facebook, Twitter or other social media, they expect to connect with friends and family, look at pictures and interact, well, socially. But when they go to email, they expect to do business and receive offers. This gives email marketing more credibility than offers delivered on social or other media. It’s less intrusive and feels more “legit” than offers delivered elsewhere. Email’s transactional nature paired with the fact that it’s been around far longer than social media can put consumers at ease and make them more receptive and less skeptical.
Email Knows You, Dave
Email marketing can be customized, so a connection is established and a relationship can start the minute your email hits the inbox. Email acts as the first “handshake” with a perspective consumer, the first step in the transaction. So, in some cases, treating email with the same etiquette as an in-person “pitch” is beneficial. For instance, use the consumer’s first name and conversational language to create a more personal interaction. Your audience receives hundreds or even thousands of emails a year. Emails that have their name in the subject line and/or somewhere in the body of the email can have a greater impact.
Your email marketing content can also be easily targeted based on demographics like age and gender, or even buying history or patterns. This way, you’re putting something in front of your audience that they actually want, rather than irrelevant content that registers as noise. Essentially, your consumers are just sitting there checking their email saying, “Speak to me.” So leveraging email’s customization capabilities to create a one-of-a-kind interaction is a marketing must-do.
Email Holds On Loosely, But Doesn’t Let It Go
If you’re like most people, you’re somewhere between mildly annoyed and downright sickened by the amount of paper marketing materials sent willy-nilly via regular mail. Hardcopy direct mail is often costly, irrelevant and ineffective. It’s a one-way conversation that often starts at the mailbox and makes a beeline for the recycling or the shredder. Email marketing, however, gives consumers more control over the messages they receive. They can opt in or out with ease. There’s no paper waste to feel guilty about. There’s less wondering “Why did I get this marketing material for lawn care when I live in an apartment?”
All of these attributes make email marketing far less alienating and more consumer-driven. Get creative with your strategy and give consumers even more power by choosing to have their email marketing delivered elsewhere, on a less frequent basis or only regarding specific topics, products or services. These simple tactics can catch them on their way out the door, and let them stay in the game on their terms, rather than opting out completely.
Need help putting email marketing to work for you? Filament can help. From brainstorming to implementation to writing or all of the above, we can bring your email strategy to life. Connect with us to get the party started.
