For about a decade, email marketing was the king of digital campaigns. The phenomenal success of email marketing was attributed to the following advantages:

1. Quick and Reliable – Emails are sent to specific targets instantaneously. No need to wait a few days for the mail to get to the recipient. And since it will require less effort and no cost for the recipients to respond, the response rate is dramatically increased. No more lost mails and wastage of printed marketing materials.

• Minimal Cost – Setting up an email is free. There is a minimal cost if you want a more professional business email that will carry your branding and company name. You can also set up an account with email marketing platforms like CakeMail, ActiveCampaign, or MailChimp to better manage your contacts and optimize marketing campaigns. But since everything is done online, a huge chunk of marketing fund is saved. No more buying of stamps, no paper and printing costs, and with minimal staffing requirements.

• Statistics Tracking – Sophisticated emailing platforms are able to provide users with a means to monitor and assess the performance of their marketing campaigns. Open rates, response rates, and click rates are just some of the data that are collected from every marketing email sent. Marketers can also monitor recipient behaviour – how soon the email is opened, is it deleted or forwarded, is the email ignored? These are all significant marketing statistics that have a huge impact on the success of the marketing efforts of the company.

• Automation – The precision of marketing campaigns can be the key to its rousing success. The automation of email marketing has sharpened its efficacy in delivering precise marketing campaigns. Emails can be scheduled to send out on a specific day and time. Carefully crafted auto-responses provide an instant connection with incoming messages. And lead funnelling can help drive prospects to complete transactions.

The Threat of Instant Messaging

The advent of social media platforms and its own digital messaging applications has significantly declined the need to connect through emails. The dominance of social media has hugely changed the way how people use the internet. Mobile devices connectivity made it possible to access the web anytime and anywhere. We no longer rely on computers to read emails and/or access the internet.

Instant messaging proved to be more efficient, effective, and responsive than emails. People are more likely to reply to direct messages than to an email. Social media interactions are more laidback and casual, while emails are business and formal. People are more likely to be available and responsive in the more relaxed settings of social media than in the uptight task of responding to an email.

Does email marketing still matter in 2021?

A lot of companies still rely on the efficacy and reliability of email marketing. While a lot of modern marketing efforts are focused on social media, email marketing is still going strong.  

• Emails are less intrusive. Not everyone welcomes the bombardment of messages online. The in-your-face marketing approach of instant messaging can turn off prospect customers.
• Emails generate returns. Statistics still supports email marketing. With an average ROI of $40 to $1 spent, businesses can still rely on the effectiveness of a precise and well-prepared email marketing campaign.
• Emails can be integrated with other marketing tools. It is easy to integrate email campaigns in all your business platforms – business website, social media accounts, TV ads, accounting tools, and even in your product packaging.
• Emails build lasting relationships. The more professional email correspondence lends reliability and confidence between the company and the customer. Unlike the casual exchanges in instant messaging, the formality of emails is more likely to build trust and lasting relationships.
• Email marketing is still the top digital marketing tool today. As of today, nothing has surpassed the level of success email marketing has reached. Many have shown more reach and more responsiveness. But nothing has maintained its stature, trustworthiness, and long-lasting effectiveness as email marketing.

Conclusion

Email marketing has been a huge part of modern marketing. Its effectiveness and benefits have built companies from scratch to multi-million conglomerates. Email marketing has also evolved to accommodate technical advancements and societal changes in the targeted market. It has earned its rightful place in business. Email marketing is here to stay, with advantages to offer to business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs. It is most unwise to forsake a reliable marketing tool and focus on something trendy. The key to effective use of email marketing is knowing how to incorporate it with the current marketing trends. We are not sure how the trends will evolve, but for 2021, we can still rely on email marketing to deliver.

Let us help you discover ways on how you can integrate a successful email marketing campaign into your business. Talk to us today!