Forty-two percent.
That’s the number of Americans who check their email in the bathroom, according to Adobe.
Ninety-one percent say they check their email at work, and 70 percent check their email while watching television, according to that same report.
And that’s not even getting into the number of people who check their email while in bed, while on vacation, or even while driving.
Here’s some more interesting news: Those coveted millennials are just as obsessed with email.
If these stats aren’t enough to convince you that your small business needs to utilize email marketing, here are five more reasons to win you over.
People Engage With Email
We’re programmed to do something with an email.
We’ll read it, skim it, click through it, mark it as spam, or delete it. While those aren’t all desirable options, if you think about it for longer than the time it takes to sigh at the word “spam,” you’ll realize something:
An email holds a reader’s attention long enough for them to somehow engage with it.
In other words, you have a chance.
Unlike social media where people scroll by your posts at mega speed, a recipient will at least read the subject line of your email. You have a shot at convincing them your email is worth reading. That’s the kind of challenge any marketer or copywriter should embrace.
Email Offers a Personalized Form of Correspondence
Hooray! You did it. You got someone to join your mailing list and agree to receive emails from you.
Don’t take it for granted.
Email is one step under texts when it comes to personal communication. Subscribers expect great content delivered to their inbox, not lackluster material that makes them check the notification and go, “Urgh, these people again…”
If you have nothing of value to say, don’t send anything at all. People don’t unsubscribe because a business contacts them too infrequently. When you do send an email, send an email worth opening. This could be:
- A promotional offer like a free month when you refer a friend
- A free tool or resource that makes their life easier
- An announcement about a new location
- The launch of a new app
- The roll-out of a new loyalty program
Communicate With Customers In Real Time
Forty-nine percent of all emails in the United States are read on a mobile device, according to a study conducted by IBM.
Think about the last time you received a notification on your phone – you likely checked it out almost instantly. And this stat by IBM doesn’t take into account the number of people who receive an email, look at the subject line, and decide to open it on their desktop.
What this means is that a lot of people notice emails in real time. This means you have a shot at communicating with customers in real time. This is great for creating a sense of urgency if you’re sending out an email blast about a limited time offer.
Email Marketing is Measurable
Nothing feels worse than spending money and not knowing if it’s worth it.
If there’s a slight uptick in business after you put out a newspaper ad, was that thanks to the ad or just a coincidence?
Email marketing significantly reduces this ambiguity. To manage an email list, you’ll unavoidably use an email marketing tool and they all come built with tracking tools that let you know how many emails were actually delivered, how many were opened, how long people spent on each email, and whether they linked to your website or bought a product.
These sorts of tracking tools let you do the following:
- Manage your list by eliminating email addresses that bounce back
- Determine which subject lines work by comparing open rates
- Experiment with email length/placement of CTAs based on clickthrough rates
It’s Cheap!
This is what you wanted to hear, right?
Honestly, if you figure out your brand voice and what sorts of emails your customers like to receive, you can generate leads at a low cost. The trick is figuring out how to convince customers to subscribe (don’t email people without their permission) and what to send to customers.
Reach Many Demographics
A person’s email account serves as the gatekeeper to their social media (i.e. Facebook) and online accounts (i.e. banking, shopping). It’s also the legacy online communication tool. This means that everyone from your grandmother to your sixteen-year-old niece has an email address.
The moral of the story: If you’re not already using email marketing as part of your marketing mix — it’s time get started. Check out our free email marketing course.