Tips from Jeanne Jennings, Email Marketing Consultant, at the Mequoda Summit West 2011
For all the naysayers out there, no, email is not dead.
In fact, it offers the highest ROI of any direct marketing channel. In 2009, $43.62 was made for each dollar spent on email. Following in a distant second was Internet search advertising at $21.85.
Although this number was expected to drop for 2010, it was still predicted to generate over $42 for every dollar spent by The Direct Marketing Association in their October 2009 study entitled The Power of Direct Marketing: Economic Impact Study.
Recently, at the Mequoda Summit West 2011 in San Ramon, CA, Email Marketing Consultant Jeanne Jennings gave a keynote presentation on building relationships with email.
Jennings continued to prove that email isn’t dead by delivering data from MarketingSherpa, which was released in their 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, that said 64% of marketers are increasing their email marketing budget in 2011.
Another study, the US Email Marketing Forecast, 2009 to 2014, from Forrester Research said that spending on email marketing in the US is expected to expand to $2 billion by 2014. This is nearly an 11% compound annual growth rate.
In her presentation Jennings outlined two main reasons why email is more successful compared to SEO, SEM, banner advertising and social media marketing.
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2 reasons email succeeds
Compared to SEO, SEM and banner advertising:
Reason #1 for Email Marketing: SEO, SEM and banner advertising are strategies for reaching out and finding new audiences members interested in the topics your content covers. Email allows your relationship to progress with the users who find your site through the above techniques.
Compared to social media marketing:
Reason #2 for Email Marketing: Social media marketing allows you to build relationships with people interested in your content. However, social media often creates a one-to-many relationship. Email allows content to be tailored to specific segments of your audience.
Now, I am not saying SEO, SEM, banner advertisements and social media are not important… they are effective methods for attracting attention to your brand. However, if you are looking to sell products and develop long-lasting relationships, email is a secure, trusted approach for doing so.
Furthermore, email is the follow-up to advertisements and social media. Advertisements get users to your website; email continues that relationship. Social media is effective in engaging and motivating readers; email helps sell aligned products to those engaged users after they opt into your list.
Are you having success with email marketing? Are you among those who believe email is not dead? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
