In the age of social, native, blogs, inbound, DM, PPC and broadcast media it’s easy to lose sight of one of marketing’s greatest tools. The simple email.
eDM marketing, now celebrating 20 years in the B2B marketer’s toolkit, may be looking a little unsexy around the edges; especially when everyone who’s anyone is Snapchatting, Instagramming and Tweeting their branded hearts out. But this old marketers’ friend continues to show itself as a true powerhouse; consistently proving itself to be a cheap, fast and flexible tool for lead generation, nurturing and retention.
It is one of the few marketing tools that can be both broad and targeted in its use. Think about it; working adults across every age and socio-economic group access email every day. A mass mailout to 300,000 people is as easy as clicking a button. But eDM is targeted too, allowing for deep segmentation, event triggered sends and personalised messaging. A list can be cut and diced within an inch of its life until you are only emailing HR managers, aged 30-35 who visited your website three or more times and live on the south side.
eDM Marketing is quite simply one of the cheapest, most effective marketing tools around. But don’t take our word for it. Research by Campaign Monitor showed that eDM provides a 4400% return on investment.
Like that statistic? We’ve compiled 30 more to show exactly why eDM marketing is still the sexiest tool in your strategic marketing plan.
Reach and accessibility
1. There are 3x more email accounts than Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. (Campaign Monitor)
2. Email use worldwide will top 3 billion users by 2020. (The Radicati Group)
3. 90% of email gets delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox, whereas only 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed. (Campaign Monitor)
4. 58% of people make email their first online check of the day compared to 11% checking Facebook. (ExactTarget)
5. Employees spend 13 of their working hours each week in their email inbox (on average). (McKinsey & Company)
6. 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email. (ExactTarget)
7. About 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices. (Campaign Monitor)
8. 75% of Gmail’s 900 million users access their accounts via mobile devices. (TechCrunch)
9. One out of every three clicks within an email occurs on a mobile device. (Campaign Monitor)
10. Customers obtained through email have a 12% higher than average lifetime value, compared to 1% higher than average lifetime value of customers obtained through Facebook. Interestingly Twitter users have a 25% lower than average lifetime value. (Custora)
The Marketers
11. 97% of B2B marketers use email marketing. (Software Advice)
12. 30% of B2B marketers use content marketing with the sole pupose of growing their email list. (Content Marketing Institute)
13. 53% of marketers say ongoing, personalized email communication with existing customers results in moderate to significant revenue impact. (DemandGen)
Email Automation
14. On average 49% of companies are currently using marketing automation. With more than half of B2B companies (55%) adopting the technology. (Emailmonday)
15. Companies who send automated emails are 133% more likely to send emails aligned to customers’ purchase cycle. (Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups)
16. Companies that use marketing automation see 53% higher conversion rates and an annualized revenue growth rate 3.1% higher than non-users. (Aberdeen Group)
17. Over 75% of email revenue is generated by triggered campaigns, rather than one-size-fits-all campaigns. (DMA)
18. Automated email campaigns account for 21% of email marketing revenue. (DMA)
19. Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Annuitas Group)
20. Nurtured leads experience a 23% shorter sales cycle. (Market2Lead)
Lead Nurturing, Generation and Retention
21. 78% of marketers say email is their most effective lead nurturing tool. (kissmetrics)
22. More marketers said eDM was their most effective online lead generation tactic. (Ascend2)
23. You are 6x more likely to get click through from an email campaign than you are from a Tweet (Campaign Monitor)
24. 174% more conversions are generated by email marketing than social media. (Campaign Monitor)
Conversion and Sharing
25. 72% of B2B buyers are most likely to share useful content via email. (Earnest Agency)
26. Email subscribers are 3 times more likely to share your content via social media than visitors from other sources. (QuickSprout)
27. Mobile readers who open an email a second time from a computer are 65% more likely to click through. (Campaign Monitor)
28. Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%. (Aberdeen Group)
29. Email subject lines that include the words “thank you” have the highest above-average engagement levels. (Adestra)
30. Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. (Jupiter Research)
We’re not saying that email, even with its amazing powers of ROI, should take the lion’s share of your marketing plan. It is, however, the glue that binds your other elements – working with content, social and even PPC to push your prospects down that sticky funnel.