Email Marketing Was Preferred By 77% Of Marketers

Email Marketing More Effective Than Social Media Marketing
According to a study by ActOn, which surveyed 19,464 marketers from North America about tools and technologies they prefer in the course of their work, found that email marketing was preferred by 77% of marketers outplaying social media which was up held by 72%. Nearly 51% claimed website visitor tracking as important and about 40% stressed on CRM (customer relationship management).

Email marketing dominance

E-mail marketing is old and one of the important methods followed by marketers across the globe. It is a tried and true method which cannot be avoided, as it provides a one on one interaction between the brand and potential or existing consumers leading to a strengthening of loyalty and trust factors between the two. Well designed, interactive emails, engaging articles or newsletters that provide informative entertaining content along with brand related messages is welcomed by most of the consumers. Brand awareness and visibility increases when well compiled engaging emails are sent.

Top 2 contributors to revenue

Email marketing is much more cost-effective compared to social media advertising as for every $1 spent on e-mail marketing, average returns are around $44.25, as per findings by Baynote. According to a study by AW Pro Tools, amongst high earners, email was considered more influential and affected the buying decisions of 13.8% of respondents, whereas Facebook was influential to 13.5%. Twitter was the least influential and up voted by a mere 1.9% of respondents. For customers who are business minded and expect extra attention, email marketing is most likely to click for such folks as it is more personalized and private. Whenever consumers open emails, they do so with the sole intention of brand engagement, whereas in Facebook there are a lot of other features which might sway the attention of users from brand ads.

Marketers should focus on designing enriched emails with attractive templates, rich media content, website links and a plug-in, which will direct users to their favorite product category on a brand website. Special discount offers and free gift products must be availed exclusively for consumers who engage through emails. Marketers must send emails towards the weekend, as consumers are eager to check their mails and plan for weekend shopping.

According to eMarketer, open rate of marketing mails on Friday were as high as 19.6%, which is much more significant compared to rest of the days. Click-rate of emails was recorded highest yet again on Fridays with 4.9%. Marketers should invest significant time in framing marketing emails with a clear and catchy subject line, rich media content and special deals for consumers. An unsubscribe option must be availed to avoid pestering less interested consumers and preserve brand integrity.

Spam challenge is the biggest disadvantage of email marketing, certain steps must be followed to tackle the issue effectively. Words like Free, Great offer, click here and the ones which are exclamatory in nature must be avoided as they are identified by spam filter as spam and directed away from the inbox. Subject lines like money back guarantee, seeking urgent alert or attention and promising huge returns for investment also alerts spam filters. Marketers should have an optimum gap between 2 marketing emails, consumers are likely to report a particular marketing mil as spam if the brand’s mail is sent after a very long time. Marketers should keep their interested user base updated with upcoming products or initiatives taken. They should avoid purchased bulk lists and should give an opt-out option to customers.

Read more: http://www.dazeinfo.com/2013/12/06/email-marketing-preferred-77-marketers-followed-social-media-72-report/#ixzz38TGIFlWH