It’s not direct mail. Nor advertising. Nor conference attendance. Nor webinars. Nor cold calling.
There is one marketing tactic that most of today’s expert marketers agree ranks as the most effective tactic to create, nurture and retain customers. The best part is, it’s not expensive and can be done regularly.
So what is it?
While there are plenty of ways to market your business to existing and prospective customers, one method stands out for its impressive return on investment and results—when done correctly, of course. Marketing ROI plummets if this method is performed by people without the right experience.
The marketing tactic virtually every business should leverage is none other than email marketing. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing yields an average 4,300 percent ROI.
Impressive, right?
Here are some other compelling statistics:
- Companies that use email marketing to nurture leads generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost than those that don’t use email marketing, according to Hubspot, an inbound marketing and sales platform provider.
- Marketers consistently rank email as the most effective tactic for improving awareness and customer acquisition, conversion and retention, according to Gigaom Research.
- Email is nearly 40 times more effectivethan Facebook and Twitter at acquiring customers, while email conversion rates are three times higher than social media, according to McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm.
- When it comes to purchases made as a result of receiving a marketing message, email has the highest conversion rate (66%), reports the Direct Marketing Association. It also has greater success at acquiring customers than social media, direct mail and other marketing vehicles.
So what frequency is best?
Studies by the Database Marketing Institute found that open rates of emails are highest when companies send two emails per month. So don’t be shy—email away!
And don’t get hung up on worrying whether or not your email will be read each time. Average email open rates tend to hover around 20%, which is not bad considering that the cost of delivering an email message to 100 people versus 1,000 people is virtually the same.
But there are ways to increase your open and click-through rates. Just keep in mind that you have 3-4 seconds to capture a reader’s interest so that they open your email, according to Litmus, an email marketing and testing firm. That’s why in our next blog we’ll address what it takes to get prospects to want to open and read your email.
In the meantime, if we can be of assistance with your email marketing or any other marketing or public relations need, just let us know! We are happy to help. Just reach us at Info@StrategicVantage.com.
By Rosalie Berg, President, Strategic Vantage