Why Marketers Are Counting Their Email Blessings

A new, comprehensive email survey conducted by Adobe shows that email is favored – and loved – by consumers and business people alike, now more than ever. With that in mind, here are 6 reasons to count your email marketing blessings this year:

 

• Preferred brand contact medium: A whopping 61% of people surveyed said they prefer to be contacted by brands via email – a 24% increase year over year. The next highest preferred medium (direct mail) comes in at only 18%. It remains clear that email continues to be the best way for marketers to introduce their company and services to their targets.

 

• Favored by Millennials ‘round the clock: I’ve written previously about how email is ideal for reaching coveted Millennials and emerging Generations X, Y and Z. The latest report by Adobe confirms their constant engagement with email: more than half of 18-24 year olds check email while still in bed in the morning, and 43% of Millennials aged 25-34 admit to doing the same.

 

• Email is a communications cornerstone: Despite the rapidly shifting trends in the technology landscape, email remains an integral part of digital communications. Everyone needs, for example, an email address to sign up for most services, including social media accounts. The email address continues to be the most important piece of contact information or personal identifier to gather on any web form for follow-up purposes; much more so than phone numbers or postal mailing addresses.

 

• Email is a survivor: Email has emerged triumphant time and time again over the numerous threats that were supposed to harm its dominance.

 

• Spam: Some digital pundits predicted spam would clog email inboxes beyond use and repair. However, despite spammers sending about 100 billion unwanted emails annually, modern spam filters have done a great job of keeping these away from us for the most part.

 

• SMS: Despite the fact that we’re all tied to our smart phones, short-message-services (SMS) such as texting haven’t invaded email’s domain just yet. This is because texting is used primarily for immediate, personal, and often private communications. Although some B2C companies have adopted this communications medium, they are not depending upon it the way they depend on email for effectively reaching prospects and customers.

 

• Social media: While many experts thought social media would finally undo email’s dominance, it turns out the two mediums work well in concert together and when supporting each other. This includes cross-promotions, social media enhancement and mutual integration. (See my blog post on tips for enabling email and social media to work well together.)

 

• Enables personalization: Email marketing tools including automation, segmentation and dynamic content, enable marketers to send very relevant messages to their target audiences. Data shows that marketers who deliver personalized experiences see an average increase of 20% in sales.

 

• Measureable, proven ROI: Email generates trackable and measureable results and can be tested, optimized and improved over time. According to a 2017 email marketing report by Emma, 47% of marketers report that email generated the most ROI for their organization. As a result, 58% plan to increase their email marketing spend in 2018. Unlike many other marketing methods, email is also very affordable and boasts an amazing ROI – 3800%!

 

The latest data proves that businesses should be counting the many blessings that email brings to them and delivers to their prospects and customers.

How are you thankful for your email success this year?

 

Outward Media’s accurate, targeted email data can help you reach Millennials – along with Gen X,Y and Z -- and convert more prospects into customers. Ask us how. Also, take a look at our complimentary e-book on building a successful B2B email marketing database.