5 Reasons Why Email Marketing is Recession Proof

Camping gear. Tupperware. Alcohol. Generic brands. Discount stores. These are the products and industries that thrived during the last recession, gaining wallet share as consumers abandoned high-end brands and luxury spending.

Marketing budgets certainly felt the strain of recent market downturns, forcing marketers to abandon costly endeavors, such as traditional advertising (T.V., radio, print), video projects, expensive printing (newsletters, direct mail, brochures) and in-person events (trade shows, customer conferences) that required travel. But through the down years, one marketing medium continued to prove its mettle and deliver valuable return-on-investment (ROI): email. And now that the economy has recovered and is gathering momentum, email is only gaining in strength and effectiveness.

Does this make email a “recession-proof” marketing medium? The answer appears to be “yes.”

MediaPost reports that email use keeps growing at 10 percent a year in marketing spend, while VentureBeat says that marketers view email consistently as the highest revenue-generating marketing channel. Furthermore, the latter report asserts email is poised to increase in budget, scope and importance, particularly as email platforms continue to evolve and email marketers embrace more personalization and automation features, crafting strategies to target prospects through various stages of the sales funnel.

What keeps email as the most robust tool for marketers during the good times and not-so-good times?

1. Email continues to deliver proven ROI: The data is extensive and impressive. For example, VentureBeat reports an average of 222 percent ROI on the cost of email services, including time and materials.
2. Email is the key to the online world: Unlike other communications channels, email serves as the root of other online activities, such as ecommerce or social media. You don’t need social media to conduct email, but you do need an email address to purchase an item online or set up a social media page, blog or Twitter account. And while people may use multiple email accounts for various purposes, email remains a required – and accepted – key to the rest of the online world.
3. Email is always on: While the device – phone, laptop, television, etc. -- may be powered down, email goes on 24x7, 365 days a year. The transaction, the registration, the share, the promotion, the reminder, the news article, the birthday, the anniversary or the holiday is a reason to use it. Email is pervasive for marketers because there are endless numbers of brand interaction opportunities each year that can be made better, more personalized and more effective. And it just keeps on coming.
4. Email is a unique identifier: What makes email so resilient is it’s the most durable key in the online industry, comparable to, say, your Social Security number. It can be tied back to who you are, what you want, how often you want it and who else around you knows you want it. Even the smart home, car and or device of the future will ultimately, most likely map to the email address tied to your phone, cable or social login. It will be the distinct identifier to connect with you in and out of all channels. Not cookies, not device IDs, not geo-identification, but email addresses.
5. Email is resilient: it has survived inheritance offers from Nigeria and propositions for low-cost Viagra. It has fended off social media networks that were supposed to take its place. It has been accepted by emerging millennials that were supposed to no longer need it. Email has taken on every challenger and come out victorious.

With customer data and campaign management readily available through myriad email service providers, marketers now more than ever are able to better craft authentic and contextual emails, and use email as a connective tool to engage prospects and customers across multiple channels. The marketing identity conundrum – the right message, right screen, right person, right time – is effectively solved with a robust, well-managed email marketing program, making email a truly reliable medium for all prospect and customer communications and interactions.

There’s no doubt it’s the ultimate, recession-proof marketing standard in good times and bad.