Is Email Obsolete? 4 Reasons You STILL Need Email Marketing
Hello! You’ve Got Mail!
If you heard that sentence as you read it, it’s probably because you remember the AOL internet days. Same.
There is no denying that dial-up days are behind us. But, what about e-mail? In the social media age of Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, is e-mail even relevant anymore? Why would you still use email when you can easily launch a product or sell a service by simply posting a story?
I’m glad you asked. E-mail is essential whether you are building a personal brand or using it for your business. In this article I am going to breakdown four of the most important reasons you should be building your email list and using your email list to your advantage.
Email Has the Highest Engagement
Before we jump into talking about engagement, let’s first talk about why engagement is important, what factors determine engagement, and what is the industry standard rate of engagement on social platforms.
Why Engagement is Important?
Social Media is a business. The whole goal of social media platforms (Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, etc..) is to keep users engaged, and on their platform for as long as possible. Platforms collect and analyze data on everything from “watch time” to “likes and shares” as soon as the content is posted. Using that data, social media platforms then decide if your content is good – and worthy of being seen by your audience, or whether it will take a nosedive into the depths of the unseen corners of social media abyss. This, my friend, is the “algorithm” at work. It is also why it is SO important that you produce content that is deemed by social media to be highly engaging. Simply put, if it’s not engaging enough, it’s not going to be seen.
What Factors Determine Engagement?
Likes, comments, shares, saves, watch time - are all examples of factors that determine engagement. How much weight each one of these factors bear is hotly debated, and ever changing. Because of the ever-changing nature of social media, content that may have performed well in the past may suddenly stop performing well, without explanation.
What is the Standard Rate of Engagement?
Or, what percent of your audience is expected to engage with my content? Let’s talk numbers. According to a Social Media Benchmark Report, the median rate of engagement on Facebook is a whopping 0.064% with a median engagement rate of 0.174% among their best performing brands. According to RivallQ’s Benchmark Report in 2021, median engagement rate for Instagram dropped to 0.98% for the average user and 1.42% for influencers. TikTok reportedly has better average engagement rate than its competitor Instagram, with an average rate of 4-18% in a blog post published by Hootsuite. According to a Benchmark study performed by MailChimp, the average open-rate for emails is 21.33%, making email STILL the most powerful marketing tool available.
Eliminate the Algorithm
You can find plenty of articles online that claim to know “how to beat the algorithm”, however, there is only one sure way to beat it – and that is by eliminating the algorithm all together.
What if I told you there IS a marketing platform that does not decide whether your audience sees your content – or not, and is delivered directly to your consumer in a chronological order? That platform is E-mail!
Studies have shown that people check their email on average at least 15 times a day and that email continues to be main driver of new customer acquisition and retention.
If you want to analyze how well your email is performing, you can easily look at the open-rate. The average open rate for emails is 21.33%, however, the average open-rate for welcome emails is much higher at an astonishing 82% according to a study published by GetResponse.
With email you don’t have to worry about chasing your tail and trying to utilize every new feature that is being released just in order to be seen.
E-mail Speaks Directly to your Customers
Now that you are in your customers inbox, it’s the time to speak directly to them. Email creates a personal relationship between you and the consumer. E-mail allows the consumer to speak directly to you, or someone on your team, with just the click of one button.
E-mail marketing can also be completely personalized to your customer, and to your customer behaviors. It is shown that customers are 29% more likely to open an email if their name is used in a study by Experian and are 50% more likely to open an email if their name is in the subject line in a study performed by Oberlo. If that isn’t convincing enough, Experian also found that birthday email campaigns generate 342% higher revenue than a standard promotional email.
Email behavior lists can be set up and automated and in the hands of your customer in an instant. Want to launch an email because a cart was abandoned? Want to send a welcome email to new subscribers? Do you think certain customers who purchased a previous product for you would also be interested in something else you have to offer?
Highly effective email marketing campaigns build brand awareness and relationships at the same time.
Ownership
Congratulations! You have built an amazing social media following! You have a highly engaged audience, your posts are being seen, life is good!
Until it’s not.
Your preferred social media platform page that you use to speak to your customers abruptly shut down. Time and again, pages with substantial followings have been shut down without explanation.
Unless you are Mark Zuckerberg, you do not own your social media. If your page is lost – well, your audience is also lost. You have two choices, try to get your page restored, or start again from zero.
Email is ownership.
Email allows you to have direct access to your audience, and if everything shuts down, a way to communicate with your consumer. Email allows you to build your brand and business without the interference of a middleman.
Don’t get me wrong, social media is a powerful marketing tool – but it hasn’t quite replaced email marketing.