This course is not intended to make you a master at email marketing. What I am attempting to portray is how to build the structure that anyone can use to effectively market on the Internet. This has been made harder by naive and unscrupulous people who have created such issues as: phishing, spam, deliverability problems, clutter, declining open rates, requirements of prickly Internet service providers and fickle email box owners. Not knowing how to navigate these waters properly can stop a marketing campaign dead in its tracks.
Let's start with a discussion of some facts on the effectiveness of email marketing in todays marketplace. Here are some current statistics:
| Email & Mobile Marketing Statistics | B2B & B2C Statistics |
|---|---|
| • There are 3.9 billion daily email users. This number is expected to climb to 4.3 billion by 2023. (Statista, 2020) • Active email accounts surpassed 5.6 billion in 2019. (Statista, 2019) • Marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue. (Campaign Monitor, 2019) • 35% of marketers send their customers 3-5 emails per week. (Not Another State of Marketing, 2020) • 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months (Not Another State of Marketing, 2020) • 31% of B2B marketers say email newsletters are the best way to nurture leads. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020) • The U.S. spent over 350 million dollars on email advertising in 2019. (Statista, 2019) • Mobile opens accounted for 46 percent of all email opens. (Litmus.com, 2018) • 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device. (Convince & Convert, 2018) • Apple iPhone is the most popular mobile client for reading emails with 29 percent of all opens occurring on this platform. Gmail is a close runner-up at 27 percent (Campaign Monitor, 2018) | • 81% of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020) • 16% of all emails never make it into the inbox. (Email Tool Tester, 2019) • 87% of B2B marketers say email is one of their top free organic distribution channels. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020) • 90% of content marketers say email engagement is the top metric they track to measure content performance. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020) • The second-most common technology B2B organizations use to assist with content marketing is mail marketing software. Roughly 85% of marketers say they work with these tools. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020) • 80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention. (Emarsys, 2018) • 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. (SaleCycle, 2018) • The most opened emails relate to hobbies, with an open rate of 27.35 percent. (MailChimp, 2018) 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI. (Emma, 2018) |
General Perceptions
When some people think of email marketing, they equate it to all of the spam that hits their mailbox each day. They often believe that email marketing is no longer effective because most of it ends up in the trash folder. That's true for all those people who sending out messages to those lists they bought. In fact, every email goes into the trash folder on my system unless it is white listed, and I'm in the marketing business.
Nor should you abuse the relationship when someone gives you permission to mail to them. I've often cancelled or blocked emails from people excessively email me offers after the initial information. The last thing I have time for is an email from someone telling me about their latest, greatest program - even if it someone I have done business with before. If you want my attention, then educate me about your new business concept and include a link to the site for more information. If I've learned something interesting, chances are I'll check it out. Most people feel the same.
That is why all of the automated systems that we are going to discuss include educational elements that have been requested by people. This insures a receptive audience and prevents accusations of spam. You should also remember that not everyone is going to appreciate what you trying to teach them, thus you must always have a way for them to stop getting emails from you. (Plus it's the law.)