Email Marketing is Under Attack, but is it Warranted?
Email marketing has been under attack (especially in recent years). As a Constant Contact Partner, I roll my eyes when I hear these asinine marketing ploys. (Do you like that shameless promo?) It seems everyone and their mother insists this ‘legacy’ marketing technique has lost its flair… but are these claims valid? Or are they clickbait? We’ll go over what email marketing is, its pros and cons, best practices, the technical stuff, and, as always, the reality of these claims.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is defined as the process of sending emails to an email list of subscribed contacts (also called “opt-in”) with the intention of building brand awareness and driving traffic, engagement, and sales.
Of course, there’s a ton more that goes into an email (we’ll cover that in a bit), but the most common types of emails are welcome emails, automated emails, transactional emails, and newsletters. Each one has its own use and best practices, which we’ll cover together today.
How does Email Marketing Play into the Overall Funnel?
What a loaded question. Wait, I wrote it. Never mind. (Lol, stick around, I have plenty of dry humor). Email marketing flies into action at multiple places in the funnel.
In fact, you can actually use email marketing to build client profiles and behavior profiles (be ethical, that’s all I’m going to say).
Most commonly, email is used to convert cold traffic on a website, or landing page or to upsell existing customers over time (and eventually turn them into clients).
While email can also be used for reactivating old leads and keeping long-term subscribers engaged and making new purchases, as an avid email marketer, I don’t consider subscribers over 180 days old. At that point, I use my method, called D.R.I.P.S, or the Delayed Response-Intrinsic Persuasion Sequence.
The (Alleged) Clickbait
“Email is dead” — I cannot tell you how many times I have read that sentence in advertising campaigns over the last few years. The funny part is, that the majority of those campaigns were trying to convince you to invest in social media marketing (the rest was some combination of other marketing methods).
Anyone who knows me knows about my relationship with social media. It’s useful and shouldn’t be ignored by any means, yet I would discourage anyone from completely jumping the email marketing ship.
On one hand, you own your email list. No one can take that from you. Even if you were to lose access to your email marketing platform, you would still have a list of emails to take elsewhere. On the other hand, social media is a vital key to any business’s marketing strategy.
The only time where social media becomes a hindrance is when you violate the terms of service (TOS).
Why exactly are advertisers and “half truthers” using this phrase, “email is dead”? Well, the evidence is a bit intense. In the last few years especially, Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Outlook, and Apple’s Mail services have all undergone massive overhauls.
Everything from spam filters to the ability to create anonymous forwarding addresses has made email marketing difficult!
Email Tracking Problems
Tracking issues are also another problem that has gotten a bit more difficult. Private email relays alone make that a more intense proposition.
But if you apply more than 0.5 seconds of logic to this you’ll see why I don’t particularly care about “fake” or relay emails and things of that nature.
If you read on to the best practices, you’ll see how I mitigate as much tracking avoidance as possible. But the main metrics I track are “click-through” and “unsubscribe” rates.
In other words, how many people did what my email said to do and how many left my list? You can complicate it further by adding in “open rates” and other metrics, but most businesses — at least to start — can get away with tracking these two metrics.
I find open rates to be very unreliable as far as determining much else besides answering the question of, “Did I land in the spam box?” once again, because of the technology overhaul in these email clients. Note that this data is heavily unreliable otherwise.
How do I stay out of the junk and spam folders? (How do I improve “email deliverability”?)
If you sit in one of our Lives, chances are, you will hear me mention that marketing lies in a grey area. What works for one may not be the best approach for another.
For most, I suggest taking full advantage of email marketing software advances.
But for others, just slapping a bunch of text into letter format works like a charm.
This is a question that would be better suited to a conversation about branding and “buyer personas” however.
Next up is to verify your domain! This involves adding a DKIM TXT, SPF, or TXT record to your domain to verify you are who you say you are (and sadly, not the sugar daddy who wants to give me $200k). This can improve deliverability substantially.
Need help? Send us an email.
Best Practices for Emails
Most of the best practices are pretty simple to implement starting today. Some of them will require external tools. Get your legal pad and pencil. This is gold from my (retired) coaching course:
Split Testing
Why is this first? Because I want you to nail it into your head.
Split test everything!
Subject lines, email content, preheader text, link color, button placements, images, background, light or dark mode, plain text, or lots of visual stuff. I could go on.
You only need 20 subscribers to start running split tests! (No matter what the software warning says.)
Chances are, if you read this blog more than once, you’ll hear me (er, your silent head voice rather) say that split testing is the reason many large, successful companies exist and continue to grow.
Google, Facebook, Keap (Infusionsoft), HubSpot, Apple, and Microsoft are all massive tech companies with one thing in common… they all split test on a massive scale.
And if you recall from my blog last week you’ll recall I mentioned the Google split testing of their link colors, which led to a $200 million increase in ad revenue.
Write Content Your Audience Wants to Read!
There are over 3 MILLION emails sent every second of every day. You have to stand out in the inbox. Now I know that’s common knowledge, but you hear that and never actually see what it means.
What Should I Write About?
A better question is what SHOULDN’T you write about? You can write about anything that builds trust, encourages engagement, or persuades a reader to take action (buy, book a consultation, etc.).
You shouldn’t use spam trigger words like “free”, “limited”, “!!!”, “XXX”, etc.
A side question I’ve been asked many times is how much should I write in my emails. Did you mean: how short can my emails be? I get it.
The easy answer is that there is no right answer. Long-form emails have lower click-through rates but higher intent traffic. Short-form emails encourage engagement and higher click-through rates — simply put, it depends on your intention with the email being sent.
Welcome Emails
Did you know your welcome email has the highest open and click-through rate of all emails on average?
Welcome emails have a 26.9% average click-through rate and a 91.26% open rate. Pick your jaw up off the floor or I’ll climb in. These numbers make it all the more imperative to nail it 100%.
I have a philosophy that works intensely well even in the day and age of algorithms and artificial intelligence… ready for this? Write for the humans. Whoop!
If you were looking for a way to game an algorithm, that’s one surefire way to do so. Building trust with your audience is key to building your own niche. There’s no wrong way to do it either. I write for a younger audience because I am younger and I write like I talk, even if it offends or confuses some — it’s inevitable. (Don’t believe it? Check out my podcast). Experience has taught me the best way to write a welcome email is to be blatantly honest. I suggest even being honest about something quirky about your business.
Welcome Email Template for Coaches and Consultants
[Contact Tag: “Hey {First Name}” or “Hey”] Thanks for joining my/our email list! It’s great to have you here. I’m {Your Name}, [Value Proposition, i.e. I help…X overcome Y without Z, I am a…{Famous Thing or Well Known Social Proof}]. [Let them know what to expect on your email list, i.e. I’ll be sending you {benefit, i.e. tips, resources, articles, etc.} every {week, month, twice a month, etc.} {Benefit}s Like These: [Email Opt-in Magnet Link] See you around the inbox! [Sign Off]
Welcome Email Template for Lawyers
[Contact Tag: “Hello {First Name}” or “Hello”] Thanks for joining my/our email list! It’s great to have you here. I’m {Your Name}, [Value Proposition, i.e. I help…X overcome Y without Z, I am a…{Famous Thing or Well Known Social Proof}]. [Establish credentials, i.e. schooling, certifications, license numbers, etc.] [Let them know what to expect on your email list, i.e. I’ll be sending you {benefit, i.e. tips, resources, articles, etc.} every {week, month, twice a month, etc.} {Benefit}s Like These: [Email Opt-in Magnet Link] Best, [Sign Off] [Legal and Confidentiality Disclosures]
Welcome Email Template for e-Commerce
[Contact Tag: “Hey {First Name}” or “Hey”] Thanks for joining my/our email list! It’s great to have you here. I’m {Your Name and Position}, [Value Proposition, i.e. I help…X overcome Y without Z, I am a…{Famous Thing or Well Known Social Proof}]. [Let them know what to expect on your email list, i.e. I’ll be sending you {benefit, i.e. tips, resources, articles, etc.} every {week, month, twice a month, etc.} {Benefit}s Like These: [Email Opt-in Magnet Link] OR [Coupon Link] Keep an eye out for new products and exclusive sales for our insiders! [Sign Off] P.S. — You can score another X% coupon by following our page on {social media platform} [“here”; link to the platform].
Welcome Email Template for Local Businesses
[Contact Tag: “Hey {First Name}” or “Hey”] Thanks for joining our email list! It’s great to have you here. I’m {Your Name and Position}, [Value Proposition, i.e. We help…X overcome Y without Z, We’re the… {Famous Thing or Well Known Social Proof}, {City}’s #1 {Niche, Company or Other Descriptor}]. [Let them know what to expect on your email list, i.e. I’ll be sending you {benefit, i.e. offers, updates, events, etc.} every {week, month, twice a month, etc.} Welcome again, {First Name}! Here’s your {opt in bonus} as promised: [Email Opt-in Magnet Link] OR [Coupon Link] Keep an eye out for new products and exclusive sales for our insiders! [Sign Off] P.S. — You can score another X% coupon by following our page on {social media platform} [“here”; link to the platform].
Welcome Email for Holistic, Medical Doctors, Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, and Dentists
Take a deep breath {First Name}, you’re under our care now! Thank you for joining {Business or Doctor’s name}’s email list. We’re happy to keep in touch with you and even happier you’ve chosen us for your {benefit, i.e. holistic health, brighter smile, relaxation-inducing, etc. — have fun with this} provider! As a reminder, you can book an appointment {online, by calling, etc.} — remember if you’re experiencing a medical emergency, please call {Local Emergency Number, i.e. 9–1–1, 9–9–9, 1–1–2, etc.} Keep an eye out for news and updates every {email frequency, i.e. week, month, twice a month, etc.) Our Contact information: [Contact Info, Contact Card, or vCard Link] We’ll see you soon! [Optional for Doctors that has performed well: But not TOO soon, hopefully!] [Sign Off] P.S. — We love and appreciate all reviews, recommendations, and referrals! Review us on {Yelp, Trustpilot, Google, Facebook, etc.} here! [“here”; link to leave a review] [Medical, Confidentiality, Legal Notices]
Welcome Email for Affiliate Marketers
[Contact Tag: “Hey {First Name}” or “Hey”] Thanks for joining my/our email list! It’s great to have you here. I’m {Your Name and Position}, [Value Proposition, i.e. I help…X overcome Y without Z, I am a…{Famous Thing or Well Known Social Proof}]. [Let them know what to expect on your email list, i.e. I’ll be sending you {benefit, i.e. tips, resources, articles, etc.} every {week, month, twice a month, etc.} — plus some partner offers you might be interested in. (You can opt-out any time). {Benefit}s Like These: [Funnel Link], [Email Opt-in Magnet Link] OR [Coupon Link] Keep an eye out for new products and exclusive sales for my/our insiders! [Sign Off] P.S. — I have something you might love. [Insane value proposition, i.e. here is an example of an insane proposition from our marketing: ] hit “reply” and I’ll send the {case study, link, etc.} over.
Email Automations
No one has time to be in their email inbox all day (snooze). And especially not a business owner like you, dear reader. Luckily, some smart-ass data engineers and software developers realized that and made a solution for busy people like you and me. It’s a good thing too because my head spins enough from all the Mary Ja — Email automation can be used in tons of different ways. Sending a targeted email to less active subscribers, most active, new subscribers, sending an email to deliver a “freesource” (as I like to call it), transactional emails, and many many more. And this wouldn’t be “Unbiased” if we didn’t go there.
Click a Link
I use “click a link” email automation for three reasons, specifically: delivering resources, coupons, and, of course, sending more targeted messaging. What this automation does is exactly what you would think. When you click the link, it triggers the email autoresponder to send another email to them. Simple enough. I use these, particularly in my D.R.I.P.S sequencing. This sequence cycles through common pain points you can solve and uses long-form content and buyer psychology to position you as the go-to solution for those specific problems. This is difficult to master.
Join a List
When you subscribe to an email list, 3 out of 4 times you will get a sequence of emails that taper off in frequency over time. Guess what? Email marketing automation is at work! Most sequences last 5–9 emails (though I have personally made sequences with over 20 emails) and are sent over 21–60 days depending on the intention behind the email series. If you remember 3 minutes ago, you saw all of the welcome emails and templates above. Guess what kind of automation that is? You guessed it, inner brain voice! “Join a List” email automation is sniffing around.
Birthday and Subscriber Anniversary Emails
A lot of experienced email marketing pros forget about these two emails. My thoughts are that they’re so focused on all the other cool stuff email marketing is capable of that they forget about this “simple” automation. Celebrating milestones is important in any relationship. Why not extend that to your business relationships? Speaking of, Happy Halfway Point, Anonymous Reader! A couple of things to keep in mind are that these emails are ONLY for touching base — not for selling and they should focus on what you’ve done together. Plus, who doesn’t love to celebrate their birthday? The email template below will work for virtually any business and can be adjusted to fit your needs.
Birthday and Subscriber Anniversary Email Template for Any Business
[Contact Tag: “Hey {First Name}” or “Hey”] Subject line ideas: Happy Anniversary {First Name}!; {First Name} We Did It!; Another Year in the Books {First Name} It’s been another year {First Name}! We’re happy to be your [Note for B2B: Add {company name}’s in place of “your”] go-to for {benefit, i.e. digital marketing, HVAC, doctor, dentist, gourmet Italian, etc.} Here at {Your Company Name} we’re committed to {main benefit or unique selling point (USP)} and we’re honored to be here to assist you — Here’s to another year of awesomeness! (Optional) Here’s a special gift to you from us — no catch or obligation, just celebrating! [Offer, Coupon, Resource, Link, etc.]
Cheers!
Team {Your Name or Team Name} [Tagline or Motto] [Contact Info] [Any Disclosures for Medical, Legal, or Confidentiality]
Transactional Emails
Another very important email automation is transactional emails. While it may seem like a “no duh” moment to have to mention these, a lot of the time, businesses leave money on the table by messing these up. No joke. Plus, these help build a ton of credibility with your customers because now they have a record of your interactions! So which type of transactional email should I send? Think back to all of the times you’ve had to get in touch with someone through a help ticket system. Usually, there’s an automated email that says something to the effect of, “we’ve received your inquiry, here’s your ticket ID.” Think about how heard you felt. Your customers and clients will feel the same way! Other few are shipping notifications, delivery notifications, and payment notifications. While these technically fall under the same umbrella, each one is important in its own way.
Transactional Email Templates
Use any of these complimentary open-source email templates as a starting point for your business! Want me and my team of email marketing pros to do your email marketing for you? Learn more.
Help Ticket or Inquiry Received Email Template
Thank you for contacting us, {First Name}! Our team will be back to you within {the support timeframe, i.e. 4 hours, 24 hours, etc.). In the meantime, check out our FAQs here: [Link to FAQs or hyperlink “FAQs here.”] We appreciate your patience and will be back to assist you soon! Your ticket ID is: {Ticket ID via Zapier, HTML webhook or integration} Looking forward to serving you! [Sign Off] [Disclosures, Confidentiality, and Legal Notices]
Shipping Notification Email Template
O.M.G. {First Name}. It’s on its way! Your order has shipped, and you should receive your {package, parcel, envelope, products, etc.} within {the delivery range, i.e. 14 to 21 days, 7–10 business days, etc.) If you haven’t received your order by the maximum delivery days, please {submit a ticket, send an email, call support, etc.). We appreciate your business! [Sign Off] [Disclosures, Confidentiality, and Legal Notices]
Order Delivery and Review Request Email Template
It’s here, {First Name}! The moment we’ve both been waiting for… your order has arrived! We hope you love your products as much as we love crafting them for you (or let us know how we can fix it by {calling, emailing, submitting a help ticket, etc.} us). By the way, will you review us online so others can find the same joy? [Google Reviews Link] [Facebook Page Link] [Yelp Page Link] [BBB Page Link] [Trustpilot Page Link] Thanks so much from Team {Your Name or Company Name} P.S. — [Upsell offer, i.e. You can snag a bonus month of search engine optimization (SEO) for 30% off, more details here, valid for 14 days from the date on this email]
Payment Received Notification (Receipt Notification) for Business Service Providers
Thank you {First Name}, we have received your payment and have applied the credit to your account balance. Your account balance is now {the remaining balance or “0.00”). If you have questions about this payment or any future billing please {call, email, submit a help ticket, etc.} for assistance. We appreciate you trusting {Us or {Company Name}} with your {main benefit} needs. [Sign Off] [Disclosures, Confidentiality, and Legal Notices]
Payment Received Notification (Receipt Notification) for Products
Thank you {First Name}, your card on file has been charged and your receipt is attached! If you do not receive your products within {the delivery time frame} please {call, email, submit a help ticket, etc.} to resolve this issue. If you have questions about this payment or any future billing please {call, email, submit a help ticket, etc.} for assistance. Please keep an eye on your inbox for order updates and notifications. We appreciate your business! [Sign Off] [Disclosures, Confidentiality, and Legal Notices]
Order Processing Email Template
We’ve received your order {First Name}! Our {staff, experts, etc.} are preparing your {ordered services or products, i.e. website, catering order, wedding plan, etc.} and will {share, ship, send} them over ASAP! Please keep an eye on your inbox for updates and order notifications. Not to mention exclusive offers reserved for inner circle members only. Got a question? Please {call, email, submit a help ticket, etc.} for assistance. We appreciate your support and confidence! Cheers, [Sign Off]
Get Permission to Email Them! (aka Get an Opt-In)
I touched on this briefly above, but getting an opt-in is more important than you can understand. Without it, you leave your business open to potential lawsuits, excessive spam, and losing credibility with your audience. So don’t mess around with it. Get permission.
Email Styling
Condense or “Minify” Your Code
Unless you’re in an IT, technology, or coding-related industry, chances are you have no idea how to do this. No worries, though. Use the tool HTML Crush to take care of that! This will remove, “comments but knows not to remove Microsoft conditional comments. Another feature is that it can remove white space and unnecessary line breaks” according to Email On Acid. Also from Roy Revelt’s development team is EmailComb, a cascading style sheet (CSS) minify and cleanup tool. EmailComb removes any CSS styles and classes that aren’t being used in the email. For most, using just EmailComb with the “minify” toggle switched on (which runs HTML Crush in default settings) will suffice. HTML Crush is more for advanced combing.
How do I Send Nice Emails that Convert AND Avoid the Spam Filter?
One word. MJML. It’s a computer coding language similar to HTML. MJML works with email providers like Outlook to provide responsive designs. Why is this dope AF? Because the spam filters (as they stand) don’t recognize MJML as spam. The main feature the spam filters look for is high amounts of HTML (this may change in the future). For the time being, Mail Jet is the place to go — for you technical nerds you can get the download of the MJML open-source compiler desktop application here.
Dark vs Light Mode
This concept of the dark mode is, like all marketing trends, probably a passing trend. However, just because that TikTok dance will be out of style in a week doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to dance. I personally love dark mode. If you belong to our email list, you’ll see we use dark mode regularly in emails. I do have to acknowledge it sometimes causes readability issues for vision-impaired users, but the use of the proper text color combination quickly fixes that. Light mode is my least favorite of the two, personally, but we do have to acknowledge the other side. White or off-white backgrounds provide easier text legibility and are more friendly to vision-impaired users. Not to mention a smaller email size. A suggestion from a more advanced marketer was to provide a button in your welcome email to switch between the two styles. While this is a little extra work, it’s very likely that someone will appreciate (and remember) you for taking the time to make their life easier.
Text
Let’s get something straight: point (pt) font is not the language of computers. Online fonts are measured in pixels. A quick reference is that 1 point (pt) is equal to 1.333 pixels (px). Now that that’s out of the way, the text is the cornerstone of content. What does that mean? A font can convey an entire language to your readers. For example, serif fonts (look for letters with sharp edges) give a more steady and sophisticated tone. Crazy right? As a rule of thumb, use a commonly accepted font (like Arial, Lato, or Calibri) even if it doesn’t match your brand font exactly. Problems can also arise in readability when you use fonts not supported by your users’ devices. This happens more commonly on mobile than on desktop.
Text Color
Your text color, as I mentioned in the dark mode section, can make or break you. Hard-to-read colors or similar contrasts, both contribute to difficulty in reading. Another thing to avoid is using stark white (Hex code #FFFFFF) in dark mode. Use the opposite color or use an off-white tinted color of your primary color for an easy dark mode.
Use text styling to call anchor text to your readers’ attention.
- Italic
- Bold
- Underline
Line Spacing and Padding
Back on the subject of readability, a double-spaced email has a better click-through rate in our tests. The change from single versus double spacing led to a ***37% click-through rate-***part which has to be attributed to the copywriter and copywriting. Padding, on the other hand, is an HTML element or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) style and refers to the spacing between the HTML elements. Add padding to let your elements “breathe”.
Link Tracking
Never trust a single data source. The full picture can be gathered from multiple sources. Using a link shortener like short.io or bit.ly and Google Analytics in tandem with Facebook Pixel and Google Pixel data generates a complete set of powerful analytics data that can push you further. My personal favorite combination is to use native integrations with Meta’s Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics Pixel to get native data on the email itself. The Facebook pixel uses lots of data points that can completely overtake a user’s attempts to mask their email-especially if you leverage Facebook ads. More on that in another article. Google is the same way, combining their array of data with a Google Ads campaign and SEO (called search engine marketing (SEM) together), which can turn emails into a true funnel buster. Another tool that has so many features I could write a whole other article on it (in fact I will soon), is Google Analytics. An additional tool they have is the Google URL Builder which allows you to track custom campaigns inside the Google Analytics dashboard.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is a key to search engine optimization (SEO), but it also applies to email. This is the text that you hyperlink to another source, regardless of whether it’s your own blog, support article, another website or landing page, affiliate link, or a third-party reference. Anchor text works in two ways; firstly to tell your users what actions can be taken and secondly to talk to the artificial intelligence (AI) that affects ranking and filtering.
Here are some tips for choosing awesome anchor text:
- Choose words that fit naturally into the flow of the conversation.
- “Speaking of reach, download our International Reach formula PDF here.”
- Include a keyword in your anchor text unless it messes with the natural flow of the content.
- “Email marketing tips”
- “SEO page audit”
- Use an action or instruction word (verb) to tell the reader what benefits and actions they need to take.
- “Schedule a complimentary GTKY (Get to Know You) call with an email marketing expert here.”
Buttons and Calls to Action
If you look around online and on your phone, you’ll see that notifications and action buttons often have a very alarming color of red with white text. Have you ever wondered why? It’s pretty easy. Red encourages action. It stresses your brain (whether you realize it or not). Applying that same logic to your action buttons can cause a spike in click-through rates. Calls to action can take years to master. It’s the punchy line that makes your reader take action! The best calls to action aren’t generic, they start with a positive (Yes!, Okay, etc.) and focus on the benefit. There’s a bunch more that goes into this, article soon!
What Are the Best Email Autoresponder Platforms for Businesses?
While this fully boils down to an opinion question, part of this conversation is which email client do you want to use. I personally prefer Gmail because it has the ability to be automated in other ways using tools like make.com to extend the capabilities of these autoresponders.
Constant Contact (Top Pick, Best Overall)
This one is my favorite overall because it combines email marketing, website pop-ups, segmenting and tagging, website builder, SEO suite, social media integrations, and SMS (text) message marketing in one place. Constant Contact also sports the capability to integrate into tons of other endpoints and has a comprehensive onboarding and self-help section. There’s a reason why I’m very biased toward these guys. Snag a free trial here.
Mail Jet (Best Email Deliverability)
Delivered by Sinch, the creator of Email on Acid, Mail Jet offers a rather impressive array of capabilities. With their built-in capabilities to support MJML code, they are also uniquely positioned to land in the main inbox. They also have a great free plan and guided onboarding to give you the best chance to succeed with email marketing. Check out Mail Jet for you!
Send in Blue (Best for E-Commerce)
Send in Blue is one of the better platforms for e-commerce, with a more flexible plan that scales with the growing pains of e-commerce stores. While a bit more pricey for the cool features, their prepay text message suite is built-in and extremely easy to use. They also support a large number of integrations and automation to extend their native capabilities. Get Send in Blue for your business here.
HubSpot
Designed straight into HubSpot’s CRM, their email marketing is a strong and cohesive way to keep your data together. HubSpot has extended capabilities to include things like dynamic content, split testing, and other psychologically motivating factors in its email system. View all of the other cool features of HubSpot software here.
Mailchimp (Most Startup Friendly Email Marketing)
Mailchimp has a few perks to it. First is their generous free plan. You can have up to 2,000 contacts and send emails for free. Second is their extensive network of integrations. It appears that no matter how old the software is, if they have email capability, there will be an integration usually. They hold the key features needed to do a majority of what we talked about here today. A majority of those are through paid upgrades though. Explore Mailchimp for your email marketing campaigns.
Conclusion: Email Marketing from All Angles
By the Numbers
There are a lot of numbers to go over, but this is the comprehensive guide on everything, isn’t it? First, let’s talk about the stats of email that shatter the myth:
- There are over 4 billion active daily users of email according to Statista
- 306 billion emails are sent and received each day (Statista)
- Constant Contact surveyed industries, the average email open rate is 19.8%, the click-through rate is 11.3%, and the bounce rate is 9.4%
- A survey by Litmus stated that 78% of marketers in 2020 said email is important to overall company success.
- 80% of marketers said they’d rather give up social media over email (HubSpot)
- The average return on investment for email marketing is $42 for every $1 spent. A 4,200% return on investment is unheard of — though exceptions have happened.
From my Personal Experience
Early on as an entrepreneur, I owned an e-commerce store without email marketing. Gasp. It’s OK, we live and learn. That’s the point of being alive. I can truly say (now) that if email marketing had been implemented, I would have been able to leave the store to another entrepreneur instead of closing it down.
The Verdict
Email marketing is NOT dead. Clickbait city is up here. Whether it be by the numbers or by personal experience, my answer remains the same. From the outlook to the future and the immense possibility of upside and return on investment, email marketing will be around for the foreseeable future.
