A research carried out by Marketing Sherpa shed light on some amazing numbers – however these were not unexpected for those who know the email marketing industry well. According to their statistics, no less than 7 in 10 consumers have made purchases which were influenced by email marketing.
Image source: Marketingsherpa.com
If we look at the detailed research, we can see that the influence of email marketing goes way beyond online purchases: more than third of those asked reported that they not only made purchases online, but they were also influenced by company emails when shopping in a store or over the phone. This is important because if you are only able to track online conversions, you can’t estimate with precision how many customers you truly acquire via email marketing. Actually**, you may very well be overlooking the majority of them.**
Another research conducted by McKinsey & Company showed that email is very capable of holding its ground against newer types of online marketing channels. Primarily, we are talking about social media here. It may be effective, and really it is an integral part of any well designed strategy, but the results it brings are still overshadowed by that of email marketing. According to the numbers, email marketing conversion rates are still 3 times higher than social media, and not only that, but they conversions are more valuable as well: average order value is a solid 17 percent higher.
Great power comes with great responsibility
The fact that by now almost every single one of us has a smart device in our pocket – and more than a few have multiple ones – has a great impact**. Mobile email activity has by now surpassed desktop email usage by accounting for 53% of opens.** That is more than an impressive 150% growth from only three years ago.
This provides an excellent opportunity for email marketers, but also stresses the importance of usability. Traditional HTML email templates are simply not adequate anymore.
Marketing emails must be carefully designed in a way that they provide the best user experience with no frictions, thus improving engagement. User experience must be smooth, with no obstacles on the way. **EDMdesigner **stands up for this challenge – we provide a responsive email editor which you can use to craft emails that have the highest possible engagement.
Responsive design is not all about simply rearranging text and images so that they come in a more digestible format. You must also account for the different behaviours of different buyer persona.
Habits of mobile and tablet users for example can be highly different.
A mobile user will pop their phone every few minutes while waiting for the bus or a coffee, and is unlikely to make a purchase then and there. Tablets will be taken out of the bag when they are on that bus or drinking that coffee at the table – and with that little change, the chances of instant conversion highly increase. And responsive email must account for these differences.
And talking about behavior…
While email is arguably extremely effective, it has changed quite a lot in recent years, and will continue to do so. One of the most important trends is behavioral marketing. A lot of marketers are not only sending out emails based on a quota, but they adjust them to the behavior of their subscribers. Automated emails which are received based on certain data – for example data on upcoming relevant events or user location – are much more suitable for providing customers personalized offers and content.
Are you using email in a way that can account for the challenges of new technologies and customers’ behavior? Or are you losing ground? With our white-label email editor we can provide just the tools you need for catching up – tell us what you think and what you need at info@edmdesigner.com or in the comments below!
