7 Reasons Why You Should Be Doing Email Marketing

Spam has tainted the reputation of email over the years, but email is still one of the most widely used communication tools of the 21st century. Although spam email accounts for nearly 84% of all email messages, people have found that their email client does most of the cleaning for them. On the other side of spam, you have the good stuff – you know the ones from your friends and family, and also from companies you trust. If done the right way, email can be your top online sales channel.

Here are 7 reasons why you should be using email marketing for your business:

1. Email marketing works.

You may have heard some marketers say “It’s all in the list.” This is true. The quality of the list will determine how effective your email marketing campaign is. Opt-in email lists usually equate to an engaged audience that is interested in what you have to say or sell. According to a Convinceandconvert study, 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase in the previous year based on a promotional email. That is a great conversion rate!

2. Email marketing offers a good ROI.

According to a study by Experian, there is an average return of $44.25 on every $1 spent on email marketing. Of course, this number will vary from business to business, and niche to niche, but even if the return was $20 or $30, wouldn’t it still be worth it?

3. Simple to implement.

The right way to do email marketing is to build your own list over time. If you are using WordPress, there are free plugins that will allow you to place a form on your site and start collecting emails. If you are not using WordPress, there are newsletter subscription scripts that you can download from various script vendors and directories. And, if you want an even simpler method, there are robust email marketing services out there that make it easy for any business to create and maintain their email campaigns.

4. You can sell to your list over and over again.

One of the benefits of email marketing is that you can promote your product or service to your list over and over again. And your list keeps getting bigger… assuming you have more people subscribing than unsubscribing. But that’s where you need some marketing common sense. Don’t send too many emails, but don’t take too much time in between either. Set a schedule that is best for your audience and provide value in each newsletter.

5. Keep the traffic flowing.

By regularly mailing out helpful articles and special offers, you can get return visitors. Return visitors not only help boost your traffic numbers, but they can also end up spending some money on your site.

6. Keep your customers updated on new products or features.

If you have a new product you want to introduce to your customers, what better way than to share it with people who have already expressed interest in the types of products you offer? If you are not selling products, but you have added new features to a service offering, a newsletter is a good way to share announcements. Each newsletter mailout is an opportunity to make a sale.

7. Email has global reach.

The beauty of having an Internet business is that you can reach customers outside of your local area. The entire world is your potential audience. It is estimated that by 2016, the number of email accounts will reach 4.3 billion worldwide. Don’t you want a piece of that pie?