When it comes to effectively reaching a large audience, email is still one of the top choices for marketers. These days there are so many other social media options, but a well constructed email campaign still has the power to engage your audience and drive conversions. Let's take a look at some current stats which enforce the effectiveness of email marketing:
- There were 3.146 billion email accounts worldwide at the end of 2011 (Radicati Group) and 85% of worldwide internet users access email (Ipsos).
- Investment in email marketing is projected to grow from $1.3B in 2010 to $2B by 2014 (Forrester).
- 59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective channel in generating revenue (BtoB Magazine).
So as you can see, email marketing is still big, and definitely worth it. However:
- Young people are using it less and less. Email usage declined by 34% among U.S. 18-24-year-olds in 2011 (ComScore).
- There are still trust issues with email. Just 50% of consumers worldwide trust email messages from companies they have signed up to receive (Nielsen).
What does this mean? First, it's more and more important to fully understand your audience. You're not sending a campaign to a list of email addresses, you're sending to people of varied ages with different interests and needs. Perhaps this means sending specific campaigns to target different age groups? Or different industries? However you do it, be specific and make sure you do your research.
Also, there's the point about trust. It's true that email is perhaps the worst source of spam, so this is a hurdle marketers must overcome by creating a quality campaign focused on meeting the needs of the audience, as opposed to bombarding and pushing products and offers. Think about the kind of email you'd actually read. What does that include? What would you look for? It's all about engaging.
View more at business2community.com