Recently, I went to the movie theater to see the new movie Dark Tower. I enjoyed the trip, I was entertained.
During the previews, there was an extended look at the new Star Wars movie The Last Jedi.
By now, most of you know the most famous line by our beloved Jedi himself, Luke Skywalker.
You have seen it, I know you have. At the end of the trailer, Skywalker looks at the camera (presumably Rey) and announces, much to our dismay, “It’s time for the Jedi to end.”
What?
Now, to be sure, this has prompted plenty of speculation across the internet.
If it is time to end the Jedi, does that mean it is also time for email to end?
More importantly, is email marketing going the way of some forgotten piece of communication?
Let this sink in for a moment.
122,500,453,020 emails are sent every hour. – MarketingProfs (2014) Email is Not Dead
The rumors of the death of email have been greatly exaggerated. It is still one of the most effective means, if not the most effective means of marketing.
[clickToTweet tweet=”The rumors of the death of email have been greatly exaggerated. Grow your email list!” quote=”The rumors of the death of email have been greatly exaggerated. Grow your email list!”]
Adelina Tuca has some fantastic data on how important email marketing is to the online marketing industry in an article at CodeinWP. It matters to WordPress professionals.
Consider this from a study published Transparency Marketing Research,
The global market for email marketing has been influence by a number of factors, among which, the increasing usage of Internet is the most significant one. The expanding penetration of smart phones has also been adding to the growth of this market since the last few years. Over the coming years, the rising awareness among people pertaining to email marketing, such as a relatively higher RoI rate than any other form of digital marketing, will influence its popularity, resulting in a significant market rise.
They continue to say that the market is likely to reach $22.16 Billion by the end of 2025. That is Billion, with a B.
The bottom line is that larger companies use email marketing because it works. Today we are going to discuss several reasons you should be building your email list.
7 Reasons you should be building your email list
The Data shows it
According to an article on Marketing Experiments, there a 4 data points to build a case for a bigger budget for email marketing, but I want to focus on 3 of those points.
3 data points
1. Customers want your email
Can you believe that? Really? The data seems to think so. As many as 72% say they would rather receive email as communication from companies versus any other form of communication. This makes sense to me. When I have an issue that needs attention, I feel more comfortable with emails.
2. Your competitors use email marketing
There is a reason that your competitors use email marketing because it works. Most WordPress products take advantage of email marketing to generate leads and keep customers engaged. The same is true with your competitors.
Additionally, there are now a multitude of options for building an email list on your WordPress site because of how valuable it is.
3. ROI is high for email marketing
ROI, of course, stands for return on investment. Frankly, according to Marketing Experiments, the numbers are staggering.
The exact number varies based on where you look. The DMA has one of the most-quoted numbers I’ve seen about email marketing ROI — that it generated $43.52 for every dollar invested. But this well-known number is from 2009. Marketing Experts
Email Marketing ROI is a website that includes a calculator to determine your ROI. While the ROI is high, the numbers vary.
Need more data for email marketing? Check out Web Presence Solutions.
It’s Agile
Building an email list is very agile. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s just say that tomorrow, Facebook goes away (MySpace anyone?), you still have access to your customers. They aren’t sitting out there in cyberspace hidden for all of eternity.
What if Google determines you did something against its rules and sink your rankings? So much for SEO. Got a list? You are good to go.
Keep that list secure in your email marketing software. You might consider downloading the list once in a while and storing in the event of a disaster or Zombie Apocalypse.
Your list wants to hear from you
Your list is made up of people who actually opted in, right? Of course, it is. I mean, why would you buy a list or deceive them to be on your list? Therefore, each person has given you permission to send them emails about you or your product.
Now, true, they will actually test you, hear you out. The option to unsubscribe is always there. However, if you are giving them a reason to read your email, they will read the email.
Because they gave you permission it is not an interruption. Do you have a good deal going on? Send them an email. Do you have a “can’t miss” offer? Send them an email. Have you published your latest post about solving a pressing need? Send an email.
They said it is okay. Really, they did. Send the email.
You can soft-sell your list
Few people like push salesmen. They just seem so, pushy. When you are emailing your list, you can build a relationship and use more soft selling techniques. There is no reason for a hard sale.
It all comes back to a call to action [link]. Thankfully, we don’t have to be pushy. We can focus on building a relationship and use calls to action to encourage members of our list to move forward.
Email copywriter Ben Settle shares one way you can do this in this Copyblogger article.
The good thing is, with calls to action, you can generate revenue.
Segmentation
With segmentation, you can send different emails to different groups on your list, customizing your message for each group. For example, if I have solopreneurs and WordPress professionals on my list, I can segment the groups and send a more customized message to each group.
There are very few other marketing channels in which you can do this.
Wide adoption
Lots of people are “cutting the cord” these days and many only listen to satellite radio. However, most people still have email. In fact, nearly 3.7 Billion people use email. Most people have more than one account.
Email is widely adopted and thus, email marketing has plenty of places to land.
Trackable
Most email marketing software has analytics to see how your email is performing. Data most people are interested in include open rates, click through rates, and revenue generated from sales letters. As with all digital marketing initiatives, you can more accurately determine how your emails marketing efforts perform.
Conclusion
There are many good reasons to use email marketing for your WordPress business. We identified a few in this article. It is important to dig into some of the statistics for email marketing to understand the effectiveness.
As the Email is Not Dead website says, “Email is not dead. But email IS changing.”
“But what about Spam, Todd?” Well, spam is just that, spam. Spam is communication that people do not want to receive. Your email marketing campaign should be used with permission from your list.
