It’s 2021, do you think email for marketing is dead?
Are you still sending emails? Nah, stop it! Email marketing is dead. No one reads emails today. There are better options.
Email marketing is no dead. If only you knew how often I heard these words. First of all, the more types of connection with a lead you use, the more conversions you will gain. Moreover, with a variety of possible communication methods, email remains the main one for professionals all over the world.
Email marketing is a multi-purpose type of communication. You can find leads, nurture them, onboard, help them buy from you, build trustful relationships, educate them, improve retention, grow conversions, and so much more!
With the announcement of Constant Contact to acquire SharpSpring’s marketing automation platform email is far from dead.
Numbers Speak Louder Than Words for Email Marketing
Email marketing is vital for building relationships with customers, improving their loyalty and retention. As you already know, some think email is dead. Yet, the stats show that email marketing remains an effective method of reaching out to customers at a low budget.
1. 293.6 billion emails per day were sent in 2019. This number is supposed to grow to 347.3 billion in 2023 (Statista)
This number is not only about spam messages. It includes business emails as well as personal communication. The number of sent emails proves that email marketing is still alive and is worth doing. This data makes email an excellent method of reaching out to huge audiences.
2. 72% of professionals prefer email for business communication (Constant Contact). 86% of respondents state that email is their main communication channel (HubSpot)
Whichever number you like more, the truth remains the same. Email plays an important role in marketing efforts. Professionals and consumers all over the world prefer interacting professionally, through emails.
3. The email marketing ROI is 4400% (Campaign Monitor)
Whatever you spend on email marketing, you will receive 4400% revenue. Ready to spend $1? Get ready. You will get $44 back. Want to invest $100? Here are your $4400. This is the highest revenue produced by any type of marketing.
4. 81% of small businesses depend on emails for customer acquisition and retention (emarsys)
Some think that email marketing is for large companies, and no small or medium business can afford email. Yet, the statistics prove the contrary position. More than ¾ of small businesses rely on email marketing when it comes to customer retention, acquisition, and engagement.
5. 88% of consumers access their email on smartphones (Constant Contact)
The digital era is in full bloom, and we cannot ignore it, and the research by Constant Contact proves that. People spend much time on their smartphones, and professionals need to remember this.
They check their inbox on mobiles constantly, so it’s faster to reach out to them (compared to desktop). You can forget to open your inbox on your PC. But your smartphone is always at hand, and notifications tell you to check your emails.
At the same time, 56% of online shoppers will likely return to a brand that provides recommendations. What is the best option to send recommendations to your clients and customers-to-be? How to personalize your approach? Yup, through an email.
High conversions are what every professional seeks for. If you want to onboard clients, engage them, educate, disclose relevant information, educate people, and finally, convert them, email is your best choice.
The Email Tools You Need for Cold Email Marketing
I hope I managed to persuade you of the email marketing importance.
To reach out to any person, you need their email addresses and send a set of emails to them. If you decide to do this manually, that’s ok. But are you sure you are ready to spend endless hours searching for emails and managing leads?
Let me help you save time and money. Choose an automation tool or even a set of tools, and forget about manual work! There are three main instruments you need: an email finder, a verifier, and drip emails.
Let’s go deeper!
An email finder to search for emails
Generating leads’ email addresses can be a tedious and time-consuming task. That’s where an email finder will help you.
Email finders are tools that search for business email addresses in open access. This tool is crucial for brands looking to contact more people and grow their business.
These tools help email marketers generate leads for further conversion into loyal clients. Besides leads, with an email finder, you can find:
- Investors who can help you develop your brand
- Influencers who will support you in growing your audience
- Candidates for a particular role
- Bloggers to collaborate with them and do cross-blogging
There are many options for email finders on the web, and you can choose the one that best suits your needs and budget. The best thing about this tool is that you can find addresses on any web page, either a corporate website or a search engine results page.
A verifier to check emails
An email verifier is an instrument that guarantees the email addresses you have are valid, aka safe-to-send-emails-to. The best email verification tool conducts at least seven checks to ensure the email address you provide is high-quality:
- Syntax
- Domain
- Catch-all
- MX-record
- SMTP authentication
- Gibberish email
- Freemail
With an email checker:
- Your sending list will always be up-to-date
- The bounce rate will go down
- The delivery rate will grow
- Your sender’s reputation will be under control and high
The significant advantage of using an email verifier is the money you can save. Filtering out the incorrect and non-existent emails from your mailing list will reduce the money spent in vain to $0. This will, in turn, generate a higher ROI for your email marketing efforts.
An email drip campaign tool to reach out to people
Drip emails are the messages sent to people over a specified period. The email sending depends on the recipients’ interaction with your email.
To send a sequence of emails, you need a unique tool, an email drip campaign instrument. Here’s what you can do with an email drip campaign tool:
- Set triggers to automate the email sending depending on the performed actions (email opened, link clicked, etc.)
- Schedule the email sequence
- Create personalized emails
- Add delays to send emails regularly (e.g., onboarding and educational emails)
Here are the most considerable advantages you get:
- The email sending process is fully automated
- Every sent email is highly personalized (it’s not only about the personalization variables, but also about each message sent according to the recipients’ behavior)
- You can easily convert your website visitors into leads and loyal customers
- You can nurture, educate, onboard, engage, re-engage, etc.
How To Write Converting Cold Emails for Email Marketing
An email finder is chosen, every email is checked, all invalid addresses are deleted, an email campaign builder is ready for work. There’s one thing remaining, to compose emails.
To be the best at product copywriting to promote your service, you need to follow a few pieces of advice.
Be professional: adjust the language to your target audience.
You know your target audience. Thus, you know the language they are accustomed to. Avoid highly-professional narrow terminologies if your audience is broad. When segmenting your audience, use the language each segment knows and uses. This will show your professionalism.
Additionally, be polite, avoid snippy words, and use simple ones as if you talked to a friend.
Personalize your email: that is the key to every person.
There’s nothing better than to show your professionalism with a personalized message. Did you know that you can grow the open and click-through rates up to 35% when addressing recipients by their names?
For this, you will need much data about your leads: their name, company, position, pain points, etc. This will create an image of face-to-face communication.
Avoid long introductions
People are busy and have little time to read your emails. Therefore, to provide and get value from your email copy, do not write long intros.
Get to the point right away so that they know from the very first words how you can help them. Leave your personal and contact details for the email signature at the end of your emails.
Spam triggers will ruin the email deliverability.
21% of emails end up in the spam folder. One of the reasons is spam words in the subject line and the email itself. Spam filters analyze every email and send them to either inbox or the Spam folder.
There are thousands of spam triggers. Yet, you can stay ahead: avoid spam words and check your messages with a spam checker.
Do not be crazy about colors: 3 colors are enough.
Every single detail in your email has an impact on its performance. So do colors. They have a psychological effect on every person, so you need to use colors in emails right.
93% of consumers consider colors when initially placing an order, and 83% consider them the primary factor for purchasing a product.
To make your email readable and avoid bursts of colors, use no more than three colors. Also, take advantage of your corporate colors professionally combined by your designers.
Avoid heavy attachments; otherwise, you may end up in the spam folder.
Attachments are a part of the overall email sending limit. Heavy attachments are always a harmful element of an email. They influence the email deliverability and cause high spam and spam complaint rates. To be on the safe side, ensure that your attachment meets your email service provider’s limit.
One link is enough for email marketing
To improve the CTR and your website conversion rate, you not only need a conversion rate optimization tool.
You can add your website link to your email copy. Yet, overusing links confuses, moves the readers away from the primary goal, and diverts their attention. Include only one link and ensure it is noticeable and well-positioned.
Design one outstanding CTA.
Some users only scan multiple emails without actually reading the entire copy. An outstanding CTA button makes it easy-to-get what you want and triggers a response from them. So make sure it is outstanding, easily-found, and clear.
Tip: Use the link as a CTA in your email copy. One-shot, one kill.
Use an email signature in email marketing.
Remember what you read about long intros? SIgnature is the best place to insert your name, company, position, contact details, or even promote a freebie. To your digital business card, you can add other details like social media profiles, websites, latest blog posts, and so on.
Respect your subscribers and let them unsubscribe.
One of the main reasons for spam complaints is the absence of an unsubscribes link in emails. This results in a high spam complaint rate and your low sender’s reputation.
An unsubscribe link will remove uninterested users, increase click-through rates, and protect your sender’s reputation.
Ready to Boost Sales With Emails?
Email marketing is crucial for developing relationships between a brand, leads, and customers. It might appear tedious. Implementing an effective cold emailing strategy with the help of automation tools can help you bump up your brand’s success.
Use email finders, check the emails with a verifier, and send highly-professional triggered drip emails to grow and save time.
Helen Holovach is a dedicated copywriter for Snovio Labs. She’s passionate about email marketing, in-depth research, and statistics, and works her fingers to the bones to provide her readers with the best articles.
With a two-year of experience in marketing, her 60+ articles have been published on numerous blogs, including high-quality Business2Community, Movavi, and LiveChat. If Helen is not researching or writing another article, you can find her by the fire singing songs to a guitar.
We’re listening.
Have something to say about your thoughts on email marketing?
Share it with us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
General FAQs for Email Marketing
Why is email marketing important?
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach and engage your audience. The importance of email marketing is so great that most businesses develop a plan for implementation by 2021.
Is email dead?
If you blog, there’s a good chance your reader won’t see your content unless you direct them to your new posts. Finally, paid search and paid ads can quickly get expensive, and most readers will find them annoying. On the other hand, email marketing is what consumers prefer.
What is email marketing?
What is a drip-email campaign?
A drip campaign is a method used in direct marketing to acquire customers through lead nurture programs. It involves sending marketing information to prospects repeatedly over more extended periods to nurture prospects or leads through the marketing funnel.