For over a quarter of a century email marketing has been the number one route to market for both B2B and consumer brands. And as long as people continue to use email, that will continue to be the case.
It may be the grandad of digital, but for many brands he’s still the one paying the bills.
While social may be the 'it girl' of digital, your investment is sleep-ruiningly vulnerable to the whims of third party platforms. Get blocked for contravening guidelines? Tough luck. Build an organic community to discover you'll need to pay to reach it? What did you expect? Zuck’s MMA classes don’t pay for themselves. Even your website’s value is contingent upon its relationship with the search engines. Email, on the other hand, is all yours.
Nothing builds efficiency like email. First off, there’s the sheer compound value of building a list over time. Then there’s the super low costs attached (no ad fees, only the modest costs of your chosen email platform). Thirdly, there’s the fact most email can be automated and re-purposed, over and over again. No other channel can compete in terms of sheer economics.
Despite the fear mongering that surrounded GDPR, email has proved to be remarkably resilient in holding its value. And as long as people use email as a means of organising their online comms, there is absolutely no reason to think this will change.
This surprises a lot of people, but most social shares for on-site content do not come through social advertising, but through distribution to an engaged email list who then share it with their networks.
Ecommerce businesses regularly drive over 50% of their sales through email. In some markets it’s as high as 80%. These are your most engaged customers and the best chance you have in any given moment of driving additional revenue into the business.
Many businesses, particularly those that sell tech products, depend on early engagement to determine customer lifetime value. Email sequences that introduce the user to different product features and benefits are essential for maximising this early engagement.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock with no internet signal, you’ll know in 2018 GDPR turned the world of email marketing upside down. Brands that had built high value lists over decades found themselves deleting all their records in a panic to become compliant.
Some of this was sensible. Some of this was really not sensible. In fact some of it was 24 carat bananas. Organisations that had various legitimate ways to maintain their databases, threw millions of pounds away simply because they didn’t understand the regulations. This was particularly true in B2B.
Being compliant is important. But so is protecting your assets. It’s therefore Email Marketing 101 to understand how GDPR applies to your circumstances and how to strike a sensible balance.
Email is synonymous with aggressive, unimaginative spam. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The best email campaigns are no different from the best social campaigns – they combine robust marketing principles with a tonne of creativity.
Don’t be afraid to be playful, tell stories or adopt a conversational tone – these are the tools that will make the reader feel like they’re dealing with a human rather than a robot, and that’s a hell of a USP in a world of AI generated platitudes and cliches.
Perhaps more than any other channel, effective email is the product of a million marginal gains.
A 1% increase in click through here. A 3% improvement in deliverability there. When combined with the compound value of steady list growth, these incremental improvements can be the difference between painful disappointment and game changing success.
There’s no question that social is your fastest route to broad brand exposure. And there’s no question that the search engines are best placed to capture those in-market. However, no matter what stage in the buyer journey your prospects are, nothing captures and builds engagement like email. So even if these other channels are acting as your initial touch point, take every chance you can to grab their data and build that list.
Frequently Asked Questions about Email Marketing
Focus on creating valuable content and offers to incentivise people to subscribe. Use opt-in forms on your website and social media channels. Always ensure compliance with data protection regulations and never purchase email lists.
Yes, personalised emails perform better than generic ones. Address recipients by name, segment your audience based on interests and behaviour, and customise content to cater to their preferences.
Keep your email design simple, mobile-responsive, and consistent with your brand. Use clear call-to-action buttons and include relevant images to enhance engagement.
Maintain a clean and engaged email list by regularly removing inactive subscribers. Use a reputable email service provider, avoid spam trigger words, and authenticate your domain using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Some common mistakes include using a misleading subject line, sending too many emails, neglecting mobile optimisation, forgetting to include an unsubscribe link, and not testing your emails before sending them out.
No matter what sector you’re in, we believe that the fundamentals of great marketing never change
From your website user experience to the user imagery within your social media, brand is every moment of every interaction with your business. Defining who you are.
Get your content right, and the channels will all but take care of themselves. It is not enough for content to be superficially on-brand, but rather it must drive the brand’s vision, no matter how ambitious.
It’s no coincidence that the best B2B marketers are endlessly curious individuals who understand the value of research. I’s where every great strategy begins.
There is no better way of capturing incredible B2B or professional service content whilst simultaneously raising awareness and growing credibility, than by engaging with the top 1% of your target market; the influencers.
From SEO to email marketing and webinars to social media, your content needs to be distributed across all the relevant channels as you develop brand into a serious digital asset. Meanwhile, a paid lead generation strategy that limits cost per acquisition (CPA) may also be required, depending on short term targets.
In order to avoid “analysis paralysis”, a small number of headline metrics at both brand and commercial levels should be agreed upon, along with the frequency of updates. We typically find that weekly mini-reports ensure constant momentum without disrupting day to day activity.
Our blog provides valuable insights into the world of marketing across multiple sectors. Your go-to resource for success in the digital landscape.
Contact us today for a free consultation to drive change and grow your market share.
"*" indicates required fields
© BOSS DIGITAL All rights reserved | Privacy Policy
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Read more in our Privacy Policy.
