Email Marketing Will Be Important in 2015, But the Tools May Change
The online marketing landscape in 2015 will look very different than it did even three or four years ago. Mobile marketing, social media and content marketing will likely continue to be some of the most important elements of a marketing campaign. A term like “email marketing,” however, already sounds like an outdated technique.
Of course, experienced online marketers know that this definitely isn’t the case. As marketing approaches become stretched across many different platforms and tons of content continues to be produced, email marketing will remain one of the most powerful strategies.
Email Marketing Still Gets Results
Out of all the “old-school” SEO and marketing techniques, email marketing is one of the few that are still considered both reputable and effective. Building up a large email subscriber list allows your company to contact potential customers directly through their inboxes, which often seems like a more personal environment than other communication platforms. As far as content distribution goes, email marketing allows you to present content to people directly, instead of being subject to something as uncontrollable and unforgiving as Facebook news feed. It can be tough to separate yourself from the plethora of spam and useless newsletters that end up in inboxes, but if you’re constantly delivering high-quality content to a targeted audience, you’ll no doubt be getting some traffic and conversions from it. Another great aspect of email marketing is that it’s relatively inexpensive. In fact, Copyblogger suggests that the ROI with email is around 4,300 percent.
Clearly, email marketing shouldn’t be considered an archaic strategy. According to a Campaigner.com marketing trends survey, 76 percent of marketers plan to conduct email marketing campaigns in 2015, while only 33 percent reported they’d be investing in social media. The survey suggests that data such as subject line analysis and email sending times will play a large part in optimizing the email ROI. According to Forbes, email marketing has some other impressive stats:
- The average ROI for every $1 spent on email marketing is $44.25
- 66 percent of consumers have purchased something because of an email
- 40 percent of B2B marketers consider email marketing leads to be “high quality”
- 72 percent of B2B purchasers are most likely to share relevant content through email
Of course, email subscribers are much more likely to convert because they’ve already shown interest when signing up for your emails. Whether it involved enticing them through great content, grabbing their email during checkout or (gulp) using popups, getting email addresses on your list is the first and most crucial step.
Evolving Email Strategies
While the concept of email marketing isn’t going anywhere, the tools used to implement and track your strategies may change in 2015. Popular tools like GetResponse are constantly adapting and changing to the shifting email landscape. Not to mention, email as a whole will likely see some big changes next year. Apps like Google’s Inbox are changing the way people use email in their daily life. It’s invite-only at the moment, but it could be very influential in 2015 if it’s widely adopted. Marketers who stay abreast of all the latest email apps and trends will no doubt be more likely to succeed with their email campaigns. For more of the latest email apps and their respective features, check out this list.
