A recent article in Forbes.com proudly proclaimed, “Email is the top way to reach online shoppers.”
The article goes on to detail a case study involving an “amazing” open rate of 29.5 percent – insisting that this is one of the reasons that email marketing remains “dominant” amongst today’s top mediums.
Of course, the digital marketing world has been conditioned to believe a lot of things over the years. Some of these things more viable and advisable than others.
One of these unconscious, often unquestioned beliefs is that something like 29.5 percent is a “dominant” number that indicates you’re “winning” like few others out there are. This is an example where skepticism is an advisable attitude to adopt.
Reality Check…
Newsflash: In reality, a 29.5-percent open rate means that more than 70 percent of your audience did NOT bother to read your email. Also in reality, if any other medium claimed that it’s normal or acceptable that 70 percent of the people you’re paying to reach ignored your message, you’d drop that channel in a heartbeat. If not faster.
Plus, if you examine your own email habits a bit more closely, you’ll find that most of the time, you’re reading email on your smartphone or mobile device – which means that you’re probably scanning your messages by opening an email and just deleting it without really reading anything (which is in turn inflating your open rate numbers).
In fact, the average email open rate is estimated to be around just 21.8 percent. That figure varies fairly wildly according to industry/vertical, with daily deals and e-coupons registering just a 15.2 percent open rate, telecommunications-related emails clocking in at 21.6 percent, and government-associated emails registering a 26.3-percent open rate, to name just a few.
Why Is Email So Popular?
So as we can see, these rates are rather low – even when you look at the “strong” ones. Why, then, is email such a popular and even “white hot” medium as we head into 2018? After all, if many other marketing mediums failed to get seen less than even 80 percent of the time, they might be killed off in a matter of days or even hours by advertisers.
A closer look here reveals a few compelling reasons for email’s enduring popularity – despite its low open rates.
For one, email offers plenty of space and viewable “real estate” for you to communicate a message and make an impact. There are also many graphic options available, multiple points of interaction, and it can easily be saved and viewed again later.
These are all compelling reasons to funnel marketing dollars into email messaging – even if you’re not too confident that the thing will even be opened by your target consumer in the first place. Because if they do open it…well, then you can really make a lasting impression.
What To Do Differently – Right NOW
The old saying goes something like “new year, new you” – and the same can apply to your business and business practices as we kick off a brand new year. What better time than NOW to try something different when it comes to your email marketing efforts?
So go ahead and try something new. Make sure your marketing emails are compelling, intriguing, and engaging – and that they’re not intrusive, excessive, nor incessant.
Or, if you’re so inclined, you can change nothing. And go right ahead and send out just any old uninspiring or annoying email. Just remember, the only thing you might get back in return from these “efforts” is a quick “unsubscribe” – especially since newer updates to Apple’s iOS making it easier than ever before to unsubscribe.
You can also try doing things a good bit smarter when it comes to your overall email usage and implementation. Like, say, using your email lists to power custom audiences and lists on Facebook and Google – thereby targeting this same audience and paying only when that audience actually sees your message…or clicks on your ad.
Plus, you can use that same audience to find other similar and invaluable audiences based on some of the most wide-reaching data in the entire world – the audiences of Facebook and Google. You can even modify your targeting, choose your creative, and use the “Customer Match” feature within the ultra-powerful and extensive Google AdWords platform.
These are all areas where we can help you achieve, accomplish, and connect more with your target audiences.
Contact us today to learn more. You can even set up a booking online right now.
We’d love to connect with you. And show you how you can start doing things in a more effective and impactful manner online.
