What is Email Marketing and why it STILL WORKS

QWERTYIOP - it probably was the first email message in history. Today, 3 out of 4 people with an email address receive up to 20 (twenty) emails every day with promotions and offers. And according to a study done by LITMUS in 2019 email drives a return on investment by $36 (thirty-six) for every dollar spent. How did this happen that today’s email not only works, but it is even the most effective channel? Stay with me to learn more about it! 

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In today’s episode:

• you will be able to learn what email marketing is,
• I will show you that email marketing really works, 
• I will convince you that rumours about the end of the email era are exaggerated, 
• together we will contemplate on why email is still the most effective channel. 

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Over 50 (fiftly) years ago, in 1971 (nineteen seventy one), an engineer by the name of Ray Tomlinson sent the first email message in history, he didn’t realize how quickly this new communication channel would become popular and how fast marketers would ruin it. Only 7 (seven) years later, in 1978 (nineteen seventy eight) the first SPAM campaign was sent out. Its author Gary Thuerk, a marketing specialist, saw huge potential in the email channel. And he was on to something. 

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Today, email is the most profitable channel in the world. And despite expectations, none of the solutions that have appeared on the market, from communication or social media, have managed to beat it. 

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But what exactly is email marketing? 

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Email marketing is direct marketing, which uses email for communication. Every email sent to encourage a customer to make a shopping decision can be perceived as email marketing. 

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According to the principle, “marketing is everything and everything is marketing”, all the messages you’ve ever exchanged with your audience and customers are marketing messages. 

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There are a few different types of of messages: 

• cold mailing
• paid, company and personal brand newsletters
• mass mailing 
• triggered communication. 

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I’m going to break them down a little, without going too much into detail. 

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Cold mailing is usually used at the top of a marketing funnel. I am sure that you’ve received some kind of email in the past, probably many times, and it probably wasn’t effective. If you want to hear more on the Mar-tech's well done channel about how to design successful cold mailing, let me know in the comments. I’m looking to do my best to deliver the content you need!

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If you want to keep in touch with your audience and to build a strong relationship, then you should use a newsletter. It’s sent only to interested users who have given you permission to receive certain information. To simplify: someone who at least somewhat felt interested in your site or product or brand, signed up for your newsletter and is expecting some valuable content. If you don’t have an idea for your newsletter but you really want to develop this communication channel, you’re going to need to come up with goals and directions of what it should be. For example, do you want to make your newsletter a space to share the latest news from your business, or to share content and knowledge in a paid newsletter, or maybe you just want to develop your personal brand? 

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Next up, I’m sure that at least once you’ve received a message that was sent to many email addresses, probably with not super important info, this type is a mass mailing email.

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The last form of email communication is triggered communication. What this means is that email messages are sent out when a certain event occurs. Through the use of triggered messages, you can send a discount code for customer’s birthday, recommend complementary products, or encourage a return to the website when a customer abandons a cart without placing an order.

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But what’s behind this phenomenon of email? Despite everyone, email is doing well and keeps bringing results. 

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How does it happen?

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Imagine that you have a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a relationship with your customer and to nurture it everyday. E-mail is a sort of intimate communication. It’s between you and only the person on the other side of the screen. It’s the perfect opposite of social media which feels more like a party. With so much going on at once, it’s hard to keep focused on one thing. 

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When a recipient reads an email, they are alone with the message. 

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If you ask me, I would say that's the main reason why emails are still popular and I'd even put money on it. 

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That's why you can’t disappoint your audience and send them SPAMY messages. You rather have to focus on quality. If your audience can benefit from your content, and show them the benefit then it’s more likely they will impatiently wait for your messages.

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Let’s be honest, how many times have you received SPAM? How many times did you get a message from a sender whose mailing list you haven’t subscribed to? As consumers, we are more and more aware, and unfortunately, we trust companies less and less with the processing of our personal data. 

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When we enter our personal data, we expect not only satisfaction with offered products and services, but also transparency in data processing. To address those needs, the marketing world keeps evolving, new ideas come up, and the old ones are back in fashion. One of them is permission marketing introduced almost 30 (thirty) years ago, in 1991 (nineteen ninety one). The author of this concept was Seth Godin, who perceived as a marketing guru and pioneer of a more innovative approach to good and service marketing. The Permission Marketing concept assumes that all messages should be sent out to the audience that gave their consent. This method will allow you to achieve much better results with email campaigns with respect for users’ preferences.

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