We assume that you already know what email marketing is, but we are going to repeat it one more time – it is the act of sending a commercial message to a group of people via email.
Its beginnings date back to 1978, when the first mass email was sent by Gary Thuerk, an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The email was sent to around 400 potential customers, resulting in $13 million worth of sales of DEC products.
Ever since then, thousands of companies have been using this marketing technique because of its cost-effectiveness and also because a huge number of customers can be easily reached.
Several Numbers Behind Email Marketing
An estimated 4.3 billion email accounts send 196 billion emails every day. That’s more than a trillion every week! This number shows why companies turn to email marketing for bringing their products and services closer to the potential customers.
It was found that emails convert three times better than social media, with 44% of people who received targeted emails acknowledging that they bought at least one item because of a promotional message.
It makes perfect sense; while not all people check their social media accounts regularly, checking our email inbox is something most of us likely do as soon as we get up. Therefore, email gives you the opportunity to reach out to a much higher number of people than on social media or any other channel.
Most Used Email Marketing Techniques
In order to achieve their goals, marketers use a variety of marketing techniques as shown in the following list.
- Email automation – 74%
- Personalization – 58%
- Advanced segmentation – 18%
- Broadcast timing based on location – 26%
- Basic profile based targeting – 21%
- Lead scoring – 7%
- Responsive email design or device detection coding – 17%
- Social media integration – 33%
The main reason for using different techniques is simple. What worked a couple of years ago might not work now. Email marketing is always evolving, and there’s no doubt that there will be even more techniques that you can turn to in the future.
A Few Case Studies
Litmus used geolocation to send out targeted emails and achieved a 68% open rate, compared to a 22% open rate for the general conference announcement.
The Obama campaign famously used conversational, casual email subject lines. The most famous subject line was simply “Hey”. Another one – “I will be outspent” – raised $2.6 million on its own.
The infographic below contains 119 facts about email marketing which you probably didn’t know. Take a look at it to find out more.
Infographic Link: Email_Marketing_Optimization_Hacks__Case_studies