With GDPR taking over offices over the last few months, companies have had to make huge adjustments to marketing approaches. The legislation saw firms put in place fresh processes for obtaining new permissions, revisit privacy policies, rethink the way they contact new and existing customers, and completely overhaul how they manage data. All the changes made some firms question the future of email marketing.
But don’t worry, email marketing is definitely not dead. Remember, email is used by 3.7 billion people all over the world, and this number is set to grow to 4.1 billion users by 2021. You can’t ignore these numbers. With many naysayers and doubters wondering if email marketing has finally died, we’re here to confirm that it’s still very much alive and thriving!
Better Quality
There was a lot of scare-mongering over GDPR. But from the very beginning we have been loud and clear that GDPR is a positive for professional services firms. Why? If you are sending out mass emails to people who aren’t interested, the bottom line is – you’re wasting your time and your harming your own credibility. GDPR has meant you’re only contacting people who are genuinely interested in your services – it’s like doing a spring clean. And that’s a good thing.
The list of contacts remaining on your mailing lists, post-GDPR, are those that want to know about you and your services and they will be more inclined to go on and engage you. GDPR hasn’t killed email marketing, just evolved it.
Good ROI
Anyone in marketing will have the term ROI (return on investment) ingrained in their brain. Firms need to know that the money they’re spending on marketing is going to ultimately result in sales opportunities, otherwise they’re just wasting money.
Social media marketing, PPC and content marketing are all effective ways of creating opportunities, but email marketing has to still be part of your armoury. On average, email marketing has an ROI of 122% – much higher than other marketing tactics.
It’s easier to track which contacts visit your website as a direct result of email marketing, by looking at the click through rate, making it simple to analyse your ROI and assess any areas you could be improving.
Personalisation
How can you make your email marketing more successful? Get personal. This can be everything from including the contact’s name in the subject line – which can boost open rates by as much as 35% – to tracking where they’re usually browsing your website and sending them relevant content (known as triggered emails).
Keeping in Regular Contact
Email is the easiest way to keep in regular contact with your key contacts. Just be sure not to spam them and share content that is engaging and relevant to them and their role.
Easy to Reach People
If you’re responsible for email marketing at your firm, you might beg to differ! However, in comparison to other marketing channels, email marketing is a relatively easy way of reaching large quantities of people quickly. Other techniques such as sales calls can be time intensive, and you can only communicate with one customer at a time. Email marketing allows you to contact potentially hundreds of people, at any one time.
Email marketing should not be your only marketing channel, but it should be an integral part of your marketing mix and it’s definitely not dead!
Interested in finding out more about email marketing? Confused about where to start? Have an email marketing campaign that needs a major reshuffle? We’re here for you. We can help you understand how email marketing can work for your firm, develop a thorough strategy, and execute it to the best possible standard. Click here to get in touch.