Is Email Marketing Still Relevant in 2018?

With the introduction of numerous new marketing mediums in recent years, business owners the world over are wondering whether it's still worthwhile to invest in email marketing. If current statistics are anything to go by, the short answer is yes: the humble email is as relevant as ever.

Even with the increased adoption of popular social media sites, email still boasts the highest number of worldwide users, coming in at just over 3.8 billion users in 2018 - a number which is expected to pass the 4 billion mark by 2020. In addition to being the most universal mode of business communication, a recent study conducted by Campaign Monitor found that email marketing produces 174% more conversions than social media.

While the success of any given campaign is dependent on a number of factors, the nature of email in itself is geared towards helping businesses achieve their online marketing goals. It is direct, it can be personalised right down to the customer’s name and it can also be done within constraints of time and budget.

The ability to segment audiences based on demographics, previous purchases or browsing activity is still however one of email marketing’s biggest selling points. In fact, research from the Direct Marketing Association shows that segmented campaigns drive a 760% increase in revenue in comparison to one-size-fits-all campaigns.

Email marketing has also proven its worth in terms of influencing purchasing behavior. In a recent study conducted by Everlytic in conjunction with Effective Measure, the results showed that 64% of people who receive email newsletters have been influenced to buy a product based on something they read in the communication.

Even more surprising is how the study found that 63% of South Africa’s online population prefer to receive promotional messages via email. As important as it is to build a solid social media follower base with which to share business updates, this just goes to show how crucial it is to build an email marketing list, too.

Just consider how many businesses pay for people to ‘like’ their Facebook page and then pay to have their posts ‘boosted’ to the very same people. Wouldn’t it be ideal to have a list of contacts you can communicate with, no matter the latest algorithm? A list you have complete control over? An email list is all this and more, serving as the basis upon which business owners can interact with past and potential customers on an affordable, long-term basis.

Another great thing about email marketing is that it needn’t be done manually within a Gmail or Outlook app. There are a variety of automation platforms which not only allow business owners to create and send emails, but also help them to manage their lists and generate performance reports. Some fantastic platforms worth mentioning include Campaign Monitor, RocketMailer and MailChimp, the latter of which offers a free plan which includes up to 12 000 email sends to 2 000 contacts per month.