How is email winning? Let me count thy ways…

1) It’s beloved.  In a March 2012 online survey of marketing professionals, trade publication Chief Marketer found that the No. 1 tool in digital campaigns was Email Marketing, used by 78% of respondents. Email Newsletters were the No. 2 tactic (59%), followed closely by a social network presence (58%). If you want to read more, here’s the full article.

2) It drives online revenue.  Email marketing was the favored marketing channel for Mother’s Day promotions in 2012, with many luxury brands using email for Mother’s Day marketing and driving transactions in numerous ways including free shipping or discounting, invitations to eCommerce and adding sentimental value. (Click here to read more about this)

3) It’s shareable.  Email is the favored marketing medium to share.  So make your email shareable! Have fun, interesting, shareable content and include social share links, and make it easy for people to ‘share’ online. Remember to include links to your social media profiles, have featured content like your Facebook competition or your latest Pinterest boards, and always have other engaging content ready to roll when you deploy your email.

4) It’s personal.  Getting delivered into peoples inboxes is like being deposited right into the inner sanctum of their life, alongside emails from their friends and photo’s from grandma. “Awesome, we’re in, let’s sell them some stuff”! you say. Hang on, first a couple of things. Don’t abuse the privilege. Earn your place in their inbox and retain your right to be in there. Make sure you are worthy. Make sure you are providing value.

5) It can add value.  Further to the above point, the key is to make sure your email is one that they look forward to and want to read. Ask yourself, are you delivering quality content that is relevant, timely and expected? Is it visual, appealing, interesting, funny, or at least providing some value in some way? Would you look forward to your email? Would you save your email to read later?  If you answered yes to these questions then congratulations, you will have a chance of making it past the morning mass-delete and your email may be kept in their inbox to read later.

6) It works internally.  Microsoft Outlook is a white collar worker’s ‘inner sanctum’.  People still spend more time in their email inbox than in any other business application!  Using email inside your organisation can be very successful, but you need to make the messages of value to the staff, interesting and time saving not time-sucking.   (Want more internal email tips? Here’s an article to read)

7) It’s simple.  Email is winning because it is simple and easy, and these day’s it is ALL about simplifying, being visual, making things easy for people and allowing them to do things quickly. These concepts translate across the board into all areas of marketing yes, but how do these concepts translate specifically to email? Well, consumers these days are barraged by information, and they are adapting their habits to cope with the noise. The reaction consumers are having to this ‘cognitive overload’ is ‘self-imposed simplification of the decision process’. So help them out – match them on their wavelength and make things simple for them.  (Here’s a great article explaining this concept)

8 ) It is an entry point.  Want to go one step further? Integrate email and video using email to deliver a stand out message with good video.  We see this working whether you have a retail focus or you predict the weather.  Making an impact with video is possible, and if you are making video, you should eb ensuring it’s seen as widely as possible – enter email.   An interesting point raised at a recent Marketing Association Brainy Breakfast was that video can simplify concepts, and allow people to gain clarity around potentially complex information, thus allowing them to make decisions more clearly.  When everyone’s mind’s are so full already, (As we just mentioned in point 7) this is a good thing to keep in mind.

9) It’s beautifully mobile.  “Mobile email will account for 10-45% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product and email type” Who said this? Read the full story here. Here’s a neat graph to illustrate the point:

10) Social Network VS Email? The truth is that the best platform is the one that benefits you the most. And what is beneficial to you will differ depending on your business. For example if you’re an events management company, you would benefit from Pinterest. Photographer? Google+ is your place. But still, your e-mail inbox is the most powerful and alluring network that exists. Read this great blog post to find out why!

11) It’s even more mobile.  Speaking of Google – their new whitepaper called ‘Our Mobile Planet’ is all about understanding the mobile consumer, and particularly focused on the New Zealand market. It’s full of great metrics and stats, and makes a strong case for email. (You can read this whitepaper here.  This first graph below shows that 51% of consumers use email on their smartphone on a daily basis. That’s 6% higher than those using social networking sites!

12) It’s……. mobile.   Another stat that stood out from this whitepaper was that 80% of all activity on smartphones are communications based, and of that 71% of consumers use email.


So that’s our roundup – now it’s your turn to use the comments below to tell us why email is winning for you.