Email Marketing: Dead or Alive?

When you consider the changes to marketing over the last decade, there are too many to list in a single article. However, the one thing that many people think has changed is the effectiveness of email marketing. Email marketing saw a huge boom in the global explosion of the internet and email services and in the way many businesses advertising themselves online.

Email marketing was widely touted as a great way to stay in touch with customers, help businesses cut down on costs and time, and as a preferred means for customers to receive regular updates and service offers. However, many people think that these arguments and therefore email marketing is dead and a thing of the past, while others think that there’s still a lot of life left in email marketing. We’ll settle the debate about whether it’s dead or alive here.

Why People Think Email Marketing is Dead

Is email marketing dead or alive? Here we present some arguments for it being dead.

1. Social Media is Better

Social media isn’t just about sharing your daily happenings with others. It is a powerful platform to share news, spread awareness, and sell goods and services. Interaction with customers has never been better than it is now in the age of social media, where customers have the chance to be constantly connected to your business through a variety of platforms.

Getting feedback about different products and services is really simple and quick through social media. This leads people to claim that email marketing is not as useful as it used to be since people spend more time on social networking sites, where they can look at all the offers companies have and can interact with others who use those products and services as well.

2. Mobile Apps Are More Interactive

In comparison the email marketing, many claim that business mobile applications are more effective in reaching out to customers and engaging them. This is another valid point, since mobile apps send out automatic push notifications to users whenever a new product or offer is up for grabs. This means that the app does the work of advertising, rather than assuming the customer will click and open an email. They also come with attractive UIs that appeal to the users. Since people use their smartphones all day, even when they’re in the bathroom, mobile apps are better equipped to keep in touch with users.

3. Too Many Irrelevant Emails

There are more than 300 billion emails sent worldwide every day. A huge chunk of these is spam. Users are annoyed to see their spam folder throw increasingly large figures at them every morning. What’s more, they are even more exasperated to see irrelevant emails in their inbox. It’s a bad marketing strategy to when businesses don’t pay attention to the customers’ details and send out automated messages to all the people on their mailing list.

Yes, it is easy to hit one button and send a broadcast message. But it is just as easy to move a message from inbox to spam. There are a lot of people who don’t take the right approach to email marketing, which is why many users don’t look at social offers today. With more control over the kind of emails that come in their inbox, customers have all the leverage when it comes to who can send them offers and who cannot.

Why Email Marketing is Not Dead

Is email marketing dead or alive? Here we present some arguments for it being alive.

The points alluded to in the section above make for a compelling argument against email marketing, but there’s an upside that shows why email marketing is alive and kicking.

1. People Still Prefer Emails

Everyone who uses the internet today has an email account, and almost all of them check their emails regularly. With smartphones, checking emails has become a lot more convenient and simple. When it comes to getting in touch with organizations, people generally use the email option first. The ubiquitous nature of email supports the continued use of email marketing since it has the largest reach amongst all marketing strategies.

2. It’s Wallet-Friendly

Email marketing services are affordable for businesses of all sizes. When you consider that there are good email marketing services available for around $15/month – such Active Trail and GetResponse – you can easily understand why email marketing is a great investment for small and medium-sized businesses. The low cost and the great functionality that email marketing offers make it an attractive tool for businesses of all types.

3. Email Correspondence Has More Weight

The reason why most companies continue to use email marketing strategies and receive emails from customers is that emails, as a mode of communication, are the most widely used form of communication. Anyone using the interest quite likely has an email account, and people have used and relied on email correspondence for decades. Even though there are social media and app communications, they aren’t a replacement for email communication by any means. People still interact with organizations formally through emails. All professional correspondence goes through the emailing services. So as long as this continues to be the case, email marketing will be relevant.

4. Helps Develop Better Relations

Social media is great for reaching out to people, but when it comes to maintaining a relationship with your customer, emails offer a much richer connection. Many organizations use personalized email marketing strategies where the customer receives emails that seem drafted just for them. Attention to details like a relevant subject line, attractive images, and good content go a long way in maintaining customer relations. Social media cannot be tailored to interact with all customers in a personalized manner the way emails can.

In Conclusion

So is email marketing dead or alive? The verdict: Email is alive and well. The debate about the life of email marketing has been going on for some years now. Every year, new statistics are supplied by each side of the debate in order to support their arguments. However, as we’ve discussed, emails offer security and professionalism that other modes of communication do not. In the age of the internet, emails continue to be the best form of reaching out to and interacting with customers. Whether it is daily updates, offers, or news about services, email marketing done the right way can help any business much more than other forms of marketing. Not only is it not dead, we predict it will continue to thrive for years.