Every month, those of you who read the Green Umbrella Social Snippet and follow us on social will see Amanda’s regular column, Data Davies.

Amanda loves a good stat and hard evidence when it comes to marketing activity. It’s far better to build your marketing strategy (and in bigger companies, present that strategy) when it’s based on informed thinking.

However, the social snippet is just that, a snippet of information. So, we asked her to elaborate further with the juicy stats. Over to you Amanda…

September is back to school month, and that’s what we did this month…. headed back to school when it comes to email marketing.

Email marketing is incredibly effective

Email marketing is incredibly effective and, when used properly and regularly, it gives the biggest return against your marketing budget. Yet, so few businesses use it to its full potential!

Why is that, I wonder, when these stats show just how useful email marketing can be for your business?

• Email marketing is still the most effective way to reach your customers and prospective customers and engage with them
• 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach their customers
• 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months
• 4 out of 5 marketers said they would rather give up social media than email marketing (we say, use both hand-in-hand to create the best results)
• For every $1 spent on email marketing, the average ROI is estimated at $42 – you can’t ignore this!
• 21% is the average open rate for emails according to Mailchimp, this rockets to 82% for welcome emails
• Personalise your emails – those with a personalised subject line have 50% higher open rates
• Half the world’s population are estimated to use or have access to email by 2023; that’s 4.3 billion users!
• 35% of marketers send their customers 3 – 5 emails per week. That might feel excessive but remember, your emails don’t have to be long or salesy.
• Segmenting your data and campaigns to make them more relevant for your audience makes a massive difference; some marketers noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue as a result!

So what does this mean for you?

So what does this mean for you if you’re thinking of embracing email marketing, or maybe you need to revisit your strategy if it’s not currently working?

To be truly effective, your email marketing strategy needs to be:

• Consistent – we cannot emphasise this enough. One email or a few monthly messages won’t cut it. You need to send regular communication, almost so regular that people can time their watch by it. For example, most people know that our GU weekly newsletter always goes out on Friday morning.
• Creative – boring email titles are the worst. “Monthly Newsletter” or “Weekly Update” are just bland and uninspiring. Give the recipient a reason to open your email! A juicy hint at what’s inside or a one-liner they can’t resist clicking on. Remember to avoid spammy language like ‘Free’ or ‘Special Offer’. Headlinr is a fantastic free tool for coming up with unique headlines – give it a try. Plus, one of our favourite creative tips is to mix HTML emails (image-based email marketing) with plain text emails. The latter can seem hyper-personalised, especially if they are short and to the point and use merge fields to use the recipient’s name.
• Curated – to be honest, I could have said ‘personalised’ here, but I wanted another ‘c’ word for the alliteration! By curated, I mean sending the email so it’s specifically for that person. You might segment your data into customers and prospective customers, or different types of customers depending on what they have purchased. However you segment it, you should invest some time doing this. Then, in the email body, build in merge tags so that the email uses their name and perhaps even the company name.

Far too many business owners we speak to give up on email marketing too easily. Keep on the right track, and you’ll soon see the benefits. And if you’re still after some guidance, Christina wrote a brilliant blog recently on ‘Email Marketing Techniques That Work’. In this, she gives five top tips on how to use email marketing more effectively.

Oh, and of course, make sure you’re subscribed to receive our email marketing at Green Umbrella.

Data Sources: Hubspot, Oberlo, Mailchimp