WHAT IS EMAIL MARKETING ? Advantages and Disadvantages

Introduction

Email Marketing is a form of digital marketing. It is a form of marketing strategy where companies and businesses promote or educate their customer base, using emails. Such strategies are vital for building brand awareness and growing customer loyalty.

With the development of technology and introduction of digital marketing, email marketing gained its popularity. With this marketing, businesses or marketers can reach the existing and prospect customers with personalized approaches, promoting their products and services. Automation and extensive use of mobile phones lead email marketing has a larger customer base.

To understand the potential and benefit of email marketing, in 2021, an average of 333.2 billions emails were sent and received everyday. Similarly, around 89% of marketers prefer email as their primary channel for generating leads. The return on investment on email marketing is around 36.12:1. This means for every dollar spent on email marketing, it is generating $36.12 is sales. Some of such email marketing related data are:

  • Advertisements and promotion through emails influence the buying decision of more than 50.7% of the customer.
  • Emails with social sharing attachments are more likely to have higher click-through rates. There is 158% increase in click-through rates.
  • Email marketing is also the choice of professionals. 86% of professionals give priority to email connections.

Benefits of Email Marketing

  1. Email marketing has a huge customer base. Everyone uses or has at least one email. It has a mass adoption making it a perfect channel.
  2. Email is perfect for personalized and targeted  messages. One can create personalized content to different customers and promote it consistently for effective communication.
  3. It is a cost effective approach. Marketers can fulfill its marketing objectives with low cost. Marketers can make a promotion reach you with low investment.
  4. The return on investment (ROI) of email marketing is highest i.e. Email marketing has the ROI of 36:1 i.e. one dollar of investment returns 36 dollars of sales.
  5. It is easier to create content in email marketing. It is as easy as writing an email.
  6. Email marketing can be automated. Automation makes delivery timely, effective and personalized. Timing is important in marketing. Automation makes promotion and campaign effective.
  7. Emails do not have any boundaries so does email marketing. We can target the audience from across the world.
  8. This marketing is also known as “permission marketing” i.e. interested people subscribe to such marketing. There is no redundant audience for such marketing.

Disadvantages of Email Marketing

  1. As emails are free. There is high email traffic and spammed messages. In such cases, there is no guarantee that targeted mails are getting to the audience.
  2. There is a limit to creativity in email marketing. Marketers cannot display the full potential of their creativity as there is a different system of different mailing platforms. There is a problem of renderability due to the platform difference.
  3. Email marketing requires a database of addresses of clientele. The collection of databases of clientele is controversial and in many cases misleading.
  4. The mailing system has evolved with time. Many poorly designed emails never get delivered and in many cases, they are categorized as spam.
  5. Email marketing is very fragile. A small typo mistake will leave a message undelivered. Similarly, an email sent is an irreversible process. There is no going back.
  6. Email marketing has a size limit. Image containing many files, heavy files becomes redundant i.e. less attentive. One cannot attach any heavy promotional files or campaigns.
  7. It is less likely that individuals will read your email even after subscription. Non-professional individuals take emails as a mandatory requirement for mobile operation and they agree for any subscription for a shorter time period. Later, they forget what they have subscribed to and are less attentive towards email in general. Emails have an engagement problem.

Types of Email Marketing

Different emails serve different purposes to the reader. Marketers design different emails to deliver different messages to their subscribers. Depending upon the design and purpose of emails, there are multiple types of email marketing. Some of the common email marketing campaigns are:

Welcome EmailSeasonal CampaignCart Abandonment Email
Invitation EmailConfirmation emailRe-Engagement Campaign
Lead NurturingProduct Update EmailNew Content Announcement
Thank You EmailDedicated SendPost-Purchase Drip Campaign
Newsletter

Reference

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