Did you know that for every $1 spent on email marketing, businesses generate an average of $36 in return? Email marketing isn’t dead, despite the rise of new marketing channels, it continues to be a highly effective and widely used marketing strategy in businesses and personal brands. However, before you start implementing this strategy in your business, let’s explore the advantages and disadvantages of email marketing.
Advantages of Email Marketing
Increase sales
The main advantage of email marketing is its potential to generate high ROI. Just like having followers on Instagram, your subscribers have actively chosen to engage with your brand. They are more inclined to open your emails and accept your offers.
Low cost
Email marketing has the highest ROI among all the other marketing strategies. It doesn’t require much cost, no advertising on Google or social media, no printing costs, and no expensive billboards. All you need is an email list consisting of your supporters so you can send promotional and transactional emails to them.
Targeted and personalized
One of the main reasons why email marketing has the highest ROI is because of its unparalleled ability to send targeted and personalized marketing messages. Modern marketing strategies allow you to target a group of customers with similar interests and purchasing behavior, but email marketing lets you segment your audience and send hyper-personalized messages and offers.
Build long-term relationship
The ability to send targeted and personalized messages allows you to nurture long-term relationships with your subscribers. This is evident, especially in personal brands that utilize email marketing to build a community.
Automation
It can be time-consuming and a waste of effort to send the same messages to every new customer or subscriber. Email marketing allows you to create automation such as welcome series and post-purchase emails to send the appropriate emails at the right time. Imagine sending a post-purchase email exactly 5 minutes after purchase, it’s just impossible.
Own your audience
When you have an email list, you own the contacts in that list. If you switch to a different email provider, you can easily transfer that email list. Additionally, if your social media accounts happen to be hijacked or banned due to a mistake made by the algorithm, you lose your followers which may never be recovered. In that way, having an email list provides security to your valuable asset.
Disadvantages of Email Marketing
Spam and delivery challenges
Not every email you send will reach an inbox. Even if your subscribers have signed up for your newsletter and agreed to receive emails from you, there is a chance that your emails may still end up in the spam folder. By avoiding deceptive subject lines and complying with the relevant laws and regulations, you can ensure optimal email delivery.
Audience fatigue
When your subscribers permit you to send them emails, they don’t consent to receiving thousands of spam from you. Bombarding subscribers with too many emails can lead to unsubscribes and tarnish your brand reputation. Determine your subscriber’s preference and the optimal frequency for your email campaigns. What you can do is track relevant metrics such as open rates and conduct surveys to receive direct feedback from your subscribers.
Legal and regulations compliance
Before sending emails to your subscribers, make sure that you adhere to the laws and regulations such as GPDR, CAN-SPAM Act, and CASL. Using double opt-in can ensure that you have obtained your subscribers’ consent and providing an opt-out option is mandatory.
Limited Reach
Another downside to email marketing is limited reach. Constantly targeting only your existing audience restricts your brand’s visibility and will prevent growth. Therefore, it’s crucial to utilize different strategies to grow your email list and leverage other channels to expand your reach.
Conclusion
Every marketing strategy comes with its advantages and disadvantages. Although there are some challenges to leveraging email marketing in your business, it remains one of the best marketing strategies every business should use. When done right, it’s a powerful tool to bring in more sales and grow your business.
