Now that social media like Twitter and Facebook have begun to dominate internet users’ attention, is email marketing still an important business tool? The answer is yes – a resounding yes. In fact, email may be more important today than ever before.Why?
More Than Ever, Trust Is the #1 Currency
As more websites pop up left and right, people are growing more and more wary of internet claims. People know that websites will often say anything to try to get a sale, even if they don’t have the product quality or experience to back up their claims.
Building trust isn’t easy and doesn’t happen overnight. How do you get someone to think that you not only have the know-how to help them, but that you have their best interests at heart?
Email marketing is one of the best ways to send this message. Trust isn’t built overnight. Instead, trust is built by consistently providing value day after day, week after week.
If you can do this through email, people will gradually come to trust you. Posting content on a website isn’t enough, because people often won’t return. With email, however, you can get high quality in front of your visitors regularly and built that all-important trust.
Greatly Increase Your Conversion Rate
The conversion rate of a first-time buyer on a website they’ve never heard of is dismally low. Even if everything on your website is geared towards making just one sale of one product, the conversion rates are usually below 1%. Realistically, it’s hard to even get half a percent if they’ve never heard of you before.
On the other hand, if you’re promoting a new product to an email list that trusts you – if you’re promoting to previous buyers or if you’re promoting you product through a recommendation on someone else’s email list – the results are drastically different. It’s not uncommon to get conversion rates at 5%, 8% or even higher.
By collecting the email addresses of your clientele, you’ll be able to market to them regularly. You’ll be able to build trust over time and make a sale eventually, rather than be forced to make one right away. This greatly increases your per-visitor value.
The Value of Attention
The value of getting your customer’s attention can’t be over-emphasized. Today, with so many sites clamoring and competing for your client’s attention, attention has truly become a rare and valued commodity.
Having your client’s email address allows you to do something that few others can do: get their undivided attention regularly.
The bottom line with email marketing really comes down to trust and attention, two critically important marketing factors that have become progressively rarer as the internet grew. Email marketing hasn’t shrunk in importance – if anything, it’s grown significantly.
