Email marketing is one of the most popular content types on social media.
HootSuite’s research found that 68% of consumers scan emails for product information, while 52% want to receive special offers. Clearly, people are finding success with email marketing – but, at the same time, many businesses are finding themselves struggling to stay relevant. According to HubSpot Blogs research, only 16% of businesses consider themselves highly successful with email marketing.
This is largely because businesses are not adapting quickly enough to changing consumer habits and expectations. Despite the fact that emails are easy to create and cost-effective, businesses still consider email marketing to be “traditional” marketing and don’t always see the value in it. In short, they don’t always put in the effort to make sure their emails are effective.
Here, we’ll explore the biggest challenge hindering email marketing – as perceived by marketers – and how you can overcome it.
Traditional Marketing Is Going Mobile
Consumers have always turned to mobile phones when seeking information about products and services. In fact, according to Fit Small Business, 74% of consumers have used their phones to research products and brands online.
Given this prevalence, it’s not a huge surprise that marketers are moving towards digital marketing, particularly as it relates to emails. After all, a whopping 85% of consumers have used email to research products and compare prices – and the trend is showing no signs of slowing down.
If your business is still relying on traditional marketing strategies, you’re probably wondering how you can stay relevant in an increasingly digital world. Fear not – it’s still possible to grow your business using tried-and-tested methods, but you need to make some changes to ensure your efforts are not going to waste.
Mobile Phone Memory Is At A Premium
One of the major challenges facing traditional marketers is the fact that people are now receiving more content on their phones than they can hold in their minds. Thanks to the rise of content-crazed platforms like TikTok, people are overwhelmed with information, and sorting through it all to find relevant content is time-consuming and difficult.
Even the most experienced marketers find it hard to keep up with the latest trends and technologies. This is why businesses have started resorting to content curators who sort through the ever-changing content on social media and pull together the best ideas and content for their clients.
If you’re responsible for marketing a business or product, the last thing you need is more content to sift through. That’s why it’s so important to keep your emails short and sweet. Tell the truth about the product or service and make it relevant to your audience.
The Rise Of Consumer-Centric Marketing
If the previous point rings true for your business and you’re looking to build an email list, keep reading. We’re about to reveal a fundamental shift in marketing and the impact it will have on your email strategy.
Cut Out The Middleman
When people think about marketing, they usually think about paying for ads or using traditional methods of reaching potential customers. While these are still necessary, they’re not sufficient.
If you’re looking to grow your email list and determine the value of an email in relation to a sale, you need to evolve your strategy to target consumers directly. This is where consumer-centric marketing comes in.
Consumer-centric marketing involves getting in touch with your audience and speaking directly to them. You don’t need to look to Google AdWords to reach your customers – they’re already there, waiting to be engaged with your messaging.
You can use a tool like HubSpot to gain insight into your customers’ interests, needs, and behaviors. This way, you can craft personalized messages that will be both engaging and memorable. When a consumer feels understood and valued, they have a much greater chance of being retained by your brand.
The Rise Of Inbound Marketing
As the name suggests, inbound marketing is all about getting to know your customer, not pushing your products at them. Inbound marketing was originally developed as a philosophy and approach to marketing by copywriter and marketing strategist Bruce Clay. His primary goal was to change the way businesses think about marketing and make it more effective. Inbound marketing rejects the idea that marketing is about pitching products to consumers and instead focuses on creating valuable content that will attract, engage, and ultimately retain customers.
Inbound marketing does not promote spending money on ads to gain brand recognition – that’s still considered traditional marketing. As a matter of fact, inbound marketing actively discourages businesses from using expensive acquisition methods. Instead, businesses are encouraged to focus on engaging their audiences through content that is both informative and entertaining.
If you’re looking to adopt a more consumer-centric approach to marketing, why not consider using a tool like HubSpot where you can map out all your marketing efforts and easily measure their success? With HubSpot, you can determine which content was the most effective at inducing a desired action – like signing up for a free trial or making a purchase – and can use that information to refine your strategy.
Make Your Email More Than A Broadcast Device
When you send out a mass email, you’re essentially sending the same content to everyone on your list. While this can be effective in some cases, it can also be a real waste of time. How?
Let’s say you’re the owner of a clothing store. You might choose to send out an email with an offer regarding a discount on your products. But if your email list is already aware of the discount, why send out another email? Consumers get bombarded with marketing messages every day, and they’re likely to tune out if your email is just another generic message with a slight variation on an old theme.
Even worse, if you do decide to continue with a mass email campaign, you’re running the risk of your constituents blocking your messages due to spam complaints. To avoid that, make sure your email is relevant to your audience and has something new to offer. Tailor your message to be both specific and engaging.
Monitor Relevance Of Your Content
It’s a common challenge for businesses to monitor the performance of their marketing channels, especially if they’re ad-supported. Notifying the manager of a blog that your company’s products are featured in a quarterly magazine is one thing – keeping track of all the individual articles and making sure they’re all relevant to your products is another. This is where relevance and monitoring of content come in handy. For example, if you manufacture metal goods and the blog article mentions how tough your products are, you’ll want to make sure the article is actually informing your audience about the value your products provide – not just some general information about metals.
If you find that some of your content is not resonating with your audience, you can determine the value of that content and decide whether or not to continue pursuing it. This way, you’re not wasting resources and can focus on creating more valuable content that will be both effective and relevant.
Make Sure You Measure The Right Things
If you’re looking to grow your email list and determine the value of an email in relation to a sale, you need to evolve your strategy to target consumers directly. This is where consumer-centric marketing comes in.
If you decide to take the plunge and begin expanding your email list, you need to make sure you’re measuring the right things. To avoid wasting time and resources, do your best to measure the results of your email marketing strategy and make sure you’re adjusting your efforts as required.
Is your email marketing efforts paying off? Are you seeing the results you want? If not, why? Is something changing about your strategy that you feel needs adjusting? You can’t answer these questions if you aren’t measuring the right things. To create a more efficient and effective email marketing strategy, start by measuring the results of your existing efforts. Does your email list consist of relevant and interested consumers? Are people responding to your communications?
Once you have this information, you can easily determine the next step in growing your business – whether that’s increasing your email list or refining your strategy to increase productivity.