As technology evolves and shiny new platforms are introduced into the marketing mix, the role of email in marketing strategy can often be neglected. And yet, when done properly, email is still one of the most powerful tools in a company’s marketing arsenal and can yield the highest ROI of any marketing channel. According to Campaign Monitor research, for every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI.
And while social media can help grow brand awareness and engagement, a McKinsey study found that email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.
But like any growing medium, email marketing practices need to evolve. Email communications need to be effective enough to cut through the clutter of consumers’ busy inboxes. As brand owners it’s our job to think about how emails are displaying on mobile devices, how to improve open rates and what value the emails are providing to consumers, otherwise the emails will end up in the trash.
Have a look at how your emails are comparing versus industry benchmarks and consider the areas for improvement. (Note, for many wineries the average open rate is about 25% but our clients are seeing results sitting at around 40-60% depending on the quality of the list.)
Like any strategy, planning is imperative so think about how you’re utilising email as part of the consumer journey, the frequency of email contact and which content is communicated at different times of the year. It’s worth allocating a portion of your marketing budget to develop an effective email campaign and the financial rewards will soon follow.
