Email Is "Back" Even Though It Never Went Away

by Tom Ruwitch

A recent headline in the Harvard Business Review caught my eye: “The Triumphant Return of the Email Newsletter.”

As the president of an email marketing firm, I was happy to read the good news, but I also was puzzled. Where had the email newsletter gone?

This headline reflected a pervasive myth in marketing circles. For years, some marketers have wrongly claimed that email marketing is dying or dead.

Here’s the truth: A survey of American marketing executives reveals that email marketing drives the same amount of revenue as websites, social media and display advertising combined. That’s according to market research firm, The Relevancy Group.

Email marketing drove 25.1% of all transactions on Black Friday 2015, according to e-commerce platform vendor Custora. Further data showed organic search generated 21.1% of Black Friday sales; paid search generated 16.3%; and social media (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest) drove only 1.7% of sales.

Email marketing works because your consumers and business people use email more widely than any other media and prefer it as the channel by which marketers communicate with them.

Nearly 200 million adult Americans use email and that number will continue to grow indefinitely, according to the Pew Research center. Those 200 million represent more than 80% of all US adults and more than 91% of US adults who use the internet regularly.

When asked, “In which of the following ways, if any, would you prefer companies to communicate with you? Please select all that apply,” 72% of consumers chose email. Every other media channel tallied 50% of respondents or fewer.

There are countless studies and surveys that provide the quantitative proof that email was never dying and is far from dead.

As for the qualitative support for email, the HBR article puts it well, “What matters (in marketing today) is influence, and one way to build it is by guiding audiences through the chaos of so much content. Today’s there’s no better way to do that – and demonstrate influence — than producing an email people will actually open.”

Internet marketing pioneer Seth Godin echoed this idea in an April 2015 interview with the communications firm Gapingvoid. Asked why he sticks with email as his primary marketing channel, Godin said, “I just looked at the stats for my course. 22% of the traffic came from my blog. 74% came from email and RSS. 4% came from social media. I think showing up in a trusted way, regularly is priceless.”
Amen.

Tom Ruwitch is founder and president of MarketVolt. To attend a free webinar in which Tom demonstrates how to quickly and affordably set up automated marketing processes, go to MarketVolt.com/automation.