Automate your email marketing, and marketing automation in general, are two of those terms that are often a intertwined mistaken notion, depending on who is shouting it and who is the receiver. If a MA sales person speaks to a Fortune 1000 company, it means one thing. To a small, local store owner it may mean something completely different.
So, let me share with you what Forrester Research says about the definition of Marketing Automation.
“Marketing Automation is defined as processes that help generate new business opportunities, manage volumes of business inquiries, improve potential buyers’ propensity to purchase, and increase alignment between marketing activities and sales results.”
That means that not only email is automated, but a CRM system is integrated into multiple lead generation platforms like social media, email, direct advertising, direct mail, inbound phone inquiry systems, etc., etc. That is a lot to pay for if you are a shop owner in your local community. It’s also a lot to pay for if you already use a CRM. It’s a lot to learn, too.
Here’s some statistics that might surprise you about email marketing and having it automated.
- McKinsey states that email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined for acquiring new customers.
- Marketing Sherpa goes on record with the statement that 91% of US adults like to receive promotional emails from those they do business with.
- Email has a 6% open rate overall, BUT, when you consider that all the email that floods inboxes by rogue marketers dilutes the percentages of interested parties opening and responding to targeted emails.
- Email is the best way to communicate with customers in the most affordable fashion. Conversations have seen an 11% improvement year over year.
- Email is currently being utilized worldwide by more than 3 Billion people by 2020.
- Email Builds Credibility-One of the best ways of communicating with your prospects, leads and customers is via electronic newsletters. People do business with those they know, like, and trust. What better way to build a relationship than by consistent, personalized, poignant content about your firm, your products and services, your staff, and ways you can improve the lives of the reader?
- Email marketing builds brands. Regular newsletter distribution often is shared with others via forwarding the email one receives to a friend or associate. The new recipient becomes familiar with your firm and will often request to become a subscriber.
- Email boosts sales. By providing calls to action in an occasional email and in your newsletter, prospects, leads and existing customers are encouraged to make an impulse purchase, specifically targeted through list segmentation and direct communications relative to purchases.
- Email can be sent, received and viewed on any device.
- If you are a Nonprofit, Foundation or Social Enterprise that raises funds, email is a great means by which to increase donations. The communication can be personalized to the point of individual targeting, database integration for including past donations, participation or interaction with the organization that makes your messaging ring true.
- Email marketing automation provides the opportunities to not only communicate, but test what works, and what needs tweaking. The analytics of email can significantly improve your end results further improving sales and conversions while being the most affordable marketing strategy.
- An email marketing automation platform allows you to get started instantly, as they come with pre-designed professional templates to give your communications just the right look.
- Email automation is easy to adopt into your marketing efforts, and even easier to scale your sales and operations.
I’d be shortchanging you if I told you these are all of the benefits of email marketing automation. In fact, I would be doing you a disservice. The advances of digital marketing tactics, strategies, and tools change every day. However, email happened to be the original form of digital marketing, and it remains a critical part of business to this day. It is not going away.
In fact, email is viewed as a vital piece of the marketing processes every business need. At Zen Marketing, we’ve always relied on email marketing automation to service our subscribers, communicate with prospects, vendors, partners and most of all our customers. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
If you find it is time to take on email automation or would like to see our newly created email automation solutions, simply contact us or pick up the phone and call. We’d be happy to help you grow your business relationships, improve your communications, and demonstrate the latest tools from Zen Marketing.
Cheers!
