Email marketing often gets a bad rap. Companies are worried that their email marketing efforts will be wasted and not bring a compelling return on investment. These fears are often fueled by media reports suggesting that people just delete promotional emails, or have them automatically redirected to their spam basket.
But for most companies, this isn’t the case. People can tell the difference between an unsolicited ad for herbal Viagra and a message from a company they trust from which they requested information.
When done correctly, email marketing is lucrative. The key, however, is that you have to give people more than just a sales pitch. You have to provide them with useful information that makes you look like an industry expert, and then provide them with a call to action back to your site.
This type of marketing has proven to be extremely effective. Let’s look at some interesting statistics. According to the Direct Marketers Association, companies see an average return on investment of $43.42 for every dollar spent on email marketing.
Any marketing effort that creates that kind of ROI has to be considered a good deal. But, that’s not all – a study by Exact Target shows that more than 50 percent of all consumers make a purchase as a direct result of email marketing.
According to iMedia Connection, 72 percent of companies that have engaged in email marketing report that their return on investment was ‘excellent’ or ‘good.’
The bottom line is that prospective customers are not as turned off by email marketing as the media may make you think. In fact, when done correctly, email marketing is a rock-solid marketing channel that drives sales and delivers a solid return on investment.
