Good news for email marketers

At present, and according to the news, we are currently faced with some stark realities regarding business; the economy and, for email marketers, how best to squeeze as much ROI out of your broadcasts as possible.  Well here is some good news for you all...email marketing is not dead! We’ve said it before but thanks to the good people at Return Path and Hub Spot here are some statistics to chew on.

• There are more than 294 billion emails sent per day. That's 3.4 million every second!

• Email opens on mobile devices increased by 34% from April 2011 through September 2011 as compared to the previous six-month period.

What do these two statements mean to you as an email marketer? The first one suggests that email is still being seen as a great way to sell a service or product. It also suggests that there are a vast number of emails hitting inboxes so it needs skill and creativity to make your emails stand out from the clutter. Nevertheless it's good news.

The second quote is equally good news because it is indicating an increasing trend for email readers to change their viewing habits which again, with appropriate creativity on your part, can be used as a mechanism to attract interest to your company and your products.

Integrating email and social – what do the stats say?

Email marketing is not going anywhere, despite claims that the medium is on the way out. According to Econsultancy's latest report, not only does email marketing have "staunch supporters", but for some it works better than any other form of digital marketing.

However, there are other marketing channels we should consider more deeply.  An Email in Action survey highlights a number of challenges and opportunities facing marketers. For example, social media is seen as a competitor, 75% of respondents stated that competition with media sites such as Twitter and Facebook is somewhat or very challenging. 

Moreover, according to the Email in Action survey, only a quarter of organisations plan to fully integrate email and social media. Sharing icons are used by 69% of firms, but only 35% of companies incentivise email subscribers to join their social media programmes.

So now let’s consider the audience stats.  Via an organisation called Visible Gains we learn that despite the impression often given that Social Media is about to eclipse email, the stats refute that, here are some more key ones:

Did you know?

• There are nearly 3 trillion email accounts worldwide 

• There are 750 million Facebook accounts worldwide

• There are 300 million Twitter accounts worldwide

To conclude

Social media should not be seen as competition, it can and should be used as an additional lever to encourage subscribers to sign up for your regular emails. Econsultancy said last year that businesses should "get people to follow you through Facebook, Twitter, etc, driving people to subscribe to your email".

Email marketing is active, lively and growing for those marketers who are adapting to the profound changes in online behaviour.  Integrating the medium with social media is essential. A final quote from Email in Action:

"The email subscriber experience needs to be shaped with mobile and social in mind. It will be those companies who are already integrating their user experience across multiple platforms who may find greater success in this traditional marketing medium.”