Despite rumours of an impending demise, email is still an effective and engaging way for small businesses to connect with their customers and also drive a better return on investment.
One of the main benefits of an email marketing campaign is that it is measurable but understanding the statistics can often be a confusing exercise with expectations not necessarily meeting reality.
How many people should you expect to open your emails and how does this compare to others in your industry?
The Infographic included below has been designed by the Infodec team based on recent MailChimp statistics and it gives you an idea of how you compare with other business in your related industry.
As you can see, most business have an open rate in the low 20% range with ‘Health and Fitness’ managing 19.5% while ‘Arts and Artists’ fair the best on 27.7%.
An open rate is a measure of how many people on an email list open, or view an email. As a guide if you have a 20% open rate that would mean that for every 10 emails delivered to the inbox, two were opened.
The click rate mentioned in the Infographic statistics is the number of recipients who click on one or more links in an email.
Email marketing is really one area where the size of the business sending the email doesn’t really matter. The statistics contained in the infographic shows that for small companies (21.95%), with up to 10 people the open rate is comparable to a large company of 50+ people (23.21%).
These statistics provide us a benchmark to compare ourselves against others to better understand and define a ‘successful’ campaign.
The email marketing campaigns that Infodec Communications create for our clients have pleasing open rates in the mid 30% range so they are definitely good value in terms of generating sales or visits to your site.
We really believe that email marketing is a realistic and cost effective way to connect with your clients.
5 benefits of email marketing
Despite the growth of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, email marketing is still effective.
According to a report released by management consultant firm McKinsey last year, email is nearly 40 times more effective at engaging customers than Facebook and Twitter combined.
Some of the reasons for this include:
- It’s cost effective – There are a number of email marketing programs that start with free options. Payment is required once a distribution list reaches a certain level.
- It generates brand awareness – Emails give you the opportunity to regularly remind your customers that you are still around and what you offer. You will be top-of-mind when they require your services.
- It’s measurable – It’s not only about open and click rates, you are able to gain an insight into what type of content your customer is most interested in and responsive to. You can also determine the best time of day to reach your customers.
- You can send targeted messages – You have control of who sees your email and can tailor your message to a responsive audience that has already expressed an interest in your company or used your services before.
- It’s easy to share – Offers and deals are forwarded easily and quickly to other potential subscribers.
When developing an effective email marketing campaign it’s always good to engage the services of a qualified writer to either write or review your content before it is distributed.
Infodec Communications can help you tailor your communications in a way that pulls their focus and encourages your customers to press that important ‘open’ button.
We believe that the key is original content that is relevant and interesting to your customers. If you would like to know more, contact us today!
Phone: (02) 9531 5595
E-mail: contact@infodec.com.au
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