It’s funny to think of any form of digital marketing as “old school,” but in 2018, email marketing fits that bill. We’re at a point where email marketing is older than many of its current practitioners.
For those that aren’t digital marketing history buffs, email marketing is celebrating its 40th birthday this year, tracing its origin back to 1978 when the very first mass email campaign was sent to about 400 recipients, promoting Digital Equipment Corp. That campaign certainly set a high bar for return on investment (ROI), since it is reported to have produced around $13 million in sales. That’s not a bad ROI from just 400 emails sent ($32,500 per recipient).
Since 1978, a lot has changed in the email marketing arena and with the overall adoption of email itself. The arrival of the early internet in 1983 and its evolution over the years provided a platform for email usage to explode. But, with the constant development of new channels and platforms for advertisers to reach their audiences (digital display, video, mobile, social, etc.), email has remained a popular and effective marketing medium.
In fact, by the end of 2018, there are predicted to be more than 3.8 billion email users worldwide (paywall), and that number is expected to continue growing over the next few years. Additionally, on average in 2018, more than 281 billion emails are sent each day (paywall).
With these kinds of numbers, it’s no wonder companies continue to count on email to reach their current and prospective customers. There’s a traditional philosophy in advertising that the best place to advertise is where you find large numbers of your audience. Email continues to be a channel where marketers can reach potentially huge audience numbers. The channel has also matured in ways beneficial for both marketers and email recipients.
Personally, I’ve been involved in email marketing since 1998, so I’ve had a front-row seat to the channel’s evolution. My current company, OPTIZMO Technologies, empowers companies to strategically manage all of their email suppression lists and email marketing partners in order to stay compliant with email regulations, like CAN-SPAM and to optimize overall campaign performance.
Staying Within Email Marketing Regulations
Data privacy and its impact on digital advertising has been a hot topic for the past few years and only seems to be gaining steam. Any number of digital marketing channels and platforms have taken the spotlight in conversations about how they should be able to leverage user data for targeting.
But, one channel that hasn’t really been highlighted in those conversations is email. One major reason for this is that there are already established laws and regulations that create rules for companies to follow when leveraging email marketing. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 defines a number of guidelines for compliant email marketing and sets specific penalties for companies that don’t follow the rules.
This well-established rulebook actually gives email a foundation of brand safety and compliance that provides an advantage in today’s fragmented and highly scrutinized digital advertising industry. For companies that intend to run long-term email marketing programs, developing consistent and effective compliance practices is a must. Being transparent and compliant, with a focus on delivering value to the email recipient can also have a positive impact on a company’s brand image.
Engagement With Your Audience On Their Own Terms
While it is a common observation that we, as email users, receive a large number of emails in our inboxes each day, when compared to many other digital marketing channels, I believe that email marketing is far less intrusive.
For example, banner ads appear while you’re looking at a web page, video ads play before or during another video you want to watch and search ads appear right next to organic search results. Each of these marketing tactics attempts to catch their audiences’ attention while they are engaged with other content.
While some people may set up alerts for their inbox to alert them when new emails arrive, for the most part, emails arrive steadily throughout every 24-hour period, and users choose when to engage with them. This puts the power in the hands of users as to when to engage with your email marketing message.
Being compliant and following email marketing best practices around deliverability makes it more likely that a company’s email makes it into the inbox, but marketers still have the challenge of making their email messages stand out in the inbox to convince recipients to open them. This is where marketing skills matter. Your attention-grabbing subject lines and effective use of preview text can mean the difference between recipients who open, read and engage with an email and those who don’t
Despite years and years of experts prognosticating the end of email as a marketing channel, I’ve seen the channel continue growing in popularity among users and advertisers alike. Email marketing has clearly evolved over time, bringing graphics, video, dynamic content and a wide variety of interactivity to keep it fresh for users. As a marketer, it’s vital to pay attention to email’s evolution, stay within regulations and use proven tactics to effectively reach your recipients -- giving them an opportunity to engage with your brand on their own terms.
