How often do you turn on your computer in the morning to have an overflowing inbox of emails? Some of these emails you actually have interest in reading as they come from friends, family, and co-workers. The other assortment are email marketing campaigns that come from spammers trying to sell you knock off jewelry and pharmaceuticals, while the others come from the multiple email mailing lists that you are a part of.
It is estimated that the average person sees about 5,000 advertisements on a daily basis. This is so overwhelming, that our brain only consciously notices a fraction of those advertisements that are of direct importance and interest to us.
I pose the question of whether or not email marketing is still an effective form of internet marketing to consumers. Too often when you open your email inbox, it is easier to just delete a mass of emails instead of actually taking the time to open and read each one. Usually this is not the case for work related emails; however, in regards to emails that are sent out by retailers, deleting them is more of a standard practice. This even holds true for the email lists that you subscribe to.
For example, I receive on a weekly basis, emails from FutureShop, BestBuy, American Eagle, and Apple, to name a few. Unless I am specifically looking to make an electronics purchase, I usually delete the FutureShop and BestBuy ads without even opening them. The same holds true for American Eagle. For some reason, I usually open the Apple emails and skim them quickly. This just goes to show that I delete most emails from retailers instead of reading them.
So the question remains, is email marketing a tactic that should still be employed?
Many retailers would argue that it is still worth it to conduct email marketing campaigns. The actual cost of sending out a mass of emails is minimal in comparison to marketing by conventional methods such as print or television. The other consideration is that email marketing personally reaches a greater number of potential viewers.
The online service, Bulk Email Service, charges $99 for 100,000 emails to be distributed. Now let’s assume that out of the 100,000 emails that are sent out, only ten people make a purchase of $20 each. Already, the company has more than covered the cost of sending out the emails. Note that in this example, we are low balling it by saying that only 0.01% of the emails sent out translates into $20 sales.
In conclusion, email marketing is still a good an effective marketing tactic. It is all a numbers game and the statistics will show that the cost of the email marketing campaign to sales provides a favourable return on investment, even if most people don’t even read the email.