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Is Email Marketing Effective? Three Examples That Prove It Is

We have all heard the hype surrounding Email marketing. If you’ve missed it, here are some numbers to give you a general idea of the email’s awesomeness.

• Among top performing marketers who reported exceeding their revenue goals, email marketing was cited as the #1 most effective tactic. /Forrester/
• Email institute found that triggered email messages average 152% higher open and click-through rate than any other marketing message. /Email Institute, Epsilon/
• 85% of marketers cite email as the most effective lead-generation tactic. /B2B technology Marketing Community/

Email marketing gets a bad rap. Sure, it’s not quite as embarrassing as direct mail (which is somehow a $12 billion per year industry), but it’s pretty close.

Many marketers have been seduced by social media advertising, perceiving it to be not only “cooler,” but also more effective than email marketing. There’s no denying that social media gets a lot more media attention than email marketing. However, claims that email marketing is no longer effective are simply not true, and any marketer worth their salt will tell you that email remains a cornerstone of their campaigns.

Not convinced? Then check out these three examples from some of the world’s leading email management companies to see what makes email marketing so effective.

1. Email Newsletters Can Be Awesome

Let’s face it – most email newsletters are crap. Far too many companies see email newsletters as another way to push sales, even though many people who sign up for a newsletter are not looking to actively make a purchase. This can result in low sign-up volumes, high rates of subscriber abandonment, and “newsletters” that are light on news and heavy on pushy sales tactics.

However, as Southern lifestyle magazine Garden & Gun demonstrated in a case study for email management service Emma, email newsletters can actually be awesome, when handled correctly.

Garden & Gun is the country’s leading Southern lifestyle magazine. With a diverse readership and an equally broad editorial focus, Garden & Gun focuses on everything from Southern heritage and culture to fine dining and trends in agriculture.

The magazine and website have attracted a loyal audience thanks to the quality of its journalism, something that Kim Alexander, Garden & Gun’s digital media editor, also wanted the newsletter, Talk of the South, to represent.

“We are at heart a print publication, but we only print six times a year,” Alexander said in an interview on the Emma blog. “So we use email to stay in touch with our readers and drive traffic to our website.”

Garden & Gun has grown its online audience considerably through Talk of the South. According to the Emma blog, the subscriber base of the average email newsletter will shrink by 30% every year, but Garden & Gun has managed to actually increase its newsletter readership by 40% since partnering with Emma three years ago.

Talk of the South is also a source of revenue for Garden & Gun. As you can see in the screenshot above, the newsletter features advertising, just as the print and online editions of the magazine do. However, the ads aren’t intrusive and are highly targeted and relevant to Garden & Gun’s readership. I’d be very interested to see the CTR data of these ads, as I suspect it would be high in comparison to traditional website banners.

A great example of the kind of articles that appear in Talk of the South

Overall, the quality of Talk of the South is excellent. As a Garden & Gun reader myself, it’s one of the few newsletters I genuinely look forward to reading, and serves as a great example of how email newsletters can make everybody happy if they’re produced to a high standard and serve an editorial purpose.

2. Social Media and Email Marketing Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

As the recent midterm elections demonstrated, virtually everything can be reduced to a zero-sum, adversarial battle. However, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Just because email marketing might not be as “sexy” as social media doesn’t mean that the two can’t play nice. In fact, combining email marketing with a strong social media strategy can really pay off, as sustainable living blog DIY Natural discovered.

DIY Natural was borne of founder Matt Jabs’ passion for self-reliance and sustainable living. Even in the site’s early days, DIY Natural was attracting a great deal of traffic – a fact that forced Jabs to seriously consider how social media could expand his audience, and how email marketing could help him monetize his burgeoning blog.

In an interview on the AWeber blog, Jabs said that combining social media with email marketing allowed he and his wife Betsy to transition from a passion project into a full-time business.

“As our traffic and email list grows, our social media lists grow organically and consistently,” Jabs said. “At first, our Facebook page was growing like mad. We went up to about 80,000 likes on Facebook.”

Although he might not have intentionally set out to combine social media with email marketing when he launched the site, the fact that Jabs adopted the two strategies in tandem early on allowed DIY Natural to grow incredibly quickly.

Of course, the site’s commitment to quality content was a major factor. In fact, I actually signed up for the DIY Natural newsletter as I was researching this article. My wife and I share similar views on self-reliance and sustainability as Matt and Betsy, and we already make our own laundry detergent and other household items (including ghee). As such, DIY Natural’s content is perfect for us, and exactly the type of content I’d like to see in my inbox every week.

Matt and Betsy’s success just goes to show that you don’t need to rob Peter to pay Paul when it comes to email marketing.

3. Email Marketing is PERFECT for Small Businesses

One of the most stubborn misconceptions about email marketing is that you need an entire marketing department to handle running effective email campaigns.

Although a large dedicated team doesn’t hurt, it’s by no means a requirement. Email marketing can be a huge boost for small businesses. Case in point, family-owned business Goat Milk Stuff, a business that sells – you guessed it – products made from goat’s milk.

Like many small businesses, Goat Milk Stuff wrestled with the desire to grow beyond small craft fairs and trade shows and their commitment to offering outstanding, personalized service to customers.

In a post at the MailChimp blog, Goat Milk Stuff cofounder PJ Jonas said that while she and her husband Jim (and their eight children, who also help run the company) diligently collected emails during trade shows, they wanted to expand without compromising their business’ approachable, family-friendly values. Surprisingly, email marketing allowed them to do both.

“We sent some newsletters where we gave customers a choice of which special they wanted,” said PJ. “Either a 20% discount or free shipping. What we discovered was that some people always choose the discount, and some always choose the shipping—it’s not necessarily which special saves them more money. So we took that information and now we alternate our specials.”

Some of the goats that help make the goat milk stuff.

So, despite spending most of their time actually making their products, tending to their herd of goats, and somehow managing to run an eight-child household (seriously, bravo), Jim and PJ also manage to operate highly successful email marketing campaigns that offer their customers genuine value while keeping things simple – all without a formal marketing department in sight.

How Do You Launch an Effective Email Campaign?

So, now that we’ve learned some valuable lessons in how effective email marketing campaigns can impact different types of businesses, how do you go about launching your own?

Obviously every email marketing campaign is different. There are, however, some “rules” that can help you make some headway.

A/B Test Your Email Marketing Campaigns

You know what they say about assumptions, right? Don’t make an ass out of yourself and tank your campaign in the process – test early, and test often.

Many email management tools include built-in A/B testing functionality, allowing you to test specific aspects of your email marketing campaigns to ensure maximum impact. MailChimp, for example, wrote about the results of several A/B tests from successful campaigns to show how a rigorous approach to testing can yield substantial improvements.

Keep Subject Lines Short and Sweet

We’ve written about email subject lines before. Like a good chili recipe, everyone seems to have their own preferred way of doing things, but when it comes to the “perfect” subject line, shorter is best – specifically, between six and 10 words.

This data from Retention Science indicates that email subject lines between six and 10 words consistently have the best open rates. Compare the open rate of these subject lines with that of subject lines between 21 and 25 words in length and you’re talking a major drop-off.

Of course, there are many other factors that contribute to the success of an email marketing campaign. To read more about how to improve your open rates, check out Retention Science’s full study here.

Send Emails on Thursday Mornings at 8 a.m.

This is pretty specific advice, right? For sure, but we’ve also covered the best times to send email campaigns in the past, and we’ve found that Thursday mornings between 8-9 a.m. is an ideal window of opportunity to increase your open rates.

Of course, what works for us might not work for you (see Bonus Tip #1), so be sure to experiment with the timing of your email campaigns to discover what times result in higher open rates.

Email Like a Boss

Email marketing can – and often is – highly effective. However, just like anything else worth doing, it takes time, effort, and sometimes, making a lot of mistakes before you discover the secret behind the Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices.

Hopefully this post has given you some ideas on how to improve your own email marketing campaigns. As always, if something has worked for you that I haven’t covered, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

11 Email Marketing Solutions for Small Businesses

Social media marketing and mobile marketing may be the newest, coolest kids on the online marketing block, but nothing works better for growing your business than good old email marketing. Studies repeatedly show that email marketing is the most effective way to reach and retain customers. A study by consulting firm McKinsey and Co. recently revealed that email marketing is 40 times more successful than Facebook and Twitter marketing combined. To help you launch a successful email marketing campaign, here are ten email marketing solutions you can use to create, send and track emails — and discover what your subscribers do with your messages.

1. Vertical Response

Pricing flexibility is key for budget-conscious small businesses. Vertical Response is a full-featured email marketing service that offers pay-as-you-go packages for companies that only send occasional email marketing campaigns. While most email marketing services require monthly subscriptions that you pay for even when you don't use the service, Vertical Response lets you pay for only what you need, when you need it, to get the most value out of your email marketing dollars. Pay-as-you-go features include unlimited everything — contacts, signup forms, social followers and posts — autoresponders and phone, chat and email tech support.

Vertical Response's pay-as-you-go plans start at $7.50 for 300 emails. Volume discounts are also available. If you're a frequent sender, however, the monthly plan starts at $8.80 per month for 500 contacts and includes unlimited emails. [Email Marketing: A Small Business Guide]

2. CakeMail

Need a fuss-free email marketing solution? CakeMail is a simple, Web-based email marketing app that lets businesses quickly create, send and track email campaigns. Users can choose from a collection of ready-to-use email templates or design their own from scratch — no coding required. CakeMail offers a fresh, user-friendly interface where users can also manage contact lists, measure engagement, monitor analytics, create detailed reports and more. You can also access CakeMail on the go via the new iPhone or Android CakeMail mobile app.

CakeMail is free to send up to 12,000 emails a month to 2,000 contacts or fewer. The CakeMail logo appears on all free CakeMail emails. Paid plans with unlimited emails and no CakeMail logo start at $8 a month.

3. Mad Mimi

Sending clean, eye-catching emails is key to successful email marketing campaigns. Mad Mimi lets businesses do just that with its theme-based email-creation approach. Instead of relying on templates, users can easily customize and design themes to make emails all their own. These design-centric emails don't require any prior design knowledge, but look great in all email environments. Mad Mimi also offers social network and customer relationship management (CRM) integration, list management, reports and tracking, secure delivery and more.

Mad Mimi starts at $10 a month for with unlimited emails and storage. A free plan is also available, but it does not include support and is limited to 12,500 emails per month for up to 2,500 contacts.

4. AWeber

Founded in 1998, AWeber knows email campaigns inside and out. As a service that focuses specifically on newsletters and email marketing, it lets users choose from a whopping 600+ ready-to-use HTML email templates, manage subscribers, use autoresponders to deliver email sequences and even turn their RSS feeds into email newsletters. AWeber also offers customer support by phone, email or instant messaging.

AWeber starts at $19 a month for 500 subscribers, with access to all features. A $1 trial is available for the first month.

5. MailChimp

All about results? The MailChimp email marketing tool goes beyond just sending and tracking emails. In addition to an easy-to-use drag-and-drop email creator, built-in image editing and mobile-optimized emails, MailChimp offers advanced features for more effective email marketing campaigns. These tools include subscriber profiles and segmentation for highly targeted email lists; revenue reports to monitor subscriber activity and improve sales; and analytics that track everything from open and click rates to list growth, trends, subscriber demographics and more.

MailChimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. Paid plans start at $10 a month and includes unlimited emails.

[For a side-by-side comparison of the best email marketing services visit our sister site Top Ten Reviews.]

6. Benchmark

Searching for an all-in-one email marketing solution? Benchmark is a one-stop-shop for creating and tracking email marketing campaigns. It offers an easy-to-use email-creation platform, where users can edit an email like they would a blog post or document. You can add logos, photos and videos, as well as modify styles to fit your brand. Other features include list management tools — like customized sign-up forms for your website, Twitter or Facebook; list segmentation to target specific markets; and the ability to upload existing lists — and analytics to track campaigns, clicks and social shares.

Benchmark's send-based plan starts at $9.95 a month for 600 emails. A list-based account is also available for $11.95 a month for up to 600 contacts.

7. Constant Contact

Created specifically for small businesses, Constant Contact aims to help small business owners reach the right people in less time. The Constant Contact Toolkit offers customizable templates for newsletters and emails, as well as social media promotions, event management and landing pages that integrate with email marketing campaigns. Other features include real-time reporting to easily track opens, clicks, purchases and more.

Constant Contact starts at $15 for basic email campaigns, contact management and social sharing. Choose the $45 a month plan to receive the full Toolkit and features like landing pages and detailed tracking.

8. iContact

Great customer service makes all the difference, and iContact offers award-winning customer support. Users can create emails — by choosing from hundreds of templates, using a drag-and-drop email builder or from scratch using HTML — integrate social media accounts, manage their contacts, generate reports and more. And you can do all this with the peace of mind that comes from knowing there is always someone there to help. In addition to offering all types of guides, such as step-by-step tutorials and webinars, iContact also makes its technical support team available via email, phone and live chat.

Plans with iContact start at $10 a month for up to 250 subscribers. A 15 percent discount is available for annual plans.

9. ActiveCampaign

Searching to automate your email marketing campaigns? ActiveCampaign is here to help. First, create engaging newsletters and email campaigns that include content, images and branding materials using ActiveCampaign's customizable drag-and-drop email designer. You can also embed live product data from your website, blog posts or online store, as well as videos from Vimeo or YouTube. Then, use the automation and autoresponder features to set up automatic campaigns, such as email times and frequencies, as well as personalized content, for instance, to greet individual subscribers on their birthdays.

ActiveCampaign's small business plans start at $9 a month. A free account is also available for up to 2,500 contacts.

10. GetResponse

GetResponse is more than just an email marketing tool — it's a solution that integrates email marketing with other tools businesses use the most. GetResponse lets users create responsive newsletters and emails like a pro, save time with autoresponders, create landing pages, and gather email intelligence using analytics. A preview feature is also available, so users can see what emails look like on different mobile devices before sending them out. One of GetResponse's standout features, however, is that it helps businesses grow their lists by allowing them to connect the system with a wide range of business apps, such as CRM, content management systems (CMS), social, and e-commerce. This includes Salesforce, FreshBooks, Zoho, Facebook, Twitter, Joomla, WordPress and more.

GetResponse starts at $15 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers. An annual discount is also available.

11. StreamSend

Magical things can happen when you combine email marketing and social media. StreamSend understands that. In addition to email creation and tracking, list management and real-time reporting, the StreamSend email marketing platform integrates social sharing tools to maximize reach beyond a subscriber's inbox. Emails created on StreamSend feature a social media bar, which includes buttons to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This lets subscribers easily share, like and retweet messages to their friends and followers. Users can then track shared messages to launch smarter, data-driven email marketing campaigns.

StreamSend plans start at $19.90 month. A free 30-day trial is available for a limited 200 emails per month.

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