What would happen to your business if Mark Zuckerberg and his counterparts decided to shut down Instagram, Facebook and other platforms forever? It’s unlikely but not impossible.
BY TSHEPANG LANGA
Remember May 2020? Sure you do, we had just come out of a nearly two month level 5 nationwide lockdown. But something else also happened. In May 2020 Facebook and Instagram were down for a few hours and activity on both platforms was blocked. The same thing happened earlier this year where WhatsApp also stopped working. What happened to your business when these incidents took place?
For businesses that solely rely on social media to communicate with their customers, a social media outage could cost their businesses lots of money. In this article, I will take you through why building a community outside of social media and expanding your reach to email could be beneficial for your business.
WHAT IS EMAIL MARKETING?
Email marketing is sending out commercial messages to a group of people who have signed up to receive these messages using email. This group of people is usually called “leads” or “an email list”.
Some of the most successful businesses in the world, like Amazon, use email marketing to achieve several objectives. Firstly, they use email marketing to gain new clients/sell their products. They use it to build a relationship with their prospective customers and to maintain the relationship they already have with existing clients; and finally, they use email marketing to grow their online presence.
MORE EFFECTIVE FOR CUSTOMER ACQUISION
Social media has been a complete game changer for many businesses across the world including mine. It is also a very important part of most business’s Marketing strategy and great for interacting with your followers. Social media is also an outstanding channel for strengthening your relationships with your existing clients.
However, when it comes to converting leads to customers, email marketing is more effective. This is largely attributed to the widespread usage of email. According to Statista, there were 3.9 billion* global email users in 2019. This figure is expected to grow to 4.3 billion users in 2023.
This upward trend shows that email marketing is an opportunity that you shouldn’t miss out on – even social media platforms like Instagram ask for your email address when you sign-up. The extensive use of email globally gives businesses a great chance to build relationships and get more clients.
CUSTOMERS WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
Believe it or not, your customers actually like hearing from you. They want to be kept up to date about the things happening in your business – they did offer their emails after all!
In 2017, Statista found that 49%** of customers said that they would like weekly emails from their favourite brands because it makes them feel like they are a part of the business and makes them want to spend more money on the business. This statistic is important in that many businesses worry about how often they should be reaching out to their subscribers via email. Take this as a sign that you should send your list an email today!
HIGH RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Unlike other marketing channels, email marketing is quite cost effective. It is no surprise that the Return on Investment (ROI) is massive especially with its growing popularity. A well thought out email marketing strategy could increase your revenue margins exponentially. The high return on investment, I believe, tops the charts for keeping your business steady and going because for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. This shows how worthy it is to focus your attention on building an email list and starting with your email marketing.
There is a myriad of reasons to start using email marketing, but these are the top 3 reasons that will get you started on your journey to success with email marketing.
If you don’t have the time or the skill to implement or draw up an email marketing strategy, outsource instead.
*https://www.statista.com/statistics/255080/number-of-e-mail-users-worldwide/ **https://www.statista.com/statistics/434649/promotional-email-frequency-preference-usa-consumer/
TSHEPANG LANGA is a digital marketer and the founder of natural hair and beauty Coaching Consultancy and blog Intent Hair & Beauty. She later co-founded Intentional Marketing Agency through which she offers digital marketing consultations and helps create well-thought-out strategies for businesses looking to grow their online presence and become industry leaders.
