You may be wondering, is email marketing still relevant in 2022. That would be like asking if communication, in general, is still relevant? Well, you can bet your bottom dollar it is. Absolutely! It is more relevant now than ever before.

Research shows us that email is still the best channel to reach people on, ahead of other channels, even with the increase in popularity of social media and other messaging platforms. Email users are anticipated to continue growing. In 2021, approximately 309.6 billion emails were sent and received daily. In 2022, this figure is expected to increase to 333.2 billion.

 

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a great tool to help you grow your business. It all starts by building a good email list first, which ultimately enables you to create leads that can then be nurtured through the sales funnel. And that’s where the process to design and send compelling email campaigns comes into play. From there, you can target a specific audience at any given time, with a few simple segments. Whereby, keeping them engaged and wanting more.

Email marketing is a very cost-effective exercise to get started with, and is not a difficult practice to undertake. What is more, it can also help increase your brand awareness and drive more traffic to your website. So, is email marketing still relevant?

 

What Purpose Does Email Marketing Serve?

Judging by the term ‘Email Marketing’, it is quickly identifiable and self-explanatory that its sole purpose is to conduct marketing via email. And from there stems a variety of purposes, options and opportunities. To paraphrase this, it would simply mean having the ability to broadcast messages, in bulk.

And what message would one broadcast? For a marketer, the list would be endless; about a new product the world needs to know about, a service that someone could benefit from or a special sale on selected items that need to clear out inventory. And so forth.

Whether you are educating an audience or trying to sell a product or service, brand awareness becomes a priceless exercise. In addition, growing your email list too, to reach a wider audience. So, then your broadcasted messages can be heard by the masses.

And once your message has been broadcasted, it does not mean your work is done. Keeping your audience engaged becomes an ongoing task. If you can keep your audience engaged, you will build a strong brand, trust and rapport with ongoing supporters and/or clients in the field you specialize or ‘market’ in. This creates a successful business which is designed to sustain growth, while providing a higher return on investment.

 

Does Email Marketing Still Work In 2022?

Email marketing is a tried and tested solution. It has proven to be effective and reliable. Therefore, making email marketing still relevant. Whatever your goals are, getting your message across to several people at once is all made possible with just a few clicks of a button.

Your email does not always have to be about trying to sell something. It can and should also be used to share feedback from customers, such as success stories. Another usage would be to create an educational email to further help those who do not understand, have a better understanding of a product or service.

But, certainly marketing campaigns will not go away. Marketing your products and/or services is here to stay. So, relaying your campaign via email is a no brainer. And it also enables you to continue growing your email list. 

In that regard, Email Marketing still has so much to offer. In addition to keeping audiences engaged and building rapport, the ongoing relationship between buyer and seller can create an everlasting impression on your brand. And without a brand, there just may be no business.

Think of some of the well-known brands you know of, it seems they can do no wrong. This is a direct result of building a brand so powerful that the reputation speaks volumes.

So, why try to reinvent the wheel if something is working? As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Is Email Marketing Profitable In 2022?

Yes, it is. And email marketing will continue to be profitable. Why? Because it is an extremely effective tool when applied correctly. Delivering quality content will ensure that. Avoiding sending spam emails will also ensure that. Information can be sent in real time, far and wide, hence keeping people well informed and engaged.

Email marketing still remains affordable. It has a higher Return on Investment (ROI) and is ranked the highest amongst all other marketing channels. The return on investment is about $40 for each $1 spent, which is a huge return. And almost everyone uses email. With approximately 4 billion email users in the world today, no matter who your targeted audience is, chances are they have an email address. So, profits are there to be made by targeting the right audience.

It is a known fact that you are more likely to obtain a sale through an email than you are through social media. Just ask any other marketer. So, are you still asking yourself is email marketing still relevant?

 

What Is the Future of Email Marketing?

With the increase in email users there is sure to be a future ahead for email marketing. There is no doubt that the battle for attention will continue to play a pivotal role. That is why quality content, and not quantity, should be a focal point. Why bombard your audience with several emails in a short period of time with useless information? Surely, they would lose interest and unsubscribe from your mailing list.

And just a friendly reminder, your emails are not the only ones they receive, so do not delude yourself to think that they read every email in their inbox. Your open rates are a clear indication of this.

However, if your emails are less frequent but contain quality content, then the information you provide is more likely to stick and hold your brand in high esteem. The snowball effect here is that it can create a need for your audience wanting more. Would you not rather look forward to reading something than cringing at the first sight of it? I know I would.

In the future we will also see improvements with better automations and a fully personalized experience with Artificial Intelligence. This will have a strong impact, with AI having the ability to perform tasks automatically, as if they are human like.

Targeting people will move from a superficial stand point to a more emotional stance by creating more intelligent criteria for customer profiles. From there, the messages will be more personalized with the focus being on the content for the individual customer. And the timing of their deliverance will be crucial to reaching customers at times that are most relevant to them.

This will all lead to merging data of all kinds, thus creating more integrations between various systems.

 

So, Is Email Marketing Still Relevant?

While trends come and go, the signs are that email marketing will be around for some time to come. And by all accounts the use of email marketing is expected to continue growing in 2022 and beyond.

As the digital world continues to grow, so will the need for digital communication. So, if you have been thinking about an alternative solution to email marketing for your marketing needs, or have yet to use it to its full potential, then now is the time to put your foot down and run with the pack before you get left behind.

 This blog post has also appeared in a MarketingPlatform Newsletter.

Author: Alex Trajcevski