We all receive a dozen marketing mailers almost every day. But do we open it all? The answer, even though it may sound predictive, is a no. Then the next set of questions for marketers to answer is why use e-mailers as a means of marketing. “Email is a preferred platform for customer retention or upselling, or engagement, while social media is preferred for customer acquisition by marketers. Being a cost-effective way for conversion and staying connected with customers, email marketing provides better return on investment,”Aquibur Rahman, founder, Mailmodo told BrandWagon Online.
In 2020, the global e-mail marketing market was valued at $7.5 billion and is expected to reach $17.9 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.3%, as per market research firm Statista’s latest findings. Findings further reveal that despite a growth and prominence of mobile messengers and chat apps, e-mail still remains an integral part of daily online life. However, the rate of growth has slowed down. For instance, in 2020 the number of global e-mail users stood at four billion. In a period of five years, this number is expected to grow to 4.6 billion by 2025. The slow rate of growth clearly suggests that emailers are struggling to strike the right click-through-rate (CTR). Industry experts opine that while CTR is the primary way to understand an impact of a mailer campaign, in certain cases when the main objective is to drive conversion through payments, then end game changes. The impact of any email marketing campaign is based on engagement and conversion. “Even if CTR is low, the return-on-investment (RoI) can still be positive. CTR and performance can be improved by continuous optimization and testing. Further through the usage of clear messaging, mobile-friendly design, relevant content, clear call-to-action (CTA), personalisation as per customer requirement, easy unsubscribe options, among others,” Aatish Mohite, head of marketing operations, Netcore Cloud explained.
According to industry estimates, it costs anywhere between one to eight paise to send one emailer. So if someone has sent mailers to a database of about 5,000 users it would cost Rs 50-4,00. The cost of sending regular mobile SMS is about 8-12.5 paise. Interestingly, WhatsApp currently remains the most expensive means of communication. It costs 48 paise for business initiatives and 29 paise for user initiative. For Sonia Khurana, COO, Digitas India, artificial intelligence is expected to play a significant role in helping to improve email click-through rates (CTR) and break through the clutter. “Personalisation, subject line optimisation, content optimisation, send-time optimisation, segmentation and targeting and predictive analytics AI-powered tools and techniques help in improved CTR and engagement with subscribers,” she added.
Interestingly, in 2020, approximately 306 billion emails were sent and received every day worldwide, as per Statista. This is projected to increase to over 376 billion daily e-mails in 2025. Further, in December 2018, 43% of e-mail opened were via mobile. Desktop e-mail clients’ open share had declined to 18% and webmail accounted for 39%. According to Surbhi Juneja, director- Strategy and Growth, WebEngage, brands should also consider other factors, such as open rates, conversion rates, and overall RoI, when evaluating the performance of their email campaigns,” she added.
As per a recent WebEngage report on precision marketing, the right time for email communications in India, with potential for 30% conversions is between 12-4 pm. Additionally, the report also stated that contextual and personalised email campaigns resulted in an average open rate of 18.61%, and an average conversion rate of 2.98%.
