Email is proving itself to be one of more cost-effective marketing tools available – which is why some 70 percent of medium- to large-sized firms incorporated email into their marketing strategies in 2004.
Several attributes account for the rise of email as a marketing tool:
- Faster Prep Time: Depending on the campaign creation tools that you use, email marketing programs can be quick to create and may arrive in the customer’s inbox immediately.
- More Flexibility: It is much easier and less expensive to create multiple offers and test various creative and copy schemes in email than in traditional “snail mail.”
Reduced CPM: Email messages cost only a few cents per recipient compared to traditional direct mail costs because email campaigns don’t incur printing or postage costs. Email costs range from €.01 to €0.25 for per message, compared about €1.50 to €1.80 for each item mailed in traditional direct snail mail. - Greater Acceptance: Some 73 percent of consumers say they prefer email as their method of contact with online merchants. (Virtually the same percentage also say they prefer rich-content media email – with graphics and typography – versus plain-text email.
- Quick Response: Responses from recipients usually arrive within 48 hours rather than taking days or weeks via printed and posted mail.
- Higher Response Rates: It is easier and more inviting for someone to respond to an email message than to pick up the phone or mail a response card. And email has a much higher average click-through rates (between 5-15%) than online banner ads.
- Accurate Reporting: Electronic forms of delivery and response make tracking and reporting fast and easy. It is much easier than waiting weeks for responses and returns.