Why spend money on email?

Your marketing budget is getting cut; you have to find innovative (read: inexpensive) ways to market your products. But how? All the new and exciting ideas cost lots of money and really you can’t justify them anyway.

According to “Winning in Turbulence: Protect and Grow Customer Loyalty” by Rob Markey and Darrell Rigby of Bain & Company, Inc., “Loyal customers cost less to serve… (and) …help stretch marketing dollars. Their word-of-mouth referrals to friends and associates provide a company with more like-minded customers, laying the foundation for growth when the economy turns around.”

Epsilon conducted an email branding study and published the results in February of this year. The statistics point out how important email marketing is in the advertising process. Consumers said they enjoy receiving email from companies with which they are registered (84%). It may be a struggle to grow your list, but once you have those names and are sending them email, you know you’re talking to an audience that wants to hear from you!

In addition, the Epsilon study found out that 57% of consumers have a more positive impression of companies when they receive email from them. And 40% said that simply receiving email has a positive impact on their likelihood to make a future purchase from a company. What does all this mean? Email builds loyalty and trust with people that want to hear from you. And those people are telling their friends about you, which helps you grow your customer base, your email base and your bottom line.

And if all of these statistics and numbers aren’t evidence enough, then maybe Mr. Markey & Mr. Rigby of Bain & Company, Inc. can convince you: “When spending drops, the companies focused on protecting and growing their most loyal, profitable customer segments often manage to stabilize their business. They may even attract new customers as competitors falter.”