Are Email Newsletters Still Profitable?

Email seems like an “old” kind of technology. I think back to the days of endless Viagra ads flooding your inbox (thank goodness for the spam filters we have today). If you’re not using email marketing already in your business today, it might seem irrelevant to you.

But it’s not irrelevant at all.

Email marketing has shown to make up 18%+ of overall business revenues in 2014 according to the national client email report – that’s nothing to sneeze at!

Compared to social media, way more people are using email. While 94% of internet users send and read email, only 61% of internet users have a social media account.

Beyond that, over 56% of digital marketers in the US find email marketing to be their most profitable online marketing (while only 37% say social media).

That doesn’t mean that these other forms of marketing aren’t effective – the % number just represents the proportion of people who find it to be their most useful marketing strategy – it doesn’t devalue any single option so much as it helps to pinpoint the “bread-and-butter” marketing strategies.

It shows that loads of digital marketers are finding email marketing to be extremely profitable.

There Are More Reasons That Newsletters Are Valuable

When someone receives your newsletter, they’re far more likely to be engaged with you. Not only is receiving an email subconsciously similar to receiving snail mail (it’s seen as more personal than social media), but you can even put the subscriber’s first name in your email so it really feels like a just-for-you letter – most email clients offer this feature.

You can bet that type of personal contact translates into more sales for your company.

By keeping in constant contact with your audience through email, you’re able to make them very comfortable with your company’s presence. And with comfort and familiarity comes sales.

You Own Your List

Spending money to grow your Facebook list can not only be a wise investment – it can be downright profitable. You should take advantage of every profitable marketing medium (social media) that you can, but regardless of the profit there still exists one inevitable problem:

You don’t own that list.

It’s unlikely to happen, but Facebook could shut down your page at any time. It’s happened in the past, and it could still happen. In the event that it happens, there are ways to reverse the decision, but the message is clear: you are not in control.

With an email list you own that list of emails that you’ve created, and the list has real equity to it if it’s well-targeted.

This reason alone is good enough to justify investing into your email list. Add in the profit and personal connection attached to email marketing and you’re only left with one question…

…is email marketing right for my industry?

The bottom line: email marketing is still extremely profitable, and until email addresses cease being an important part of our lives, it will continue to be relevant to digital marketers.