Despite the bad rep, and seeming like a derelict in web 2.0 amidst all the buzz of in-app advertising and social media, email marketing remains the de-facto easiest way for businesses to reach their customers.

That aside, it is cost effective, shareable and fast – sound familiar? Despite lacking all the glitz and glamour of newer marketing channels, spending too much time writing status updates, creating online ads, monitoring social media mentions and replying to forum threads could be a tragic mistake if you aren’t paying much attention to the potential of a tool … used by everyone.

The Hard and Fast Facts of Email Marketing

Let’s begin with some facts – there are triple the amount of email accounts in existence than Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. And thanks to the new pay-to-organic policy implemented by the former, your fans only get your updates 6% of the time. Open rates from email campaigns average around 18%

While Organic search would be the ‘holy grail’ it is far less accessible than simply emailing a database. And this has to take into account of the new hybrid viewership where tablet usage grew 4.5% quarter over quarter with 26.6% of all mobile email events happening via that platform as per 1Q14.

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As one can see, it is glaringly obvious that email is way more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined. To drive the point home, America-based blogger Derek Halpern ran a test viewing identical posts to twitter and to email and the results were 4,200 click-throughs for email versus 300 for Twitter.

However, email marketing does come with its fair share of caveats – being one of the most classic ways of transmitting business information, there is an inherently increasing risk that your email might get binned rather than translating to a sale.

How to Maximize Email Marketing Efforts

Here are a few tips on how to maximize the simplest marketing tool at your disposal with the highest return on investment and avoid getting snagged up as spam.

Know how to target your consumers.

Who are you really emailing? Segment your audience to give them a more relevant experience. Send only to recently engaged or new users with your blast communications.

Make your email responsive.

We are moving to a mobile dominated world and unsurprisingly mobile-friendly emails get opened 21% more! But having your emails designed so that they are responsive and hence look good on any device will be a serious advantage.

Use short subject lines.

A short subject is a lot more approachable than a long descriptive one, typically 50 characters or lower is the benchmark to hit.

Include a call to action.

Clarity in your content’s ‘destination’ will increase understanding with how your customers perceive your email campaign and react to it. Tell your customers what to do with a clear call to action.

Make it personal.

The email tone should sound like it’s coming from someone, not something. Talk to your users like you know them and they know you.

Use lifecycle triggered emails.

Don’t just hit potential customers with a one-off pitch, increase revenue by sending out emails in a time-contextual fashion to customers when they engage with your product, increasing response rates from customers whenever they perform specific touch points; leaving your website, looking at a particular product more than once or even as simple as visiting your webpage.

This article has been edited and condensed.

Paul Tenney is an Email Marketing expert and CEO of Ematic Solutions. Not your average consultancy agency, Ematic Solutions provides a powerful suite of solutions through partnerships with leading edge technology firms. Paul has over 10 years of experience using enterprise and SaaS programs, and brings to his clients a unique outlook on the strategic, tactical and technical methods for optimizing ROI.

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