Email Marketing Still the Best Value

By Jim Kinkade

Every year there's a new technology push that attempts to dethrone email as the king of business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing. But each year the numbers show that email marketing provides the best overall return on investment (ROI) of any marketing medium.

All these new technologies -- including RSS, mobile technology, video marketing and social networks -- all have a shared component, without which communication would be next to impossible: an email address. Until this reliance on the email address is replaced, no new technology will come close to giving ecommerce professionals the kind of ROI that they come to expect.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, "email delivers the highest ROI by an eye-popping margin: a whopping $57.25 for every dollar spent on it in 2005." Print media traditionally delivers an ROI of about $7, and other non-email technologies deliver only about $22 for every dollar spent. Most (if not all) computer users looking for products and services online use email and frequently provide online merchants with their email address.

Even with other marketing methods in place, a solid email marketing plan is an essential part of setting up an online presence. To make the most of investment dollars, it is important to find the right email delivery system that will give the highest return on the marketing dollar. There are two broad category choices: an email marketing service provider or an in-house, installed email marketing solution.

Service providers typically offer "pay as you go" delivery options, and after an initial up-front fee, the cost per email remains the same… the more emails sent, the more money spent. The cost of sending each month, added to the initial investment, will show a smaller ROI over the life of the hosted email marketing project.

Other hidden costs associated with a delivery service include time spent transferring databases back and forth, and time spent responding to relentless and often unreasonable demands from the service provider. In some cases, service providers demand that you re-confirm everybody on your email list, even if they are already confirmed opt-in addresses. Paying for the time and personnel to respond to these rules and regulations adds up quickly and pinches the campaign's overall ROI.

An in-house email marketing solution may have a slightly larger up-front cost, but a good email delivery program provides a decrease in per email costs as the number of emails sent increases. With an in-house option, the program pays for itself after just a few applications.

Even a penny per email cost adds up. Sending one million messages through a pay per email model has a total cost of $10,000. Using an in-house email marketing program, there is no additional cost per email, and the money saved could be applied to salary for a professional copywriter or a full time email marketer for an even greater return on investment.

So, until a technology comes along that proves it can replace the intimacy and effectiveness of email messages -- which in many minds is a product not even in view yet -- marketing to businesses and customers will rely on using email communications. It is the most ubiquitous, engaging, and effective marketing medium available today. – Arial Software

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