Where should you spend most of your time with digital marketing? After all, you can use e-mail, SEO, content, PPC, display ads, video, banner ads, retargeting, and so much more!

Well, I have the answer for you. And it comes in this simple image from Adobe:

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That’s pretty conclusive right there! And honestly, I’ve seen plenty of stats similar to these.

And it’s interesting that even though spam filters love to nail e-mail, addresses are wrong, and sometimes e-mails just plain don’t make it, it still has a 40:1 ROI. I’m tempted, and maybe you are too, to think that all these new “shiny objects” like social media and video do the job.

They actually help with your marketing. And it’s not wrong to use tactics other than e-mail. But at the end of the day, email marketing should be your highest priority.

Dozens of Ways to Use E-mail Marketing to Your Advantage – Here’s 4

Now, with e-mail, you have a few different ways you can use it to build your business. Here’s how:

  1. Straight-Up Cold E-mail – Current US spam laws still allow this. And when you hit a business decision maker, or a consumer, with a timely and trustworthy message, they’re happy to act. A small percentage do consider cold e-mailing “spam” and will get upset, but cold e-mailing is still completely legal. And that’s just 1-2% or so who think that. Most people and business decision makers are happy to get a cold e-mail that’s relevant and targeted to them with an interesting offer.
  1. List-Building – All smart marketers know “the money is in the list.” Building an e-mail list and maintaining a relationship is another way to use e-mail marketing to your advantage. The pro of this method is that you can use it to build strong relationships and make repeat sales over time. The con is you have to spend time creating valuable content and promoting it, which can take some time to do.
  1. Autoresponders – These nice little e-mail sequences strengthen relationships with already warm leads. The lead takes an action on your website and signs up to your e-mail list or requests free content. You give them a free series of e-mails with valuable content to build your relationship and turn them into a lead. Easy, and doesn’t take a lot of time. But again, you must have valuable information on your website that your prospect wants.
  2. Comarketing – Here, you partner up with another company and co-market to their e-mail list. You must have some superpower content of your own, or a big list that you can let them promote to as well. But, it is another way to use email marketing to your advantage

E-Mail Must Be a Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Given that virtually everyone, including B2B decision makers and consumers, does online research before buying, using e-mail marketing only makes sense because it gives you a 40:1 (4000%) ROI. How you choose to integrate it into your digital marketing strategy is up to you.

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