Cost Effectiveness of Email Marketing

[Brian Anderson]

It may not be as “sexy” as social media, but email marketing is still an incredibly cost-effective tool, says Jim Kaiser of DataMentors in a new article (link below). He mentions lead nurturing, customer acquisition, customer retention and boosting loyalty as 4 things that make email a great vehicle for insurance marketers, and if you are not using email marketing, he argues it’s time to step up and add this strategy to your marketing toolkit.

Some facts from the article:

• For every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return on investment is $44.25.
• Companies using email to nurture leads generate 50% more sales-ready leads and at 33% lower cost
• Nurtured leads, on average, produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities compared to non-nurtured lead.

Now of course this isn’t going to be so effective for anybody and individual execution and what market you’re targeting plays a big part in the ROI, but for those of you active in email marketing, would these stats seem plausible? Is email marketing an integral part of your activity?

Insurance Forums | 5 tips to reboot your email marketing

 

[Damion]

Email marketing should be part of the marketing package for every business. While the average ROI is a bit high as a marketing standard, I assume that is insurance specific because the average across all industries is right around $16 per $1.
And yes, the more familiar a consumer is with your message, the more likely they are to spend more. This is across all industries. Emails, Blogs, and Social Media are the trifecta of online marketing and when people are visiting all three, they feel they know you better so even though you may be unfamiliar with them when their time comes, they will be familiar with you and thus more open to your counsel when suggesting products.

 

[Unlimiteddata]

Email marketing has several key advantages over traditional mail marketing, including the following:

1. An exact return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
2. Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them.
3. Over half of all Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
4. Email allows marketers to reach out to consumers with personalized, relevant, dynamic messages.
5. Transactional emails allow businesses to respond automatically to important consumer events like purchases or shop-cart abandonment.

 

[scagnt83]

Im curious how many agents in this industry are actually marketing insurance via emails and what their stats are.

Stats mean very little to me if they are not specific to the insurance or the investment industry. Marketing intangible products is totally different than marketing a smartphone.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I think just buying a list and cold hammering it won't produce any results, you have to have a thought out multi-touch strategy. The word for email marketing is CULTIVATION, which means offering value and not overkilling it with spam.

Here is my email nurturing process: I find someone doing it better than me, and sign up for their quote or newsletter or download, and I then I sit back to figure out how they construct their emails, how long are they, what color palettes are they using, what kind of CTA do they have, what frequency do they send these in, are they responsive if you click on something do they increase the frequency (send you more emails), change the subject of new emails etc.
Best to learn from those already doing it.

Have a niche? Google it for another area, take a look at the top sites that come up and research from there.

HERE is a general email marketing pdf, pretty informative and will give you a foundation for your email marketing.
Attached is a resource sheet.

 

[Damion]

I think just buying a list and cold hammering it won't produce any results, you have to have a thought out multi-touch strategy. The word for email marketing is CULTIVATION, which means offering value and not overkilling it with spam.

Not only is buying a list and hammering it generally unproductive, it is also illegal. While we all know that we dislike SPAM, the CAN-SPAM Act prohibits these acts. There is some grey area in regards to buying lists. You can buy a list of people who have requested information about your topic, but the problem is that there is not a universal opt-out, which means these lists are sold over and over so the emails you are buying are already getting hammered from other marketers who bought the same list. This increases your spam complaints and will quickly get the email address you use, and most likely your website, marked as spam on the major blacklists which means not only do lose effectiveness, you will also get most of your legitimate emails sent to spam or auto-delete boxes due to those blacklists.

Most professional mail services such as Mailchimp, Aweber, etc., will not allow you to upload bought lists for this reason.

The only way to truly stay be compliant is to utilize an opt-in process where people add their name to your opt-in box on your website or landing page, and you cultivate that lead from day one. A double opt-in process is the best lead, where they opt-in and then have to click a link in their email to confirm they wanted to be added, but this is not always utilized and will lead to less completions.

Personally, I use a single opt-in process on my websites, but I also offer a lot of value to my lists so I rarely get complaints. Using dynamic response/relationship marketing in your email will have the best response across any platform but it is difficult to set up if you are not proficient with it and technically capable. If you plan on driving email as a major part of your marketing, it is worth doing for the extra conversions, but if you are running a smaller list or have low profit points, it is going to be cost-prohibitive.
You can read more about it at:
damionflynn.com/blog/dynamic-relationship-marketing-simplified/
(can't link yet, less than 20 posts so just copy/paste)

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I saw this was posted today, a drip marketing guide, I am a big fan of Yesware after learning about it from Jeff Root.http://www.yesware.com/drip-campaig...rPUfGjI4DTMVhI+SLDwEYGJlv6SgFSbTBMbB53rgOWBA=

 

[Glen Shelton]

I saw this was posted today, a drip marketing guide, I am a big fan of Yesware after learning about it from Jeff Root.http://www.yesware.com/drip-campaigns/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=blog%20updates&utm_campaign=2016-03%20drip%20campaigns&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoluqvLZKXonjHpfsX56OwlWqa0lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DTMVhI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFSbTBMbB53rgOWBA%3D

I need to sign up for Jeff's email list - I know he does a great job with it.

 

[Cash]

It works for keeping in front of previous buyers and people who you know are going to buy. It's been worth it for me.

That being said you need to be good at it and always have something to pitch no matter how small.

 

[Damion]

That being said you need to be good at it and always have something to pitch no matter how small.

This should be the key to all your marketing. Any marketing without a call to action is generally wasteful unless you just have really deep pockets to brand yourself.