Email marketing is often seen as a bit of an old-fashioned marketing tool, but it’s still a hugely effective way to drive traffic to your website.
Despite the rise of social media and other digital channels, email remains one of the most popular ways to communicate online. In fact, there are more than 3.8 billion email accounts in use worldwide, and this number is expected to grow to 4.4 billion by the end of 2022.
So, if email is so popular, why isn’t it being used more as a tool to drive website traffic?
There are a number of reasons why email marketing is often overlooked as a traffic-driving channel. Firstly, it can be seen as a bit of a ‘set and forget’ channel, with little need for ongoing attention or optimisation.
Secondly, email marketing can be quite time-consuming, particularly if you’re starting from scratch and building up a database of subscribers.
And finally, there’s the challenge of actually getting people to open and click through from your emails, which can be a tough nut to crack.
But despite all of these challenges, email marketing shouldn’t be ignored as a tool for driving website traffic. Here’s why:
1. Email is a highly personal channel
One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is that it’s a highly personal channel. Unlike social media or display advertising, where your message is competing for attention with hundreds or even thousands of other brands, in email, your message goes straight into the inbox of your subscribers.
This gives you a unique opportunity to build a relationship with your subscribers and create a real connection with them.
2. Email is an excellent way to drive repeat traffic
Another big advantage of email marketing is that it’s an excellent way to drive repeat traffic to your website.
If you can get someone to visit your website once, there’s a good chance you can get them to visit again. But the key is to make it easy for them to come back.
And one of the best ways to do this is to use email to send them reminders, updates, or new content that you know they’ll be interested in.
3. Email is a great way to build loyalty and brand awareness
Email marketing can also be used to build loyalty and brand awareness.
If you regularly send high-quality, valuable content to your subscribers, they’ll start to see you as a trusted source of information. And when they see your brand name in their inbox on a regular basis, they’ll start to become more familiar with it, even if they don’t always read or click through your emails.
4. Email marketing is highly measurable
Another big advantage of email marketing is that it’s highly measurable.
Unlike some other marketing channels, email marketing provides you with a wealth of data that you can use to track your progress and measure your success.
You can see how many people opened your email, how many people clicked through to your website, and what they did once they got there. This data can be extremely valuable in helping you to optimise your email campaigns and get better results over time.
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5. Email marketing is relatively cheap
Finally, email marketing is relatively cheap, particularly if you’re using it to drive traffic to your website rather than to generate sales directly.
With email marketing, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on advertising or pay for expensive software. All you need is a good email marketing service and a list of subscribers.
So, there you have it: five reasons why email marketing is an underutilised channel for website traffic growth.
If you’re not using email marketing to drive traffic to your website, now is the time to start. It’s a highly effective, highly personal, and relatively cheap way to get more people to visit your site.