While growth hackers are continuously looking for the sexy, new trendy way of obtaining or reactivating users, they often neglect one of the most effective methods: e-mail. A recent article published by McKinsey & Co., “Why Marketers Should Keep Sending You E-mails,” makes a strong case for e-mail marketing. In fact, the article shows e-mail is 40X more effective to acquire users than Facebook and Twitter combines (though maybe 1/40th as cool). The argument is very consistent with what I wrote about Bayes’ Theorem: The underlying baseline data is very powerful in driving results. In this case, the “40X more effective results” assertion states that about 91 percent of US consumers use e-mail daily, and that e-mail prompts purchases at three times that of social media with an average order value that is 17 percent higher than from other sources. Given e-mail’s power to improve your user-acquisition efforts, there are three keys to making it a successful channel.
Focus on the customer journey
Understand the recipient’s journey from the time they receive your e-mail to the final desired action. This action is not opening the e-mail or clicking on a link but it is potentially installing an app, making a purchase, etc. While it is good to optimize every part of the e-mail, from the subject line to the images to the copy, you should focus on optimizing the entire customer journey. Once they click on a link in the e-mail, do not stop optimizing. Rather than taking them to a generic landing page, keep their experience consistent with what persuaded the user to click on the e-mail in the first place. And ensure the experience is just as good on a mobile device, given that 45 percent of all marketing e-mails are opened on a mobile device. According to Google, 61 percent of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40 percent visit a competitor’s site instead. Continue reading “Why e-mail is still one of your most effective channels”
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