Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve become more and more obsessed with email marketing. I addictively scroll through every newsletter, examine its content, call to actions, design and ultimately whether it’s worthy enough for me to take action.
Covid-19 has undoubtedly brought a wealth of challenges to marketers, brands and consumers. Widespread lockdowns and stay at home orders have forced us more than ever to reach for the computer to purchase products and services.
Even in the early days of the pandemic last year, Mailchimp reported an increase in clicks and open rates of email campaigns – in fact open rates were higher than they were throughout all of 2019.
Mailchimp also noticed that smaller businesses (those with under 2,000 contacts) were the ones that saw the biggest increase in engagement since March 2019 and although larger businesses still saw an increase, it was not as dramatic. This highlights the consumer’s adapting mindset throughout the pandemic and reflects how consumers are looking to support smaller independent businesses within their communities.
And who can blame marketers for going down the email route. Shops and businesses are closed and there’s less printed material available. Quite literally things have changed overnight. Gone are the days of sending just a few token emails to customers. The email marketing executive has gone from a backbencher in the marketing office to the front row. With more data and insights on the customer base than any other team in the business, email marketers are the ones able to create sales and leads with a click of a ‘send’ button.
Fast forward to this year and I have no doubt that email marketing will continue to grow. However, although it is easy to set-up an email marketing account and send an e-shot, mastering email marketing is a whole another level.
To capitalise on this, Mailchimp, one of the front runners in the email marketing industry, has recently launched a free training programme which I urge any marketer out there to use. It’s free, easy to navigate, full of ideas and can be completed in your own time. Plus, you get a certificate and handy Mailchimp badge to put on your website, blog or LinkedIn profile.
Sign up to the training course here.
For more tips on best practice, content ideas and how to maximise open rates, keep an eye out on our blog for more in our email marketing series.
If you have any questions or want to bring to life your email marketing campaigns, get in touch today.
