Like many firms, yours might be struggling to conduct outbound marketing and networking in an age when video conferencing is the only option. You might be considering spinning up your social media channels or redesigning your website. But don’t overlook one of the most important channels to tell your firm’s unique story and value: the inboxes of your current and prospective clients. You’re probably thinking email newsletters are nothing new—and that you and your clients get enough spam as it is. Here are five reasons why email marketing is still relevant.
1. Other than your website, an email newsletter is the only thing that you can 100% control.
The biggest problem with any social media channel is that it—Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.—controls the medium. To ensure your posts stay front and center, you need to keep up with the platforms’ elusive and ever-changing algorithms to make sure your audience is seeing what you are posting. If that’s not enough, these tech companies often change their offerings. Instagram, for instance, recently introduced Reels in response to TikTok’s growing audience—so now you need to create short videos in addition to using Stories, IGTV, and its original photo-sharing purpose to take full advantage of the platform.
With a newsletter, the only changes that will ultimately effect the effectiveness of this tool to engage its audience are made by you.
2. Everyone has at least one email address, but not everyone is on every social media channel.
As of 2019, more than 3.9 billion people use email, according to Statista.com. That figure is expected to grow to 4.5 billion in 2024. Facebook leads the number of users on social media platforms with 2.4 billion users, followed by YouTube with 2 billion, and Instagram with 1 billion. Email is still the most likely way to ensure that your message gets delivered to your potential clients than any other platform.
Email is still the most likely way to ensure that your message gets delivered to your potential clients than any other platform.
3. Email subscribers are often more interested in what you have to say and are more easily converted into a client.
How many newsletters do you subscribe to? Compare that to how many people you follow on your social media networks. Personally, I am more conscientious about giving away my email address than I am about following individual people and organizations on social media. When someone does open one of your emails, they are likely to be interested in what you or your firm has to say.
This is especially true of B2B (business-to-business) services. According to a HubSpot State of Marketing report, 86% of business professionals prefer to use email over social media when communicating for business purposes. This is definitely true for me, particularly during this pandemic, when social media has become more of a way to keep in touch with my peers and less as a source of news or as a way to find new vendors for upcoming projects.
4. Emails can be personalized to their recipients.
Having your recipients’ respective first names appear in the intro of an email is not a new trick, but segmenting email lists is a lesser-known tool used by savvy marketers. For instance, if your firm is serving different industry verticals—K-12, universities, civic—you can send the latest case study for your firm’s newly completed, ground-up high school to only those interested in your K-12 vertical or even in only your high school projects.
Unlike social media, email offers a much easier way to segment your audience and tell the stories that are most relevant to their interests—something even hashtags can’t do. Anyone who is following you or your company on social media channels will see everything you are broadcasting all the time—not just what they care about.
5. Emails are cost-effective.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing brings in $40 for every $1 spent. This statistic does lump all categories of email products and services. However, it does suggest that developing an email campaign can be worth the investment in spite of the possibility that your newsletter will be flagged as spam or lose a subscriber.
Best of all, starting a newsletter is easy, and plenty of email service providers have “free-mium” offerings to help you start your newsletter at no cost.
Generally speaking, architects are not good at outbound marketing. For the most part, we are either reactive to requests for proposals or highly reliant on repeat work from clients and their referrals. Email marketing is one of the easiest platforms that firms can roll out—and it doesn’t require daily, or even weekly, updates.
Architecture and design firms are spending advertising dollars on Instagram and other social media platforms, but clicking on their ads sends me directly to the firm’s website without collecting any of my information. A good marketer will tell you that, while growing traffic to your websites is important, understanding whom your audience is so that you can actually convert them into a potential client is better. How do you figure out who is visiting your website and convert them to clients? Ask for their email and start a newsletter to begin a conversation.
Start developing a communications strategy that proactively seeks new clients beyond traditional marketing and business development tactics. If not now, then when?
