A report from Constant Contact found that small businesses are choosing email marketing over direct mail for a series of reasons, including simpler measurement and the Americans’ growing reliance on email.
According to the study, 83 percent of people check email before any other account or media to start their days, and 72 percent say they check their email at least six times per day. Moreover, those respondents with smartphones have access to their mail accounts throughout the day.
For small business owners, the concept of measurable results is especially important, as there is less margin for error than with larger companies.
Constant Contact’s report points to the ability to track open rates and click-through rates as clearly defined metrics businesses can use to accurately measure the number of recipients that interact with email content. As such, small businesses can make email content more actionable. This translates into greater likelihood for email marketing conversions, with 1 to 2 percent of those receiving direct mail converting and 20 to 30 percent of email subscribers opening messages.
For SMBs struggling to improve their open rates, altering the content highlighted in the subject line and within the message itself is critical. ContentLEAD recently reported that disengaged email recipients, namely those still subscribed to the campaign, are not targeted effectively by most SMBs.