The channel that keeps on growing
With the first email blast having been sent back in 1978, email can sometimes feel like the Email-osaurus Rex of the digital suite. As the oldest of digital marketing channels, it’s continued to grow consistently. It’s now enormous with over 4 million users. Email is showing no signs of slowing down (or extinction) in the future.
Our clients often ask us whether email is still one of the best marketing channels for growing awareness and generating leads when marketing to schools. And while it feels pretty obvious, it’s a great question! We’ve seen so many channels come and go over the last few decades (anyone remember MySpace, or more recently Google+?). In our ever-changing environment it’s important to keep reviewing our approach to make sure we’re using the most effective channel mix.
The facts and stats
At Ambleglow, we’ve consistently seen email perform strongly in marketing to schools. It’s a channel that still brings high leads and sign ups when marketing products and services to the education sector. Our recent work with Mind and the Anna Freud Centre is a great example of this.
From a global perspective:
- Email is currently the highest performing channel in terms of ROI. According to marketers surveyed by Statistica, email’s ROI is 1:36. So, on average, for every £1 spent on email campaigns, businesses see a £36 return.
- Email was recently voted the top performing marketing channel by effectiveness. 4 out of 5 marketers said that they’d rather give up social media than email. (Source: HubSpot) Additionally, some marketers are now exploring AI and automation in email campaigns to enhance performance further.
- When it comes to lead generation, 59% of marketers believe email is over twice as effective as PPC and paid social. (Source: The State of Prospecting 2023)
- 77% of the B2B audience prefer to be contacted via email over any other channel. This is more than double any other channel. (Source: Porch Group Media 2024)
- On average people currently get around 120 emails per day. By 2027 around 408 billion emails will be sent and received every day. (Source: Statistica).
Why email thrives
Email continues to be highly effective because we can use it strategically. It truly allows marketers to engage with people in schools who hold the purse strings, like Business Managers and Head Teachers.
Email is:
- Highly targeted and personalised. We can directly reach named decision-makers and influencers. And we can ensure they know about your offer, how it works and how it benefits them, at the moment they most need of it.
- Data-driven, allowing us to test and learn. We’re able to segment strategically, see how our messages land and adapt to fit our audience fairly quickly. We’re also able to share tangible results with our internal stakeholders to help demonstrate ROI and the impact of our marketing efforts.
- Flexible. We can share short, punchy single-minded messages, longer-form copy and a variety of content (like infographics and videos) all in one go. While we know sharing too many messages can dimmish our efforts, email gives us the freedom to share (and test) the best approach.
- Cost neutral or low-medium cost. If we’ve grown a good list of opted-in contacts in our CRM, costs for this channel are extremely low. While building a database of quality contacts is a key goal for most of us, for businesses that are still building in this area, purchased databases are affordable. This is particularly the case if we focus on targeted roles in line with our strategic audience segmentation (rather than bulk).
Email’s limitations
The strengths of using email strategically are clear but the channel is only as effective as the data used. To reap the benefits of this channel, we need to have effective technology and contact data in place.
We need:
- A meaningful database. Our contacts should be filled with decision-makers and influencers in schools that have signed up to receive our marketing emails (in-line with GDPR).
- An engaged database. Keeping contacts nurtured and engaged is an ongoing, active process. Content must flow consistently, be valuable and be carefully timed, to keep our audience reading, interested and connected to our brand. We should do our best to prevent unsubscribes.
- A maintained database. Our database should be kept ‘clean’ and up to date, as email data continues to grow and marketing sends are on the rise. Bounce-backs must be managed and any unsubscribes should be followed through timeously. This keeps our data of high quality and makes sure we’re engaging with the right audience.
Email is here to stay
It’s clear that email is still the king of digital channels. It remains effective as a standalone tactic to reach specific goals, or within a multi-channel channel campaign to achieve broader business objectives. As we grow and evolve with email marketing approaches, it’s vital that we remain strategic and push our creative boundaries, so we’re as unmissable as a Giganotosaurus in crowded school inboxes.
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