Is email marketing right for your coaching business?
Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels. Still, it might not be for everyone. Read through the pros and cons below, and then decide if it is the right solution for your coaching business.
Email marketing statistics
But first, check out these statistics:
There are four billion daily email users. (Statista)
99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day. (OptinMonster)
87% of B2B marketers say email is one of their top free organic distribution channels. (Content Marketing Institute)
Four out of five marketers said they would rather give up social media than email marketing. (Litmus)
78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. (Hubspot)
Pretty convincing. Now, let’s dive into the pros and cons of email marketing.
Pros of email marketing
You own your email list.
Your marketing doesn’t rely on third-party platforms and their algorithms. You have total control over what your subscribers see. If you decide to change your email service provider (ESP), you can move your email list with you.
It is permission-based.
That means people give you their permission to contact them with your offer. They want to hear from you, so they are more likely to engage with your business.
You can build stronger relationships with your customers.
People on your email list have already expressed an interest in your coaching services. By sending them quality content consistently, you stay on top of their minds, build strong relationships with them and ultimately improve your customer lifetime value.
It is cost-effective.
Compared to many other marketing methods, email marketing is a much cheaper method. For example, you do not have to pay for advertising, printing, or media space. This makes it a great option for smaller and growing businesses with no or small marketing budgets.
It has a high ROI.
As already noted, on average, email generates $42 for every dollar spent. That’s a significantly higher ROI than in other marketing channels.
It has higher average conversion rates than other marketing channels.
Your subscribers opted in to hear from you. They want to see your offers. You can also personalise your messages and send them to different segments of your list. For these reasons, your email subscribers often turn into your most loyal and valuable customers.
You can gather valuable insights and feedback.
You can ask your subscribers for feedback, send them surveys, or casually throw some questions into your messages to gather insights. Because they’re engaged with your brand, they happily share their answers.
You can measure the results of your campaigns.
In email marketing, you can measure several key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics such as email deliverability, click-through rate, conversion rate, revenue from email and others. You can test what works and what can be improved and quickly optimise your email campaigns.
You save time with email automation.
Instead of writing and sending an email to each customer separately, you can set up automated emails and email sequences that are sent to subscribers automatically based on their actions.
It is environmentally friendly.
You don’t have to print anything for email marketing.
Cons of email marketing
You need an email list.
Building an engaged, healthy email list can be time-consuming if you don’t know what you’re doing.
You can be marked as a spammer.
If you’re sending emails that are irrelevant to your subscribers or overwhelm them with promotional offers, they can mark your emails as spam or unsubscribe from your list. That can damage your email sender reputation.
A lot of emails may not get delivered.
If your emails are poorly designed or contain spam keywords or characters, email software and internet service providers will filter them out.
There can be design and size issues.
You must design your email so that it looks the same on all devices. Also, emails that contain many images can take too long to load. Your subscribers may get frustrated and lose interest in reading your email.
It requires consistency.
Sending an email now and then will only hurt your email marketing strategy. You have to send emails to your subscribers regularly to stay on top of their minds.
It requires skills and resources.
If you wish your email marketing campaigns to succeed, you need to learn to manage your email list, plan your campaigns and create compelling content. If you don’t have the time or skills in-house, consider outsourcing some of these tasks.