Braango
Is Email Still The Preferred Way To Reach Customers?
Customer touch points are important, however in this world of sales & marketing overload, customers have become unresponsive to sales and marketing emails that they receive and thus respond to few interesting ones that hit a chord with their needs. With spam filters and gmail promotion filter, there is very high probability that your email will go unnoticed. Here is a side by side comparison of SMS and Email stats that will make you think about your engagement strategy.
Open Rates: Based on Mailchimp’s latest survey, average open rate for email range from 20% to 25%. In contrast, SMS has 98% open rate.
(Source: Mailchimp)
Email Click Rate: Similarly, average click rate for emails is between 2% to 3%. In contrast, SMS has click rates as high as 45% making it a preferred option for sales & marketing.
(Source: Mailchimp)
Would to hear what is happening at your dealership. Please comment with your preferred mode and success rates.
Vidushi leads marketing at Braango, a unified customer engagement platform
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6 Comments
Tori Zinger
DrivingSales, LLC
I think definitely SMS is becoming more and more important, but I don't think that email is anywhere near obsolete. According to Monetate, email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing avenue! That said, I think "preferred method of communication" could me two different things - do you mean how customers want to receive promos and offers, or do you mean how they want to communicate regarding a particular vehicle they are interested in? I think that changes things.
Vidushi Jain
Braango
Agree with you that email is not near obsolete and customers prefer multiple channels and touch points. As Monetate study also points out, email drives better conversion vs search and social for e-commerce.
However, it is overused and in many cases not the most preferred channel. Research shows that dealers can gain 100% in lead conversion by using sms vs email (http://www.braango.com/futureofengagement/).
Thus ultimately it boils down to customers having the freedom to choose and dealerships being able to reach customers on their preferred channel. And this is true for both promos and communication for a particular vehicle.
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Tori Zinger
DrivingSales, LLC
All true, Vidushi! Appreciate your expertise on here. To that point, I think it's important to point out that dealers need to give their customers the choice of communication channel, and then adhere by that choice, whether they choose SMS or email.
Vidushi Jain
Braango
Exactly my point too. Give customers the freedom and ease to choose communication channel at any point in the conversation be it text, email or voice.
Derrick Woolfson
Beltway Companies
I think another angle/perspective to look at regarding email vs text is deciphering which kind of email you are sending. I agree that email is one of the *best* means of driving traffic (creating FOMO & curiosity), and those that do convert will most likely be engaged at a higher rate (as you mentioned) with the open rate being 98% - and even if they do not open the SMS message they still see it. That said, I think that all too often emails get lumped into one main category marketing & correspondence. The other side to it, though, is that with the FTC how texting is handled, and how "group" texts are done. The options are endless, really. Great article!Â
Tori Zinger
DrivingSales, LLC
Agree 100%, Derrick!