According to the latest study carried out by digital marketing firm Custora, email marketing is still the most successful way for marketers to attract new customers for free – customer acquisition via email has seen a fourfold growth over the last four years.
During the first quarter of 2013, customers acquired via email accounted for 6.84% of all new consumers, Custora said. These customers also seemed prone to spend more compared to those attracted via social networks. In comparison, new clients brought in through Facebook and Twitter accounted for a little less than 1% over the same period. Excluding paid cost-per-click advertising, only organic search results attracted more clients.
Custora pointed out that email marketing has been increasingly popular in e-commerce, where a growing number of retailers have been creating communities and collecting emails from those who go on to become customers. Organic search is another channel which has seen substantial growth – acquiring nearly 16% of customers. This channel supports marketers’ efforts to complement their products with informative content along with investing in SEO.
Email marketing also attracts higher customer lifetime value (CLV), which translates as the future profit that a business expects to earn from a consumer, compared to social networks. Email campaigns deliver about 12% higher CLV than the average. For instance, Facebook delivers a CLV which is 1% higher than the average and Twitter is at 23% below the average, Custora said.