Best Lead Generation Channel: Email Marketing Or Performance Marketing?

Modern businesses have to incorporate several tactics to get brand visibility. Indeed with the competitive space they are operating in, it makes a lot of sense. Consumers have so many choices.

Brands are also in stiff competition to get a share of voice. That could explain why so many digital marketing trends are popping up every day. One of the latest entrants is performance marketing. But there are also time-tested methods like email marketing for lead generation.

Industry projections for the global digital advertising and marketing sector are quite positive. The digital advertising spend as of 2022 is $524.3 billion. The experts predict that it could rise to $645.8 billion.

Our article explores email marketing and performance marketing. We will go into an in-depth exploration of each concept, exploring the pros and cons. In the end, you should be able to decide which is the best lead generation tactic.

Understanding email marketing for lead generation

Email marketing for lead generation continues to maintain relevance. Many people would like to put it in the box of Legacy or outdated marketing concepts. Yet it keeps proving that it is a very effective technique. The trick lies in the proper implementation of the strategy.

Email marketing refers to using emails to promote business products or services. Its strength as a lead generation tactic is the direct targeting of communication.

Email marketing is effective because it is a fantastic way to raise brand awareness. Through personalization, it is easier to build close relationships with the recipients.

Email marketing trends worth noting

There are email marketing trends worth implementing. These include the following:-

• User-generated content (UGC) that makes audiences an active part of email marketing campaigns. Indeed UGC is a potent lead-generation tactic that results in high conversions.
• Hyper-segmentation uses different parameters to segment audiences. It is a helpful trend for email personalization and targeting.
• Email automation takes over the manual processes and helps with email personalization. Automation also eases work through ready-to-use templates.
• Mobile optimization helps with reaching audiences right at their point of convenience. Nowadays, people use mobile devices to interact with brands and browse the internet.
• AI and chatbots help with product recommendation, automation, and segmentation.
• Interactive emails increase engagement and improve open rates.

Use the trends above for your email marketing for lead-generation campaigns. The quality of leads you will be collecting will also be much higher. Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing For Lead Generation

Advantages of email marketing for lead generation

We have touched on some advantages of email marketing for lead generation above. We can summarize them as follows:-

• A cost-effective lead generation tactic. Indeed, think about it a little. All you need is a segmented list of your target audiences. Also, an internet-connected device like a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone is necessary. With automation, there are plenty of templates, thus no design fees. Neither do you pay for media or printing fees.
• Scalability of email marketing campaigns. You can use emails for large or small audiences.
• Segmentation and personalization increase engagement and open rates. Research shows that personalized emails can get up to six times higher transactions. Personalized communication achieves 27% higher unique click-through rates.
• Shareability can make your campaigns go viral. It increases the chance of getting new followers.
• Measurability makes it easy to know the ROI of your efforts.
• Email automation saves time. You can schedule send-outs without needing to sit in front of the laptop at specific times.
• Real-time email marketing ensures a better connection with target audiences.

Disadvantages of email marketing as a lead generation tactic

Let’s look at some disadvantages of email marketing for lead generation. Some notable ones include:-

• The issue of spam due to improper targeting. A simple solution would include working on your email list and segmenting it well. Also, ensure you personalize emails. The chances of people opening emails with their names are higher than the generic dear Sir/Madam.
• You can face legal issues if you contravene the CAN-SPAM act. You could incur penalties for emails to recipients who say they do not want to receive them.
• Keep up with engagement, or you could lose subscribers
• Device differences could impact how the design looks on different screens. That could make the emails look untrustworthy. Further, it could lead to the loss of critical parts of the communication.

Understanding performance marketing for lead generation

Many brands outsource some of the marketing and lead generation activities. In previous times, the outsourced company would give a quote based on the scope of work. The brand then had a choice of whether to proceed or not. Indeed, you could spend thousands of dollars without a guarantee of conversions.

Well, performance marketing pretty much stays to the script. But, there is one notable difference. You only pay based on performance. The performance marketing company must outline metrics and KPIs from the beginning. It could be:-

• XX number of conversions per month
• XX number of click-through rates per month
• XX leads per month

Some common performance metrics include:-

• Cost per mile (CPM) looks at generating a specific number of impressions.
• Lifetime value (LTV) tracks the value of a customer’s relationship with the business.
• Cost per sale is when a sale is due to an ad, like in the case of affiliate marketing.
• Cost per lead (CPL) is a measure of the success of a lead generation campaign. Payment depends on factors like subscriptions that result in the collection of leads.
• Cost per click (CPC) or cost per single click on an ad.
• Cost per acquisition that focuses on a specific action. These include downloads, subscriptions, or purchases.

Types of performance marketing strategies

Performance marketing covers a wide range of marketing strategies. And this includes outsourced email marketing for lead-generation campaigns.

Other types of performance marketing include:-

• Social media advertising through ads on a CPC or CPM basis.
• Email advertising that looks at subscriptions, open rates, CPC, or CPM.
• Affiliate marketing that you pay on a commission basis.
• Display advertising using traditional pop-ups or online banners. Cost calculation can be on CPC or CPM.
• Sponsored content that utilizes influencers, content curation sites, or prominent figures. The payments can include CPC, CPM, CPA, or free products/services.
• Search engine marketing or pay-per-click advertising.

Advantages and disadvantage of performance marketing for lead generation

Advantage of performance marketing

The advantages of performance marketing for lead generation are as follows:-

• Trackable and measurable results that give a clear picture of ROI. Remember, you only pay for actual results.
• Further reach with ad spend due to the use of various avenues to promote the brand. There is also greater exposure too hard to reach audiences.
• Spend diversification across many strategies or platforms.
• Result-based means better channeling of the advertising budget.
• Easier planning of the marketing spend since you work with clear goals and KPIs.
• Performance marketing works well for brands with smaller marketing budgets. You can determine where your money goes for optimal ROI.

Disadvantages of performance marketing

Let’s now uncover some challenges in performance marketing for lead generation.

• It can be time-consuming to develop benchmarks or KPIs.
• Click or conversion attribution challenges can sometimes lead to conflicts with the agencies. As a brand, you may decide to launch a campaign in-house. This could lead to more clicks or purchases. Knowing if this was a result of the performance marketing or the in-house campaign can be hard. One party will end up losing because of a lack of clarity.
• For high efficiency, contracts need to be for a longer window. This could impact how well the brand uses its marketing budget. In the end, the cost may be much higher than the brand anticipated.
• Vanity metrics may look good at face value. Yet they will not have any significant impact on the business. A good example would be more web traffic or more social media followers. Yet the audience you attract is not the right type for the brand. Thus, there will be no impact on sales.
• There are chances of fraudulent results from less reputable agencies. Such are only in the business to make money. They may even engage in black hat tactics that add no value to the business.

Making a choice between email marketing and performance marketing for lead generation

From the information we have shared above, one thing is quite clear. Both email and Performance marketing are excellent for lead generation. But we have also shared the disadvantages of each.

The best way to choose is to determine the goals of your marketing campaign. Email marketing for lead generation is effective due to better targeting and personalization. If you outsource the work, you can have metrics and KPIs to determine the effectiveness. You only pay depending on the open rates or email subscribers.

Indeed combining performance and email marketing for lead generation can be quite effective.

Final thoughts

The strength of any marketing campaign lies in proper goals and strategies. We have shared two potent tools above. Performance and email marketing for lead generation are both very effective.

Do take time to learn and understand each in greater detail before implementing them. This article provides a great starting point in your search for knowledge. But there is so much more to know. So, get ready for plenty of research. You need to see how they can both be of benefit to the organization’s marketing activities.

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