Did you know that the first email was delivered 44 years ago? Neither did I. It was sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. . .to himself. So don’t feel bad if you aren’t tech savvy – even those who made history made mistakes. But I’m getting a little off topic here.

Focus is the name of the game today. Focus! Focus! Focus!

So anyway, for nearly three decades now email has been at the heart of our daily lives & nearly every successful digital marketing campaign.

But why email? To put it simply – it’s the R.O.I. Yep – the moment has come. The thing you’ve been waiting for. The reason you started reading this blog in the first place and the phrase that pays in the small business world today.

Drum roll please! Email gives you a killer R.O.I aka a “Return On Investment”. Pennies on the dollar even.

The metrics built into email marketing software alone are worth their weight in gold. My favorite is the ability to see exactly who is opening up your emails from your list, what they’re clicking on and when.

If you’ve ever doubted the effectiveness of a social media strategist, a pr agent or SEO dynamo you hired, you can easily test their pro mojo by asking them to create a campaign to grow your list or to get subscribers already on your list to do something for you.

The metrics found in email service provider dashboards are your way of keeping track of a digital strategist’s “facts” and “fiction”. If they’re any good – they would have already started talking about benchmarks, goals and sales funnels. If not – you’ll get the “there’s no guaranty” speech.

Now to be fair to my fellow colleagues in the digital space – there is a grain of truth to that, but if you’re paying the big bucks {like thousands of dollars in monthly retainer fees} they need to deliver the goods. That’s the difference between the fly-by-night amateur and the pro.

They know that they have to deliver more than just clicks and followers. They should be telling you {almost upfront} what needs to take place in order to bring you an R.O.I and what it’s going to cost you, most likely in the form of the CPA or “cost per acquisition” {aka your customers}.

If you ask them that and they look at you like a deer in headlights – start looking for another person or team. If they don’t want to talk to you about email marketing and how what they do directly impacts it and your bottom line – start looking!

That’s why Eric Krattenstein’s post for Mashable this week is right on time. Krattenstein is the US CMO for the French-based email marketing service Mailify and maps out in this post for Mashable, why email marketing is still going strong and relevant for your small business.

You can’t say it any better than he did here. Be sure to check out “4 Reasons Why Email Marketing is An Asset for All Small Businesses” – it’s apart of a special Mashable series called “SWOT Team”. Enjoy!

Question: Have you set any benchmarks or goals in the last 6 months to determine if you are getting a return on your investment with your online marketing efforts? Share your comments below.

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