If you need another boost of ego, the following study comes in handy. Based on a 30-day period of tracking conversion rates across four different channels, this study showed that email was still a winner.

The conversions were tracked by Marketing Experiments across multiple channels, including organic site traffic, AdWords traffic, Yahoo Search PPC and a rented email list. The financial publisher involved in the study was unnamed.

At 5.60 percent, the conversion rate from the email list significantly outperformed the three other marketing channels. Only organic site traffic, at 2.71 percent, came close.

My comments: Of course, a study like this doesn’t give you any promise as to what marketing channels work for you better.

There are too many factors that could impact conversion rates. Search traffic, for example, involves targeting the right keywords and use the appropriate copy to convert visitors into prospects and prospects into buyers. Not all keywords are the same, they also differ in the visitors’ readiness to purchase.

On the other hand, setting up the right AdWords campaign also involve a bunch of things to test out with. Constantly split testing two ads to beat the control will frequently yield better results.

However, such a research gives an idea about what is possible with email marketing. It is still an effective channel to reach people in your market. Building your in-house list, I predict, will get you even higher conversion rate, assuming that you build and nurture it properly.

[eMarketer]