In a nutshell – email marketing presents more opportunities for your business…
…and can drive better returns on investment when you compare it to other forms of media, so why wouldn’t you actively pursue it? With strong messaging and a well thought out and targeted email marketing, your business can create deeper relationships with a wider audience more quickly and at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing or advertising.
Let’s look at the reasons why…
Email marketing is targeted and results are in real-time
Gone were the days when you launch a new product or service and release it to the general public via a newspaper, magazine or postcode mail drop, and you have to just sit back and wait patiently for the phone to ring, or for the redeemed coupon to be returned to store, in order for you to gather the success of your campaign.
Email marketing allows you to segment your contacts based on their lead status, demographics, location, interests, or date of birth if you so wish. Not only does this ensure that your audience receives content suited specifically to his/her needs, but from the moment you send out your first email, you can get real-time results on how people are interacting and responding to that messaging.
Therefore, by targeting and reacting to your marketing efforts faster and more succinctly, you are far more likely to increase the loyalty of your customers and gain better conversion rates from your leads.
Email marketing gives you the opportunity to segment your data
So we’ve talked about targeting your email campaign by segmenting your data – well what if all you have is a database of contacts that you aren’t very familiar with i.e you just have a list of names and email addresses?
No problem! Not only can every link and action point within your email be tracked and recorded, but in some of the more sophisticated email marketing platforms, there is the potential for your contacts to be segmented as a result of their activity within the email.
For example; if you are sending out an email about Autumn Fashions which features several items and styles of clothing and apparel for men and women, what you can do is to get the system to take actions such as, if ‘Sally’ shows her interest to be beret hats, when she clicks on that link Sally will automatically be added to a new contacts list that you can later market more specifically too such as a feature on hats and scarves. However because ‘Joe’ didn’t react to this link, you have the option of whether to send it to him or not.
Email marketing increases brand awareness
Almost everyone checks their email at least once a day so there is a great opportunity there to make an impact in the minds of your consumers. With each email sent, consumers are exposed to your business and your brand and with good planning, design and targeted content, your emails will consistently build value. Plus, in doing so, you stay top-of-mind with your audience, meaning when next a customer needs products or services, your business stands a much better chance being there ‘go-to’ provider.
Email marketing is easily shareable
There are few forms of marketing that are as easy and enticing for the reader to share with their friends and counterparts. By a simple click of the ‘forward’, ‘share’ or ‘like’ buttons, the news of your offer gets quickly spread to a wider audience.
Do email marketing well and you will have created more exposure and credibility for your brand via your best brand ambassadors – your customers – which is in essence, the best form of marketing you can hope to have.
Email marketing is interactive and measurable
Getting good performance indicators and analytics from your marketing is a vital piece of the strategic planning puzzle. With the more traditional channels of marketing, measuring the results of a campaign can often be a little ambiguous.
Beyond the obvious numbers and percentages of ‘open’ and ‘click through’ rates that you can track via email marketing, the ultimate reward for your efforts will be that your business will learn some potentially very powerful customer insights based on their behaviour.
Email marketing is cost effective
The most costly aspect of email marketing is likely to be your time! The more time you can spend planning the strategy around the email campaign and setting up any automation you want it to handle, the better the overall success of your endeavours will be. If you are a high-fashion brand then yes, you are likely to incur the fees of a photographer and a designer each time you send out a mailing. However if you are a small business, email marketing will likely to be the most cost-effective form of advertising you can buy!
If you need help with your email marketing, find out how we can help here.
