In a world filled with modern-day marketing tactics, email is often considered an outdated communication tool that has a slightly spammy reputation. Now, while we do love a good modern-day alternative, there is something to be said about the power of our old friend, the electronic mail, or email.
If executed correctly, email marketing can be one of the most effective ways to engage with existing and potential customers. It still manages to outdo competitor methods by providing some of the highest returns on investment (ROIs), compared to search engine optimization (SEO), banner advertising and even the spotlight hogger that is social media.
In this article, we explore how businesses of all sizes can benefit from this oldie but goodie. Here, we unpack the reasons why investing in email marketing is a very good idea for your business.
So, What is Email Marketing Exactly?
It is the use of emails to promote a service, product or offering. It can also be used to keep customers informed and up-to-date of company changes or industry news. For example, many consumers are receiving COVID-19 emails from brands sharing updates and pertinent information. Emails deliver relevant, informative and dynamic content directly into their existing and potential customers’ inbox.
Email marketing can also be used to develop and grow a brand’s relationship with its existing customers or reach out to potential new customers and warm leads. Most importantly, email marketing is an opportunity to nurture client relationships.
“Email marketing is more than just sending a simple newsletter or order confirmation email. Email marketing helps guide recipients through a flow consisting of multiple stages to reach the end goal of a conversion. Email marketing is potent, persuasive, and drives results,” said Chad Bittle, Thrive’s Email Marketing Manager.
Six Reasons Why Email Marketing Works
Email marketing helps you build your business while boosting brand awareness and revenue in the process. Here are more reasons why email marketing has proven to be a successful marketing tactic.
1. It’s Less Diluted
Many marketers look to social media for reach and engagement with their target market. However, with the number of popular social media platforms on the rise, the people who use Facebook, may not be using Instagram or Twitter. This means you might have to spread your spend across multiple platforms to reach all your target consumers. However, rolling out an email marketing campaign or employing an email marketing services company to manage a robust email campaign allows you to choose exactly who you want to reach out to and engage with.
2. Almost Everyone Has an Email Address They Check First Thing
Most people have one or more active email accounts. Plus, they tend to keep the same email address for years, which helps to maintain long-term contact with your customer base. According to a study conducted by OptinMonster, people stated that email is their most regularly “first checked” marketing media of the day. The study also concluded that it’s the most preferred method to receive promotional messages, and has the largest number of worldwide users, compared to social media channels.
3. It Has The Highest ROI
As mentioned above, well-planned and well-executed email marketing campaigns provide some of the best ROI compared to other marketing strategies. The Direct Marketing Association conducted an extensive survey of email marketing ROI in 2019. It found that for each dollar invested, $43.62 was returned, compared to the two runners up, which include a return of $22 for a dollar investment in SEO and $20 for a dollar investment in internet display. Email marketing delivers almost double the ROI to that of its closest competitor!
4. It’s Direct Marketing At Its Best
Email marketing goes directly to your customers and sits in their inbox until they are ready to read it. The success of your latest deal or special is not solely dependent on a passing post in a newsfeed or ad that your target market may or may not see. It’s a more measurable marketing medium easily monitored and the data used for future decision-making. Email marketing also speaks directly to customers who have opted in to receive information about your services in the first place.
5. It Offers Personalized Communication
The opportunity to personalize your marketing emails is unlike any other marketing method. Using your customer data, you can send clients specifically targeted emails based on previous purchases, abandoned shopping carts, or send them a discount on products they repeatedly buy. When you learn what your consumers like and begin to understand their purchasing patterns, you can tailor your offering to suit their unique needs.
6. It’s Highly Measurable
One of the most alluring aspects of email marketing is that it can be accurately tracked and measured. By using platforms correctly, you can discover how many customers opened your emails and who they are, how many clicked on the link or CTAs included in the mail, how many went on to purchase and who unsubscribed. This data helps you to glean a deeper understanding of your customer and you can use it to inform future-focused marketing decisions.
How Email Marketing Integrates Well With Other Marketing Tools
An added bonus? Email marketing works to enhance your additional marketing platforms and strategies. These include SEO, pay-per-click (PPC) and social media.
Let’s take a look at each and see how email marketing can work in conjunction with the following:
• SEO and Email Marketing: Email works to drive traffic back to your website. This isn’t random traffic either, but rather your existing customer base regularly visiting your website. This also helps to improve on-site engagement metrics, which, in turn, will lead to more conversions and sales.
• PPC and Email Marketing: Email marketing offers another way to obtain warm leads from PPC by providing downloadable resources on landing pages with email list signup forms. Plus, email audiences can be used to create targeted PPC audiences.
• Social Media and Email Marketing: Many email service providers offer integrations with social media platforms. This lets you build social media-specific email audiences and segments, to which you can market-specific content.
Which Industries Can Benefit From Email Marketing?
Any industry, in both the business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C) sectors, can hugely benefit from email marketing. It keeps communication open and consistent between your brand and those that show interest in your company’s services and products. Beyond your standard newsletter, below are a few examples of email marketing opportunities:
• Welcome and sign up confirmation
• Loyalty or rewards programs
• Weekly updates
• Competitions and contests
• Company-specific news and updates (COVID-19)
• Exclusive deals and sneak peeks at new products
• Sale announcements
• Special offers and deals
• Coupon blasts
• Order confirmations
• Abandoned cart campaigns
• Seasonal campaigns
• “We Missed You” or re-engagement email campaigns
Should You Hire An Expert?
While many companies do send regular emails, it’s often within the bounds of a sophisticated and effectively managed campaign. Campaign Monitor recently listed the top statistics for mobile users and it’s clear that the majority of organizations don’t have the in-house resources to create effective, profitable campaigns that are both well-designed and optimized for mobile devices and tablets.
Thrive’s email marketing service works by planning our campaigns based on industry best practices to ensure recipients are continuously engaged. Working with multiple clients, we’re able to see what produces results and what doesn’t. We have experience using industry-leading platforms such as Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, Drip and SendInBlue. This enables us to recommend the best possible platform that will meet your individual needs and requirements.
Thrive also offers three email marketing service tiers designed to suit any organization size and budget. Additionally, we’re able to provide design, copywriting and content creation services to suit any campaign in any industry.
Ready to hire an email marketing agency? Schedule a call today to see how together we can create engaging and profitable email marketing services for your business.
