What is email marketing?
At its most basic level, email marketing is the use of email to promote your business. It is used to cultivate relationships with potential customers, keep current customers informed and updated on your brand, offer coupons to encourage customer loyalty, and more!
It is a direct form of marketing, similar to marketing through snail mail, but email marketing is much more efficient for your wallet and for the environment since it’s totally paperless!
Some people think email marketing is outdated, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Email marketing has been utilized since shortly after the birth of the Internet. It has evolved considerably since then and is still an incredibly useful marketing tool. In fact, many entrepreneurs argue that email marketing is more important now than ever before.
So what is email marketing used for?
Email marketing can be used to build trust with customers over time to turn them into repeat customers. It is also an effective way to keep your customers informed about new sales or promotions you are running. People want to stay informed about your brand, and email marketing is one of the best ways to stay engaged with that audience. In fact, 28% of US online shoppers report subscribing to store or product emails in order to stay informed on brands they care about.
What is the benefit of email marketing over other methods of marketing?
94% of Internet users use email. Therefore, marketing through email allows you to reach many Internet users even if they are not on social media. Furthermore, a survey found that an astounding 75% of adult online users say email marketing is actually their preferred marketing method!
If you’re not already utilizing email marketing, it is definitely something you should consider in order to reach a wider audience and strengthen your brand’s relationship with current customers.
Another benefit of email marketing is that it’s incredibly easy to track your ROI. Everything is trackable with the use of email marketing software so you can determine who is opening your emails, who is clicking onto your site through your emails, and more.
Plus, the ROI is usually very high because you don’t have to put ad money behind emails to get them to the correct audience as you do with most other forms of advertising. They are already targeted towards the ideal consumer because you are only sending emails to people who have given you permission via providing you with their email address. This makes email marketing one of the cheapest possible marketing tactics.
One little-known fact is that 66% of all emails in the U.S. are opened on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. If you’ve been considering using a text message or SMS campaign, email marketing might actually be a better choice for you. Email marketing works pretty much the same way as SMS marketing, but you can reach desktop users as well and most smartphone users find emails to be less bothersome than text messages from companies.
While email marketing is often used in conjunction with other forms of marketing like social media advertising and even TV and radio ads, it has its own unique set of advantages.
For example, let’s say you have an e-commerce store and you’re running a sale. When you post about the sale on social media, not all your followers will see it. Only about 1% of your followers will typically see a Facebook post unless you’ve boosted it using ad dollars. If you send an email about your sale, it is guaranteed to be put in front of every single member of your email list.
Another big difference between email marketing and other forms of marketing is that people actually want to see your email promotions! Anyone on your email list purposefully provided you with their email address because they wanted more information on your brand.
This is quite different from ads on search engines, social media, TV, magazines, and radio. Someone who comes across your ad on Facebook or while watching the morning news did not request to learn more about your brand, so they are more likely to ignore your message or even be bothered by it.
If a consumer directly provides you with their email address, it is because they specifically want to opt-in to your email marketing. They may have been tempted with a coupon or some other promotion, but it is still a much more consent-based marketing strategy. This is part of what makes email marketing so unique and so successful!
What is email etiquette? What is not?
For starters, don’t send spam. Spamming your email subscribers is an ineffective email marketing strategy because it won’t lead to increased sales or favourable brand recognition and it can destroy your company’s reputation. Consider someone providing you with their email address similar to them inviting you into their home. The last thing you want to do is inundate them with spam or misleading messages and disrespect them in their own home.
Any organization (companies, charities, even micro-enterprises) that handles the personal information of EU citizens or residents is subject to the GDPR. That includes organizations not in the EU but that offer goods or services to people there. The requirements basically boil down to two things: secure people’s data, and make it easy for people to exercise control over their data. (Our “What is the GDPR?” article provides an overview.) Those who don’t follow the rules can get hit with a fine of €20 million or 4 per cent of global revenue, whichever is higher, plus compensation for damages.
Another poor email marketing tactic you should never take advantage of is purchasing pre-made email lists. You should build up your email list with people who have a genuine interest in your company. Purchasing a pre-existing email list is a bad idea for many reasons, but mostly because it can provide you with unqualified people who will be less likely to have a genuine interest in your brand and more likely to unsubscribe from your emails or even report them as spam.
Source: Lyfemarketing
