The Importance of Email Marketing

After my morning walk, I settled in at a local bakery with a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip muffin in hand. Sipping my freshly brewed java, I turned on my phone to check my email. I began scrolling through the noise, trashing the stuff I never signed up for (or had forgotten I signed up for). After about 10 minutes, one email caught my eye.

Make it Personal

It came from a company I had purchased home goods from in the past. They were having a big end-of-summer sale. In fact, they addressed me by my first name and highlighted a few products they thought I might be interested in. They also threw in an extra 25 % off coupon and added photos of what I would be missing if I didn’t get on board.

So, I clicked the shopping tab link and began snoopin' around. I found some really good deals and saved myself several hundred dollars!

And all it took was a personalized email from a company I had done business with before that caught me at the right time.

According to MarketingSherpa, 91 percent of US adults prefer receiving promotional emails from companies they do business with.

Email marketing can be a key way to reach your target audience, too.

It allows you to stay in contact and keep your customers informed.

You can also reach them in real-time. Many people use their mobile devices to conduct business, and that number is rising. Catch them while they are on the go!

Emails have quickly become a main choice of communication, and people engage with them.

Email marketing is also timely. Letting customers know about a special discount on their birthday, that a product they like is on sale, or their favorite restaurant meal is half-off, can be very effective. Folks can also forward these emails to others who may be interested in your offer.

Targeting and Tracking

Email marketing holds many benefits for small businesses. A company can target its customers with personalized emails, track metrics over time, and stay relevant to its audience with consistent, regular contact. Email marketing is also affordable, offers a nice return-on-investment, and customers will likely respond quickly when you create an effective call-to-action.

In fact, studies, including one done in 2016 by Campaign Monitor, show that for every dollar invested in email marketing, the average ROI is between $36 and $44.

Now, hold on: don’t just send off any old email. You can imagine the influx of emails your clients and contacts receive daily from others who also want their business. Don’t use a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Sending creative, targeted, and personalized emails is the key to increasing your open and click rates.

A process called email segmentation lets you use information you have previously collected to show your audience you have been paying attention to them and care about their needs.

This technique involves dividing email subscribers into smaller groups and targeting them with more personalized messages, based on certain demographics.

Collect this information when people respond to the ‘timely and catchy’ call to action on your website. Consider including a simple survey with a drop-down menu to ask about their primary interests and biggest challenges. With this information, a business can further hone in on its ideal audience and capture its cash before a competitor does.

Stay Tuned

Next month, I’ll dive more into the tracking and analyzing side of email marketing.

Ready to get help with your email marketing? Schedule a call today!