Email Marketing is the most direct and personal form of digital marketing. It’s a tool that lets brands be part of the conversation with an individual customer, providing a more intimate and engaging experience. With email marketing, you can send customized messages across both desktop and mobile devices. And for higher engagement rates you can also include video, audio, images, hyperlinks and more! Though it may seem easy to just send out indiscriminate emails to as many people as possible in the hopes of getting some sort of response (especially when you’re first starting), that isn’t the best way to use this valuable tool for your company.
What are the benefits of email marketing?
1. The Long Tail
Email marketing is perfect for turning your subscribers into advocates. Your email subscribers are highly likely to recommend your product or service to others, because they know they’re talking directly with you. They’re going through the paces of receiving and reading your email on a daily basis, so it’s natural for them to become an advocate for you!
2. Customer Acquisition
Email Marketing lets you reach new customers who don’t necessarily have an active relationship with a brand yet. You’ll be able to use the casual, more personal approach of email marketing to spark interest with new customers, who can then be directed to your website for a deeper relationship.
3. Word of Mouth
Customer Advocacy is a huge driver for profitability; and Email Marketing is one of the best ways to nudge your customers in this direction. As we said above, when people are receiving an email from you, it’s easy for them to become advocates and spread the word about your company across their own networks! The great thing is, because this marketing method is highly personal and provides a better experience for the recipient, it can spike word-of-mouth between your customers.
4. Opt Out
One of the most overlooked benefits of email marketing is that because it’s personal to each user and targeted based on what they’ve agreed to receive from your company, you essentially never have to contact your consumers again! This means you can count on your new customers staying engaged with your emails for a long time, without forcing them to leave or update their address in their account settings (which takes forever).
5. Call To Action
Some people think that calls to action can be difficult or jarring for consumers, but email marketing is all about your product or service’s benefits. It’s easy to integrate short and simple CTA’s into your emails, and you can use a variety of different methods to make sure that you’re getting the most from your email list. You can invite people to download a form or download the app with one click, or you can even let people know where they can find those resources by referencing them in your emails.
6. Reciprocity
It’s not uncommon for email marketing to trigger a customer’s desire for reciprocity from their own brand. This is because when someone receives an email that doesn’t include a call-to-action for them, it feels more personal and relatable than most other forms of digital marketing.