Listen Up, Folks: We’re Breaking Down The Importance of Email Marketing

While some small business owners may focus more on other forms of digital marketing, sending out emails is one of many ways to reach your audience (with a high return on investment). Why is it so effective in sending marketing messages? Because basically everyone has access to their email non-stop thanks to their mobile devices.

When an email marketing campaign is done correctly, it can generate more leads, increase revenue, and establish stronger loyalty and brand awareness. Let’s break down why email marketing is important.

What Is Email Marketing?

We’re 100% sure you’ve received a marketing email before, but let’s look at what it means on the marketing side. It’s an inbound marketing channel that allows you to drive people toward your content – whether it’s an online store, your YouTube channel, or any other link you want people to click. Email marketing is consistently one of the best marketing channels with the highest return on investment. It costs very little to write up an email and send it, so it’s all profit if they end up buying.

While marketing via email sounds basic (you just write an email and hit send, right?), it can be quite complex. There’s a content marketing strategy behind every email that looks at goals, content, and engagement.

Every time you send an email from your contact list, measure important metrics to ensure they’re effective.

Keep track of:

• • Number of subscribers
  • Open rates
  • Conversion rates
  • Unsubscribe rates
  • Retention rate

Hubspot, a CRM and email marketing tool, has plenty of email templates that can help you get started. But if you want to elevate your email marketing strategy, call in experts like us, the Lift Marketing team.

Top Benefits of Email Marketing

How does email marketing compare to other digital marketing strategies? For starters, you’re not waiting on your social media marketing or SEO to resonate with your target audience, you’re talking directly to them.

There are some statistics that back up the benefits of sending emails, too. Approximately 40% of B2B marketing companies say that email newsletters are vital to their marketing success. Additionally, 99% of consumers check email daily as it is their preferred way to receive updates from brands they care about.

As such, if you want to update your target audience, email is the way to do it. Let’s cover some of the top benefits of sending emails.

Create Personalized Content

Emails allow you to personalize content for your audience. Have fun with the content and ensure that it offers something for your audience, whether it’s information, entertainment, or everyone’s favorite, a discount.

Adding first names can boost the clickthrough rate. And individualized content with a segmented audience can move returning and new customers through the sales funnel, too. Ask the right questions when they opt-in to your email list so you can put them in the right email list segment off the jump.

Generate Traffic

Emails have a strong chance of being seen in comparison to other forms of digital marketing. This level of outreach can generate traffic to where you need it the most. Just include the links within an email (along with CTAs or calls to action) and see traffic increase.

Just like how you need a good opt-in, you need to let them opt-out. You must have an unsubscribe option somewhere in your emails, just so people know the option is there.

Produce Cost-Effective Campaigns

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing, especially once you have created a substantial mailing list. Many email services have free templates, automation, customization, and more. Whether you send one email a week or one email a month, it can be one of the cheapest ways to reach your audience. Just make sure you don’t flood inboxes. Too much of a good thing can go bad after a while.

Think of yourself as a consumer. If a company you visited one time a couple of years ago keeps sending you emails every day, you’re going to get annoyed. On the contrary, if that same company only emailed you a handful of times with information and news you actually cared about, you probably wouldn’t mind the inbox notifications.

Reach People at the Right Time

When you’re sending emails, you’re your own boss. Consider the day and time you send emails so they hit the inbox at the perfect time. Drop it in the morning if it’s a B2B software service. Send it in the evening if it’s an offer to order pizza delivery or B2C ecommerce. Carefully choosing the delivery time can dramatically increase the level of engagement that you see with your emails.

Provide Value for You & Your Audience

Have a purpose for every email you send. Send an update on a product, offer a discount, remind them that something’s in their cart, or share content you think they’d enjoy. Emails should provide value for everyone involved. For your audience, provide quality content – and the more interactive it is, the better the customer engagement. Makes sense, right? For you, get more traffic and feedback. Include a survey in one of your emails so you can find out what your customers want from you.

Ways to Use Email Marketing

First things first, you need to make sure you have contact information for those you want to communicate with. This means that you need some kind of lead generator – on your website, a landing page, or even on social media.

Segment your email list so that different people receive different types of emails (like potential customers versus existing customers).

What are some examples? Glad you asked:

• • Welcome emails that follow up on a sale or contact form
  • Birthday coupons to build brand loyalty
  • Limited-time promotional emails to boost urgency in buying
  • Abandoned cart emails to remind people of their desire to purchase
  • New products/services to communicate to your audience of new offerings

You can include as much or as little in an email as you want (remember, you’re the boss here) – but you need to balance by providing enough information. Plus, you can communicate as often as you desire, but again, not too much. That’s why we, the professionals, are here to help.

Of course, a lot of your email-sending strategy is going to involve testing. Learn how to create snazzy subject lines, personalize your emails, and the superpower of staying out of the dreaded spam folder. Utilize A/B testing to find the best subject lines that make your audience click to open them.

Make it Easier

Emails can seem daunting, but they aren’t. Believe us, we are big on effective email marketing tools, like email marketing software. Mailchimp is a great example of marketing automation – you can segment, schedule out and look at certain metrics in real time.

It’s Time to Start Sending Emails

Now that you know why email marketing is important, you’re ready to get started, right? Your next step is to gather a list of email subscribers.

Not sure where to start? Let the Lift Marketing team spearhead your email marketing efforts. We are fully equipped to help you drive sales through not only email content but other ways as well. Give us a call and we can get started on email marketing services!