It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of marketing tactics online. Some work better than others, and it can be hard to tell which will be the most effective in your industry or niche. Nevertheless, email marketing is one of the most popular forms of marketing today.
According to The Radicati Group, there are currently nearly 4.26 billion email accounts in use, with Statista reporting 333.2 billion emails sent daily as of 2022. However, almost every business owner is still learning how to use them, and only a few are aware that their business can benefit from them.
(Source: Oberlo)
It has proven to be an extremely effective way to promote your business and drive sales leads. However, although it can be highly effective, it's only worth the time and effort if you know how to do it right.
To help you learn more about the ins and outs of this powerful tactic, maximize your efforts, and turn more of your customers into email subscribers, here's an overview of what email marketing is and how you can use it effectively.
Email marketing still reigns supreme in digital marketing, with 52% of marketers using it as their primary communication tool.
The fact is that email marketing is one of (if not) the most effective ways to grow your company and engage with your customers. You can use automation tools to create an efficient and cost-effective way to reach new customers, promote your products and services, build brand awareness, retain current customers, etc.
(Source: Hustler Marketing)
However, we cannot talk about email marketing without mentioning cold email marketing.
Cold email marketing involves communicating with prospects using email as a primary mode of communication. For your cold email marketing campaign to succeed, your target audience must read your emails and reply to them.
For businesses everywhere, though, email advertising is still a foreign concept and confusing at best, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about email marketing to understand how it works and get started using it.
There are hundreds of different forms of marketing you can use to promote your business and products in this day and age. Some are great, but others are gimmicks that people use to take advantage of your company’s money.
Email marketing isn’t like that. It’s affordable, effective, and straightforward to integrate into your marketing strategy without adding too much extra work. It has been proven to be an effective way to reach customers, gain new leads, and drive sales.
The benefits of email advertising aren’t always evident at first glance, but once you know them, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it before. Here are 5 reasons email marketing is essential:
Newsletter marketing is often underutilized. When you send a newsletter to your email list, it’s unlikely to be missed or forgotten by subscribers. Instead, it gets right in front of customers where they want it: their inbox.
Newsletter marketing can be a welcome distraction on a Monday morning to lighten someone’s mood and give them something to smile about during what might otherwise be a difficult start to their day.
The internet makes it possible to collect much information about your customers and prospects. Emails are one of those channels that allow you to be creative with your data-collection efforts, from building customer personas (or buyer personas) to segmenting your emails in a way that lets you send targeted messages.
Whether you’re leveraging email newsletter marketing or trying to get someone to click through your call-to-action, people are more likely to engage with email content. According to Mailmunch, emails are opened more times than Facebook and Twitter combined. It also reports that 60% of marketers believe that email marketing outperforms social media.
It is an excellent reason for any business to start using email marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy.
(Source: Mailmunch)
If you’re trying to reach customers, using email can be a better approach than traditional forms of advertising. With an email campaign, you’re communicating directly with customers and providing them with the information they need or are interested in.
Since email campaigns are delivered directly to your customer’s inboxes, they aren’t as easily annoyed by them as people are by other forms of advertising. As a result, when you use email marketing to communicate with customers, they’ll likely be more receptive to your message and more likely to act on it.
Email can be a great way to create relationships with your readers. You can send out messages when there’s something important that you want to share or when you’re launching a new product or service. It helps foster engagement and leads to long-term relationships with readers.
You can also use email for specific occasions, such as birthdays or holidays, which allows you to bring up pleasant memories from times gone by.
Want to know how you can use email marketing for your business? Here’s how it works.
It all starts with a clear understanding of who your ideal customer is and their goals. That way, you can craft messages and offers that resonate. Now, when someone opts into your list—maybe by signing up for a webinar or downloading a white paper—you’ll be able to provide them with valuable content over time, keeping them interested and engaged.
Your welcome email could point people toward helpful resources, like an e-book filled with tips they can start using right away or a series of webinars on topics they might find interesting. Then, as you continue to communicate with customers over time, you’ll have opportunities to share new products or services (if applicable), ask for feedback, run contests or sweepstakes, etc. The possibilities are endless.
The effectiveness of email marketing is often a point of contention, with some seeing it as old-fashioned and others saying it is effective. But to understand better, you have to look at what people are trying to accomplish.
If your primary goal is sales, then probably email isn't for you. On the other hand, if your goal is leads or brand awareness, it can be pretty valuable - though there's a right and wrong way to go about it. It's essential to get people's attention and retain it by offering valuable content like whitepapers or tips and tricks they can use immediately.
Most brands will generally agree that email is a highly effective channel for lead generation, both in volume and quality. According to research from CMI, email marketing is mainly used for lead generation, sales, lead nurturing, and customer retention.
However, for an email to be effective, it needs to accomplish a few things:
An email marketing funnel is another fundamental aspect of your email strategy. It is where you decide which content will go out and when, how many emails should be sent at once, what call-to-actions you want to include on each email, etc. Again, there are no right or wrong ways of setting up your email funnel so long as it flows accordingly and achieves your email campaign objectives.
Having a solid understanding of your goals and target audience will assist with constructing an effective email funnel for your business.
(Source: Fresh Mail)
Here are some essential aspects of an email marketing funnel as it flows from the top of the funnel to the bottom:
There are specific email marketing metrics you need to track to monitor the progress and effectiveness of your campaign. Some of the more critical email marketing metrics include:
Email marketing is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to market your business. With an effective strategy, you can reach out to thousands of customers in just minutes and promote your products, services, and events to them regularly.
Email marketing can seem incredibly daunting, especially if you’re just starting, so we’ll show you 6 easy ways email marketing can help grow your business.
Emails offer an opportunity to connect with customers personally and share relevant content. They are sent directly to consumers, so they don’t require any effort other than opening and reading. And because people read emails at all hours of the day, it gives businesses a chance to be top-of-mind when it matters most: when customers are making buying decisions.
It’s common knowledge that customers like to feel in control, and email marketing provides that. For example, some online stores allow shoppers to subscribe to updates on a specific item they’re interested in, while others send exclusive coupons or pre-sale notices for upcoming deals.
Whether you run a boutique, repair shop, or B&B, email marketing makes it easier to keep in touch with customers and share relevant information about new products, services, and events.
You’ll find that customers are often open to hearing from companies when convenient. In addition, because of email’s reach and personal nature, marketers have a better chance of reaching people who otherwise wouldn’t engage with advertisements.
By strategically building a list of email subscribers, you can create an audience of interested people connected to you. Then, when you promote something, whether it’s a product, a service, or a special offer, you have access to new customers without paying for them out of pocket.
If you know how to use email marketing correctly, you will cut down on customer acquisition costs and generate revenue with ease.
Everyone knows that customers are more loyal to companies they feel are interested in them as individuals. We also know that customers remember two things about every purchase: what they bought and how they felt while making that purchase.
Most people are impulsive and driven by short-term goals or whims when making purchases. But if you’re able to connect with those customers before they buy from you, their feelings toward you will continue even after they leave your store.
The more you know about how people consume information, what they click on, and what times of day they visit, the better you’ll be able to tailor specific promotions to their preferences. The catch? Most email marketing platforms have only limited access to information about subscribers (e.g., gender, purchase history), and some have no access.
Email marketing and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software help businesses develop relationships with their customers, but what are the differences between these platforms? Email marketing compares to CRM in terms of ease of use, functionality, and cost to see which platform will be best for your business.
The #1 reason you should use an email marketing service instead of CRM software? Simplicity: An email marketing tool doesn’t require training or technical know-how to set up, maintain and use it. There are no server crashes or file backups to worry about; you create an account, upload contacts, and start writing emails.
Email marketers can target specific recipients and track them over time to see how their preferences change. Many CRM systems have similar tracking tools, but they’re designed to help you market to prospects, not customers. This is both good and bad; while CRMs are great at identifying potential leads, they don’t do a good job helping you keep in touch with people who have already converted into customers.
Email marketers make it easy to send out campaigns that deliver content based on what each customer has done or purchased previously. You can reach out right when someone needs something, which is when you’ll get an open rate higher than any other channel.
A customer relationship management (CRM) tool can cost between $60 and $120 per month when it comes to advertising. On the other hand, a simple email program, such as Google or Yahoo! Mail, costs nothing—but it also doesn’t have many of CRM’s perks.
The bottom line? If you plan on spending less than $200 per year on CRM services, an email marketing program may be worth trying first.
With so many email marketing platforms available, it can be challenging to determine which one is the best fit for your business. Dozens of platforms offer different features, such as autoresponders, automation, drip campaigns, segmentation, and other elements necessary to run an effective email campaign.
For this reason, it’s essential to consider the needs of your business and then match them with the best platform. In addition, you should consider factors such as price, integrations, and ease of use when deciding on the best for your needs.
Let’s look at the top 10 email marketing platforms today:
There are many free ways to market your business, but email marketing is one of the most influential and cost-efficient ways to reach your target audience directly.
Email marketing has been around for almost as long as the Internet itself, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still going strong. It is vital for generating interest in your brand, especially when driving conversions and building relationships with your customers or clients.
While it may seem daunting, you don’t need to be tech-savvy or have an IT team to get started with email advertising. You just need to know why email marketing is so important, and if it’s not already part of your strategy, you need to start making room in your budget and business plan.