Has email marketing taken a backseat with social media, search engine marketing (SEM), and influencer advertising as the trending terms these days? Even though we see more talk about the importance of social media presence and more hype with affiliate advertising, email marketing may still be the most reliable method to gain customer engagement and maintain consistent relationships with your customers. According to HubSpot, there are currently 3.9 billion daily email users globally, with 73% of millennials preferring businesses to reach out to them via email. SaleCycle also found that 59% of people’s purchase decisions are influenced by email marketing, with over 50% of them buying from marketing emails at least once a month. Let’s dive further to determine if it is worth it to allocate your limited resources to email marketing. We cover:
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a combination of direct and digital marketing. Email marketing goals are to promote awareness of your brand, educate customers about your product/service, or build relationships with prospects through emails. Some common types of marketing emails are:
Welcome email
Newsletter email
Brand story email
Educational email
Promotional email
Post-purchase email
Re-engagement email
Milestone email
Review invitation email
Sponsorship email
6 benefits of email marketing
a. Better targeting and customisation
You can segment your email recipients individually based on demographics and their preferences, habits, and past purchase behaviours. Emails also allow for better tracking and measurability that tell you about the specific interactions each reader had to make more informed choices on how to target your readers. With a variety of segmentation, you can tailor the email content to cater to the different needs of your readers. Emails are not limited to character, image or link counts and offer more flexibility than channels like social media. You’ll have more options to customise the best subject lines, embed the right images and videos, and write the perfect copy for each customer. With advanced email software, segmenting your readers and personalising emails can be a simple task.
b. Increase sales lead generation
With email marketing, your readers opt-in to read your content. They’ve permitted you to reach out to them via email and are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. Thus, your readers would be more receptive to and engaged with your email.
Given the better targeting and customisation capabilities you get with emails, you’ll be speaking to a lot more warm leads than social media marketing can provide. Email marketing enables you to have direct contact with your readers. With a foot in the door, it’ll be a lot easier for you to convert these prospects into sales leads.
c. Cost-effective and time-efficient
Outdoor marketing requires time and effort to design, print and display your advertisements, but words alone are sufficient for an email. Some of the best-performing marketing emails don’t even have fancy images or videos! Many email templates and easy-to-use software are readily available on the internet for marketers to get started.
Even with limited time, anyone can do email marketing. You can set up drip campaigns that trigger template emails based on your prospects’ behaviours and let them run automatically.
Email marketing has a small cost compared to social media marketing, where companies have to pay more to get some semblance of engagement, such as likes or shares. For email marketing, all you need is an email provider.
The main expense usually comes from marketing or customer relationship management (CRM) software for better analytics and automation tools. Still, the return on investment (ROI) of these tools far outweighs its cost.
d. Reputation management
Your business earns brand trust and is relied upon as a reputable thought leader when you consistently deliver valuable and personalised content to your readers. With emails, you also breed a form of exclusivity, especially when you accurately segment and target your readers or send them personal messages to celebrate their milestones.
If you're just starting to build your email marketing and don’t have good content or lack numbers in your mailing list, but need a little help managing your brand reputation, then leverage an established email newsletter.
Depending on your target audience, you can sponsor or purchase ad space in relevant newsletters. Some examples include TechInAsia, TechCrunch, Morning Brew, and even Seedly! When you appear in these premium editorials, you score a new set of readers and ride on their expertise to build brand credibility and establish yourself as a strong authority.
e. Relationship management
Email marketing is a great way to build or maintain relationships with your readers. They are a consistent yet less intrusive mode of communication. With customisation mentioned above, people can receive personalised content that is meaningful to them and decide when they want to access the information, unlike distracting advertisements that pop up unwarranted. In case you forget, email marketing isn’t only a means to reach out to your prospects; it’s a 2-way mode of communication. When you use emails, you’re opening the opportunity for readers to reply and connect with you when they’re ready. If you receive responses, you can continue the thread to nurture your lead and build valuable relationships with your prospects.
f. Long term
A person’s email address is akin to one’s identification card or social security number on the internet. To scroll on social media, use any software, or make any online purchases, you’ll first need an email address. You never have to worry that email marketing is outdated. There’s longevity because emails are familiar and the gateway for people to enjoy all the virtual world has to offer.
For years, email marketing has been tried and tested as one of the best ways to reach your prospects. It’s a timeless, efficient and effective method to regularly communicate with an engaged audience and deliver value right to their inboxes. Email marketing hasn’t and will not take a backseat in the years to come, so remember to give it some love. If you need to reach millennials interested in personal finance and lifestyle, check out our offerings, and we’ll give you a boost!