Sharon runs a small bakery and recently launched the website for her store. A lot of people signed up, but no one was placing an order or visiting her store. What should she do?
Email marketing would be the best course of action to boost her business. One of the oldest yet effective marketing strategies, email marketing is a great way to convert leads into sales. It is a cost-effective and uncomplicated method to promote your brand, sell products and services, and build a strong relationship with your customers.
WHAT IS EMAIL MARKETING?
It is a marketing strategy where we use email as a tool to promote our products and services. It is also the best way for relationship marketing, as it involves approaching the customers directly. Relationship marketing focuses on building customer loyalty. Email marketing is of two types: transactional emails and direct emails, both of which are crucial.
TRANSACTIONAL EMAILS
When we order something online, we receive an email confirmation. Also, when we do an online money transaction, we receive mail from the bank. Transactional emails are to convey information about the customer’s action involving the company.
DIRECT EMAILS
We often receive emails about ongoing discounts, new collections, and other updates from the stores we had purchased. These kinds of emails, sent solely to communicate promotional messages, are direct emails.
REASONS WHY CHOOSING EMAIL MARKETING IS A WISE DECISION:
- Email marketing is one of the oldest, simplest, and inexpensive methods of digital marketing. One of the main reasons for its success is its ease of use compared to other digital marketing methods.
- Although email marketing isn’t as fancy as other digital marketing methods like Social Media Marketing, it is the most effective. The number of predicted email users in 2023 is almost four times as much as Instagram users.
- Unlike other digital marketing strategies, in email marketing, all the recipients are potential customers because they have personally subscribed to receive emails. Hence, the possibility of losing subscribers is drastically low.
- If done right, email marketing can produce phenomenal results. The ROI can be as high as 4400%. That is 44 dollars for every dollar spent on an email marketing campaign.
- Email marketing also gives control over your audience, helping you own the relationship you build with your customer.
So, you’ve decided to choose email marketing but are clueless about what to do? We’ve got you covered!
Running a business is never easy. It demands time, energy, and effort. So, to make it easier, we’ve devised a plan. Here’s all you need to know:
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH EMAIL MARKETING?
- UNDERSTAND YOUR PRODUCT:
Being the vendor, you will know your product in and out. But put yourself in your customers’ shoes and try to see their perspectives. Learn the key features of your product, something that will make customers choose it. Be sure what the highlights of your product are. Define your brand. Try and come up with ideas to connect the brand to your customers.
- IDENTIFY YOUR CUSTOMER BASE:
Once you identify the defining features of your product, you will get an idea of who the audience will be. It might seem easy but involves a lot of research. A great way to get started would be to use tools like Google Forms to get opinions from people with which you can also get their email IDs.
- CREATING AN EMAIL LIST:
The most crucial part of a successful email marketing campaign is creating an email list. It is a list of potential customers who have expressed interest in your products. Now that you have a head-start, you need new strategies to create the list. Lead magnets and sign-up forms are great ways to attract more audiences.
- LEAD MAGNETS:
Marketers use lead magnets to create leads for sales. It is a method of giving away a free item or service in return for customer contact details. Examples include trial subscriptions, samples, white papers, e-newsletters, and free consultations.
- EMAIL SIGN UP FORMS:
To gather the email address of potential customers, marketers use “email sign up” forms. On official web pages, marketers embed these forms where visitors can enter their email addresses in the form field. By doing this, they are signing up to receive the email newsletters.
- DEFINE YOUR GOALS:
Email marketing has the potential to help you achieve various business goals and objectives. You can use the marketing method to build meaningful customer relationships, advertise, boost sales, generate new leads, keep customers updated and retain customers for the foreseeable future.
All these strategies need planning and execution in perfect alignment to ensure the success of the campaign.
- EMAIL MARKETING TOOLS:
Marketers use email marketing tools to create, send, optimize and report on their email marketing campaigns.One such tool is an Email Service Provider or ESP. There are also tools available for particular functions like an email subject line generator and lead generation.
- AN EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER (ESP):
An Email Service Provider or ESP is software that assists in managing your email list. It also helps personalize emails according to subscribers, execute automated emails, create meaningful engagement, and increase ROI.
TIPS FOR CREATING GOOD CONTENT FOR EMAIL MARKETING:
First, define your goals and then start working on achieving them. Identify your audience and create an email list. Work on achieving your targets with every customer. You can use the ESP to monitor the overall campaign. Here are some more tips to make your campaign successful:
- Keep it as simple as you can.
- Get creative.
- Understand the psychology of your customers and use it to your advantage.
- Tell the customers what they want to hear.
- Make your ads appealing.
- Use warm color palettes.
- Offer as many incentives as you can.
- Send emails at the perfect times.
- Provide intriguing content.
ANALYZING THE RESULT:
One critical part of any marketing campaign would be analyzing the results. Get constructive feedback from customers who have subscribed to receive emails and make necessary modifications. Also, when you analyze campaign results, you can identify where you went wrong and try different things.
ADVANTAGES OF EMAIL MARKETING:
Through email marketing, we can:
- Targets customers specifically and personalize the content.
- Gain better brand recognition.
- Boost sales and revenue.
- Build solid and lasting relationships with customers.
- Improve communications to keep customers informed.
- Reach people irrespective of the devices used.
- Look more professional.
- Get immediate results.
- Generate more leads.
- Market with a personal touch.
THE DOWNSIDES OF EMAIL MARKETING:
There are a lot of advantages to email marketing. However, there are some drawbacks too. You need to make sure that you identify it and execute your plan without any complications. Here are some things that could go awry:
- HEAVY COMPETITION:
Just like you, your competitors might also choose email marketing. Devise a plan that makes your brand stand out and gives your customers a solid reason to choose your brand over others.
- RISK OF SPAMMING:
Remember, the customers have personally signed up to receive your emails, so you mustn’t misuse your power. Be very careful about the content you advertise. Make sure not to overdo it because it would break the trust your customers have in your brand.
- DELIVERY ISSUES:
There is no guarantee that your emails will reach your customer. So plan alternatives accordingly.
CONCLUSION:
Email marketing could be a game-changer if done right. Identifying your target groups and creating an email list is the tricky part. Once you figure that out, everything else will fall in place. Also, this is the most affordable form of digital marketing and yields the highest ROI, so if you’ve been putting it off, you may want to rethink it.
But, if you think starting an email marketing campaign would be challenging on your own, you can always avail help from digital marketing agencies. One such agency I would recommend is Alpha Leads Tech. They help you generate leads through email blasts and gather information about the clients’ interest in your services. They also provide a range of email marketing lists to help you reach and convert new prospects.
So, combine your knowledge with their services and ace the email marketing game!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
- I run a small home business. Should I go for email marketing?
Absolutely. Neither the kind of business nor the scale matters. Email marketing could boost your sales, customers, and reputation irrespective of your niche.
2. When and how should I start sending emails?
Once you are ready with the email list, you can start sending the email. Remember not to pitch to your customers in the very first email. Make an introduction about you and your brand form a connection with them. Tell them your story and create a solid first impression.
3. Any tips on what content to write?
It is cardinal to let the customers know about the incentives you are offering. But you shouldn’t email them just for that. To build lasting relationships with your customers, you need to connect with them. Be creative. Share stories. Build your brand. Make every customer feel important.
4. How lengthy should my emails be?
Emails need not be short all the time. It depends upon what you want to accomplish. If it’s going to be lengthy, make sure it doesn’t bore the customers.
5. How do I prevent subscribers from unsubscribing?
Always remember that you are in their space. So, you should be polite while addressing and in the content. Never spam your customers’ inbox with too many emails. Make sure you stay relevant and always hold up your promises. Deliver quality content. Make the customer feel valued.