6 Benefits of Email Marketing
Email marketing has perhaps the greatest reach of any communication channel and boasts one of the highest ROIs (return on investment) in digital marketing. It’s a way to create customer-specific content, drive revenue and stay top of mind.
If you ask me, email marketing is a bit underrated. So without further adieu, here are the top 6 benefits of email marketing.
1. Targeted Content
Email marketing allows you to segment customers based on their preferences, interests, and online behavior. This allows you to create more personalized content tailored to a particular audience or individual.
You could potentially include a customer’s name in an email, or send a customer content related to their past purchases.
Personalized content will also direct customers to your website, which will help your SEO campaign. Good segmentation is bound to drive brand loyalty, trust, and eventually sales.
2. Surveys and Feedback
Speaking of segmentation, a great way to segment customers is by simply asking. Marketers can use surveys to determine customer preferences, such as, if they prefer one product type to another.
It’s also a fantastic way to get feedback, as surveys of this nature are often interactive and engaging. So, instead of only relying on social media comments, you could send a survey with questions on how your business could improve it’s service.
3. Sales and ROI
Email marketing has an ROI of 4200%, which is one of the highest ROIs in digital marketing. If done right, it can be a significant source of revenue.
Because you’re engaging with an audience that is already interested in your products or services (as they’ve opted-in), customers are more likely to make purchases from email. And because email is usually so targeted, you can really hone in on encouraging customers to make a purchase.
It’s also perhaps the best way to follow up on leads or nurture existing leads. You could remind a customer to complete an unfinished purchase or send a product similar to a previous purchase to encourage further spending. Either way you’re more likely to increase sales using email.
And with all these conversions occurring on your website, there’s the added benefit of email helping your SEO campaign.
4. Stay Top of Mind
Email is a top communication channel, with 99% of consumers checking their email on a daily basis and 82% of customers saying they check emails from companies. With such a wide reach, sending regular emails at an adequate frequency is likely to keep you top of mind.
It’s also the perfect medium to update customers on your latest products and services.
5. You Own Your List
Something that separates email from other social media platforms is the fact that you actually own your email list. Any social media account is vulnerable to being deactivated, while with email, your customer list is owned by you. Email is therefore a great way to set up a foundational customer list.
6. Unique Analytics
Email has much of the analytics that other digital marketing platforms provide. However, a function that is unique to many email marketing services is A/B testing.
Essentially, A/B testing allows you to send two versions of a similar email to two different groups of customers, then assess the success of each email group by analyzing metrics such as open rates and click-through rates.
If the only difference was, for example, the subject line of each email, then the email with the higher open rate was more successful. You can run A/B tests on subject lines, content, images, and frequency.
It’s one of the few ways in digital marketing that you can test performance with a highly controlled set of inputs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, email has some unique characteristics that every marketer should utilize. It’s one of the oldest forms of digital marketing and it’s here to stay. If you’re looking to engage more personally with customers and drive sales, then email is for you.
About the Author
My name is Luca Bredeveldt and I’m a 25-year-old digital marketer in training, qualified earth scientist, and aspiring music producer. I currently live in Cape Town, South Africa, and work at the International Institute of Digital Marketing™ (IIDM™).
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luca-bredeveldt-851888224/
