In the noise of the internet, it can be difficult to choose which channels to invest time and money in for your online strategy. Content marketing, social media channels, PPC advertising, SEO/SEM, and email all vie for our attention. Unless you have a good grasp of each, along with a clear understanding of your buyer personas, it can be difficult to decide where to focus your time and money.
In recent years, much has been said about the popularity of social media channels, as the chance to reach millions with a simple post or tweet is alluring. Email, however, remains popular across industries.
Consider that there are over five billion active email addresses in the world; data on marketing effectiveness shows that email provides the highest ROI of all digital channels. It’s quickly becoming clear that email marketing is the backbone of any successful digital marketing strategy.
Just like other social media marketing strategies, there are best practices that apply for email marketing. Verifying email addresses, tracking key performance metrics, and personalizing messages are all vital to crafting the most successful campaign possible.
Why Choose Email Marketing?
Not only does email provide an ROI described as ‘excellent’ by many marketers, but it also is one of the friendlier, soft sell techniques to reach your audience. There are more opportunities to personalize messages for your recipients, automate campaigns, and build, then nurture, a strong relationship with past, present, and future customers.
Unlike advertising in social channels or building a PPC campaign, email is less intrusive and more individual. Presently, most people have at least one email account thanks to free servers such as Gmail and Outlook. Email recipients choose when to fit your message into their busy schedules, making its convenience yet another benefit to email users and marketers alike.
How to Use Email Marketing
There are a number of different ways and goals in which marketers can use email marketing. It’s helpful to understand the different email campaign strategies so they can be used in conjunction with other digital channels, better supporting high level goals. Below are examples of some of the core email marketing campaigns you can and should implement today without excess difficulty.
Welcome emails – Congratulations, you have a new lead to nurture! Welcome email campaigns should be comprised of a series of four to five emails that help you get to know the customer. They should also serve to help them get to know, and trust, your brand.
Emails should include the initial ‘hello, welcome’ email and fulfill any obligation you made to get them to subscribe. Once done, you should follow up to learn more about them.
All gathered information will help you encourage them through your sales and marketing funnel later on. Email preferences, birthdates, and how they found out about you are all relevant and useful for future marketing campaigns.
Welcome emails are a great way to remind your potential customer of your brand’s value. As an added bonus, they generally have higher open and CTR’s than other emails.
Triggered Drip Email Campaigns – These are among the most popular email campaigns. A preconstructed series of emails are sent to customers or leads who perform a particular action or set off a certain trigger. This can be abandoning their cart, visiting your website, or responding to your promotion in their social feed.
The majority of actions can be inputted here, as it is likely that a triggered drip email campaign can be set up to respond to it. These are the types of emails you can simply set and forget about.
Lastly, your drip campaign can be as generic or personalized as you choose. It’s entirely dependant on how much data and time you have, as well as with how you have segmented your email list.
Post Sale Campaigns – This type of email sequence is a savvy way to make the most of each customer interaction. It can be as short and sweet as two to three emails that reinforce a customer’s decision to purchase from you and build brand loyalty, or last a little longer to add value to the initial purchase.
Let’s say a customer has purchased an oscillating multi-tool from you. You can initially follow up with tips on how to store and maintain the item. Another email can be sent with instructions for a simple DIY project that requires that tool for completion.
Sending emails of this type builds trust in your brand and adds value to the initial purchase, increasing brand loyalty and delighting the customer. It also provides opportunities to upsell or cross sell additional products.
Email is increasing in popularity due to its convenience and privacy. Leveraging social and other digital channels are one way to add your voice to the noise of the internet and potentially get heard by a few passers-by. Email is the ideal way to engage with users on a personal level and build relationships that will support your brand goals for years to come.
Email correspondence was the essential way of connecting people and doing sales pitch since it started. It can`t be stressed out enough how important it is in marketing and how it will keep being important because it is the fundamental communication option.