Small businesses- from florists to realtors-are quickly catching on that e-mail marketing can be an effective way to quickly reach thousands of customers inexpensively.
E-mail marketing refers to the communications that businesses have with current customers who have given permission to receive e-mails about special offers and new products or services. By categorizing customers by their buying preferences and creating e-mail offers that address those preferences, a small business can personalize their marketing for the cost of a mouse click.
How can email marketing help my business? Or perhaps, what are the benefits of email marketing for online business?
I scrapped those question from response emails I got from some of our contacts/customers.
The truth is many do not know how important email marketing is especially in 2018.
Okay, now let’s get down to business.
There are lots and lots of benefits small businesses derive from email marketing.
No doubt that email marketing is important for every growth-minded online business. Its effectiveness cannot be denied and that’s why I want to share with you everything you need to know.
Email marketing is one aspect of digital marketing which encompasses various marketing via blogs, websites, social media and so on.
Before you start reading, I want you to know that this article is intended for those who want to know why they should use email marketing.
In this lesson, you will discover all the advantages of using email marketing for your business to grow your business and increase sales.
Let’s get right underway.
Instant Sales
E-mail marketing helps businesses create instant sales from existing customers. It also helps maintain and build long-lasting relationships with repeat customers, which are at the core of most successful businesses. And yet, in a recent poll conducted by research firm Greenfield Online (on behalf of FileMaker, Inc.), 49 percent of small businesses said they were not even considering e-mail marketing.
What is the other half of small businesses doing with e-mail marketing? Making money. For example, the Tara Bella Winery used e-mail marketing software based on FileMaker Pro to send an e-mail to its customers about a special wine package. Within 24 hours, they had sold out their inventory and grossed $8,500. They spent less than three hours writing the e-mail and sending it out
Almost any business can improve its profitability using e-mail marketing. Even nonprofits are using e-mail marketing for fund-raising. New database software and the Internet have made it quite inexpensive and, now, easy to do. All you need is a Windows or Macintosh computer, an Internet connection, an e-mail account and easy-to-use database software such as FileMaker Pro. In some instances, the rewards of your first successful e-mail campaign can even pay for these affordable technology tools.
Save valuable budget
Email marketing enables you to save money and set a reasonable marketing budget for your business!
By going digital, you’ll avoid printing, paper, envelopes, mail handling, and postage costs.
Plus, with an email newsletter, you can work with a designer to design a custom newsletter template you can use over and over again, and get your message out much faster than good old snail mail.
More personalised messages
One of the sustainable ways to make your customers or client feel valued is when you send out personalised emails.
That is one unique advantage or benefits of email marketing.
With email marketing, you can easily speak to your customers in a very personalized and intimate way that is not possible with other marketing channels and avenues.
When you send emails to your customers or clients they get thrilled and feel very highly esteemed.
With some other digital marketing tools, it becomes difficult for you to speak directly to your consumer in a personalised way.
However, email marketing presents many dynamic opportunities through which you can really achieve that.
Not only can you send a personalised email with your user’s name or login name, but many email marketing solutions offer the ability to feed in personalized information such as sales or purchase history.
With email marketing, you can easily speak to your customers in a very personalized and intimate way that is not possible with other marketing channels and avenues.
Boost brand awareness
Once you have a product or service you are pleased with and really want to share with the world, you want to build a brand to attract like-minded people.
While 26% of SMBs polled use email marketing for sales, just 7% use email as a brand-building tool.
It helps you to get your business brand image and name in front of your audience more often by including your logo, tagline, colour palette, and brand graphics in the template design of your email communications.
People who agree with your values, objectives or morals and people who see their problems resolved by your business.
There are many ways to attract these people… but how do you keep them on board is quite difficult?
The good thing is, you don’t have to worry about that if you include email marketing as part of your marketing campaign.
It helps you to get your business brand image and name in front of your audience more often by including your logo, tagline, colour palette, and brand graphics in the template design of your email communications.
Seeing your brand elements in every email newsletter will build brand awareness and recognition — even if they would see it for a second.
Increase customer retention
Sending regular emails can boost customer retention and as well encourage them to make more purchases.
80% of retail professionals indicate that email marketing is their greatest driver of customer retention (the next closest channel? Social media, identified by just 44% of those same professionals).
In fact, you can use consistent emails to regain customers that have fallen off the grid and lure them into coming back.
A good way to do this is by sending out “We miss you!” emails. These emails would be sent to previous clients who have not made a new purchase within a time period set by your team.
You can offer them special deals when they return, such as free shipping or a big discount.
Likewise, if your customer has expressed previous interest in a product that quickly went out of stock, then you can send them a reorder email and tell them that the product is now available.
There are tons of ways you can use email to boost your business and attract old customers. It is important to remember that as a marketing tool, your message is important to get these benefits across.
Therefore, you should focus on sending the right message to your subscribers to keep them coming back for more, and to recognize your brand as the authority that it is.
This way, you would be improving your brand retention and opening your brand for more possibilities – opportunities that you wouldn’t have encountered before if you hadn’t embraced email marketing.
Very easy to measure
Email marketing platforms like MailChimp, Maileirlite etc. make it easy for you to track and evaluate key metrics like open, bounce, and click rates.
These metrics can you give important insight into the behaviours and interests of recipients.
For example, you can determine which content resonates best with potential customers and which days have the highest open rates.
Then, you can tweak your campaigns based on your findings to get the best possible results.
Significant ROI
ROI of email marketing is better than any other marketing.
About 59% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel in terms of revenue generation.
If you can work your email strategy into your broader content strategy, the results will prove worth the work (especially where ROI is concerned).
According to the Direct Marketing Association Statistical Fact Book, email marketing has a HUGE return on investment (a whopping 4300%) and is considered the most effective of digital marketing tactics according to Ascend 2 and Research Partners.
It doesn’t matter who you are or what your business is; everyone should be optimizing their email marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy…it’s inexpensive, easy and has a monumental ROI.
And don’t forget, there are always good folks out there to help when you don’t have the inclination or time to do it yourself!
Helps to connect with your target market
86% of business professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes.
Email marketing helps you stay in touch with your audience on a regular basis, keeping you top of mind and at the tip of their tongue.
This ensures that when your services and products are needed, they will buy from you or refer their friends, family, peers, and contacts to you.
Increase your website credibility
Credibility is very important when it comes to digital marketing and lead generation. Consistent, quality email marketing that is relevant, on-topic, and full of value will help you earn and grow the trust of your target market making it much easier for you to then promote and sell your products and services.
Educate your current clients
Your email newsletter is a great place to keep your clients up to date with what’s news in your business.
By sharing what you’re working on and what’s going on, you can also keep them informed of the products, services, and programs you have available for them — and maybe entice them to hire you or buy from you again.
Attract new opportunities
Did you know that nearly 105 billion emails are sent each day; this number is expected to reach 246 billion before 2020.
Publishing an email newsletter can help you generate new opportunities such as strategic partnerships, joint ventures, media interviews, speaking engagements, and more.
All it takes in the right person to see your message at the right time — and the opportunity may not even come from a subscriber, but from someone your e-zine (electronic magazine) was forwarded to.
Create new streams of income
You can use your email newsletter to recommend as an affiliate, products, programs, and services you have used yourself or truly believe in and earn commissions on any sales made from your referrals.
Once your list grows quite large, you can also sell ad space in your e-zine.
