How Email Marketing Can Help Your Business
Long gone are the days of inconsistent dial-up internet with its cacophony of unpleasant sounds and ever-delayed load times. These days, you can browse the internet almost whenever you want with both ease and reliability. While load times may vary depending on location, you can check in on your favorite sites, chat with friends, and send emails, all at the speed of your own fingers and thumbs. It’s become that simple. And because of the simplicity and universality of internet access, we’re all online all the time.
Did you know: the average global internet user spends about 7 hours each day online, per datareportal.com? That’s 7 hours scrolling through Instagram, 7 hours watching videos of cats on YouTube, 7 hours of reading recaps of television shows, and most importantly, 7 hours of sending and responding to emails.
As business owners, we all understand the importance of the internet as a means of growing our brands. Sure, there are Google Reviews, there’s maintaining an active presence on social media sites, and there’s having websites set up that showcase all your latest products and service offerings. But those things are just the bare essentials, and to stay ahead of competitors, you must remain nimble and future-focused when marketing on the internet. At Mobile Marketing, we believe the future of online marketing to be mobile-based, and as such, we place particular importance on test messaging and the forgotten channel: email communication.
Leveraging the power of email is essential in building brands, obtaining customers, and, most importantly, retaining those very same customers. Email marketing, on the whole, might seem like a broad concept, and it can be. But we’re here to help! This article will break down what email marketing is, the various types of email marketing, and the overall benefits.
Let’s get started!
So, what is email marketing?
As with most types of online media, definitions can be nebulous, and email marketing can mean different things to different people & business entities. But on the whole, email marketing is a means of marketing your business to prospective and existing customers through email communication. The results can be measured in real-time and adapted with immediacy based on success and perceived failures.
What types of email marketing are there?
Email marketing campaigns are typically structured around a company’s sales/purchasing funnel. While the funnel terms may vary depending on who you are, at Mobile Marketing, our customer journey has shoppers going through the following stages: awareness, engagement, conversion, sales/service, and loyalty.
Effective email marketing campaigns will try to nurture customers through the sales funnel with strategically crafted and placed emails that touch upon the following subjects:
● Welcome Emails
● Promo, Sales, or Coupon Emails
● Seasonal/Holiday Emails
● Transaction-related Emails
● Post-Purchase Emails
● Cart-Abandonment Emails
● Company/World News Emails
● Newsletter Emails
● General Nurturing Emails
● And many more!
One of the many benefits of email marketing is that it allows for versatility in approach, meaning that you can send emails as part of an automated drip campaign or send one-off emails to celebrate company events, showcase promotions, or address national news.
What are the benefits of email marketing?
There’s good return on investment
Per Litmus, in 2019, email marketing had an average return of $42 for every dollar spent. A staggering statistic, to be sure! Moreover, when it comes to conversion rate, Optinmonster.com reported a 6.05% conversion rate on email marketing in 2019, compared to 1.9% for social media marketing. When it comes to overall ROI, email marketing is virtually untouched.
It’s easy to measure success
Email marketing platforms provide users with the ability to track key metrics like open rates, CTR, and conversion rates in real-time, allowing for instantaneous feedback on campaigns and enabling companies to make immediate adjustments based on those key metrics.
It’s a low-cost marketing solution
Compared to running television, radio, print, or even social media advertisements, the cost of email marketing is relatively low. While the tracking software might have an initial upfront cost, the only lingering expense is the hours used to craft compelling emails. But with the established ROI, this is time well spent.
You can send targeted messages
Instead of utilizing a one-size-fits-all approach, email marketing allows businesses to target their specific messages based on whatever criteria they might see fit. Let’s say you’re a nationally based chain, but your retailer in Texas is having a significant sale. With the help of your email marketing platform, you can help target emails to subscribers you have in Texas who are more likely to attend the sale than someone who lives out of state. This strategic approach to email marketing invokes data segmentation and has proven to be tremendously effective for major businesses and corporations.
It helps to increase customer loyalty
When a customer buys from you, the goal is to satisfy them to the extent that they will become repeat customers. With a targeted email marketing effort, you can encourage customers to make another purchase, spread word of your business to others, and much more. Establishing customer loyalty through email marketing is integral to building your brand. When emails are that perfect balance of helpful and personal, you’re more likely to establish a loyal community of customers who support your business.
Mobile Marketing’s approach to email marketing
We’re Mobile Marketing, a results-focused agency specializing in growing businesses by creating digital marketing experiences. Our holistic approach to the digital experience has enabled us to help various companies and business entities grow their brands through our best-in-class marketing methodologies. Working under our five pillars: digital strategy, awareness, engagement, conversion & sales, and customer loyalty, we aim to offer a unified digital experience with engaging email campaigns expertly designed to drive results.
Interested in learning more about who we are and what we stand for? We offer free digital assessments for prospective customers to help indicate future areas of improvement. Whether you’re interested in email marketing campaigns, customer engagement tools like Swell, SEM, SEO, or building an entirely new e-commerce strategy and website, we’re here to help. Stay up to date on the recent trends, industry news, and company updates on the Mobile Marketing Blog.
Check out last month’s post on how digital strategy can help your business to see how email plays an important role in your digital strategy.