Most Important Things You Need To Know About e-Mail Marketing

“Whether it’s your grand opening or your company is already well-established, an effective e-mail marketing plan is key to promoting and growing your business, increasing revenue, and selling more stuff.”

First of all, without talking about it, what is e-mail marketing?

E-mail marketing does what it says on the tin. It’s a very direct form of marketing, using e-mail to promote a business’ products and services; it involves sending any number of things from product announcements, discounts, audience education, or other services to a pre-set list of recipients.

E-mail marketing has been around forever, and for good reason. It’s the most direct and effective way of connecting with your leads, nurturing them, and turning them into customers, consistently winning out over all other marketing channels.

We’ve covered the biggest question, what e-mail marketing is, but haven’t gotten into why e-mail marketing is so very important for your business. Let’s talk about that now. There are many reasons you should make e-mail marketing one of your top priorities, here are the top 3: 

1. E-mail is the #1 communication channel: Did you know that at least 99% of consumers check their e-mail on a daily basis? That can’t be said of any other communication channel.

2. You own your list: On any social media platform, your account could be suspended or deleted at any time, for any reason, without notice. However, you own your e-mail list. No one can take those leads away from you.

3. E-mail just converts better: People who buy products marketed through e-mail spend 138% more than those who do not receive e-mail offers. In fact, e-mail marketing has an ROI (returns on investment) of 4400%. That’s huge! And if you are wondering if social media converts even better, think again: the average order value of an e-mail is at least three times higher than that of social media.

E-mail is simply the best way to make sales online. Now that you know the importance of e-mail marketing, let’s learn the best ways to go about it.

E-mail marketing allows you to target particular groups of customers or even specific individuals. Offering individual customers special birthday deals on merchandise or services is one way to do this. A restaurant, for instance, might send an e-mail to customers on their birthdays offering 50% off an entree. This kind of personalization helps a business develop and maintain a relationship with a customer—and that can lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.

One huge advantage of e-mail over social media is that customers are more likely to see an e-mail than social media. Just posting something on social media doesn’t mean that everyone you want to see your message will see it. However, an e-mail will sit in an inbox until it’s read (or deleted). 

“TIP :  E-mail marketing can substantially increase your income if you do it correctly. It’s a great way to get people to visit (and revisit) your website or blog. More traffic usually equates to more income.” 

When it’s done well, e-mail marketing is an effective sales driver. When it’s done wrong, e-mail marketing can come across as spam that annoys customers. The best marketing e-mails are optimized for mobile devices, respect the customers, and follow a regular schedule while mixing up the messaging.

But which e-mail marketing automation tools are available?

There’s a lot to bear in mind when you’re formulating a cold e-mail campaign. Thankfully, with us living in the future and all, we can employ technology to do the dirty work for us. Modern CRM systems that live inside Gmail can help us leverage all our lovely customer data alongside our e-mail campaigns. Don’t forget to look inside these tools! 

• NetHunt CRM

• SendPulse
• GetResponse

Now that you know what tools you are using, it’s time to think about your content. What do you want to say to your audience? You’ll want to send e-mails with purpose, that really speak to your subscribers, so always keep in mind what they signed up for. It might be helpful to outline some general content types you can include in your campaigns, so you can refer to them when designing your e-mails.

Here’s an example of a content list:

• Upcoming events
• Recaps and photos from previous events
• Popular posts from social media, like Instagram or Facebook
• News coverage
• Details about featured or new products
• Holiday shopping guides

You know your goal, you know your target audience. Your e-mail copy needs to offer value and speak to topics that interest your audience. You also need to nail down the tone of voice. Ask yourself: What does my audience need from me? How can I help?

It’s important to understand that a lot of your success with e-mail marketing depends entirely on the e-mail marketing software you choose because they are responsible for making sure that your e-mails actually get delivered but the most effective way to learn e-mail marketing is through hands-on practice.