What is Email Marketing? Is Email Marketing beneficial for businesses?

Marketing has evolved over centuries, decades, and years. The manufacturing-oriented systems have now been converted into relationship-oriented systems. One of the most popular modes of marketing is digital marketing.

Digital marketing refers to the process of using online media sources to endorse brands, products, and services. It includes email, social media, website, search engines, and mobile apps.

Digital marketing is a boon for small businesses where around 170 million people are using the internet daily. You see, the world came across this term in 1990. Unfortunately, it had limited options and did not allow information sharing.

Yahoo came into existence in 1994 with a new ray of hope in email marketing. It was the time when businesses started using this platform to market their products and services. However, tables turned when Google was launched in 1998. It was marked as the golden year for digital marketers.

About Email Marketing

Small businesses generally have a tight marketing budget. They cannot afford to spend on expensive marketing and promotion campaigns. But this does not mean that they cannot join the competition. Email marketing is one of the best marketing tools that can help small and mid-scale businesses promote their products.

The businesses that opt for email marketing tend to enjoy higher sales in the most cost-effective way. And this is the reason email marketing still works despite having some tough competitors. With much ado, let us understand everything related to email marketing in this post.

What is Email Marketing?

Any marketing or promotion of products and services done via email is called email marketing. Apart from this, email marketing is also helpful in fostering long-term customer relationships. It is one of the best marketing tools to tap the target audience and attract them towards the brand.

Interestingly, it also plays a crucial role in informing the customers about the brand story and upcoming offers. Businesses have the power to tailor the email content as per their marketing strategy. It is hands down one of the most conversation-rich modes of digital marketing in 2020.

Types of Marketing Emails

Keeping in touch with customers is a crucial part of running a prosperous business. But deciding what to share in marketing emails can become tricky at times. To make it simple, experts have identified four different types of marketing emails.

1. Information Emails

Emails that include details about the upcoming event, sale, or product launch come under this category. They have a clear call-to-action that will direct the customers to the website page.

These newsletters are meant to be circulated regularly on a weekly or monthly basis. They usually contain crisp content about the brand with some appealing images, titles, and descriptions.

3. Product Update Emails

Businesses who want to update their consumers about the latest product line should opt for this email type.

4. Transactional Emails

Emails that are sent on a one-on-one basis are called transactional emails. Order confirmation, payment details, and so on come under this category.

Why Email Marketing?

You see, email is one of the best ways to boost sales and online presence of a brand. Here are the top reasons why small businesses should go for email marketing.

Wide Reach

Do you know that over 99% of consumers check their emails daily? It is a golden opportunity for small and mid-scale businesses that want to reach a wide audience range. Email marketing has the power to convert prospects into consumers and one-time buyers into raving, loyal fans.

Cost-effective

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools compared to other mainstream marketing options.

Email is forever

Social media accounts are subjected to suspension or deletion at the channel owners’ discretion. On the contrary, an email account is forever, and no one can take your sales leads away.

Higher conversions

Around 81% of the small and medium businesses rely on email for consumer acquisition. Moreover, over 80% rely on it for retention. As far as the ROI is concerned, email marketing has an ROI of 4400%. This figure is almost three times higher than the ROI of the social media platform.

When should you use Email Marketing?

You can use Email marketing used to:

Foster relationships – Businesses that aim to foster long-term relationships with their customers should go for email marketing.
Boost brand awareness – Marketing through email does a great job of boosting brand awareness and brand loyalty.
Promote your brand – Companies that look forward to promoting their products and services should choose this marketing tool.
Generate leads – Emails can effectively convince consumers to share their details in exchange for certain products and services.

Getting Started with Email Marketing

Here are a few steps that will help small scale and mid-scale businesses to get started with it.

Establish Goal – What do you want to achieve through email marketing? Do you want to educate consumers about your product line? These are some questions that will help you in determining your purpose for choosing email marketing.
Create an Email List - You now need to create an email list of the customers you wish to send emails to. You have two options to do it. Either import the existing contacts into your account or create a new contact list.
Select the Campaign Type – Selecting the type of campaign will help streamline your business efforts in the right direction. You can choose from options like announcement emails, offer emails, newsletter emails, and event invitation emails. Companies should consider their business goals while selecting an option.
Time to Create your First Campaign – Now that your goals, audience, and campaign type are decided, it is the right time to design your email. Here are a few tips for creating an appealing email:

o Go for easy content

o Use visuals and images to boost engagement

o Give a personal touch by adding receivers name and customised messages

o Add value to customer’s life

o Go beyond promotional content

o A catchy call-to-action will be a cherry on the cake

Evaluate Results – Businesses should use Google Analytics to measure the result of their email marketing campaign. It will reveal details about how many customers opened, shared, and subscribed to the email. This data can become a crucial reference for the next campaign.

Top 5 Email Marketing Pro Tips

Make the most out of your email marketing campaign with the help of these top 5 pro tips.

1. Understand your target audience

Well-thought emails generate 18 times more revenue than random content. Therefore, it is essential to know the demands and expectations of the target audience.

2. Be consistent

You see, consistency is the key to success in email marketing. Consistency can be in terms of both the quality of content and frequency in sending emails.

3. Keep it short and sweet

Emails that are crisp and to-the-point tend to drive higher returns. Therefore, businesses should avoid using complicated language and jargon.

4. The subject line is crucial

Small and medium businesses should make the most out of the subject line. They should try to keep it simple sans any gimmicks and jokes.

5. Circulate popular emails

Circulating popular and successful emails can prove to be a game-changer for small businesses.

Bottomline

It was all about email marketing. You see, this marketing tool has been in the industry for years. However, only a few businesses have been able to master it. It is essential to focus your email marketing campaign on the needs and wants of your target audience. Small and mid-scale businesses should focus on posting content that customers want to hear. It will fetch a higher ROI than the other way round. Good luck.

Also read:
How is Affiliate Marketing beneficial for any business?
How Smaller Cities & Towns are Emerging as New Capitals for Brands?
Digital growth of brands over the years
What is the best form of advertising today in the modern world?

FAQs

Q. How can I build an effective email strategy?

Ans: Here are a few steps that will help you in designing an effective email strategy:

o Set a goal

o Decide the type of email you would like to send

o Identify the target audience and their email addresses

o Create eye-catching content with pictures and quotes

o Plan your emails and their follow-ups

o Test and evaluate your email marketing campaign

Q. What should be the frequency of sending marketing emails?

Ans: There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to the frequency of sending marketing emails. However, you can identify the response of the customers with the help of Google Analytics. Businesses can send popular content emails weekly. However, the lesser popular ones can be sent after amendments.

Q. What is the right time to send marketing emails?

Ans: Experts suggest that the right time to send marketing emails is between 10 am to 5 pm on weekdays. As far as the weekends are concerned, 11 am to 7 pm is an excellent time to send such emails.