Email Marketing
What is email marketing?
While it may be one of the oldest forms of digital communication, email marketing remains one of the most powerful channels available to marketers. So, what is email marketing today? And what role can it play in your business?
Email marketing allows brands to deliver highly targeted and personalised 1:1 messaging at scale, build customer loyalty and ultimately grow their audience base.
Compared to other channels, organisations can deliver a higher return on investment with a minimal amount of marketing spend. In fact, according to Smart Insights, email marketing remains the most effective marketing channel ahead of social media, SEO, and affiliate marketing with an average ROI of $38 for every dollar invested (Salesforce).
With its relatively low cost, email marketing provides an opportunity to nurture relationships with existing customers while driving increased revenue through an already engaged audience. And with improvements in AI and automation, getting started with email marketing has never been easier.
The Role of Email Marketing
Having a well-developed email marketing strategy allows you to connect with your customers and target audience in a highly personal way. In many senses, you could compare it to receiving a letter from a friend, as email marketing is by far one of the most personal ways of communicating with your customers.
Depending on your marketing strategy and business goals, email marketing can be used as part of your overall marketing campaign to nurture leads and increase customer engagement. If driving traffic to your website is a priority, then email marketing can be used to prompt or alert your customers of an upcoming sale event or new product promotion.
Regardless of your business type or goals, an email marketing platform will allow you to communicate your brand message to a targeted audience at scale and reach better quality customers using marketing automation, personalisation and Ai software.
Benefits of Email Marketing
So, what are some of the key benefits of email marketing? As a business, there are many ways for you to leverage the power of email marketing. The following are just a few of the key benefits you can expect:
Generate More Website Traffic: Email marketing can be a highly effective way for brands to drive traffic to their website for an upcoming sale, promotion, or new product release. With regular email newsletters, you can keep your most loyal customers up to date with all your latest offers and exclusives.
Increase Customer Loyalty: Build stronger customer connections with 1:1 personalised messaging that resonates with your target audience. Send welcome emails that delight, celebrate an anniversary, or deliver personalised product recommendations they'll love.
Boost Brand engagement: Keep your brand top of mind and your customers engaged with your products and services, even if they aren’t ready to buy. Personalise communications and build brand loyalty to increase your customers' lifetime value.
Promote Your Content: Introduce new products and offers you know your customers will love. Segment your emails to deliver personalised product and content recommendations based on their previous purchase behaviours.
Generate More Leads: Increase email subscribers by encouraging users to engage with marketing assets and sign up to your subscriber list. Build an email list and split test your campaigns to identify your best performing message.
Nurture New Prospects: Nurture customer leads with engaging content no matter where they are in the customer lifecycle. Deliver timely emails to remind customers of a product left in their cart or upcoming sale.
Managing an ecommerce store? Read on to learn how to boost your ecommerce strategy with email marketing.
How to build an Email Marketing List
While there are many ways in which to build your email marketing list, the following covers some of the more common tactics you might consider when building your strategy:
1. Include a sign-up form on your website
By placing a sign-up form in a prominent position on your website you’ll be able to encourage site visitors to subscribe to your email list. Many brands achieve this by offering consumers an initial discount code, exclusive offer, or similar promotional means to capture their details.
2. Let engaged customers know you have an email list
Alerting your existing audience base to the fact that you have a subscriber list can be one of the most effective means to increasing email sign-ups. You may find you have many followers on social media platforms or visiting your blog that have not yet subscribed. Consider placing a prominent call to action on key website landing pages.
3. In-store sign-ups
If you have a physical brick and mortar store, then don’t forget to ask your customers to sign up at check out. Providing customers with an initial promotional code or access to exclusive content can be a great way to capture additional subscribers.
4. Guides, catalogues, or e-books
No matter what assets you may be creating, the more value you offer as a brand the more likely it is that potential customers will provide their email address. Consider investing the extra time and effort to create something truly valuable for your customers that would encourage them to download and subscribe.
Sending Marketing Emails
So now you’ve built a fantastic email marketing list, what’s next? Creating a compelling email campaign doesn’t have to be hard. With a little knowledge and some careful planning, you can put your email marketing strategy to work.
Here are a few of the key things you should consider when launching your email marketing campaign:
1. Have a clear goal
Having a clear goal will allow you to measure the success of your email marketing campaign. Is it to drive website traffic? Increase sales or leads, or perhaps both. Regardless, it’s important to have a clear view on what it is you are trying to achieve as this will inform the kind of action you ask your audience to perform.
2. Segment your audience
While it may sound complex, segmentation is simply the practice of dividing up your audience into more targeted groups. This process allows you to tailor your messaging to specific users based on the shared preferences they may have previously indicated. One way to get the most out of segmentation is by using a CRM to access more individual customer interests.
While you can segment your customers into groups, there are many ways email personalisation can help you engage with your customers in some truly creative ways, these might include:
Initial sign-up: Providing your customers with the opportunity to decide the kinds of communication they receive will demonstrate transparency and place the customer’s preferences first. Setting initial expectations will go a long way in helping you decrease the number of people who may otherwise choose to unsubscribe.
Birthday Anniversary: If you have captured those details why not celebrate your customers' birthday by offering them something special. An exclusive offer or discount will go a long way in building a great customer relationship and will be something they will remember.
Produce recommendations: By leveraging your CRM data you’ll be able to provide your customers with highly personalised product recommendations based on their previous purchase habits. This kind of advanced personalisation will allow you to better understand your audience and build more personal brand relations.
3. Make your email enticing
A well-composed email with an enticing subject line and great offer can be a fantastic lead magnet. Whether you’re using an email template or building a custom design, your email marketing tool will quickly become one of your most valuable assets. Getting your customers to open your email is just the first step.
The following tips will help set you on the path to becoming an email marketing pro in no time:
Have a plan: Before you start, figure out who it is you want to speak to. Is it your entire email marketing list or perhaps your newest customers? Having a plan will help you craft the right message, the kind that will resonate with your audience.
Understand your audience: Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. The key to a great email marketing strategy is to understand not only what to say but when to say it. Audience segmentation will play an important role in helping you identify the moments that matter most to your customers.
Get creative: Get creative with your content choices. A wall of text isn’t fun to read and will likely impact future email open rates. Make your emails more enticing with captivating images that grab your audience's attention, boost engagement rates and deliver better campaign outcomes.
Follow up: Now you've delivered a great email campaign and the leads are flowing through, so what’s next? Remember not everyone will respond to your email the first time so you'll need to have a plan. Consider nurturing those who didn't convert the first time with a gentle nudge in the days that follow. Remember not to overdo it though, you don't want to spam your customers and make them regret signing up.
Whether you’re running an online store or trying to generate more leads, you should consider adding email marketing to your digital strategy. Like to learn more? Stay up to date with the latest news, trends and insights with Salesforce.