Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach your customers. Not only is it more effective than some marketing methods, but it’s also less expensive. Here’s how you can successfully use email marketing to reach prospects and customers.
The results are in, and an old favorite that was largely written off by small business owners is the clear winner. If you want to reach your customers, put a lot of time and effort into email marketing.
According to a recent study by McKinsey, reaching people through email is 40 times more effective than Twitter and Facebook combined!
You read that right — 40 times!
If you follow digital marketing trends, you know that social media has mightily replaced email as the most talked-about means of reaching customers. Proponents tout the fact that you can target ads to certain demographics with unprecedented accuracy. Do you want to reach mothers with an upper middle class income who have a child who recently started driving? You can do that through social media advertising.
But what the proponents fail to mention is that you can’t get much more targeted than email because everybody on your list (if it’s a list obtained legitimately) are people who gave you permission to market to them. They’re interested in what you have to say or they wouldn’t have signed up for your email list.
There’s also the fact that checking email is the first thing most of us do every day when we wake up. According to statistics, 99 percent of customers check their e-mail at least once per day. Considering there are more than 4 billion existing email accounts, that’s a lot of people.
The stats get even better. According to the Litmus 2021 State of Email report, email resulted in an estimated $8.49 billion in sales in 2021. Another report has shown that 74 percent of customers prefer to receive marketing messages through email and nearly half of emails are read on mobile devices. Finally, 60 percent of consumers say they’ve made a purchase because of an email they’ve received.
Convinced yet? If you aren’t using email as a marketing tool, you could be failing to tap into the single best online vehicle your business could have for producing revenue.
The Glaring Problem
Of course, there’s a problem. You have to build your email list. When digital marketing was in its infancy, business owners purchased email lists much like they did a physical mailing list.
Although you could still do it today, you can’t do it legally. Anti-spam laws require that everybody on your email list opt-in, meaning that before they receive an email from your company, they have to accept your invitation.
Even if you could buy a list legally, you won’t see good results. Popular email marketing platform Survey Monkey compiled historical data from the days when purchased email lists were popular. It found that open rates were terrible. In fact, it was so bad that people wouldn’t even open the email to unsubscribe.
How to Build a List the Right Way
If you can’t purchase a list of leads, what can you do? You can double back to the often-talked-about advertising platform of the cool kids, Facebook.
Facebook has an ad type that helps you to drive traffic to your website. Would you pay a shiny dime (or less) for somebody to join your email list? Statistics show that for every dollar spent on email marketing, business owners will see a $36 return. A dime is pennies compared to the potential return you could see from your email list.
This is where good targeting on Facebook comes into play. If your business caters to moms, it’s probably not worth your time or money to market to males. If you’re in the sporting goods business, target people who are interested in sports. Sound pretty simple? It is, because Facebook makes it easy. Twitter has an advertising platform, too. If you’re more comfortable with Twitter, give it a try.
But before you send them to your website, you need something to give them — for free. A report, an e-book, a coupon, or something else that people would find valuable in exchange for allowing you the privilege of sending them email.
The Contents of the Email
Now that you have them on your list, the email you send needs to be top-notch. Here are a few pointers.
1.) Make the subject epic. They won’t read your email unless they’re hooked by your subject. Make it fantastic and try various headlines to see which one converts the best.
2.) Make it personal. Email software allows you to use the person’s name in the email. Using their name makes it personal — like the email was sent directly to them. Conversions are higher when the email is personal.
3.) Make it social. Link back to your social media accounts. Just as you’re using social media to advertise your email list, use your email list to advertise your social media.
4.) Make it mobile. If your customer can’t read your email on their mobile device, expect your open rates to be lower than you wanted. More than half of your customers read their email on a mobile device, remember?
5.) Make it concise. Tell them why they will benefit from responding to your email, support your claim, and ask for the sale. Don’t make it wordy.
Bottom Line
Nobody is saying to abandon social media. Use e-mail and social media to support each other but don’t forget about e-mail.
It’s seen as the dinosaur of the digital marketing world, but it’s in no danger of dying off. Email is here to stay and rightfully so. Your best results can come from your email list.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
