Email Marketing: The Unknown Golden Key to Growing Your Business

“Email is dismissed as something old people use; but in the past few years, we have started to see email as a peer to publishing platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and the web, one that has its strengths and weaknesses that we are starting to figure out.” – Gideon Lichfield

Businesses are growing more creative with their marketing techniques by the day, and any business that wants to grow needs to keep up. Today, we’re going on a journey with you on one of these techniques, email marketing.

Well, let’s start with what email marketing is, shall we?

Email marketing involves identifying a group of people relevant to your business and sending them emails regularly. This is to influence them to buy, patronize your product or service, or build a relationship with your brand.

Despite the view that emails are old-fashioned, they are still an effective way of connecting with target customers. Yes, email marketing is very much still in the system! From big news platforms like BBC to blogs, the customer’s inbox has become one of the best places to drop a reminder, a new article, or a piece of information.

You may wonder how practical that could be, especially in this age of short text messages, instant messaging, etc.; well, read on to find out how.

With email platforms like Gmail growing by the minute, issues that usually affect the success of email marketing, such as spam have eventually become a minimal issue. These platforms have become more security-conscious and sensitive to privacy. This has once again turned the odds in favor of email marketing.

Here’s a stat:  Business-to-consumer email giant, MailChimp, founded in 2001, grows daily by 10,000 users! According to the company, they send over 400 million emails each day!

 

Benefits of Email Marketing 

•         Helps you to stay relevant to your target audience

Emails give your target customers the information they want because more often than not, they subscribed to it. This helps you to stay relevant, as your target audience is receiving the information they are interested in.

•         Easy to keep track of, in a world chock-full of information

Email marketing is a great add-on to your other marketing techniques. Believe it or not, emails bring a touch of order to a fast-paced world. With customers getting information wherever they turn, email marketing has a way of quieting the noise. You can send out information about your product or service to your target audience.

They can go through it in their own time, at their own pace. Plus, it is easier for them to refer to your message whenever, as emails make it easier to do so.

•         Increases chances of audience loyalty

Imagine you had an audience that looked forward to receiving your emails. This boosts their chances of reading your emails and in turn, you get more referrals. What does this mean for your business?

Sometimes it’s not all about the numbers. It’s equally important to have a group of loyal customers for whom you can improve the quality of your service and communication. Email marketing makes this possible.

Here are a few ways by which you can improve your email marketing:

•         Learn from your competitors

To stay relevant and get fresh ideas, you need to be aware of what your competitors are doing. How catchy are their headlines? What inspiration can you get from them?

• Test the waters

A catchy headline will give your customers the push they need to go ahead and open that mail. How would you know what your customers are looking out for? You could play around with samples to see which ones generate more clicks.

Your audience may prefer one headline to the other, and that will help you tailor your emails to their preference. This will help generate more leads and also help you know what exactly catches your audience’s attention.

•         Create email lists, to help you attend to them on a more personal tone

To have a successful email marketing campaign, you need to build an email list. Segmenting your lists will help you to identify “who is what”, and will help you respond to them. For example, identifying those who often respond to your emails by making a purchase will help you tailor more specific emails for them that will make them feel even more valued. Or you could even identify those who hardly open your emails and find interesting ways to get their attention.

•         Improve your content

Newsflash….your emails are not the only ones your target audience is receiving. So what makes you stand out? As a business owner, you need to keep your emails fresh and straight to the point.

This sustains interest and encourages your audience to click on the relevant links.

Here are a few tips:

• Explore different tools that can help improve your writing skills
• Divide your content using bullet points
• Take a break when you have to; you cannot write when stressed out
• Practice, practice, practice!

Email marketing has a few disadvantages. It is often treated as ‘old-fashioned’ and not appealing to many.

Email is a 40-year-old technology that is not going away for very good reasons — it’s the cockroach of the Internet.

No matter your industry and the type of email you send out, what counts is the value! Here are the types of emails your business should send regularly:

• Transactional email
• Welcome email
• Promotional email
• Milestone email
• Newsletter Email
• Product advice email
• Educational email
• Testimonial email
• Survey email

In conclusion, the use of emails to build a close relationship with potential customers isn’t dead. It’s still an effective marketing strategy to grow your business. What do you think of email marketing, and have you had any experiences? We’ll be glad to hear from you! Check out our ebook on email marketing for more information on how email marketing could be the magic wand you need!