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What is email marketing (Techno Riad)
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What is email marketing?
Basically the use of email to promote products and/or services. But
a better email marketing definition is the use of email to develop
relationships with potential customers and/or clients. Email marketing is one
segment of internet marketing, which encompasses online marketing via
websites, social media, blogs, etc. It is essentially the same as direct
mail except that instead of sending mail through the postal service,
messages are sent electronically via email.
Much of the spam email we all get proclaiming 'deals' on this, and that is a
good example of email marketing at its worst; the mindless email barrage.
Someone somewhere buys an email list (or several!) and sends an email along the
lines of “Get ___________ (the product name) for only $_____! (the amount) to
everyone on the list – sometimes repeatedly. All this does is annoy everyone
and give email marketing a bad name.
At its best, email marketing allows businesses
to keep their customers informed and tailor their marketing messages to their
customers.
Email Marketing Can
Be Personalized
Particular
groups of customers can be targeted or even individuals. Offering individual
customers special deals on merchandise and/or services on the customer's
birthday, for instance, is one example of email marketing personalization. (A
restaurant might send an email to customers on their birthday offering 50% off
an entree,) Email marketing helps a business develop and maintain a
relationship with a customer over time that hopefully results in increased
sales and increased customer loyalty.
Email
marketing best practices include developing your own email list rather
than buying an email list(s) and making participation in your email list opt-in
rather than opt-out (using permission-based email marketing). Email should also
be optimized for mobile usage as according to statistics over half of the emails
are opened on mobile devices.
The Advantages of
Email Marketing
The two
big advantages of email marketing are price and ease.
Emailing is an inexpensive way to advertise your company and its products
and/or services compared to many other types of marketing. It's also extremely
easy to set up and track an email marketing campaign, making it a very
accessible type of marketing for small businesses.
Newsletters can be sent to the email list you've built from the people who
provided the necessary information on your website, for instance, providing
these potential customers with news updates about your company, upcoming events
and/or special offers – and, of course, reminding them that your business
exists and that maybe it's time for another visit.
Email Marketing Is
Still Relevant
In an
age of increasing usage of social media for advertising, email marketing
still rules the roost, according to a study conducted by HostPapa:
- 94% of Internet
users use email, while only 61% use social media
- 75% of adult
online users say that email marketing is their preferred marketing method
- the "opt-in"
feature of email allows marketing by consent
- email marketing
allows targeting by demographics (age, income, etc.)
- email messages
have a much wider range of formatting possibilities than social media
messages
- email offers
more reporting and analytics capability, such as click-through rates, open
rates, bounce rates, and conversions
The
huge advantage of email over social media is that prospects and customers are
more likely to see an email than social media. Just posting something
doesn't mean that everyone you want to see your message will see it.
Your post might not even show up in your targets' social media
streams. However, an email will sit in the inbox until it's read (or
deleted).
Ideally,
email marketing should go hand-in-hand with social media. Adding social media
"Like" or "Share" buttons to your marketing emails gives an
additional way for customers to connect with your brand. Snippets of
positive reviews from social media fans can be included in emails, and
conversely, social media postings can be used to encourage fans to subscribe to
your email newsletters.
Email
marketing can substantially increase your income if you do it correctly. (See
the tips below.) It's a great way to get people to visit and/or revisit your
website or blog, and more traffic usually equates to more income.
Email Marketing Tips
1.
Build your own list. This has already been mentioned but buying
email lists is a waste of time. All you're going to do by sending unsolicited
emails is turn off most of the people you're hoping to turn into customers and
run the risk of being labeled a spammer.
2.
Adhere to the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act. These
rules include having a non-deceptive subject line, a method of unsubscribing,
and your name and address at the end of the emails.
3.
Don't just send out ads to buy all the time. Use your emails to
build rapport with customers by sharing your expertise and/or that of others, giving
them tips and insights they can value. Share information that lets them know
more about you and/or your company if it's interesting.
4. Treat your list well. Remember that the
people you're using email to communicate with have trusted you with their email
and name; they deserve your respect. Just as you deserve a chance to convert
them from customers to fans and even evangelists for your brand, people who
want to talk about and share your message and get involved in any way they
can.
5.
Stick to a schedule if you're doing a newsletter. Sending email
on a regular day or day can help your subscribers know what to expect from you
and when.
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