Each week I share digital marketing tools and strategies you can use to promote your business online. In this post, I would like to share with you why Email Marketing is "hands down" my favourite.
You would struggle to find a more cost-effective method to send specific and targeted messages to your audience than the humble email.
Email marketing delivers the most significant return on investment for businesses, given its cost is almost zero. In fact, according to an eMarketer study, the median email marketing ROI is 122%. That's four times higher than any other digital marketing channel.
A carefully crafted email has so many advantages, but for me, the greatest is scalability.
Let me break it down, using an 'email sales funnel' scenario as an example.
Imagine your best sales rep your business has ever had. Have them create a flawless sales pitch. The perfect presentation. A presentation that answers your customers most commonly asked questions. Follow this initial presentation with helpful information, samples, and general product or service information. Then allow your client to digest the information before providing the technical details, case studies and testimonials to assist them with their decisions. And then finally provide useful installation and application ideas, where to buy and other purchasing information.
The complete sales process that is useful, helpful and informative, duplicated and magnified over and over again. To top this off, automate and repeat the whole system, so it runs on autopilot while you sleep.
Now I am not suggesting that this spells the end of sales reps, far from it. However, the leads produced from the email process are pre-qualified and genuine customers that require additional help.
The example I have used here is a typical sales funnel email system that moves a customer through the buying process, but there are many other types of emails that you can use to grow your business.
Email marketing campaigns are goal-driven, measurable and repeatable. With today's tighter budgets, the pencil pushers are going to want to know exactly where each dollar was spent and what did it return. Try doing that with a "branding exercise".
Send different types of leads to keep clients attention and build a relationship.
Just as there are different formats of sales collateral, there are different approaches to the stages of email campaign you should send to a client. The type of email you send will depend on the buying stage your client is at. For example, when starting a new campaign with a prospect, your emails should be informational and educational. After trust has been formed and the buyer has recognised that your company might be the solution, only then should you start sending more transactional information such as where to buy.
Send Promotional Content to Encourage Conversions
Email can reconnect you with leads you possibly thought lost. Probably, the most underrated and underused form of email marketing is the humble newsletter.
Every business wanting an online presence should be maintaining contact with customers past and present with a monthly newsletter.
You can use newsletters to update about a recent company blog and driving traffic back to your site. Newsletters can be used for promotional purposes advertising a special or discount to increase sales. A newsletter is a great platform to share case studies, and educate your customers, building credibility for your company. You can also generate leads by letting your readers know about by featuring a particular product or service that may not be so well known.
Apart from the advantages listed above, some of the other great features of email marketing are that it can produce immediate results. You can send an email or series of emails and receive a call or follow up enquiry within the hour.
Using tools such as MailChimp you can quickly see detailed reports to measure your campaign from who opened and who clicked through to your site in real-time.
As with all marketing strategies, start slow and measure. Begin your campaign with educational emails that provide prospects with helpful information about a problem or challenge they're facing, and then work your way toward the promotional emails that are designed to convert.
Conclusion
Email marketing campaigns are measurable and repeatable. For any business operating on a tight marketing budget, they are the ultimate return on investment.