Did you know the first marketing email was sent in 1978? Over 40 years later with the advances of technology, email marketing continues to be an effective way to build an owned audience that can benefit your company’s bottom line turning prospects into customers by building brand awareness and loyalty.
Although it seems simple, our team often hears questions from clients asking “how do I get started? Who do I include on my emailing list? What content should I send out?” So, we are here to set the record straight and help you effectively implement email marketing into your larger strategic marketing plan.
The Why
Even with the rise of social media, email marketing remains the most effective way to nurture leads and convert them to customers. Not only can email marketing help earn new business, but it is also a main source of communication. In fact, 99% of consumers check their email every day.
Plus, not only is email marketing a way to communicate with potential and current customers, but it is a great way to own leads. When using social media, your account can crash or be deleted at any time. This is not the case with email marketing. You own your email list and the leads you receive from this marketing strategy.
Still not convinced? Did you know that email marketing has an average return-on-investment (ROI) of 4400%? This is one marketing tactic that can have a tremendous impact your company’s bottom line, so find out how to implement it today.
The How
To get started with email marketing, it is important to choose the right marketing platform for your businesses’ wants and needs. Remember to choose a platform based on how you are planning to use it for customer data and the kinds of emails you want to send. For example, if you are looking to capture leads through multiple channels, such as email, social media, digital advertising, and landing pages, as well as track leads, lead conversion, and have an email marketing platform automatically send welcome emails, then a marketing CRM platform like Pardot or Hubspot is going to be a solid choice.
However, if you are simply trying to communicate with existing clients, reach out to new prospects, nurture leads and new prospects, and upsell new services, a more traditional email marketing platform like Constant Contact or Mailchimp may be more appropriate. At the end of the day, choosing which marketing platform to use is more about intent and how your business wants to reach customers and use that data more so than the functionalities each platform offers.
It is also imperative to track and measure your email marketing efforts to determine if they are successful. Tracking success is accomplished by first creating conversion funnels for your content and working from a larger marketing strategy where email is just one tactic.
A typical conversion funnel requires communication, a conversion point, and tracking. The first step is to communicate with your audience, which can be through email, or another medium like digital ads. Once your audience receives your communication, you will want to drive them to a conversion point. This could be a landing page on a website, an ecommerce store, or point-of-purchase.
Finally, you will want to track conversions to see if your efforts were successful. One way to track success is through a system such as Google Analytics, which can pull reports. The more conversions you see because of email marketing efforts, the more successful your efforts have been.
It is also important to consider that email marketing can be done through third party services and digital publications that offer marketing services through their connections. Once their customer comes to you and converts, then you have their information and can continue to nurture the lead with your own email platform.
Lastly, when considering implementing email marketing into your strategy, research is always important. Do your research so you are well informed of the laws governing spam. This includes knowing who you are allowed to contact and how. It is also important to understand that email is a powerful tool but is even more effective when used in conjunction with other tactics as a part of a larger marketing strategy.
Growing Your Email List
The more email addresses you can have on your list, the better? Not necessarily, it’s about quality over quantity. However, be smart about how you get email addresses. Adding addresses from business cards from a networking event three years ago or from a long-lost friend is not the best idea, and it also does not necessarily comply with legal requirements and limitations. You want to add people to your list who are likely to buy your products or services to save you time and money.
You can start by adding current customers to the list. To get prospects’ email addresses, one method is to offer them something in exchange. It does not have to cost your business anything to create an opt-in incentive. For example, offer eBooks, a webinar, free quote, or a coupon, and all the customer must do is enter their email address. This is the easiest way to build your email list.
If you still feel overwhelmed by the email marketing processes or have questions as you begin to implement this strategy reach out to our team of digital professionals who work with a variety of email marketing services daily. Email marketing is just one of our areas of expertise and GRIT even offers our own email marketing platform through Campaign Monitor so we can help your business expand its reach. Contact us today!