And it isn’t going anywhere. Here’s why this marketing mainstay is still essential to your brand.
Email is the ‘old faithful’ of digital marketing. Yes, open rates may have fallen since it’s debuted in 1971, but its importance is irrefutable. Recent studies have shown that 89% of Americans check their email once day, and nearly 21% of people check it more than 5 times per day. Email may not get the respect it deserves, but it’s definitely still crucial to your brand.
With email, you can target leads with tailored messages developed with the goal of pushing them further down the sales funnel. Unless you’re making a separate channel for all of your target audiences, you’re not going to get that option from social. No matter your goal, you can more than likely get it done with a solid email marketing strategy. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Why Email Marketing matters
Increase Brand Awareness
Increasing brand awareness is as easy as keeping your emails consistent in design, tone and frequency. That consistency will build on your brand image and shape your relationship with your list. Create an easily adjustable email template so that way you don’t even have to think about it when drafting your emails. The more easily they recognize who you are and what you do, the more likely your brand will come to mind when they’re ready to make purchase decisions.
Expand Your Audience
A monthly newsletter can do wonders for growing out your contact list. Place an opt-in box on the homepage of your website so people interested in your brand can leave their name and email. It’s a completely effortless way to get people to sign up for your updates, and it can be promoted anywhere from printed materials to social media. This is how you build relationships with visitors that aren’t quite ready to make purchase decisions yet.
Generate new leads
There are a few ways you can generate new leads with your email marketing strategy, but they all rely on getting people to actually open your emails. For that, you’ll need compelling subject lines. It may sound easy, but the average person receives a whopping 88 emails per day. Standing out requires creativity, plus a little extra push. If there are any incentives in your email (like a discount or content offer), make sure it says so in your subject line and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
Drive traffic and conversions
Once you have the design and copy of your email down, your next step should be to pump it full of links. Every image, button and CTA should link back to page on your website. When it comes to the text copy, place links where it makes sense to do so. If you reference something that has a page on your website, offer a link so the reader can learn more. The goal is to make getting back to your website as effortless as possible.
Remind your customers you’re still in business
Email marketing allows you to re-engage past customers with offers relevant to their past purchase decisions. Studies have shown that it’s 7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep an existing one, and when you think about it, it makes sense. If you’ve already woo-ed someone with your excellent product or service and top tier customer experience, all it should take is a subtle nudge to get them back to browsing your website. Introduce a specialized offer or send recommendations for new products based on their purchase history.
Email may be old school, but it’s the most effective part of broader growth campaigns, and it’s easily customizable to for any goal you may have. Need some help fine-tuning your email marketing campaign? Contact Yakkety Yak. We’d love to help you out.
