You must have heard that digital marketing is all about SEO, Google Ads, and Social Media Marketing. But did you know that email marketing in the form of digital marketing with the highest Return on Investment (ROI)? Yes, that’s true.
It is the oldest form of digital marketing. It is often underrated, however, it is 40 times more beneficial than Facebook and Twitter combined for gaining new customers.
There are many advantages of Email Marketing and I will be discussing this in detail but first, we need to understand the dynamics of email marketing.
Types of email:
| Newsletters:
According to studies, 83% of companies send newsletters to their audience. Newsletters can either be original content with links to your website or curated content which is related to your industry.
Newsletters should have consistency as we want our audience to stay updated about industry trends. We can also promote our new product launches through newsletters.
| Conversion from prospect to customers:
These are basically emails which are sent periodically to the leads for conversions. This is usually automated content and also helps in engagement.
| Transactional:
These are sent when any purchase is made, like confirmation emails when any transaction is done. These can also thank the receiver for contacting you, for example, “Thank you for the email.”
| Milestone:
These are sent on the birthdays of your customers. In fact, birthday emails have a transaction rate that is 400% higher than that of promotional emails, if you also provide special offers in the mail.
| Promotional:
These are sent when you need to promote your products and services. They are sent in bulk usually.
Now that you know the types of Email. The next step is an email marketing strategy to prevent your email from going to the spam folder.
Email Marketing Strategy:
- Double opt-in: In this process whenever a customer fills the signup form, you do not directly add them to the mailer list. Instead, another mail is sent to verify if the details filled are correct and if they are comfortable receiving promotional emails. This prevents adding any fake Email IDs or uninterested clients to your email list.
- Email Authentication by DKIM: This is a coded confirmation method from the sender that checks the integrity of the email. It is basically a key that connects the email to the DNS server and establishes the genuineness of the mail. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo use this type of authenticator and it is better to use this strategy to prevent your mails from going into spam. Your developer can help you with the setup.
- Email Warm-up: This actually involves sending emails from an IP address regularly. IP warming is the act of slowly expanding the volume of mails sent from a particular IP address as per a scheduled timetable. This continuous procedure assists with building up your image with ISPs (Internet Service Providers) as an authentic email sender.
Now we know what strategies we should follow for email marketing, we should know why we should give our time and effort for email marketing. Why must you do it?
Advantages of Email Marketing:
1. Best ROI: Each advertiser needs to have the option to see substantial outcomes from their marketing endeavors, and email marketing is one of the channels to achieve that. This platform brings in the best ROI for your business. It can create an incredible $38 for each $1 spent. That converts into an ROI of 3,800%.
It’s significant that you have a tracking system set up to monitor email clicks, site visits, and how many conversions have occurred to understand the ROI.
2. Customized content: Email marketing permits you to categorize your clients into various segments depending on their interest, the stage of the marketing funnel(cold prospect, warm prospect, and hot prospect) they are in. You can create highly customized content depending upon the category they are enlisted in. From creating the ideal title to pictures that resonate with your client, and important content that engages your crowd, the email is a highly effective tool for customized content.
Keep changing your content looking into the demands of the customer. Ignore the urge to hard-sell your products to your customers. Establish trust between you and your customers, then you can start sharing promotional mails. But it should seem like a solution to their problem and not pushing a product.
3. Lower Cost: With any business, especially small businesses, there are time and money restrictions. Even if you spend on flyers or pamphlets it would require a substantial budget for printing expenses. On top of that, you require time to design the flyer and coordinate with your delivery associates.
This time spent not concentrating on your business is lost income, and a lost chance to associate with your clients on an individual level. One of the most favorable circumstances of email marketing is the proficient utilization of time and money. Planning an expert email advertising effort isn’t tedious. Sending emails by email marketing tools to numerous clients is likewise still financially savvy.
4. Builds customer relationships: According to a study, 80% of businesses believe that email marketing increases customer retention.
You could even set up a drip campaign to assist you to make things easier. Now you may ask what is a drip campaign? It is basically a set of emails that are sent to the audience once a particular condition is met. The 2nd mail would not be triggered until the 1st one and so the cycle continues. For example, you can set up a trigger that automatically sends email 2 once email 1 has been opened. We can also schedule a wait time according to which, once a person has opened email 1, then after 2 days email 2 can be sent across.
Drip campaigns are continuous and reduce the time taken to convert a lead. They’re regularly used to increase brand recall while giving customers valuable information.
5. Easy to measure: Another key advantage of email marketing is that it is easier to understand where you are going wrong. Most email advertising automation will permit you to follow “open-rate”, “click-through rate”, and conversions. It is easier to incorporate the changes well.
Now that we have understood the type of emails, email strategy, and advantages of email marketing. But it is essential to know about free bulk email sender tools to start your email campaigns-
Free Tools are Mailchimp & ZOHO
Mailchimp: Mailchimp is a pioneer in email marketing that you’ve most likely heard about. Their free plan gives you a tool for email construction and scheduling. Two extraordinary features that this email automation tool offers are suggestions and insights, to assist in strategizing your campaigns.
ZOHO: It has a range of templates that you can choose from. You can segment your customers and also carry out Drip Campaigns through ZOHO mail.
It’s obvious to see that email continues to be the best advertising medium for business. Maybe it’s the ideal opportunity for your business to begin focusing on email marketing now.
