The costs of not using email marketing for your business

Ask anyone about personalised email marketing - they all agree: it works, really well! Email is widely used as a messaging and marketing medium. It's not a stretch of the imagination to suggest that email is effective every second of every minute of every hour of every day. In other words, this powerful marketing medium never sleeps.

There's no doubt that all your favourite products and services make their way to your inbox with enticing promotions, exclusive deals, and limited time offers. That's the nature of modern-day marketing, and email is running laps around the competition in this regard. e-commerce operations choose email as their preferred way to reach customers, build relationships, and foster brand loyalty. Email marketing is online marketing, a.k.a. digital marketing.

That already spells dramatic cost savings over traditional marketing methods like brochures, pamphlets, flyers, mailers, billboards, etc. This digital marketing channel sends promotional materials to recipients (potential and actual customers) to drive loyalty and build brand awareness. Email is a terrific option for marketing products and services, with fully measurable metrics and analytics. More importantly, email is an ultra-low-cost solution for mass marketing.

Ever since the internet burst onto the scene in the 1990s, email marketing has dominated. It's a virtual mailbox for sending and receiving multimedia communications within seconds, anywhere on the planet. It's an extraordinary technological achievement, with profound implications for business activity. Arguably, the greatest challenge for any business is getting the marketing message to the target market. Few channels do it better than email.

Electronic mail offers an immediate connection between a company and a customer. It's a straight shot to Buyer Central, with no distractions, disconnects, or diversions. Plus, it's a cost-efficient solution, with full customisation and tracking potential. Even the cheapest email marketing platforms can produce miraculous results for companies, provided the campaign is clearly structured, well articulated, and targeted at the right stakeholders.

It's Not a One Trick Pony - Email Offers Multifaceted Solutions 

Every company wants to engage with its customers and potential customers. Communication builds bridges, establishes trust, and grows loyalty. The long-term goals are clear. Digital marketing is all about sending carefully crafted emails to customers to move them through the sales funnel and generate repeat business.

Loyalty is a big part of the equation. Brand loyalty and customer loyalty go hand in hand. Email marketing is an affordable solution for businesses that rely on traditional forms of marketing. Various types of email marketing campaigns are possible, including:

●      Engagement emails - Customer feedback via surveys or testimonials.

●      Drip campaigns - These include pre-scheduled emails tied to specific customer actions. For example, new subscribers or buyers may receive pre-scheduled emails to build loyalty, awareness, and established communication channels.

●      Newsletters - Maintain awareness through regularly scheduled newsletters with the latest updates, promotions, and exclusive offers.

●      Promotional emails - Promo mailers include coupons, sales pitches, promotional offers, exclusive deals, and even donation requests. They should be limited to avoid mass unsubscribes.

●      Educational emails - These contrast sharply with promotional emails. Educational emails are designed to provide the audience with general or specific information about peripheral issues tied to your  company's products and services. They are strictly informative emails.

Why Choose Email Over Traditional Marketing Methods 

PPC campaigns are often expensive. The CPC can dramatically increase the budget, and there are no guaranteed returns. With email marketing, companies have a hedge against costly campaigns. There is no paid email advertising, aside from the relatively low cost of the email marketing platform.

Contrast this with advertising on social media channels - it's a no-brainer. Almost every dedicated social media platform requires paid campaigns to keep ads running. These do not come cheap. With email, you can continue reaching the same customers at near-zero cost.  

The main benefit of choosing email marketing is the ability to track customer behavior. The analytics allow companies to tailor their outreach strategy accordingly. Measurable results support market segmentation of the audience. Customers and potential customers can be divided according to tailored interests and engagement levels.

As a case in point, email recipients who routinely open their emails can be grouped, while those who infrequently open them can be grouped. With marketing, the right people must be targeted with the right message at the right time to have the desired effect.

Market Segmentation for an Effective Email Marketing Strategy 

A company that segments its target market by specific characteristics, behaviours, or trends is far more likely to succeed with its marketing message. In fact, an effective outreach strategy hinges upon that. This is how companies track customer responses, through engagement and interests.

There are demographic and psychographic information trends to contend with. Think of abandoned shopping cart emails as gentle reminders to complete purchases, complementary products for a recently purchased item, or discounts, coupons, or sales pitches to curry favour with customers.

Email marketing is really about keeping the communication between a business and its customers flowing. It's a direct line connecting these two distinct entities. This symbiotic relationship must be nurtured, fostered, and maintained to ensure a long-term, viable relationship. Remember, businesses cannot afford to rest on their laurels.

We live in a cutthroat economy, with intense competition and plenty of complementary products and services. Customers can substitute one brand for another at competitive prices, with near zero loss in utility. That's a fact that businesses must contend with. To avoid such a scenario, it's imperative to develop an effective email marketing strategy.

Email works. It reaches the right people. It costs next to nothing. It delivers results you can measure. That’s why it remains the smartest move in the marketing playbook.