One of the great things about email, is that you are guaranteed to get your message to the recipients mail box. Social media on the other hand has less certainty. Email allows your business to spread a message to a wide audience that could benefit from the message in a small period of time. Emails help you increase the reach and engagement with your message.
When you check your email throughout the day, what are you more attracted to? A subject line and email that has your name or even something that interests you? Or a generic email that clearly reeks of spam? The majority of people who still actively check their email prefer a subject line that is personal and aligns with their interests. They also prefer to read emails that they know aren't spam and don't carry the risk of getting a virus.
So when your business is creating an email marketing strategy, it's important to make your email read as friendly as possible so it isn’t trashed. Emails allow you to personalize your messages to different customers and prospects by their locations, likes, interests etc. Email helps you market smarter, not harder.
The return on investment for email marketing is commonly high. According to the 2014 Email Marketing Industry Census, email marketing is #1 for ROI. These companies in the census are accrediting 23% of their total sales to using email marketing. That is a large portion of sales! - and 73% of marketers agreed that an email marketing strategy is essential to their businesses. Using email, you know that you are using those marketing dollars wisely.
The interesting thing about social media is the short life span that the messages and content have. Did you know that 75% of the reach of a Facebook post happens within an hour and fifty minutes? And tweets on Twitter find their reach within only minutes. Thankfully with email, the lifespan of this type of marketing strategy is longer and guaranteed to be seen by the potential customer if they regularly check their emails. In order for the email not to be seen, the user needs to delete the email or mark it as spam, which in turn gives you the opportunity to entice them with an amazing subject line that would interest them. Email has a longer lifespan than social media.
Most likely one of your main goals with your marketing efforts is to raise awareness of your brand. Email is a great way to do this. Having a well thought out strategy can show your potential customers that your company takes its messaging seriously and wants to be helpful with your product or service. If there isn’t a strategy present, emails can be sloppy and can damage the image of your company. But if done properly, email can raise your brand awareness for the better.
How can you have a strategy without goals? How do you know if you have reached your goals without measuring? Good news! You can use different programs or software (like HubSpot) to measure the open rate, click-through rate etc. From there you can analyze the data which helps you decide if you met your goals and whether or not your strategy was successful. With this data, you can change your strategy accordingly to improve and increase the chance of converting leads into customers.
Do you need help implementing your email marketing strategy? Then contact us at Half a Bubble Out today!
Since 2002, Half a Bubble Out has been dedicated to providing marketing, advertising and small business consulting that meet the needs of our clients. We specialize in powerfully telling stories through inbound marketing to grow your business filled with more passion and provision. Based in Chico California, we serve clients throughout Northern California and across the country to New York.