15 Forgotten Benefits of Email Marketing

Despite the rise in other forms of online marketing, email still remains an extremely effective medium for reaching new consumers and cementing connections with existing customers. Email marketing is versatile, low-outlay and very rapid, offering a fast and efficient means of communication that translates into increased revenue. Here is a run-down of some benefits of email marketing that you may have forgotten.

1) Reduced time and effort

Email is a great time-saver, especially in the context of marketing. Creating an email message involves little time, money, resource and effort when compared to designing a print advertisement. Responses are also quicker, since there’s no time spent waiting for an ad to appear. Email marketing can be automated, cutting down the need for human resourcing.

2) Generate repeat business

Email marketing is the perfect way to stay in touch with your existing customers. Someone who has bought from you in the past may need only a small nudge to buy from you in the future. If you’ve successfully made a sale, contacting the customer with similar or related offers can reap rewards.

3) Increase offline sales

Email marketing is typically associated with online sales but it can also be an effective tool for generating foot traffic for your bricks-and-mortar store. By targeting people in your general geographic area, you can encourage them to visit and a consumer who’s made the decision to enter your store based on your email marketing material is more likely to make a purchase.

4) Reach anyone, anywhere

Email lets you make contact with prospective customers all over the world. Unlike ads in print media or ads on particular websites, the prospect doesn’t have to be part of a particular audience. You can reach CEOs or janitors, retirees or highschoolers, at home or abroad easily and inexpensively. As long as your message is relevant to those receiving it, you can reach anybody.

5) Gather customers’ valuable feedback

While conventional advertising is a one-way street, email is reciprocal: you can reach your consumers and they can reach you. With email, consumers let you know if your email message is of interest to them or not. They’ll provide valuable feedback about their sales experience and how satisfied they are with their purchases. Of course, don’t get disheartened with the negative feedback. Remember! This is your opportunity to use the negative feedback to improve on your processes, your performance and overall improve your business.

6) Segment user and customer database information

Email makes it very easy to create segmented customer lists, tailoring each one to the specific needs of one group of customers. For example, you can very easily set up one mailing list for customers in the US and another for overseas. This allows you to fine-tune your marketing campaign in a way that’s difficult to achieve with other avenues.

7) Build relationships

By setting up a periodic email newsletter, you can establish a solid ongoing relationship with your existing customers and prospects. A weekly, fortnightly or monthly email can be an excellent and inexpensive way to generate repeat customers and develop brand loyalty.

8) High degree of personalization

Email campaigns can be personalized to a degree that’s difficult to achieve with other kinds of marketing. As mentioned earlier, you can easily segment your customer database according to their needs to create specific messages for individual customers. Individual email messages can be developed based on a customer’s previous purchases, registered interests and other factors such as online behavior. Messages can be scheduled based on information such as ordering patterns or the release of a new product. Best of all, this whole process can be automated.

9) Forwarding

We hear a lot about social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter but email is still the number one medium for consumers to share content and information. Someone who receives an email targeted to a particular set of interests is apt to have contacts with similar interests. If their experience is positive, they are very likely to forward your messages to colleagues, friends, family members and others in their social and professional networks. The result is more customers for you.

10) Interactive

Interactivity isn’t just for websites and social media platforms. By including an interactive elements in your email marketing campaign you can hold your prospect’s attention while gathering valuable data at the same time. Surveys and polls in particular are great interactive tools.

11) Real-time capabilities

In contrast with campaigns using conventional marketing avenues, an email marketing campaign can be put together in a matter of hours. This allows you to respond very rapidly to changing circumstances. For example, you can publicize a one-day sale in response to an overstock that needs to be corrected quickly; or send out personalized messages to your customers on significant dates.

12) Written in Black and White

Email marketing tools let you track your campaign in great detail. It’s easy to see how many messages were sent out in a particular timeframe, how many were opened and how many received a response or generated a sale. This allows you to assess the effectiveness of your campaign and dial in your focus very accurately.

13) Convenience

Email is very convenient, both for you and for your customers. Messages can be sent in seconds and the recipient has an immediate avenue of response. If the consumer has a question or wants to offer feedback on your service, it’s much simpler for them to do so by email than by telephone or snail mail.

14) Increase the top of mind recall

A regular newsletter helps to keep your company at the forefront of your prospects’ minds. This is particularly effective if they’ve already had a satisfactory transaction with you in the past so by consistently reminding them of the goods or services your company offers, you are more likely to be the one they approach when they next need to make a purchase.

15) 100% Green

Email, being purely electronic, cuts down on the resources needed to send messages out to customers. Essentially, your company is communicating a paper-free avenue that reduces pollution from paper manufacturing, printing and transportation, as well as cutting down on the fuel needed to carry a physical letter from one location to another. Don’t forget to emphasize this to your consumers – your company’s green credentials can be a major selling point.