There are 3.7 billion email users worldwide; a figure which is set to grow to 4.1 billion in 2021. For this reason, it makes perfect sense to approach existing and potential clients via this medium. Email marketing can be a very cost-effective way to communicate with your customers if done correctly.

Email marketing is similar to content marketing in the sense that its purpose is to attract customers through targeted content that is relevant and valuable to that particular user. By emailing commercial messages direct to a customer’s inbox, one can increase brand awareness, build client loyalty, or both. Theoretically speaking, every email sent to a customer could be classed as email marketing, but the term usually refers to emails that are sent with the specific aims of increasing customer loyalty, attracting a new customer base or circulating product advertisements.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Direct emails are sent with a specific purpose such as promoting a new service or special offer. Transactional emails are usually triggered by customer interaction, such as the purchasing of a product, or an enquiry for information. Both types can be very effective, particularly transactional emails, as more users will open and click through an email containing information they expected to receive, such as a receipt following a purchase.

One of the benefits of email marketing is that the results can be tracked effectively, making it easy to quantify the outcome of a campaign; the sender can analyse data to find out how many recipients opened the email, how many clicked through to particular sections, and which calls to action they responded to most.

Get Your Message Across

One of the most important elements in an email campaign is to get your message across clearly and concisely – too many words can mean a customer gets bored and stops reading halfway through. Including links in the body of your email can help to drive traffic to your website to learn more about your products and services. By using strong calls to action, such as ‘click here’ or ‘discover more’, you can further encourage your readers to click such links. Keep in mind that many customers now access their emails on smartphones rather than computers, so your email must be accessible to small screen users.

When to Email

Ensuring that your emails are relevant to the customer is extremely important, and never overload a customer with too many; opt for monthly release, and certainly avoid sending more than one a fortnight. Special offers and new product/service emails are usually well received, but it’s also important to balance sales emails, which a customer can tire of, with non-commercial messages such as birthday greetings, or emails containing interesting information that is of value to that customer.

Link to Social Media

Email marketing can also be integrated with social media marketing; by including social media icons and prominent links in your email, you can encourage customers to share your messages. Offering a discount or a special deal to customers who like your Facebook page, or retweet your message, is a proven tactic to increase your customer engagement.

At Disruptor Media, we are passionate about effective marketing strategies, and are constantly looking at ways to improve our clients’ marketing outputs. Our friendly team of experts are always on hand to offer the best advice for all things digital.