As a business or brand owner, your email list is the most valuable digital marketing asset you own.
Among the three media types that can be used for digital marketing, email falls into the owned category. Unlike social media, your email list cannot be taken away from you (unless you spam people’s inboxes), and you have an opportunity to engage on a virtual one-on-one basis with subscribers.
If social media is the cocktail party, email is the coffee chat.
Email marketing is excellent for building awareness about a product, service, brand, event, or business. By delivering those messages directly to the user’s inbox, the spillage that you could experience when using other digital marketing methods is avoided. Also, even if the recipient doesn’t open your email, you can still deliver your message with a creative subject line.
Here’s how to make email marketing work for YOU:
While it’s very advantageous for business owners to put email marketing to work, it’s important to consider the consumer and what will attract them. When inviting people to sign up to receive messages from you, what are they getting in exchange for their email address? Being bombarded with marketing messages all day long means that most consumers are pretty savvy and shrewd about how they interact with companies online.
Instead of the traditional newsletter signup, think about creating a lead magnet that provides a quick win - this could be a worksheet or checklist. Or take things up another notch with an email series or video training.
Armed with the ability to attract consumers using their interests and customize messages based on behavior, email lends to more conversions and sales. Marketers can expect an average return of $42 for $1 invested in email marketing. If you’re an e-commerce business owner, you can use email to re-engage with people who abandon their carts on your website by offering an incentive for completing their purchase. Whether you sell digital or physical products, don’t forget to keep the conversation going after the sale! Think about how you can roll out the virtual red carpet for your new customers by directing them to resources that help them get the most out of their purchase.
Email is one of the most cost-effective forms of digital marketing today, which means the industry is also ripe with scammers or those that desire to exploit the opportunity. It’s common to hear of companies that sell so-called “leads lists” for businesses, stay far away from those offers. Safeguard the integrity of your email service provider account by ensuring you have explicit consent to contact people.
It doesn’t matter what you sell, email marketing can help you sell more of it.
Used in conjunction with other digital marketing vehicles, your business can create a 360-degree experience that elevates the level of interaction, professionalism and solidifies your brand identity.
For example, how many of your social posts are invitations for followers to sign up for your list? Take the conversation off your public online channels and communicate directly with your potential customers in their inbox.
With the advent of social media, text, and even messenger as methods of communication, email has stood the test of time, and it’s not going anywhere. By the year 2023, the number of email users is expected to reach 4.3 billion…half of the world’s population. When email marketing is used as an additional method of building community, creating engagement, and presenting your offers, you set yourself up for even more success.
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Moniek James is a veteran, military spouse, speaker, author, columnist and serial online entrepreneur. Her passion is teaching small business owners and brands how to leverage content marketing and strategy to deliver their genius to the world through her boutique marketing agency, Renegade Creative Media Group.
Moniek has been featured in the Huffington Post, Fit Small Business, VoyagePhoenix and Vitality Magazine and believes that entrepreneurship is a building block to economic empowerment.
