When it comes to marketing strategies for your company, the first thing that likely pops into your mind are social media strategies. What about email marketing? It’s not the dinosaur that some businesses make it out to be.
According to Forbes, email marketing is “still the most powerful tool to take your business to the next level.” The purpose of this post is to break down why email marketing remains a valuable tool within the industry, misconceptions about the process, and key components to captivate your audience.
Why should you use email marketing?
There are many reasons email marketing shines a bit brighter than other marketing platforms, including social media.
- Ownership. You have the control to reach your subscribers without worrying about getting lost due to algorithms. You own the list of your own followers, unlike some other marketing platforms.
- Consistency. Email gives you a greater, consistent reach. Those who open your emails have chosen to subscribe and hopefully continue to engage.
- Limitless. There are less barriers and gatekeepers to get in the way of communicating what you want to your target audience.
- Brand awareness. 82% of marketers indicated that email is one the most effective channels they use for marketing content to prospective customers, according to MarketCharts.
What are some email marketing myths?
With every marketing tool out there, misconceptions about using the platform come following close behind. We want to squash those for you.
- Unsubscribes are beneficial. They ensure your list stays clean, improve other email marketing metrics, keep you legal, and hold you accountable for maintaining engaging content.
- Trust. This does not come easily. You have to find the balance in the attitude of your audience by not bombarding with copious amounts of email blasts, asking for feedback, and improving content quality that does not simply become predictable.
- Value-add emails. An effective strategy includes sending emails that have valuable content people cannot retrieve from anywhere else. That could be a discount coupon or a special document download about a topic of interest.
- Blast mentality. Don’t think about emails as a way to blast people with information. Overwhelming your audience with unnecessary emails is not the way to maintain your subscriber list.
- 80%+ opening rate. Set realistic expectations with your email marketing metrics. These days, having a 20%-25% open rate is quite successful in the grand scheme of things.
- Static is OK. Email marketing remains relatively stable compared to the ever-evolving changes with social media. Design trends will change but your approach should remain steady.
How can your email marketing remain successful?
When broken down properly, email marketing has many parts that build up the well-oiled machine of connection with your followers.
- Testing. You should constantly experiment with new approaches using A/B tests. That could include the day of the week you send out or optimizing the subject line you use.
- Timing. There has to be a balance in frequency of sending out emails. You can’t be too frugal with how many are put out, but there is always a fine line for emailing too much.
- Material. Building relevant content keeps an audience engaged. You have to find the sweet spot between automated and more personalized emails. This will also help in building and maintaining your email list over time.
- Ethics. In order to personally connect with one’s audience, you have to stay legal and ethical in the content being sent out. This starts from building strong campaigns and understanding regulations.
- Platform. Do research to find the best platform for sending out your emails. Each one has differences and other features that have to be worth the money invested. We usually recommend Active Campaign or Mailchimp to most businesses.
- Creativity. Remember that you are only limited by your own creativity. The possibilities can be endless with your marketing approach for your email list.
If you are looking to create and maintain a legit email marketing approach for your audience, GreenMellen can help you define the best tactics for your business to connect with your leads through email and convert them to customers. Let’s build a brighter web together.
