“Why should I send marketing emails?” is a question I get asked quite frequently by people starting up their own business. And I understand why they’d ask the question.
Email marketing isn’t new, its not as glamorous and shiny as some other marketing channels out there – but it’s super reliable and one of the top ways to drive sales and profit into your business. Who doesn’t want that!
So, lets take a look at the 5 key reasons to send marketing emails:
1. The Customer is yours
When someone subscribes to your brand, they’ve given you permission to speak to them. Your business has their email address and you can contact them whenever you please (within reason!). There’s no middle man in this relationship, it’s direct to the customer.
On the flip side with social media marketing there’s always someone else involved in the relationship. There are so many examples of businesses who’ve built an amazing following on social media only for the rules to change without notice or their page/group gets blocked or removed without warning and they are left with no base, zero email addresses, and no way to speak to the base they spent so much time and effort building. It’s heartbreaking.
Social media companies hold the power as the followers are actually their customers and not yours. That’s a key reason to build your own email database and send marketing emails if ever I heard one.
2. Good value and amazing ROI
Email marketing is such good value. Some of the technology needed to create and send email marketing emails can even be free to use if you’ve got a small database (Mailchimp up to 2,000 and MailerLite up to 1,000). Compare this to the cost of some printed marketing like direct mail or door drops or even PPC (Pay Per Click) marketing and it’s a very economical way to communicate with both prospects and customers.
The Return On Investment (ROI) for email is always very strong. The DMA 2019 Marketer Email Tracker reports the ROI from email campaigns has shot up from £32 to £42 this year. That’s £42 back for every £1 spent on email marketing. Impressive stuff!
3. Speed
Launched a new offer? Products back in stock? With email you can get an update out to your base within minutes. If you’ve got an email template set up and your lists/segments organised nicely it’s possible to get an email out in under 10 minutes (don’t forget your checklist!)
4. Insight
One of the things I love about email marketing is the ability to see what’s happening with your campaign. Once you’ve pressed send or set live an automation you’ll be able to see how many people have opened your email, how many clicked through, what links are popular (or not so popular!) and lots lots more. Email reports are a goldmine of information into how your customers behave and what they are interested in – use this information to help guide your other marketing channels and make them a success as well.
5. Personalisation
Personalisation. I know you hear it everywhere in marketing, but personalisation really is a key way to increase your marketing response rates, improve customer experience and make more money. Email marketing was born to go hand in hand with personalisation. So depending on what data you have available personalisation can be as simple as weaving in peoples names into the subject line or email copy, to advanced techniques such as customer segmentation and profiling which allow bespoke tailored messages to really hit the spot and encourage your subscribers to open their wallets and purchase again and again.