While newer forms of digital marketing take up plenty of attention, it’s important to know the powerful, compelling directions you could take through email.
Email newsletters have had a huge resurgence in the last year with marketers around the world reporting increased open rates and engagement.
These periodic messages sent to leads or current customers who have opted in to your marketing communications are back in popularity. They’re written and designed to be informative, compelling and to push their readers into exploring additional content usually on a brand’s website.
In this article, we’ll be diving into email newsletters and how they can help your brand stay top-of-mind, win new business, and stay competitive.
If you’ve ever tried to launch a new product or service, then you know how difficult it can be to boost awareness among your customer base. Running ads is costly, and social media is a highly competitive space—plus, you shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to demonstrate a new offering to people you’ve already established contact with.
Email newsletters are all about informing your current and prospective customers of new developments in your business. It’s a far simpler and cheaper process than developing ad campaigns on social or search, and it allows you to reach out to organised lists of leads and customers.
If your business involves an eCommerce component, the opportunities go beyond updates on new offerings and promotions. You can send out newsletters bearing specialised reminders (or deals) for site visitors who ended their sessions with items still in their carts, effectively fighting back against cart abandonment.
As we’ve mentioned, running ad campaigns and investing in active social media accounts can eat up a lot of time and money. While the rewards are certainly there for brands that can get it right, many marketers feel the need to pursue channels with a higher average ROI.
Email newsletters are one popular solution, with 81% of B2B marketers turning to email newsletters as their go-to form of content marketing. Beyond the fact that your competitors are likely running their own email campaigns, the practice is also lucrative: 59% of B2C marketers attributed email marketing as their primary driver of ROI.
For a fraction of the money you’d spend reaching the same number of people with traditional advertising, you could design and send a regular newsletter to a high-priority list of engaged leads and count on a good handful of them to convert into sales.
It’s a trend you want to jump on sooner than later, as 78% of marketers reported an increase in engagement with their marketing emails last year.
Marketing emails aren’t known for their ability to spark pure, genuine joy among their readers. This isn’t a fact meant to discourage, but inspire—email marketing presents an opportunity to position your brand as charming, funny, or otherwise engaging in a space where customers aren’t expecting it. Break conventional rules and add some personality to them.
We’ve seen plenty of brands baring their humourous sides on Twitter, reaping the rewards of a market base that actually remembers their message.
The same dynamic could easily go into email marketing: if you know what your customers are interested in (which you should), then you can easily put that knowledge to work designing newsletters that appeal to their interests. Whether it’s comedy, brilliant visuals, or simply the right type of information promoted at the right time, there’s room to cut through the fluff that populates the internet and shines as an example of valuable marketing.
An easy way to get customers to remember you is to show that you remember them—follow up to see if they’re satisfied with the service they’ve received, and avoid formatting and subject lines that look automated. Using what you know to provide additional value is a great way to stay top-of-mind and possibly win some referrals.
We’ll say it again: the ROI of email marketing can be astounding. Tons of brands have found success in the email inboxes of their market base, and the reason for this is complex.
For one thing, email marketing relies on a strong list-building habit: if you can tell where customers are along their respective buyers’ journeys, then you can target specific groups with specific needs. Social media is getting closer to this pinpoint-accurate marketing opportunity, but few algorithms can match the instincts of a marketer who knows how to read market signals.
For another thing, email marketing lets you tap into the power of personalised communications. Tools like MailChimp and HubSpot make it easy to address your recipients by their first names, for example, and use the information they’ve given you to write emails that speak directly to their needs and wants.
Nobody wants to feel like a sucker, and winding up on the mailing list of some cold and distant bot is a surefire way of feeling ripped off. Email marketing gives you the chance to enjoy the perks of automation without sacrificing your brand’s voice and the connections you form with your leads but make sure you are providing a benefit.
This fact is especially valuable when you consider customer loyalty. If you can keep existing clients looped into your expected marketing cycle, then you can keep their business and show them your brand cares.
Email newsletters are a gold mine for brands and marketers. They are a great tool to stay connected with an audience and remain top of mind. While there’s a lot of work that goes into preparing mailing lists and designing campaigns that hit the perfect spot for customers at every stage of the buyer’s journey, the rewards are more than worth the investment.
If you’re looking for cost-effective ways to grow your revenue, reach out to our team at Emedia Creative. We’ve spent years creating an efficient email marketing process to help clients like you achieve better returns from their marketing spend.