The Basics of E-Mail Marketing and Why Your Business Should be Using It.
The use of e-mail marketing (e-newsletters) has increased dramatically over the past several years and for no small reason. Email marketing has become one of the central contact points of business with customers through initial contact, through online confirmation and on-going communications. Your customer’s email address is the key and delivering customized content quickly, inexpensively with responsive analytics that provide an effective means to measure its success.
So, why is the email marketing medium such a huge success, and why should your business be using it regularly? Here a only a few of the great benefits that should convert you to a e-mail marketing user.
- It’s inexpensive – When compared to printing direct mail, email marketing is a fraction of the cost of traditional forms of print communication. Now, that doesn’t mean that the printed marketing is gone, or will ever go away. Having a tangible, printed product in the hands of your viewers and customers is hard to beat. However, email marketing cuts through and better tuned to the digital marketplace, where your audience is already.
- It has a high rate of return – Every email that you send out carries with it the capability to track a response to see how effective it is with your targeted customers. On average, between 5-15% is an average response rate of opening the email. In addition, emails include targeted links to external web site’s that easily encourage viewers to purchase and find additional information.
- It has a rapid response time – E-mail marketing generally has a 3-5 day response cycle (measurable within hours in some cases) as compared to the 2-3 week cycle of most print campaigns. Usually within 48 hours approximately 80% of your return is complete. E-mail marketing is perfect for quick and immediate advertising.
- It’s common to your viewers– E-mail marketing is a standard method of communication between businesses and customers. Unfortunately, with spamming and the inundated mailbox, e-mail marketing is a crowded highway of communication. So, using the right techniques and maintaining good communication standards with your customers will ensure your viewers stay connected with your business.
HOW IT WORKS:
A quick start-to-finish series of events are involved with normal customer interaction with your business through e-mail marketing. It can start as easily as when a customer “Signs Up” on your site, or e-mails you directly. From there your business’ web site receives the inquiry and should direct it to both an automated response system as well as a personal contact representative to follow up with the prospective customer.
The prudent business will have a system, such as SalesForce, etc., in order to store customer contact information, their preference for communications and sales for appropriate and relevant list groups for future e-mail marketing. Now, you have begun to build your e-mail marketing list groups and can build, deploy and measure the results.
Remember that maintaining proper privacy and permission practices will protect the brand and reputability of your business through third-party services and the eyes of your customers.