When was the last time you opened up an email from a brand you liked because the subject line said a product you considered buying is now on sale? Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your customers. It helps to develop a relationship with them and establish brand loyalty.
Read on to learn about the types of email marketing and the main benefits.
What Is Email Marketing?
As a business, there are different types of emails you can send to your customers. You can send promotional emails, including a one-time coupon or a sale. There are also educational emails that promote general brand awareness.
Below, we cover some of the main types of emails.
Promotional Emails
Promotional emails are emails that most directly sell a product or service. They could include, a coupon or a request for a donation. If you run an online store, promotional emails are like what you think of first in relation to email marketing.
However, promotional emails should only be part of a larger digital marketing strategy and not stand alone.
Educational Emails
Education emails provide a good contrast to promotional emails. These types of emails give customers information without directly asking them for something, such as spending money on a purchase. What separates these types of emails from other kinds of email marketing is that they don’t directly sell products or services, but they build brand awareness and loyalty.
Newsletters
Sending out a regular newsletter can be an effective way to keep your business on your customers’ minds. A newsletter could include personal updates, industry news, gift ideas and more.
Drip Campaigns
Drip campaigns are a series of pre-scheduled emails sent to customers after completing a specific action. One common example is when a customer signs up for a company’s email list, they will receive a welcome series of emails over the course of a few days.
Engagement Emails
Engagement emails are often overlooked. These include surveys, a request for a testimonial, a check-in or any other kind of request that asks for personalized engagement.
5 Benefits of Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most powerful and effective digital marketing strategies.
Here are some of the main benefits:
Cost-Effective
Email marketing is a cost-effective way to reach a large customer base. Compared with other forms of digital marketing such as paid advertising and social media, email marketing is the best. Unlike paid advertising, you do not have to continually pay to share your ads or keep paying to reach the same potential customers.
Measurable Results
Email marketing lets you track what customers are responding to and what they are not and then improve your overall outreach strategy based on this information. You’ll also be able to use this data to segment your audience based on specific interests and engagement. For example, customers who open every email you send will be much more likely to want to receive emails more frequently than customers who only open your emails every few months.
Ability to Customize Outreach
Email marketing makes it much easier to capture customer data and target specific campaigns to segmented audiences. Both psychographic and demographic information is so much better than if you were trying to target that specifically in any other channel.”
For example, you can send customers an abandoned cart email that is specific to the item they were shopping for. You can also send customers promotional emails that focus on the specific products they have already demonstrated interest in.
Increased Brand Awareness
One way to think of email marketing is as an ongoing conversation. It’s easy for customers to stumble across a company they like online, only to close the browser and never come across the brand again. But with email marketing, you can continue the conversation beyond that one-time visit, allow your audience to get to know your brand over time and build brand awareness and trust, all of which eventually lead to sales.
Ability to Own Your Contact List
With other types of digital marketing, such as social media marketing and paid ads, you are subject to changes in platforms and changes in the algorithm. Your business could be receiving a lot of attention on one social media platform one month, only for the algorithm to change the next month and for your engagement to drop. Since you’re not capturing the specific audience, you won’t be able to stay in touch with the people who were previously engaging with your brand.
With email marketing, you know you’ll be able to reach your audience regardless of any changes that happen on social media platforms and other forms of digital advertising.
Conclusion
Email marketing is an indispensable part of a successful digital marketing strategy. It’s cost-effective, customizable, and measurable, making it a powerful tool for building lasting customer relationships and driving brand success. Whether you’re sending promotional emails, educational content, or regular newsletters, the key is to maintain consistent engagement with your audience. By doing so, you’ll foster brand loyalty and ultimately increase sales.