1. Added Value

Whether you realise it or not, emails by nature are transactional. They elicit some kind of action, whether to reply, click-through, sign up or purchase. A well placed ‘get in touch’ or ‘buy now’ button, will direct traffic to your website and ultimately drive sales. This is why businesses see a higher return on investment from email marketing than any other method. And because email marketing is instant and direct, you can get the word out about your important promotions and updates right away.

However, to nurture these relationships it’s important that you’re delivering consistent, relevant and helpful content to their inbox. With the right budget, you can invest in providing the value your customers expect.

2. Most People Use Social Media But Everyone Uses Email

While Facebook and Instagram are effective platforms to raise awareness about your brand and interact with your customers, email marketing shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, its 4 times as effective as Facebook in reaching your audience. 94% of Internet users use email, so it must be part of your marketing strategy.

What you should be doing is combining Social media management and email marketing. Use social media to bring people to your mailing list, and promote your social media accounts within your mailshot.

3. Get Immediate Results

If you’ve ever sent out brochures and leaflets to your target customers you’ll know it’s difficult to track the results. You won’t know who’s seen it unless they place an order or make a direct enquiry. Email marketing takes out the guesswork. You’ll see exactly how many people opened it, which links they clicked on and even who your most loyal customers are. From here you can get a better understanding of the needs and interests of your customer base.

4. Strengthen Relationships

A well-crafted email campaign builds trust. And by well-crafted we mean colourful, branded, interesting, easy-to-read and of value to your customer. The first mark of any good email campaign is a captivating subject line, it should be concise and instil urgency and excitement.

You’ll also want to set the right tone of voice. Think about how you’d want to greet the recipient in person. No one wants to read an email that feels like it’s been sent to a hundred other people. A great way to do this is by personalising the opening line with your recipient’s first name. This is a good start to making the experience feel more personal, but you’ll need to back it up with great content, written with your customer in mind. This could be expert advice that will help them solve a problem or a promotional offer that’s exclusive to them. At Riley & Thomas, we work closely with our clients to develop content that’s tailored to nurturing your customer relationships from the very beginning.

5. Mobile is Now

Nearly two-thirds of emails are opened on a mobile phone. This makes email marketing the easiest way to reach customers on mobile without investing in new technology or software. You can reach your customer during their commute, while they’re in line for their morning coffee, and everywhere else in between. However, not every email looks good on mobile. Poor formatting is the biggest complaint about mobile email and will be deleted by your contact within 3 seconds of it hitting their inbox. At Riley & Thomas, we design branded content that looks great on mobile with clear text, beautiful imagery and responsive design.

Now that you know how powerful email marketing can be for your business, it’s time to start building that contact list. You can use a subscription form on your website, but we also advise businesses to promote their email newsletter on social media, when speaking to people at trade shows, in-store and even adding it to your email signature.