email marketing

One of the most valuable content marketing tools that can showcase a business’ brand to their customers regularly and share relevant information is email marketing. Email marketing is a cost-effective solution that gives businesses the power to reach customers in a place most people visit every day – their inbox.

According to a study by MarketingSherpa, 91 percent of adults in North America like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with. As a business owner, I believe that building successful email marketing campaigns has never been more important than it is now.

In a recent conversation with a client, I was surprised to hear how he defined email marketing. His email strategy was simply sending notices out to clients, and that was very different than what I, as the owner of a marketing agency, perceive email marketing to be. It then occurred to me that everyone’s definition of email marketing is different, as I believe that email marketing is a constant communication and relationship-builder between you and a client.

No matter what your definition is, email marketing is without a doubt a value-add to your brand. Here are a few ways email marketing can strengthen your brand and create strong, lasting relationships with your customers:

Building credibility
- To build strong customer relationships, it’s important to have an effective tool to communicate with the people who matter most to your business. Email gives you the ability to stay top-of-mind and keep people engaged.
Generating Leads
- Email gives you the opportunity to capture new visitors’ attention and nurture relationships with helpful and informative content. You can also share your updates on your own social networks to bring new people to your business.
Learning what works
- Email marketing gives you the metrics you need to see how your emails are performing. These insights help you market smarter and give you the advantage of better understanding the needs and interests of your customer base.
Reaching your customers on any device
- With nearly two-thirds of all emails read on a mobile device, email marketing is one of the best tools that can help a business take advantage of the growing popularity of mobile technology.
Looking professional
- Email templates aren’t just easy to use; they are also designed to make sure you look professional and consistent when you reach your audience’s inbox.

If your business doesn’t have an email marketing strategy, and you don’t feel you have the time or skill-set to write them, consider hiring a marketing agency. An agency can create the content as well as an email schedule for you that are integrated with your brand and business direction.

Do you use email in your business? If so, what is the value to your business?

Love it or hate it, email marketing isn’t going anywhere, at least not in the near future. Email is still evolving despite continuing claims that the channel is dead or dying.

The email channel is thriving, as you can see in these two statistics:

67 percent of customers give their email addresses to companies to receive discounts and promotions.
57 percent of customers say they are more apt to buy a product in a store after receiving an email. (Digital Strategy Consulting).

Emails have the ability to inspire, engage, or excite your prospects or customers, but creating an effective email marketing campaign can often be complex as there are so many moving parts. As audiences become more sophisticated with “opt out” and “opt in” emails, the days of “batch and blast” and “send an email and they will buy” are over. Despite this, you can create a solid email marketing campaign, but it will require some planning, thinking, creativity and tracking on your part.

If you’re considering implementing an email marketing program or are currently emailing, but experiencing underperformance, here are a few tips I recommend to help you increase your email marketing results.

Plan it

Email campaigns may have been identified in your marketing strategy, but make sure your email campaigns have consistent messaging, clear direction and end goals in mind. Email campaigns should always be written for your target audience. Adapt your message to meet the needs of your customer segment. E.g. you need to have a slightly different message for a decision maker vs. and existing customer.

Engage them

Most recipients are not going to read your entire email. They will scan it for relevant points, so be as concise as you can, using keywords and bullets with useful and interesting information, and bold your most important points.

Use links

The purpose of your email is to drive traffic to your landing page, product/services page or website. Offer some sort of call to action such as a specific and relevant offer, or a link to some useful information. Use several links in your email; a good rule of thumb is to have one link per paragraph.

Reduce images

Images are powerful when they are used to convey a message, but with emails and firewalls, images do not automatically “load” into a person’s inbox and therefore the image and its message can be lost. Use images sparingly and instead rely on html to enhance the look of your email. Do not rely on an image to convey a critical or important message in your email.

Send it on time

Statistically, to achieve maximum open and click rates you should aim for early morning (8 a.m. to 9 a.m.) and late afternoon (3 p.m. to 6 p.m.).

Track Results

Start tracking behavioral traits, such as open rates, clicks-thrus, opts outs, and conversion rates. Use these to help tweak follow-up email messaging and also possibly segment your list.

Even with these tips in mind, not every email campaign will be successful. However, if you’re good about analyzing results, admitting shortcomings and making changes, you’re well on your way to increasing results from this powerful marketing tool.

Are you considering using email marketing at your company? What challenges are you having in executing a successful campaign? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments below.