What is email marketing?

Email marketing is when a company sends an email to promote their products or services. It is easy to think of email marketing as another form of mailing information out to customers. Sending emails to customers is a great way to share information about sales and promotions directly with them.

Anytime your business sends an email to customers apart from order confirmations and directly answering a customer’s concern, it should be considered email marketing. This includes sending information about sales, promotions, coupons, and newsletters. It can also be used to send a message to customers after a disaster or company scandal.

Knowing how to manage email marketing will serve to keep your customers engaged. When email marketing is mishandled, it will be viewed as spam. Knowing how not to use email marketing is just as important as knowing how to use it.

WHY IS EMAIL MARKETING IMPORTANT?

In the age of social media marketing, having a carefully curated email list can seem unnecessary. After all, if you post about something on your business’s social media pages that means that everyone who wants to see it has, right?

There is no guarantee that everyone will see your social media posts, no matter how often you post them or at what times. People use social media in different ways and it can be easy to get lost in the social media noise. Even the most loyal social media followers can miss important posts.

Email is also a powerful tool to help customers with purchasing decisions. It feels more personal than a social media post. People will also be more likely to read the information in an email on their time rather than when scrolling through social media on a quick break. Let your subscribers keep up on their time.

Customers are more likely to see an email over a social media post. Email remains one of the key ways to keep customers informed about deals and information. Email also has greater returns on spending than social media advertising. Email marketing is a valuable asset to reaching customers that should not be overlooked.

HOW TO SETUP EMAIL MARKETING

Setting up email marketing can be a simple process. You can either set up a sign-up on your business’s website or when a customer is paying. From there you can begin to cultivate your list and send information to your customers. This is one of the easiest ways to grow a customer base and keep them informed.

Email software is a valuable tool to schedule and personalize emails. This way you can write the email message on your time, very important for small business owners, and have the emails scheduled to go out at the best time. This software can also enable you to add the customer’s name to the email, adding a personal touch.

This personal touch can also be used for birthdays and other special events for customers. Many people love getting a deal for their birthday and it’s an easy way to establish a customer base. Something as simple as 50% off for a one-time purchase during a birthday month will keep customers coming in.

HOW TO ORGANIZE EMAIL MARKETING

When setting up your email marketing strategy, you want to make a plan for how to use it. It can be easy to send emails constantly and keep your customers in the loop about everything. However, this is a surefire way to end up in the spam folder, where no one will see your emails.

After you have decided to use email marketing, the next step should be deciding on the schedule that emails will go out on. Restricting newsletter emails to weekly or monthly updates will keep customers in the loop without flooding their email. Sending emails on the same day, every Wednesday for example will help your subscribers know when to expect your emails.

Building a schedule is also a great way to plan for sales and other deals for your loyal customers. By spacing out the deals you can also space out the emails and keep them from flooding customer’s inboxes. Your subscribers will thank you for having a reliable schedule and for keeping their inboxes clutter-free.

EMAIL MARKETING TIPS

Email marketing is an important tool for anyone who wants to establish regular connections with their customers. Besides having a schedule and making sure that you’re not sending emails too frequently, there are other tips to make sure that you’re using email marketing to the best of your abilities.

To start you will want to be sure that your emails follow the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act. This includes having a non-deceptive subject line and a clear way to unsubscribe from emails. Familiarize yourself with regulations about sending emails at the federal and state levels.

When sending emails, you will want to build your list. Sending unsolicited emails is likely to turn people off and will not turn them into loyal customers. Make sure that is clear when people sign up for emails that they are aware of the emails they will receive.

Most importantly, you want to treat your customer list well. Build a rapport with them by mixing up your messaging and sharing appropriate insights. Make your emails easy to read on mobile. A little can go a long way in building a loyal customer base.

Always remember that the people on your subscriber list are trusting you with their information. You want to make sure that you’re treating them with respect and don’t violate that trust. These are the people who can be relied upon to be trusted customers. Make them feel special and they will help spread the word about your business.

SUMMARY

Email marketing can be an invaluable tool in reaching out to your customers. It can help establish a loyal base through personalized interaction and making sure that your subscribers always know what’s going on. Knowing how to use email marketing will help ensure that you have a loyal base of customers for years.