Email marketing is a great way to communicate with your prospects and clients, and if set up properly it can reap wonderful rewards. This article outlines just a few of the many benefits of using e-mail marketing campaigns to reach your contacts.
It doesn’t cost the earth
E-mail campaigns are a highly cost-effective way of sending your message. The cost of setting up automated subscriptions and e-mail templates is relatively low, and once in place can be used again and again. Using e-mail campaigns as an alternative to printed materials saves on printing costs; in fact it is estimated to be up to 78% cheaper for a run of 5000 paper-based direct mailings. They also help you do your bit for the environment by saving paper.
Drive traffic to your website
When you send an e-mail campaign out to your contacts, you grab their attention and they often follow the links you provide to your website. By getting traffic this way, you can direct visitors to the most relevant parts of your site, and to the things you really want them to see.
Build relationships
You can use e-mail as a way to communicate with your audience – ask questions and get people talking using graphics, video or games – the possibilities are endless!
Personalise your message
It’s really simple to customise your emails, as long as you are diligent about keeping your database up to date. With e-mail you can make each message you send personal, further encouraging the relationship between you and your audience to grow.
No junk
By allowing your audience to subscribe and unsubscribe to your mailing list, you ensure that you only reach people who are interested in what you have to say. That means you don’t waste your valuable time mailing the wrong people and you don’t bombard anyone with irrelevant messages.
Reach a greater audience
Over half of people using the internet access their email every day. This means e-mail campaigns have the largest captive audience out of any form of marketing. On top of that, e-mail makes it easier than ever before for us to share information with others. Pressing ‘forward’ takes no effort at all, and people do pass on the messages they receive to family and friends.
Push your message… gently!
Making an announcement on your website is great and will be sure to catch the eye of people visiting your site, but it’s a passive method of spreading the word. Sending an e-mail ensures that your message is delivered to as many people as possible, even if they haven’t logged onto your website lately.
Immediate feedback
We’ve saved the best one ’til last. When you send an e-mail campaign you can see the number of people that have opened it and followed links immediately. Most email marketing packages will generate graphs and reports that can tell you which emails and links were most popular, which of your subscribers left and which forwarded your email on and a whole lot besides. This information is really useful – it gives you measurable results as to whether you’re hitting the spot with your audience or whether you need to totally rethink your approach.
E-mail campaigns are a great way to keep in touch with your contacts. Send e-mails regularly as your business grows to keep your contacts up to date with all your news. They don’t need to be long – something as simple as a sale or special offer is a great way to remind your audience of your business and encourage them to come back.
