It’s easy to get caught up with the latest online marketing trends. But one tool that’s been around for a few decades still packs a mighty marketing punch and continues evolving to better meet brands‘ needs. That tool is email marketing.
Email marketing is when brands and businesses send promotional messages to target audience members via email. Anyone who has an email address has likely received email marketing, but its increasing sophistication continues to boost its effectiveness.
The Benefits of Email Marketing
Although email marketing was one of the first online marketing tools, its benefits haven’t lost any of their power over the years. Some of its primary advantages include:
- Less Competitive Clutter. Because so many marketers have thronged to social media, email marketing offers brands better exposure to consumers. It’s easier for brands to stand out with email marketing campaigns because fewer competitors are crowding the field.
- Boosted Brand Awareness. You can use email marketing to tell your brand’s story and familiarize consumers with your brand’s values. This warms them up to you first before you send emails that more clearly promote your products or services. You can use email marketing to provide your audience with valuable content that makes them notice and appreciate your brand.
- Simple Setup. Software companies have made email marketing easy and seamless for businesses to set up. They know that small business owners are pressed for time, want to move quickly and often have long to-do lists. That’s why you don’t have to be a tech guru or have an enormous IT department to get started with email marketing.
- Reach for Target Markets. Email marketing allows you to reach specific audiences whose interests align with your product. Maybe you need to reach a particular market, like vegan Millennials, to promote your new plant-based products. With email marketing you can use your own list or buy one to reach that target audience. The markets you reach can be as big and broad or as small and select as you choose. You can target internationally, domestically or locally and specify characteristics like age, gender, previous purchases and interests.
- Lead Generation. When your target audience responds to emails like surveys and sign-up forms, the information they provide generates qualified leads for your brand.
- Conversion Growth. When consumers take the action you want them to in response to your email marketing campaign, you’re growing your conversions.
- Interactivity. Consumers can interact with email marketing campaigns, for example, to request more information about your products or to buy them. They can also offer suggestions for improvements or additions to your product line.
- Shareability. Consumers who receive your email marketing can easily pass it along to large numbers of people they think might be interested in it. They might forward your email or post about it on social media. Either way, it’s much easier to share than traditional marketing like a print ad or a coupon they get in the mail.
- Flexibility. With email marketing, you get the flexibility to target the markets you choose with the message you create when you want to. You can change your campaign when you need to, whether it’s the message or the audience you’re targeting with it.
- Cost-efficacy. Compared to other types of marketing like mass media ad campaigns, email marketing is much more budget-friendly and less wasteful. Many email marketing tools offer plans that allow you to send a certain number of emails at no cost per month. It’s one benefit that makes email marketing especially attractive to small businesses or startups.
- Ease in Tracking. Email marketing tools can take the hassle out of tracking campaigns. You can quickly see and measure metrics like who’s opened your email, responded to it and most importantly, who’s bought your product.
What are email marketing tools? Businesses use online tools to create and send effective emails to their target audiences. These tools can also help brands test and gauge the results of their email marketing campaigns.
Why Should Brands Use Email Marketing Tools?
There’s a number of important reasons why brands should use email marketing tools. Email marketing tools are software programs that help brands build relationships and emotional connections with consumers. They provide guidance in creating email content that shows your target market that you know what their interests, needs and wants are. They also give your market the opportunity to learn more about and/or to buy what you offer.
Emails created with these tools can also increase brand awareness, website traffic, brand loyalty, engagement, leads and conversions. They’ll help you research target markets and boost the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Brands like Adobe and Hotel Tonight use email marketing to grab their target markets’ attention. Their emails boast attractive images, witty yet warm copy and simple yet compelling calls to action. Apartment Therapy’s automated, customized email newsletters engage subscribers by teaching them how to furnish their homes. PayPal shows its audience that it understands its needs with email copy that speaks to simplification, like an easy way to split restaurant bills among friends.
Top Email Marketing Tools
Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and Benchmark are three top email marketing tools that businesses and brands can use. Here are some examples of what these tools can do and some of the reasons why these online platforms are so effective.
Constant Contact
This company has been around since 1995, and its longevity speaks volumes about its effectiveness. Using Constant Contact, brands can choose from different email templates that they can customize using a drag-and-drop editor. Constant Contact also offers support and ideas for email marketing promotions and content.
On the Constant Contact website users get access to a free image library. You can upload your contacts from programs like Outlook, Excel and Salesforce to build and manage your email lists, too.
MailChimp
MailChimp might have a playful name, but it offers serious benefits to brands and businesses. With MailChimp, you can create integrated marketing campaigns. That means that, in addition to email, you can create things like digital ads, social media posts and landing pages. And, you can also get insights and performance reports for your campaign. MailChimp integrates with popular platforms including Salesforce, WordPress and Facebook and with online retail services like Magento and Shopify.
Benchmark
Even if you think you’re not at all creative, there’s no reason to feel daunted by the idea of creative emails. The email marketing company Benchmark features a drag-and-drop email designer to make creating your message easier.
You can choose one of the templates that’s customized for a specific market. Make live edits in your template with Benchmark’s email editor, changing elements like copy, photos and colors. When consumers engage with your brand’s email or website, you can have Benchmark automatically send them emails. This tool also offers real-time reports on how your campaign is doing.
