AJ Agrawal — June 1, 2017 Despite how often we’ve heard about the death of email, it just isn’t going anywhere. Think about it: the first activity of many people’s work day is to check emails, and the default activity when idle – like waiting in line or hanging out on the couch – is to do the same. This captive audience is ripe for a well-crafted email campaign to lead to potential conversions.
In fact, almost all businesses include some form of email marketing in their strategies, and it’s often considered the lowest-cost online marketing channel available to most companies. Most professional marketers depend on email marketing more than other strategies when trying to get and keep audiences; in fact, customer acquisition via email has quadrupled in recent years.
If you aren’t convinced yet, here are some qualities of email marketing that make this strategy perfect for customer acquisition.
Easier Targeting
People don’t like to feel like they’re being sold to – instead, they want to be catered to. The ease of creating targeted content via email makes this platform ideal for giving audiences what they want and helping them trust your brand as a reliable source of relevant products and information.
Email list segmentation is a good start. You can group people with similar demographic characteristics or purchase history together, then adjust your email campaigns to be relevant to each group. This way, you can test different marketing pushes on different audiences and figure out what works – and for whom. A Campaign Monitor study shows that email revenue can increase up to 760% through segmenting alone, making this a great strategy for your bottom line.
Another strategy is to avoid the trap of only using targeted emails to drive sales. Instead, email marketing allows you to give customers something they want, like tutorials, relevant news, and blog posts, to build your credibility with consumers. Keep your messaging purposeful and relevant to your industry to keep your audience engaged and increase brand loyalty.
Finally, keep in mind that targeting is relatively useless without conversions. Make sure to include calls to action in your emails to click links, buy products, share on social media, and more. If you’re clear and specific, your readers are more likely to engage.
Automation
Another quality that makes email marketing so effective is how easy it is to automate messaging. Along with immediately engaging with potential customers by sending automated emails when they show interest, you can sequence out regular emails to maintain that communication and nurture leads with minimal effort on your end.
For instance, you can master the art of timing through automated email messaging, improving the chance that your emails will be read and engaged with. Consider your industry and target audience when picking times for emails to go out – do you want them to look it over during breakfast, or when they’re lounging in bed before going to sleep? This will depend on who you’re trying to attract. For a general rule of thumb, though, users tend to respond well to emails sent at 6 AM and between 7 and 10 PM.
You can also set up real-time replies through automation, increasing the responsiveness of your company to customer needs. For example, if a subscriber takes some sort of action with your email, like clicking on a button or link, you can automate a relevant follow-up email to take advantage of the moment. This way, you will push the reader to take further action and potentially purchase your product or service.
Simple Mobile Optimization
While email itself has not changed drastically, the method through which we view our emails is constantly evolving. Most people check emails on mobile devices, so when designing marketing material meant for the smaller screen typically found on smartphones, email should be a priority.
The simplicity of email, information transmitted primarily in a concise text format, practically optimizes your marketing material for you. That is, instead of wasting the time, money, and effort required to make some infographic work on a wide range of smart devices, use a well-organized, text-based email to convey the benefits of your product to your customers. As long as your emails contain the important information, are easy and quick to read, and make it easy for your audience to comprehend, you have quality marketing material that’s going to work on almost every device.
Whereas some images or graphics will not load or work on some mobile devices, email is going to function most of the time, and, as such, you will not be missing out on potential customers because your marketing material looked weird, didn’t work as intended, or didn’t even load in the first place.
Despite the advancements made in nearly every other aspect of disseminating digital information, email can provide the most utility when done right. Easier customer outreach and retention, automation, and simple mobile optimization are just a few of the reasons why email can be one of your most useful customer acquisition tools.
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