TOP TEN REASONS WHY YOU NEED IT

Okay so let’s get down to business basics.

What do you want your marketing to achieve as its end result?

The answer: sales and profits for your business.

Of all the myriad digital media available to the advertiser and marketer, what delivers this best ROI?

The answer: Email marketing.

Digital Fire had a great moment the other day. A client, a major multinational electronics and telecom company in the top 10 global brands (so we have to get the official okay before we launch our PR report but you can take an educated guess!) who tested our email marketing, targeted consumer data rental service, did the smart thing and put time and effort into evaluating the results of the omnichannel marketing it has deployed. What came out as the most effective marketing channel? Email marketing. Most specifically our data rental service – permission based opt in targeted consumers who fitted their required target demographic.

So let’s look once again at ten reasons why all businesses big or small should have an email marketing strategy*.

  1. Low Cost High ROI

One of the most obvious benefits of email marketing is its lower cost compared to mainstream marketing channels. There are no print or postage costs and no fees paid in exchange for exposure on a certain billboard, magazine or television channel. Email marketers might consider investing in specialist software to automate, track and evaluate their emails.

  1. Target those who are interested in your brand

Email marketing is one of the few channels that consumers ask to receive. The majority of businesses utilising the platform only send messages to those who have signed up to receive them. This can allow for much higher conversion rates as a business is only targeting those who already have an interest in their brand. It is, of course, possible to send email marketing messages to targeted consumers who fit your required brand profile and that’s exactly what Digital Fire offers. Email allows for customer retention, upsell and acquisition.

  1. Segmentation

Most marketing professionals would happily pay to ensure they were only spending money targeting those who were interested in their brand. Email marketers can go one step further though, by only sending emails to subscribers who meet certain criteria.

If a franchise only has an offer on in certain areas of the country, it can easily be arranged for emails to be sent only to those living in certain areas. If there is a sale on sports goods, it can be arranged for only those who have shown an interest in sports to receive an email.

Email list segmentation works fantastically for brands who gain information about their subscribers. Studies have shown that marketers who use this tactic often boast improved engagement rates as a result. The old ‘spray and pray’ method of sending the same email to every subscriber or customer no longer works, and the companies that see the best results from their email marketing are segmenting data and campaigns to ensure that they’re sending the most relevant message to individuals.

  1. Call-to-actions

Email marketing is great for taking advantage of impulse buying. There aren’t many other marketing platforms which allow customers to go from witnessing an offer to purchasing an item within two clicks of a button. With a tempting call-to-action and a link straight to the checkout, email newsletters can drive sales like no other.

  1. Easy to create

Email marketing doesn’t necessarily require a huge team or reams of technical nous in order to be successful. It’s certainly possible to jazz up an email campaign with fancy templates, videos, images and logos. Yet, some of the most successful campaigns utilise simple plain text emails, suggesting that it’s the content of an email that is the most important thing.

  1. Easy to track

Another key benefit of email marketing is that it’s easy to see where you’re going wrong as well as what you are doing right making it simple to spot how a campaign can be improved. These changes can be made almost immediately too, whereas print or broadcast advertising requires quite a bit of effort to alter.

  1. Easy to share

Subscribers can forward brilliant deals and offers to their friends at the click of a button – “Word of Mouse.” There aren’t many other types of marketing that can be shared as easily as this. Before you know it, subscribers could become brand evangelists; focused on introducing your business to a new market.

More and more we see brands cleverly utilising this tactic, and social proof has become a huge influence for online selling in recent years.

  1. Global reach

What other marketing platform lets you instantly send a message to hundreds of thousands of people across the world? Sure, social media can help you spread the word amongst a global audience, but there’s no telling who’s actually reading your content.

Alternatively, you can always get hyper local using one of the other ten benefits – segmentation.

  1. Immediacy

Due to the immediacy of email, a business can start seeing results within minutes of its emails being sent. A 24-hour sale is a brilliant marketing ploy that can be utilised by email, as it creates a sense of urgency and convinces subscribers to take immediate action. Businesses typically have to wait weeks until they see sales come in as a result of print or broadcast campaigns and, even then, how can they be sure what was responsible for the purchase?

  1. Return on investment

This is the biggie. It fills your company’s Piggy bank. In 2016, the Direct Marketing Association estimated that email marketing typically returns US $58 for every US $1 invested.

Email done correctly knocks the socks off other marketing mediums.

Talk to one of our Digital Fire team and we will help you:

  1. Grow and profile your email data
  2. Effectively manage your database
  3. Acquire new customers
  4. Drive sales from existing customers
  5. Drive maximum business value and profit from your data marketing

Thomas Boyd.

Digital Fire MD
*With thanks for some content to the impressive Pure 360 team.