What Are the Main Benefits of Email Marketing for Businesses?

Email marketing is the underdog of the advertising world. Not many businesses think to incorporate it into their marketing strategies and, as a result, are missing out on a brilliant opportunity to drive sales and make lifelong customers. With email marketing being more accessible than ever before (thanks to free software that is readily available online) this form of advertising isn’t just reserved for big corporations. Anybody can now run an email ad campaign – whether you are an SME or an independent start-up. But if you still need further convincing, here are the main benefits of email marketing for businesses:

1. Tailored and Targeted Content

One of the very best things about email marketing is that it is targeted and tailored for each customer. This means that you can deliver content to consumers which are highly relevant to them – more so than any other form of advertising. For example, social media posts have to appeal to a wide range of people, making them more general and less compelling. Email marketing, on the other hand, allows you to categorise your existing customers into different segments based on their preferences and browsing or purchasing history. Businesses can even go so far as to tailor the subject line to each person. With the marketing content being so relevant to them, your patrons are much more likely to be interested in what you are selling. Resultantly, this significantly increases the chances of your business making a sale.

2. Time and Cost-Effective

Email marketing is proven to drive results, which means you should see a return on your investment with this form of an ad campaign. But that’s not all. Other marketing strategies can demand a lot of your time, money, and resources. For example, printing flyers and posting them through doors is a time-consuming activity that also requires money for printing. Meanwhile, televised adverts are simply too expensive for most companies to invest in. Fortunately, these things aren’t problems with email marketing.

With bulk email software, businesses can send hundreds or thousands of virtual flyers at once – saving a huge amount of time. Furthermore, most email marketing software is free or comes with different subscription packages to optimise affordability. These helpful tools are usually fitted with template designers, so anybody can easily design a professional-looking email ad to send out to customers within minutes.

As such, you can save an immeasurable amount of time and money with email marketing, whilst simultaneously driving further profit for your company.

3. Strengthen Customer Relationships

Unlike other forms of advertising, email marketing is permission-based. Your clients and customers choose to subscribe to your email content – and they can opt-out at any time. This in itself is a brilliant way to improve your relationship with patrons, as you have taken their consent seriously. Furthermore, email marketing helps to bridge the gap between you and your customers.

For example, you cannot simply call somebody up after they have purchased something from you, nor are you able to track them down. But by emailing them, you can ensure that this connection hasn’t been lost – helping you to retain their business. Companies are also able to employ email marketing to see the lifecycle of a customer through to the end. If somebody has just registered with your website, for instance, you can send them a welcome email and then direct them towards the next step, such as purchasing an item or choosing a service package.

Businesses can also ask for customer feedback through emails, which demonstrates to patrons that they care and want to improve. This makes people feel more inclined to return to your company.

4. Increase Traffic and Sales

If you are struggling to drive traffic to your website, one of the benefits of email marketing is the ability to link to webpages you want to drive traffic to. Within the text of your emails, you can include links that take your customers to the relevant webpages – thereby generating more visitors. This will eventually convert into more business sales. Just be sure to use ‘calls to action’ alongside hyperlinks. A call to action is something that galvanises customers and takes them in the direction you want them to go.

For example, an anti-virus company might use ‘Get Your Protection Today’ and include a button that directs people towards their subscription page. Email marketing can also help to increase traffic to your website by including social sharing buttons. These usually appear at the bottom of the message and encourage clients to share your content with their contacts.

As such, your brand awareness can increase and there are more ways for people to access your website, helping to drive even more traffic to your business.

These are just some of the main benefits of email marketing. The next time you are devising your business’s advertising strategy, make sure to incorporate email marketing and invest in software to help boost its effectiveness.