From the first email sent by Ray Tomlinson until today, email has been used as a very active communication type, especially in the business world. These days when everyone is at home and things are handled remotely, it has become one of the methods that has gained much more importance. Email marketing, which is preferred both for bilateral communications and relations between brands and their customers, increases its preferability due to its easy usability and accessibility.
Definition of Email Marketing
“Email marketing” is a method of messages with content such as product promotion, information, and celebration in order to reach a certain target audience. Starting to take more place in our lives with Web 2.0, it has become a more strategic, up-to-date, measurable, and creative type of communication than the old communication types. Emails often provide promotional or educational content and encourage people to purchase a product or service. According to marketers, the email market is a digital strategy used to reach existing or potential customers. Because email gives marketers the ability to reach people in nearly every segment. In this way, marketers can interact with their target audience, promote their business, and most importantly, drive sales or web traffic to their companies.
Why is it Important?
Many people wonder why email marketing has such an important role. This question has many answers.
1. People Are More Likely to See Your Message.
Research has shown that checking email has become a regular routine for many adults. According to a study done, 81% of US residents check their personal email at least once a day. Of the 2,667 survey respondents with a corporate email address, 74% say they check their email multiple times a day.
While there’s no guarantee that people will read your emails, it’s a good idea to connect with them on a platform they use every day. Remember, while there is no guarantee, there is a possibility that people will open your emails. Researchers also found that 49% of people open their marketing emails at least sometimes. The remaining 51% said they never or rarely open their marketing emails. There’s almost half a chance. The choice is now up to you!
2. Email Marketing is a Must-Have Strategy for Businesses.
Salesforce revealed that 74% of senior marketing leaders use email marketing to reach current and potential customers. Of the 4,100 marketing leaders surveyed, 21% said they would integrate email marketing into their business plans within the next year. This actually reveals the role of email marketing.
3. Email Marketing Provides High Returns on Investment.
Email is the most cost-effective marketing tool compared to other options, including social media marketing. According to many reports, companies spend an average of $10.23 on email marketing campaigns to acquire a single paying customer. In contrast, around $21.95 is spent on social media campaigns to secure a customer.
About Email Marketing
Like any marketing channel, email marketing has its advantages and disadvantages. It is possible to list them as follows;
Advantages of Email Marketing
It is possible to list many advantages while mentioning email marketing:
- An email list consists of people who choose to receive emails from one. This permission-based approach increases subscriber engagement with the business.
- People have different design options to create their email campaigns: plain text, graphics, images, videos, etc.
- Through email marketing, one may deliver customized messages to the audience.
- It’s easy for subscribers to forward and share email content with others.
- When running an email campaign, using call-to-action buttons and links makes it easy for them to purchase a product or service from the related website.
- People may measure the success of their email campaigns.
- People may have the chance to perform A/B testing before sending emails. They can test the subject lines, calls to action, images, or content to make sure the related email content is effective.
- People can read a message when they’re available. Compared to telemarketing, it is less intrusive and is available whenever one wants to read it.
- Email marketing costs are usually much lower than many other marketing channels. So it is very cost-effective.
- It is an environmentally-friendly form of marketing.
- People can reach the right audience at the right time, in the right place, and with the right offer.
Disadvantages of Email Marketing
When we look at the disadvantages, we can suggest the following according to the research:
- Emails may be sent to subscribers’ spam folders. It means that you didn’t follow privacy and protection rules.
- Emails are filtered by email software and ISPs. Therefore, email content or subject line should not contain certain spammy keywords.
- Emails are functional as long as they appear on multiple devices. That’s why people should pay attention to both the design and functions of their email campaign.
- Emails with large files that download very slowly will cause people to lose interest.
- One needs the time, marketing skills, and resources to create a successful email campaign.
How to do Email Marketing
In order to take advantage of email marketing, one should consider the methods of how to do email marketing and how to attract other people. First of all, people should determine why they want to send an email. People should prepare their newsletter and research what they should include in the content. For example, if they are selling services or products, they can create content that encourages their target audience to buy. In addition, people can professionally examine the emails of different companies.
In the second phase, we may say that one should accurately determine their target audience. They can send messages to the email addresses of the target audience and customers. If people can’t decide on the audience, they can’t identify their target audience correctly and it causes negative comments or reactions.
Importance of Subject Headings
Subject headings are of great importance in email marketing content. For this reason, one needs to be careful:
- In choosing the right topic title.
- Title content should be short.
- Only provide real and accurate information in your newsletter and message.
- Avoid exaggerated content to prevent your newsletter from being flagged as spam.
- All “capital letters” connotes shouting and should not be used.
- Expressions such as “you should buy, don’t miss this opportunity” should definitely not be included.
- A misleading statement should not be used in the topic title.
The content in a newsletter and the content reached when clicked must be exactly the same. The content and the link content must be compatible. The user who reaches the page in the link will continue to review the service or product mentioned. If one links to an unrelated page, the users may feel uncomfortable and will not return to the related site. Therefore, one should prepare a landing page specifically for the newsletter.
One must pass all of these steps as a priority. Of course, anyone doesn’t want their efforts to go away due to carelessness. Structure the newsletter or email properly to prevent it from being flagged as “spam.” When it is flagged as “spam mail”, it will be blacklisted. This can damage the brand’s image as well as prevent it from reaching its intended audience.
What To Consider When Creating a Mail Marketing Strategy?
Just like in other marketing management, it is important to have a certain strategy and timing for mail marketing and there are some strategies that one should consider. Consider the following to create an effective mail marketing strategy:
1. Segmentation of Customers
Finding the right audience and reaching their email addresses is one of the best mail marketing strategies. Visitors are always useful to websites. Even if they do not shop or interact with the site, they add value to site traffic. that said, it is necessary to persuade a visitor to subscribe or leave their email for you to create a mailing list. The best way to do this is to offer an opportunity. For example: “Sign up now and get 10% off”.
2. Not Sending Mail Frequently
The right time is very important for a mail marketing campaign. Only send emails that are relevant. For example, discounts, promotional campaigns, price changes, and special events. Otherwise, frequent and unnecessary emails may cause the visitor to unsubscribe from the list.
3. Having Interesting Designs
When determining the design strategy for mailing design, it is very important to think in terms of the person receiving the email. Using creative designs is almost the outer shell of emails. Combining basic HTML and flashy graphics can help create great mail designs. Asked yourself: “Would I open this email if I were you?” If your answer is yes, then you are doing a great job!
4. Clearing Bounce Mails
The concept called bounce mail is the situation where the sent mails cannot be delivered to their real owners. Situations such as the other party closing their email address, the inbox being full, the server being temporarily unavailable, or the mail you sent being too large may cause your quality score to decrease in email marketing. You can use software or paid programs to update or delete old emails successfully.
Which Industries are Eligible for Email Marketing?
All industries can benefit from using email marketing. Because every company, institution, and organization that needs advertisements and announcements need email marketing. Even non-governmental organizations such as non-profit associations, foundations, and political parties use email marketing strategies to provide collective information.
Of course, people who read the paragraph above may have the idea that “well, if there are no sales, this is mass mailing, not email marketing”. But it should be emphasized that trying to convey an ideology to the masses is nothing but a marketing strategy. In other words, the email marketing organization does not have to make money as a result of this campaign.
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