Email Marketing

As popular and easy to use as social media advertising is these days, it’s easy to forget about one of the first forms of digital marketing, which continues to be one the most effective today: email. Sure, Facebook ads are great for their ability to narrow target demographics down to the minutest details, but this greatness comes at a cost. When it comes to reaching hyper-specific audiences and increasing conversion rates, email campaigns are right up there.

According to MarketingSherpa, 72% of consumers prefer B2C communication to be done through email and 61% enjoy receiving promotional emails from companies they like[1]. These statistics mean great things for businesses looking for a direct and cost-effective way to reach their consumer base. Successful advertising – advertising which consumers not only don’t mind but ultimately appreciate – is a tightrope that many businesses fail to walk across, so the fact that email campaigns can make this balancing act a little easier is huge.  In order for an email campaign to work for you, however, it’s crucial to understand why B2C emails are a successful marketing tactic in the first place.

Advertising, no matter how subtle, is inherently obtrusive. The less obtrusive your advertising is, the more likely it is that your consumers will welcome it. In social media, this is especially prevalent. Most brands have adapted their advertising tactics to account for the fact that people don’t log into their social media accounts to be bombarded by brands and promo deals, and they’ve been rewarded for it. There is a place for social media advertising, but it comes second to the consumer’s relationship to the platform. Email, on the other hand, is an inherently more formal and business-like medium than social media, meaning that consumers are much more likely to be receptive to advertisements and promotions when they come in the form of digital mail.

This receptiveness form consumers, however, does have its limits. Although 61% of people may not mind B2C emails, 39% of them do. And just because 61% of people enjoy receiving emails from companies that they like, that doesn’t mean they will necessarily enjoy receiving emails from your company. In order for you to be one of the companies that consumers actually enjoy hearing from, and in order for your email campaign to be successful, content must be paramount.

If you want consumers to not only open your emails but engage with them, you have to first provide them with something of value; this most often comes in the form of discounts, insights, and updates. But even these things can become irritating after a while – we all know that one company who seems to have a new “limited” time offer every other week. Email users are naturally more receptive to your marketing efforts, but that doesn’t mean you should take advantage of their openness; instead, you should strive to respect the boundaries of consumers and provide them with a reasonable amount of valuable content. By taking this approach, you put yourself in a position to not only reach target demographics but to build a lasting relationship with them, all in a cost-effective manner. What more could you ask for?

 

[1] https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/customer-communication-by-channel

https://marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/how-customers-want-promo-emails