Technology is fast-paced and always evolving. With new versions, updates, and brand new tech emerging daily, it can be difficult to keep up. It’s also easy to get distracted and ignore the “legacy tech.”
You know, the technology that’s been around for years and years; it hasn’t fundamentally changed, just improved. Email is a legacy tech, and because of that, email marketing is still a relevant strategy.
Here are five reasons why you should be using it:
1. It’s an easy way to generate leads.
Everyone knows quality content is where it’s at. Seriously, if you have a website (and by now, you should), then it makes sense to do whatever is necessary to ensure your customers and potential customers can find you; quality content is one of the best ways to do that.
Offer a subscription, an eBook, a guide, a white paper, anything your audience would care about in exchange for a name & an email. Granted, the leads you gain through this method may not be converting right now, but it’s a starting point for contact (and one more point of contact for a potential customer than you had otherwise).
2. Email is still underutilized.
There have been claims that “email is dead.” It’s completely untrue. However, if your competitors want to believe it, why correct them? This just means there will be less companies in your niche competing for attention in your customers’ inboxes.
Believe it, your customers not only still have inboxes (both for work and for personal use), but they’re checking them regularly. They’re checking email so much, in fact, that they’ve had to implement structured work-life balances and schedule times to unplug, which brings us to the next point.
3. It’s pervasive.
Thanks to mobile devices, email is everywhere. With a tablet or smartphone in hand, you don’t have to be tied to a desktop – you can receive, read, & respond to emails wherever you are and whenever you want.
This also means, with some behavioral segmentation & the right timing, you can reach your customers wherever they are and whenever they’re most likely to be checking their email. With the right analytics & behavioral segmentation, you can make sure your email hits their inbox during the prime time they’re checking it and not when they’ve had enough for the day.
4. Email is a great tool for building & nurturing customer relationships.
People like dealing with people, not corporations, companies, or brands. The more helpful and human your brand can be, the more likely you are to make a real, meaningful connection with your customers. If you know the types of information your customers find most useful and the questions they most need answered, then you can create content around those topics. Once you have the content, you can then create a series of emails for these customers to answer their first question, their second, their third, and provide resources you know they’ll need because of the questions they’re asking.
Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update was a move towards semantic search – it was about focusing on context and meaning. Google wanted to take search queries, determine what the searcher actually needs, and provide the best results they can.
You should be doing the same thing for your customers. Once you figure out what they’re looking for, then you can start piecing together why they’re searching, and build upon that. Become the trusted expert for them, and you’ll earn, not only their trust for an initial transaction, but loyalty for future transactions as well.
5. A well-executed email campaign increases lifetime value & keeps your brand top-of-mind.
When it comes to email marketing, every recipient is not going to be ready to convert into a customer right away. In fact, the majority of them won’t be immediate customers at all – you’ll have to nurture them. The subscribers you gain for your email list are usually top-of-the-funnel prospects coming in from your top-of-the-funnel content.
Once they’ve entered the funnel, it’s your job to determine where they need to go based on where they’ve come from. If they subscribed to your email list from a white paper about how to buy your product, they’re probably a little bit closer to conversion than someone who came in off of a blog post about Halloween costumes. Context matters.
Once you’ve figured out the context of where they came from, you can then start determining what types of content to send them, how often to be in contact, and when it’s appropriate to start sending them things that will help with their transaction (coupon codes, offers, flash sales, etc.). With a good email strategy in place, you can be sure you’re the one who comes to mind when it’s time to purchase.
Plus, you’ll be able to formulate a plan to keep them engaged post-purchase to continue to build a relationship with them. After all, your loyal customers are your most rewarding and your most profitable. In addition to their continued business, loyal customers are also more likely to send you referrals.
With all these benefits and more, what are you waiting for? Start earning list subscribers, start emailing, and start enjoying the rewards an engaged, loyal customer base can provide for you!