Email Marketing
Today, people are constantly checking their emails, usually multiple times per day, in order to stay up-to-date with news and advertisements. For many of us, our emails are linked to our phones, which make a small chime, informing us to check our Inbox. This compulsion to constantly be up-to-date with our information makes emails an important part of any marketing campaign.
Benefits of Email Marketing
Email Marketing is simply defined as emails sent out to customers, normally through an email service company. With the help of email service companies, your business has the option to write emails in advance, program the service to send the emails out at a predetermined time and analyze the results.
Emails are the perfect way to connect with customers in a fast, cheap and personable manner. Your message is able to reach customers in less time than
direct mailers, saving you time and money, while still reaping the benefit of improving brand awareness. This online connection also helps to establish or nurture current and potential business-customer relationships.
Establishing this relationship is a balance between providing customers with meaningful
content and incentives. The personal information keeps customers informed about the business and builds trust in your brand. Incentives, whether they are discounts or giveaways, entice people to do business with you and to continue reading your emails.
With email marketing technology comes the ability to track and analyze the results of your email campaign. Many email service companies can show you numbers depicting how many people opened the email and how many people followed URLs embedded in the email. These results can help your business constantly improve the messages sent out in all forms of marketing and track the success of your campaign. AlphaGraphics has an email marketing solution called
agOnline that can track the success of your email marketing efforts.
How to Increase Email Marketing Success
Understanding the importance of emails is the beginning of a great marketing campaign. The next step is to put this knowledge into action.
- Establish the Voice of Your Business or Brand.
The first step in creating an email marketing plan is establishing the ‘voice’ of your business or brand. The voice you choose can help you connect with your target audience. For example, many fast food companies are sassy or rebellious in their messages because they are appealing to a teenage demographic. But if your target demographic is middle-aged women, you may want to leave the “sassy voice” behind and try a conversational and respectful tone instead.
Brand Your Emails
Branding your email is incredibly important. Customers should know exactly who the email is from, from the moment they open it. The best way to brand your email is to use a lot of your company’s colors, logos and fonts. This step helps to build brand recognition while informing customers that your email is important, not junk mail. In addition to branding your email, you can personalize it with the recipient’s name and a message or image based on their demographics provided by the recipient list.- Add Value
Add some value to your message. While the value will vary from business to business, some sort of incentive is needed to convince customers of the email’s importance. Give customers what they want, whether it is information about your business, coupons, special deals or an “inside scoop” on the business.
- Make Emails Short and To the Point
Be sure your email is short and on-topic. Customers won’t be interested in reading a newsletter that is filled with narratives, tangents or unrelated information. Besides losing interest, customers may go as far as unsubscribing from your email list. To prevent this, make sure emails are always short and to-the-point. After writing an email draft, step away from it for a couple of hours, then return fresh and ready to edit.
- Make Yourself Important
Make your business valuable in the eyes of your customers. If you know customers are struggling with a common problem, inform them of how they can avoid or solve this problem with your service. Offer tips and tricks, followed by your business number or address if they want more information. As customers recognize the importance of your emails, they will be more likely to continue subscribing.
Whether your business is nationwide or local, you can benefit from email marketing. Emails allow you to brand your business, stay in touch with consumers and promote your goods and services. AlphaGraphics has the tools and the expertise to help you with your email marketing.
Contact us to set and appointment so we can help you plan and strategize your next email marketing campaign.