Why Email Marketing Matters
As an entrepreneur running your own business, you’re often on a quest to find ways to interact with your customers. Social media is usually the default option, since its so widely accessible today – but what about email?
Sure, a lot of people sing the same “email is obsolete” song – but that is surely not the case. In fact, about 34% of the world still uses email to this day. That’s more than enough people you can reign in.
But first, let’s clarify what “email marketing” truly entails.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is not just you sharing latest blog updates everyday – it’s a lot more than that. It is a way you can connect with customers who have given you their email addresses, and hence have given you explicit permission to use it.
This completely changes the playing field, because you’re not just shouting into the void – you’re speaking directly into their inbox. This makes interactions with your customers a lot more personal, and valuable.
If used wisely, this channel of communication can positively affect your business.
Let’s discuss why it matters so much:
It is Cost-Effective
Marketing strategies may come and go, but one thing will always remain: marketers will always prefer the cheapest way out. Where printing brochures, publishing paid campaigns on social media platforms and running advertisements on television can be quite expensive, email marketing poses none of those problems.
In fact, depending on your resources, it may be the cheapest marketing channel you have. The only things you’re going to spend money on are email automation services, and someone who has to create the content for you – which are minimal compared to expenses other modes of marketing require.
This allows you to focus your investment on other, more important aspects of business.
It Helps Generate Leads
In the business world, “generating leads” is a pretty big word – one may even ask “Can an email convert people to your brand?”
The answer to that is yes – only if done smartly!
You can’t expect people to immediately buy your product or sign up to your services with just a single email. But that doesn’t mean your email campaign is not working.
In fact, sending emails is a great way of capturing new people’s attention. With content like discounts, offers, new product catalogues and newsletters, you maintain your presence in people’s eyes (or rather, their inboxes).
This not only lets you create links with potential customers, but also helps strengthen your ties with them. Once the scale has tipped in your favour, the customers – and sales! – will come flooding in.
It Compels Customers to Take Action
A huge, vibrant billboard may be a great investment on your part – but if people just walk by without looking, then what’s its use?
Believe it or not, email marketing is highly action-oriented – it lets your customers either reply, forward, click-through, or even purchase. It’s designed to make customers act immediately, ultimately driving sales and traffic to your website at a faster rate.
Unlike other generic modes of advertising, emails can give you results more quickly.
It Adds a Flair of Personalisation
Better than an advertisement made for the customer to see, is an advertisement made for the customer to feel special.
Emails are extremely customisable – you can organise your customers into groups and send offers, discounts and other promotional content based on their interests, location, purchasing habits and more.
POS in Pakistan like Oscar POS let you embrace this power of personalisation. Oscar offers a fully integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System that allows you to create customer profiles based on their purchasing history, likes and dislikes. With such groupings, you can ensure you show only the most relevant content to your customers.
It Helps Maintain Communication
Every business faces the problem of lost customers, i.e. customers that slowly lose interest in your brand. Although you can’t change a customers sentiments, you can focus on maintaining communication with them.
And how can you do that? Well, through email of course!
Emails are – and always have been – conversation starters. You can send different promotional or general content via email, and hope to communicate with people who matter to your business. This way, you will have successfully kept your audience engaged even during periods of inactivity. You and your brand can never go irrelevant.
Now that the importance of email marketing is brought to light, it’s time you took the initiative yourself – test out the waters, and see what kind of email marketing works for your business. Don’t be afraid to experiment constantly before picking your ideal strategy.