Of the hundreds or possibly thousands of marketing messages consumers are bombarded with each day, e-marketing is still one of the most effective marketing methods available, in both the online and offline worlds. In fact, a study from Forbes Media last year found that e-marketing generated the most conversions, second only to search engine optimization. Offline, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reported that e-marketing outperformed all other forms of direct marketing last year as well. So the data clearly shows that e-marketing works for reaching (and converting) customers today. But why?
A Broad Reach
One of the reasons e-marketing works so well could be that it has a very broad reach, since almost everyone today has an email address, and many have more than one. Spam-compliant e-marketing services (such as Constant Contact or Vertical Response) are readily available and very affordable, meaning you can easily reach your entire customer base using email. If you are not regularly e-marketing to your customers, you’re missing out on an excellent opportunity to keep your name and products/services in front of customers and remind them of the value you provide.
Taking Action
Also, e-marketing makes it easy to enable recipients to take some type of action. Whether it’s clicking through to an optimized landing page or printing out a coupon, your special offers can be delivered directly to your customers’ inboxes where they can interact with your message and take the desired action. Just be sure to use a clear call-to-action and provide recipients multiple ways to engage with you (including links to your website, email links, phone numbers, social networking links, etc.).
Targeting, Tracking, and Measuring
Targeting your messages is also easy with e-marketing, since you are sending directly to people who have opted-in or given you permission to contact them with your information. You can even segment your e-marketing list into specific groups based on interests, gender, time of year, or any other criteria that may be useful to your business. However, you cannot segment your list effectively if you are not keeping accurate stats and tracking your results. Most listserv services provide very detailed data on who opened your message, what links they clicked on, if they forwarded it to another person, etc. This level of results measurement is simply not possible with other more traditional marketing methods.
No Interruptions
E-marketing is also less intrusive than other types of advertising (like TV or radio commercials or the dreaded telemarketing call at dinnertime). Recipients will see your message when they are checking their email, and if you have done a good job of providing valuable content, they will look forward to what you have to say when they see your email in their inboxes. If you send too often or send only self-serving promotions, however, they may simply delete your message without reading it, or possibly unsubscribe or block you altogether, so be smart about the types of content you send and how often you send it.
Because It Works!
The bottom line is that e-marketing works, and is an easy, affordable way to market to your customers and reach them directly with valuable content and special offers they may be interested in. E-marketing also averages a return on investment (ROI) of $43.62 for every dollar you spend, which is a convincing reason to add it to your marketing mix in the first place.
By using e-marketing regularly, your business becomes more visible to your customers and regularly reminds them about your products, services, and value, and can trigger a flurry of renewed interest every time you send.
