Are you umming and ahh-ring over whether to add email to your already growing list of digital marketing channels? Here are 5 reasons to start an email newsletter for your business:
Meet them where they are
Thought it was all the about the ‘gram these days? Wrong! 73% of millennials prefer to receive their communications from businesses via emails. Also, don’t shut yourself off from those who might not necessarily be social media users.
If you think about it, we all check our emails at least once a day, perhaps even more. They remain the one-stop shop for most of our life admin. Our inboxes hold our purchase confirmations when we’ve bought something online, receive exclusive deals from retailers and update us when payments need to be made – and that’s just from the *business* side of things!
Build an engaged audience
Sure anyone can hit that ‘follow’ button on any given social media channel but signing up to receive emails from a business shows strong customer intent and is more likely to result in both social media engagement and sales!
When I sign up to receive emails from a business or brand I’m usually already following them on all the socials I use. I generally sign up for one of two reasons
- I want to receive direct marketing from that brand that I will definitely see (provided the subject line appeals) and keep abreast of their updates, launches and sales. Especially the exclusive ones!
- I’m making a purchase on their website and they offer a discount if I sign up to their email list.
Emails take up tangible space in our inboxes, so the ones that seem worthwhile to us matter and a personalized experience within one also draws us closer to the sender.
Enhance your ROI
Providing added value in your emails from helpful information to exclusive offers is what will keep your audience engaged and subscribed.
Those that make purchases off the back of an email spend 138% more than people that don’t receive email offers. And why wouldn’t they? An email newsletter is an opportunity to build a relationship with your customer base. To appeal to them directly and keep them in the loop. It also affords you the chance to try out different mediums in one neatly packaged space to see what best sparks their journey from your email to the moment they make a purchase on your website. Keeping an eye on your email analytics will help you learn how your customers want to be taken on the sales journey.
You can target your customer base much more easily with email
You can’t be everything to everyone. It’s something I see a lot of business owners get hung up on especially when a social post doesn’t do as well as they hoped or result in *instant* sales. The reasons for such can be myriad.
But you can build your email database in such a way that you can target people based on what they want to receive from you – make it part of your email sign-up form! This is known as segmentation. It’s especially useful if you offer multiple services or have a diverse product range.
You might have some subscribers that only want to hear when you’re having a sale. You may have some that are only interested in one of your services and you may have some that eagerly anticipate every update you offer about your business. You can appeal to them all with tailored emails!
Segmented emails have a higher open rate than ones that aren’t because they appeal directly to the target recipient.
Use multiple media formats in one place
An email newsletter doesn’t necessarily mean you have to write essays (though the e-ssay is its own e-newsletter niche). You can embed all sorts of rich media into your emails to make them stand out and further appeal to your audience.
From GIFs and video embeds to calendar invites, polls and beyond. Go as far as your imagination and technical know-how will let you (though try to keep the overall email file size down ok?).
Most email marketing services offer drag-and-drop email creation, meaning you don’t need to be a coding whizz to put together your newsletters. However, if you’d like to focus on and other areas of your business by outsourcing this one, get in touch. From creation to performance reporting, I’d be more than happy to help!
An email newsletter is a great tool to have in your business or brand’s digital marketing arsenal. Do you already have one or will you be starting one up soon?
Let me know in the comments!