In a technology-driven era, companies thrive on successful digital marketing. Social media marketing is the core practice for most B2C communication, but from a B2B POV, old greats like email marketing still deliver outstanding results. After all, digital marketing in its earliest form, was primarily email marketing and banner ads, as far back as 1993.
Email marketing is still amongst the most profitable marketing strategies to employ. With an ROI of 4,200%, leaving it out of the marketing mix is like turning your back on target consumers!
Email marketing seamlessly integrates the ‘newsletter’, a trusted media format, into the delivery model. However, while both can coexist, they each employ different marketing approaches despite sharing a delivery channel.
For a better understanding of this type of marketing, and to learn when to use email and newsletter marketing effectively, take a look at these pointers.
What is email marketing and why is it important?
Email marketing is the practice of sending promotional messages to subscribers. The main agenda is to increase sales by generating, engaging, and reengaging leads. It can play a role in every stage of the marketing funnel and this is why email marketing is important.
The most common types of marketing emails fall under the following four categories.
- Welcome emails: Initiate conversation with a customer, and can even be post-purchase
- Nurture emails: Provide the user with additional information that may be of use
- Retention emails: Help retain the customer base by engaging them
- Promotional emails: Include information on special events, virtual discussions, sales and more
Why do email marketing and when?
Email marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy, whose key advantages are as follows.
- Improved conversions
The first and foremost benefit of email marketing is better conversion from prospective buyers and leads. Be it for announcing the sale of a particular product or for the promotion of any service, organizing an email marketing campaign can yield great results. In fact, B2C email campaigns enjoy a 22% open rate—all too within the first hour!
- Enhanced brand awareness
Another striking feature of email marketing is that it leads to better brand awareness. By sending emails to subscribers or users, you can ensure that everyone interested in the company is aware of new offerings or information from the brand. At this stage, when the goal is to drive sales, nurture leads or reengage audiences, an email campaign is a great addition to a digital strategy.
- Strong customer relationships
Ideally, email marketing content should be more ‘editorial’ than ‘advertising’ in nature. When you deliver value through relatable content, customers are more likely to develop a strong affinity to your brand. As such, emails can be leveraged to build a loyal customer base. Email marketing also helps the company keep up with their fulfilment standards. An email is just as much a follow-up as a phone call, but less intrusive.
All these features point to why email marketing is effective. With an idea of the why, the ‘when’ of it all comes down to need. Email marketing isn’t tied down to a specific content type, and is flexible in both format and style. Adapt as required, and design campaigns based on the specific business or customer-facing objectives.
What is the function of a newsletter in email marketing?
There is a misconception that email marketing is identical in practice to sending email newsletters. However, newsletters are simply a part of the overall email marketing strategy. Though both have similar goals of generating sales, newsletters focus on providing specific information to customers. In B2B transactions, you may use either one or both in order to generate leads.
Think of email newsletters like a traditional newspaper. Both are published regularly and provide information with minimal promotional content. While you can see advertisements in a newspaper, the focus here is to deliver valuable information or news. Similarly, an email newsletter also needs to provide more factual data with fewer sales promotions unlike most email marketing campaigns.
To serve this purpose, there are 3 different types of email newsletters.
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Company newsletters: Inform employees about essential company news, associated information, achievements, and more
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Consumer newsletters: Reach out to your target audience so that they are better informed about your offerings
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Organization newsletters: Keep your internal and external stakeholders informed about company announcements, brand updates, and tips that can be useful for your staff as well as consumers
When should companies employ a newsletter marketing strategy?
The importance of a newsletter in an organisation is crystal clear. However, it may be unclear when to employ these as part of a marketing strategy.
As per research, a newsletter can be used to add value to an ordinary email blast. It works at almost every stage of the user journey, whether the intent is to drive awareness, build credibility, nurture leads, or inform audiences.
This is because a quality newsletter is personal, sophisticated, and actually interesting. It is a tool that encourages dialogue, and provides readers with niche content linked to their interests. This builds trust, and data shows that 91% of people are ready to consume promotional content from a brand they find credible and genuine.
To assume that email marketing has lost its sheen is to do yourself and your company a disservice. This digital marketing practice only improves with technology and continues to be an important component of the marketing toolkit. However, in order to leverage it to the maximum, you need a tailored, intelligent, and multi-layered approach. This includes knowing how to improve open rates or how to tap into the power of emotional marketing.
At Edisol, email marketing services make use of SEO, content and design, all of which work together to achieve brand goals. We can help you reach new customers, forge new relationships with businesses, and re-engage cold leads. To take your marketing to the next level and get measurable, actionable results, contact us today!
