If your company or organization isn't currently collecting email addresses from current and potential customers, and engaging them with a regular email marketing campaign, you're missing out on an effective method of marketing.

All businesses can benefit from an email campaign.  Over the next few weeks we'll examine the different types of marketing emails you can send out and what situations you would want to use them in, but for today, let's talk about a few reasons why you would want to market through email.

1. Email is Cost Effective

Compared to traditional advertising  like radio, television or print, email advertising costs are minimal.  Smaller lists can be emailed directly from a mail client, but even as your list grows, a subscription to a service for email marketing is relatively inexpensive. In addition, email marketing is typically much more targeted than traditional forms of advertising. Instead of an ad that goes out in a newspaper to tens of thousands of people who likely have little to no interest in your products or services, you can ensure that everyone on your email list has requested to be there, and therefore they are interested in what you  have to say.

2. Email Builds Relationships

It's no secret that building a relationship with your customer base can benefit your business in the long run. Email can be used to keep in regular contact with both your existing customers and potential prospects. Not only is it convenient for both parties involved, but it can save a lot of time and money that would normally be spent on phone calls and mailers sent out to achieve the same purpose.  Depending on your customer base, it may not be appropriate to use email as the sole means of building relationships with your customers, but it can enhance your existing activities... and some communication is always better than none!

3. Email is the Easiest Way to Sell to Your Existing Customers

It's always easier to sell to existing customers rather than a new one.  If you're sending regular information and updates to existing customers via email, that is the perfect place to introduce new products and services that may be of interest to them.  Once again, this can save time and money over the traditional method of contacting your customer base by phone or ground mail.

4. Email Gives You More Information

Email marketing campaigns can provide a wealth of information beyond traditional forms of advertising, particularly if you use an email newsletter application. Through these, you can tell how many of your emails have been delivered, the number of times it was opened by recipients, and even how many users clicked through from your email to your website.  You can even set up special pages on your website to allow you to track how many people click through from your email and buy a product or contact you for a quote.  Email tracking information isn't 100% accurate, but it's far superior to traditional forms of advertising where you often have to go on perceived changes in business, i.e. "well, it seemed like we had more customer inquiries during our radio campaign".

5. Email Puts Segmentation and Targeting in Reach

Traditionally, it has been only large companies with significant marketing budgets who had the resources and market to segment their advertisements and test their effectiveness.  Modern email marketing software makes it easy for anyone to split their email list into different segments. This allows you to target your emails to specific groups based on their wants and needs, or broadcast an email to your entire list.

If you are not currently employing email marketing, but would like to find out more about it, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We'd be happy to provide a free consultation.