Email Marketing- A new way to create Brand Awareness
Marketers have been aligning email marketing with their marketing efforts since forever. The question, however, remains whether it is still effective or not. While many other marketing forms have evolved with time, email marketing is even now optimized by brands. In 2019, a research study concluded that there were about 3.9 billion global email users in that year. And there is no surprise that its user base is only expanding.
Before we move further, let’s first understand what email marketing is.
Email marketing is a form of marketing where brands send a commercial message to their email subscribers. Brands can build the subscriber list by adding opt-in forms to their websites, blogs or by sharing links on their social media page.
Like other marketing forms, email marketing is used to achieve different business objectives too. Like generating leads, driving conversions, promoting products or services, discounts, cold emails for collaborations, etc.
Over the years, marketers have completely changed the execution of email marketing. Initially, brands used to only draft plain and simple emails. But today, multiple things are considered before drafting an email for consumers. Email copy, subject line, design, CTA’s, etc., every detail is taken care of by brands.
Apart from this, email marketing focus also goes to segmentation and personalization. Why?
Brands need to segment their audiences based on their consumer journey and their interests & buying behaviour. Further, they should create a consumer funnel as it will help them in understanding the stage of the consumers – whether they are at awareness, consideration, purchase, or delight stage.
But how is the consumer funnel important for email marketing? So that businesses can leverage their marketing strategies appropriately, understand their audience better, and craft emails accordingly. Besides, it even helps in analyzing the areas for improvement and optimizing the campaigns in a better way.
Furthermore, businesses should focus on personalized emails because consumers feel one step closer to their favourite brands. And such emails also improve click-through rates, open rates, and reply rates.
Email marketing may be one of the oldest forms of marketing. But it does deliver exceptional results.
Also, knowing that emails can be both promotional and informational has allowed brands to take a fresh approach to their marketing strategies. While some brands have placed their focus on promoting offers or their products. Other brands have also managed to grab the consumers’ attention through email newsletters.
No, don’t get surprised. Just like ordinary newsletters, email newsletters too, bring value to your target audience. People who have subscribed to these newsletters tend to receive news, trends, or insights related to their favourite brands. Neither do brands want their audience to miss out on important events nor do the customers.
Look how both Netflix and Disney have added their personal touch to their newsletters!
Email newsletters are one of the most effective marketing tools. These can be weekly or monthly, depending on the brands. If executed well, these newsletters can even help brands in building a personalized relationship with their consumers. After all, how you execute your marketing strategies matters a lot.
People today subscribe to the emails of their favourite brands because they want to know more about them. Thus, you know how important it is for brands to capitalize on email marketing strategies.
However, why should brands choose email marketing?
1) It increases brand awareness, duh! Through emails, brands can reach a large consumer base at a particular time. Since brands need to send emails to such a large audience, they can use ESP i.e., Email Service Provider. Softwares like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc., helps businesses in sending emails and managing email marketing campaigns.
Do brands really need to use this software when there are platforms like Gmail and Yahoo? Yes, definitely! Because sending mass emails through platforms like Gmail and Yahoo can be easily flagged with spam filters. On top of that, there are higher chances that your account might get disabled because of suspicious activity.
2) Email marketing is cost-effective and has proven to generate 4x better ROI than other marketing strategies. There are many email marketing services and brands can choose the one they find inexpensive.
3) Brands can create multiple email lists based on the consumer journey and draft emails accordingly. For example, let’s take Myntra. For its email marketing campaigns, it can segment the audience into two groups. One group of people viewed an item and left the app. And second, people who abandoned the cart. Now that the audience segmentation is done, the email copy and design can be crafted according to the groups.
However, before crafting email marketing campaigns, there are a few tips that brands should keep in mind. Let’s see what these tips are!
1) Defining a business goal is important for any marketing campaign and so is for email marketing.
2) Provide value through your email copy. Make it crisp and to the point.
3) First impressions say a lot about your brand. Email aesthetics are as important as your social media feed.
4) Include CTA’s! Or else how will the consumer take the required action?
5) A/B tests the subject line of emails. Engaging subject lines help in improving the open rates.
6) Schedule emails at the right time and the right day. Studies have shown that most people check their emails in the morning. Well, you know what to do further!
Research in 2019 concluded that 9 out of 10 marketers leverage email marketing because it is highly effective. Do we need to say more?
It’s time you start optimizing email marketing and attract a potential audience with your engaging and quirky campaigns.