Top Five Benefits of Email Marketing
Email continues to be a popular form of communication, and is being embraced by organizations for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing. The benefits of email marketing over direct mail, broadcast or print advertising are:
- Low cost and speed to market – The cost of printing and postage for direct mail is more expensive and it generally takes a few days for the material to be printed and stuffed into envelopes. Electronic email templates can be created once and re-used by updating the content.
- Near real-time information – For example, email is a great way for restaurants send out “daily lunch specials” each morning to be foremost in the mind of customers as lunch time approaches. Similarly, retailers can create a sense of urgency and excitment to promote overstocked inventory via an email campaign that announces special prices “while supplies last”. Not only is the information being sent in near-real time, but customers know that “time of of the essence” when responding.
- Personalized, more relevant messages – Email can be personalized and targeted to reach prospects who are most likely to be interested in a particular message or offer. A produce market that offers locally grown items can notify customers when the first crop of local tomatoes or blueberries are for sale. Email lists can be segmented in an endless number of ways to denote customers who have opted-on for specific notifications or have purchased certain items in the past.
- Email is share-able and has a broader reach – Email templates include a button for one-click sharing across social media sites. In addition, email can be forwarded directly to friends and associates of the original recipient.
- Email is easier to track, measure and therefore, improve – Multiple formats of a campaign can be created using different colors, images and call-to-action messages. Various metrics such as open rate, response rate, and conversion rates provide information about the most effective techniques for engaging customers.
