Email marketing is a type of digital marketing that can be used to send out automated emails to customers with new blog articles or product offers. These emails can be used to remind customers of your business or website, or to invite them to take some action, such as making a purchase or interacting with your company in some other way.

There are literally hundreds of email marketing providers that you can choose from, each with their own unique features and perks. If you want to start a business or simply want to take your marketing efforts to the next level, then read on for some tips on how to utilize email marketing to reach more people and grow your business.

The Growth Of Email Marketing

If you’re reading this, then you probably know how important email marketing is to your business. According to HubSpot Blogs, email marketing contributes to 76% of all digital marketing revenues.

EMarketing Review estimates that email marketing will earn US businesses over $16 billion by the end of 2021. That’s a lot of money and it shows how effective this form of marketing can be.

What’s more, 62% of consumers have said they’d rather receive discounts or product notifications through email than social media.

So it’s evident that businesses must be doing something right, because customers are continuing to use email marketing to stay in contact with brands and get deals and discounts.

How To Create An Email Marketing Plan

Whether you’re already using email marketing as part of your strategy or you’re planning to implement it for the first time, you must have an email marketing plan in place. Without one, you could be wasting a lot of time and effort down the road.

An email marketing plan is a roadmap for your email marketing strategy and it should include the following:

• The goals you hope to achieve from your email marketing
• A description of the target audience for your email marketing (e.g., age, gender, geographic location, and interests)
• The metrics you’ll use to measure the success of your email marketing campaign (e.g., opens, clicks, and conversions)
• The content you’ll use to attract and retain your audience (e.g., whether you’ll use email marketing to promote an upcoming blog post or to offer customers discounts)
• The distribution platforms you’ll use to reach your audience (e.g., social media, your website, etc.)
• The emails you’ll send out (e.g., frequency and timing of the emails)
• Any special offers or promotions you’ll use to encourage people to join your email list (e.g., discount codes, free trials, etc.)

You can find a free sample email marketing plan template from HubSpot here. Make sure to download it so you have something to start with.

An email marketing plan will also help you measure the success of your strategy and identify areas where you can improve. By identifying what’s working and what’s not, you’ll be able to refine your approach and continue to evolve your strategy over time.

How To Use Email To Grow Your Business

You should be using email marketing to grow your business, not just to send out important updates or to follow up on previous interactions. There are various tools and tactics you can use to gain traction with your email list and grow your business, but you must have an email list to perform these tasks.

Here are a few ways you can use email to grow your business:

Product Downloads And Trials

Giving your audience the option to try out new products or access special offers is a great way to grow your business. However, these options must be presented in a way that’s easy for the consumer to understand and must be followed up with an email reminding them of the offer. You can also bundle the product with complementary items and discounts, to increase your sale.

For example, if you sell shoes, you might want to offer your existing customers a discount on their next purchase as an incentive to keep coming back. Or, you could bundle in a headband with your black leather jacket to give it an extra discount and a free headband with each purchase of a black leather jacket.

Customer Support

One of the ways you can grow your business is through effective customer support. Many business owners and marketers neglect this part of their strategy because they think it’s not important or that it’ll be difficult to find the resources they need within their existing employee base. But giving your customers the best possible experience is a great way to gain their trust and keep them coming back for more.

If possible, set up a system where customers can contact you directly through the email address you’ve provided. This will not only help your business stand out from the crowd, but it will also make your customers feel extremely valued as individuals and will increase the likelihood that they’ll remain loyal to your brand.

Informational Blogs And Quizzes

Informational blogs and quizzes can be a great tool for getting more engagement and driving traffic back to your site. For instance, if your company blog is getting a lot of engagement on social media, you might want to consider creating a blog post to share with your audience. Or, if you’re running a marketing campaign on social media and you want to test the effectiveness of certain content, you can create a short-answer quiz.

The important thing to keep in mind is that these tools should supplement your other marketing efforts and should not replace them. If you find that they’re not bringing in the traffic you need, then you might want to consider shifting your strategy and trying a new approach.

However, the advantage of this form of marketing is that it’s extremely easy to set up. You can literally get up and running in no time with a few emails and a few blog posts. From there, you can use the blog to gradually introduce new products or to highlight various marketing campaigns.

Digital Marketing

If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably encountered some of the terms ‘digital marketing’, ‘online marketing’, or ‘cyber marketing’. These are terms used to collectively describe the process of marketing through digital channels, such as social media or web-based email.

Whether you’re just starting out or you already have a functioning digital marketing strategy in place, you should be considering email marketing as part of your overall strategy. Why? Well, according to HubSpot Blogs, businesses that implement a strong email marketing strategy see an increase in revenue of 60 to 120%. That’s a lot of growth and it shows how effective email marketing can be when implemented correctly.

To learn more, read our blog post on the Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2020.

Email Marketing Is A Long-Term Strategy

You cannot rush email marketing. It takes time to build a list of qualified leads and to get those leads to convert.

Although it’s tempting to try to ‘crush it’ when you’ve got so much going on in your business, you must resist this urge. Remember, your email list is your ticket to the future. It’s the lifeblood of your business and it needs to be nurtured and grown organically.

Instead, work steadily on building your email list and engaging with your audience on social media. When you do have a new offer or a new product to promote, then you can look into digital marketing campaigns in more detail.