Email can be used to turn
thos
e with no interest in your product into prospects, prospects
into customers, and then follow-up with customers within
a predefined number of days after a purchase, helping them
become repeat customers. Imagine if this process could be
automated. That would free your mind to think of so many
new ideas, rather than dealing with the tedious task of
emailing prospects and old customers daily.
Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools
available today. It's easy, affordable, direct, actionable
and highly effective. According to surveys, customers and
prospects would prefer to hear from you via email than any
other way. And when you add email to your marketing mix,
you spend less time, money and resources than with traditional
marketing vehicles (for example, direct mail or print advertising).
Your time-sensitive information is sent in minutes, not
days or weeks, and you can see the results of your efforts
instantly.
Email marketing also enables you to proactively communicate
with existing prospects and customers instead of passively
waiting for them to return to your website, visit your store
or office, or call you on the phone.
No matter how your prospects and customers found you --
perhaps you paid for search engine placement, met someone
at a networking event, collected contact information in
your place of business, sponsored a newsletter, placed a
banner ad, distributed a flier or sent a postcard -- email
marketing adds to your bottom line because it allows you
to maximize your investment and improve the return on investment
(ROI) of every dollar you spend to obtain new business.
Email marketing allows you to communicate more information,
more often. Your communications can include newsletters,
preferred customer promotions, sale notifications, new service
announcements, event invitations, greetings and much, much
more. Communicating via email is an affordable way to stretch
a tight marketing budget -- it can cost as little as fractions
of a penny per email. With a better response rate than direct
mail, email marketing is the most effective way to increase
your visibility and ultimately drive sales.
The key to turning your first-time customers into repeat customers
is by building relationships. Even though email is faceless,
it can still greatly assist you in building a solid relationship
with your customer base. Tough competition will attempt to
draw your customer base away by undercutting your costs and
doing whatever possible to switch your customers over. The
best way to prevent your customers from jumping ship is to
build a relationship with them over time. What better way
to do this than to provide useful information right to their
email inbox? Providing helpful hints or coupons in an email
message is a great way for recipients to want to continue
receiving your email, and coupons will motivate action on
the part of the consumer, providing you a way to instantly
obtain feedback on your campaign. The better providers of
email list management software offer open and click-through
tracking, giving your marketing department instant feedback
on the email’s effectiveness.
Email marketing gives your brand an edge in a tough market.
Daily, weekly, or even monthly emails will keep your brand
in your target consumer’s mind. As more and more of
the population begins to use email; email marketing will
become a standard in the marketing industry. Finding another
marketing method that comes close to all the benefits that
email marketing offers is nearly impossible. |
