The first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson, an American computer programmer, in 1971. The email he sent to himself from one computer to another contained a string of letters and numbers. As an internet Hall of Fame inductee, the computer engineer also originated using the “@” symbol in an email address, essential for connecting the username with the destination address.
About seven years later, a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp used The U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) to send the first commercial email to about 400 people to inform them about a new product.
Presently, HubSpot reports that over 300 billion emails are received daily worldwide. That presents a huge marketing opportunity for many small, medium and large enterprises.
Subsequently, below are the top reasons you may need to utilize email marketing for your business this year.
1. It targets the right customers
Unlike other digital advertising techniques, email marketing allows you to target specific customers and communicate with them directly and personally.
Therefore, you can form a long-lasting business relationships with current and prospective customers.
2. It reaches interested customers
When your current or potential clients visit your website, you can request them to join your mailing list.
Immediately customers land on your website, they may encounter an email pop-up promising a one-time, enticing offer they can unlock by subscribing to your email list.
When customers opt-in to your email list, they are often interested in your products or services. Still, you must sustain the interest, so they stay on your mailing list longer.
3. Cost-effective
If you have an internet connection and a computer, you can always craft a personalized email and send it to the customers on your mailing list.
But, even if you decide to use the services of a professional Marketing Agency or an email marketing service, you will find the cost relatively affordable.
4. A higher return on investment
Return on investment (ROI) is a ratio between the net investment gain and cost. For every 1$ you spend on email marketing, you can receive more than 35$ in returns.
Email marketing has a high ROI because people in your marketing funnel are already interested in your brand or business and are highly likely to interact with your emails.
5. Builds brand awareness
Before you email your current or potential customers, always get their consent. Ensure you email clients subscribed to your mailing list and take that opportunity to inform them about your brand, services, or products.
Sharing vital information can help your customers trust your business, which can help build your brand.
6. Boosts SEO efforts
An email campaign can boost your SEO efforts by driving qualified traffic to your site, improving on-site engagement, and enabling you to develop a better content strategy.
7. Helps achieve content marketing goals
Any piece of information you create to market your business, whether videos, posts or graphics, you can email to your customers.
Customers clicking the links in their emails are redirected to your website, and thus you get more site visits. Ensure your website has content that keeps visitors longer before exiting.
8. Nurtures leads
The key to creating a lead-nurturing email campaign is to personalize emails, send emails at the right time, send targeted content and include a call-to-action button in your emails.
Send emails after considering factors like gender, location, browsing history and the sales cycle of customers.
9. Measurable results
Email marketing tools often provide you with regular data you can analyze to understand your customers better and know whether your campaign is failing or succeeding.
For instance, you can know the number of customers who opened your emails or opted out of your mailing list.
10. Enables personalized communication
You can create personalized messages that you send to your customers. For example, an email with your customer’s first name in the subject line often has a higher clickthrough rate.
You can send personalized emails to inform your customers about new products, new offers or requests for reviews.
11. Availability of different types of email marketing
The common email marketing types include welcome emails, dedicated emails, lead nurturing emails, sponsorship emails, video emails, newsletters and review request emails.
For instance, welcome emails introduce your business or brand to your mailing list subscribers and inform them about communications to expect going forward.
Because of the numerous benefits of email marketing, you should be ready to start a campaign today by scheduling an appointment with a reputable email marketing company. An email marketing specialist will work closely with you to ensure that your business benefits from the highest possible return on investment and a significant increase in website visitors.
