Benefits of Email Marketing that Targets Your Current Customers
Unless you somehow live entirely off the grid, you have probably received an email from a company that you’ve done business with in the past. Most companies ask you to provide an email address when purchasing something online, so they can send you a confirmation email about that order.
While some will then just hold onto your address until the next time you make a purchase, many will add that address to their email list and will use it to send your marketing emails in the future. This is one of the oldest and most effective digital marketing strategies available to business owners, and if you’re not using it to target your current customers, you’re not making all of the profits you could be making.
Current Customers Have Already Expressed Interest in Your Brand
If someone has already made a purchase, they have already taken that crucial step and expressed interest in your brand. You’ve probably heard the adage that goes something like, “It’s cheaper to keep a current customers than to make a new customer.” Why? Because people who buy from you once are already on the hook. You don’t have to draw them in, they’re already in. They trust you, they like your product enough to purchase it, and they are the most likely demographic to purchase it again.
When marketing to the mass populace, it’s difficult to find and attract people that might be interested in your brand—much more difficult than simply marketing to people that are already interested and have acted on that interest once before.
Email Marketing is Cost Effective
It isn’t just cost-effective (which means that it’s worth the money you put into it), it’s also just plain inexpensive. With the right management, using the right tools, email marketing can be one of the least expensive marketing campaigns on your docket.
You don’t have to pay for printing, ad space on a website, hosting of a blog, or any other expense that comes along with other marketing avenues. Instead, all you usually have to pay for is the time to write and design the blogs, and then tiny cost of management software that automates the emails, tracks the response, and analyzes the data.
Easy to Personalize
Today’s consumer wants to feel like an individual. They want to be recognized as a person, not just as a faceless, nameless part of your clientele. One of the best things about email marketing is how easy it is to personalize. Not only can you easily send emails that are directly addressed to each person on your list, you can even set up automated emails that are even more personalized and targeted.
For example, if you sell physical products and someone comes to your website, signs in to their account, adds some things to their cart, and then leaves without making a purchase, you can generate an automated email that reminds that person that they left without completing that purchase. These kinds of emails are extremely effective, as they not only prompt your customer to return to your website, they prompt him to finish an action he had already mostly finished.
Email Marketing Reaches Your Consumers Where They Are
The problem with a traditional digital advertising tactic like banner or sidebar ads is that you have to wait for a past customer to visit a page where one of your ads is placed in order for that person to remember that they like your company and then trigger the desire to return and make another purchase.
This is not a limitation that email marketing has. On the contrary, because of the proliferation of smartphones, an email marketing campaign can put your marketing message right into the hands of engaged customers, at any time of any day. That puts your brand name in their pockets or purses, in a format to which they are likely to respond.
More Effective, but Less Invasive than Other Methods
Most people have experienced the déjà vu that occurs when you leave an ecommerce website and click onto another website, only to find an advertisement for the business or product you were just viewing on the previous website. While it might be completely innocuous, it feels like that website is following you.
Email marketing has a higher ROI than just about every digital marketing tactic, and because your customers volunteer their names and email addresses, getting an email from your company feels far less intrusive than other marketing tactics that just aren’t as effective. Past customers are the best source of new revenue, and email marketing is the best way to tap them, no matter their demographic, device usage, or purchasing habits.
Email marketing is an inexpensive tool that can be used to generate new sales from current customers. Sending personalized emails allow you to further build a rapport with your current customers, who may in turn, recommend your products or services to someone else. Word of mouth is a very powerful component of generating new customers as well. If a current customers refers someone they know to you, that individual will likely listen because of the positive referral. Email marketing is a tool that you should utilize to further build your brand.