For the modern business, email marketing is an essential advertising tool to promote yourself and bring in new customers. No matter what type of business you run, marketing through email can help welcome new customers, keep in touch with old ones and reach out to others who might never have heard about your business. It’s also a great way to spread promotions and deals, as well as keeping customers and clients up to date on your company’s very latest news.
Today, having an email address is just like having a phone number. Everyone has one, and many people even have more than one. In fact, many people check their email even more frequently than they check their phone messages. It is the fastest and most reliable way to get in touch with a person in today’s digital world. Creating and maintaining an email database of your customers is the first step toward a successful email marketing program.
Many companies gather customer email addresses as a routine part of every business transaction. This may include asking for an email address at the cash register, having a customer fill it out on a comment card, or leaving a blank for it on an order form. Then, the address is added to a database that is routinely updated with new addresses. With a database, you can easily send out emails to all customers or specific ones based on preference.
A database can also help keep track of customer preferences, such as what items a customer has purchased, when they usually prefer to shop, or what kind of deals they respond to. This allows the business to target marketing to specific groups that will be more likely to respond to it. Also, it will ensure you are not constantly blasting every single customer with emails that are not useful to them.
Email marketing is one of the best ways to distribute coupons and promotions. Unlike regular mail, email coupons come at absolutely no cost to send. They can also be sent the day before or the day of a specific promotion, rather than days or weeks before. Many people have mobile devices to check their email, and therefore will have access to coupons and deals at all times, more convenient than carrying a paper coupon.
Email marketing does not get lost in the shuffle as easily as snail mail or other paper marketing. When a person receives a pile of envelopes or cards in the mail, many of them go directly in the trash. With email, the recipient can save them to view at a later date, or easily sort them into helpful categories that won’t get lost or accidentally slip into the trash.
Sending information and advertising through email is also a great way to reach out to potential new customers. Again, unlike most advertising, it doesn’t cost a thing. You can easily design a creative and good looking email on your own and send it to as many people as your heart desires.
