If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either an editor who’s writing a product review or an email marketer who wants to send out a message to potential customers about a product they might be interested in.)
All products on the internet can be broken down into two groups: digital goods and physical goods.
Most companies, both big and small, sell physical goods and digital goods. What’s interesting is that when a customer buys a digital good, they’re often not receiving anything in return except their own, personal data — which they’ve mostly given away for free (in the case of social media sites).
Instead, they’re receiving a fantastic opportunity to engage with the company. This is important because a company’s reputation is often tied to the success of their email marketing campaigns and online reviews, both of which are rooted in the digital landscape.
So it should come as no surprise that more and more businesses are experimenting with new ways to engage with customers using digital goods and online platforms.
The Rise Of The Engagement Economy
Inevitably, as with any new marketing trend, there will be a learning curve.
Whether you’re an experienced marketer or a digital entrepreneur just getting started, you’ll soon discover there are several best practices you should follow if you want to launch a successful email marketing campaign.
You should build relationships with your customers by engaging with them on social media and in email marketing. You should find out what they want and need and deliver it to them through your content.
You should measure the effectiveness of your campaigns because, at the end of the day, you’ll need to justify the investment you made in terms of profit.
Marketing To The Masses vs. Targeted Marketing
You may be familiar with the term ‘Marketing to the Masses’, which basically means taking your product and trying to make it as accessible as possible to the largest audience possible. What you may not be aware of is that in the digital era, Marketing to the Masses is a losing strategy.
Why? Because your customers can now find out what you offer without ever having to listen to a radio ad or watch a TV commercial. They can click on a product’s review or visit a website and find all the necessary information in a matter of seconds.
These days, if you want to target a more specific audience for your marketing efforts, you’ll have to rely on more traditional techniques. So, while marketing to the masses might work in the same way it always has, you should still take the time to find your specific audience and tailor your marketing efforts to them.
The Many Benefits Of Email Marketing
Even if you’re new to email marketing, you may already be making use of its many benefits.
In today’s world, email is still the most popular method of communicating. We live in a digital age, after all. According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) 2017 Digital Marketing Expenditure Re-survey, 70% of businesses reported using email marketing. And why not? It’s incredibly affordable, easy to set up, and has the potential to reach your entire audience all at once.
Here are just some of the key advantages of email marketing:
1. Email marketing is cost-effective.
When you’re running a business, especially one that’s just getting started, every little bit of savings counts. You’re constantly trying to find ways to cut costs without making major changes to your business model. That’s why when you see a platform or tool that can help you save time and money, you should certainly investigate it.
With email marketing, you have the advantage of sending out a mass email rather than having to spend money on TV ads to reach a specific audience. According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) 2017 Digital Marketing Expenditure Re-survey, 70% of businesses reported using email marketing. Plus, you can track the effectiveness of your campaign with analytics tools like MailChimp and HubSpot.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be discussing ways you can use digital marketing and email marketing to your advantage and how you can use these tools to turn your business into a profitable venture.
2. Email marketing allows you to build and maintain a relationship with your customers.
Your products and services may be the thing that attracted potential customers to your business in the first place, but that doesn’t mean that they want nothing to do with your company once they’ve found out what you offer.
In 2018, only 20% of consumers reported having a positive view of online reviews, according to HubSpot Blogs research. Yet, nearly half of the respondents still read online reviews, even though they don’t always agree with them. This illustrates that while some consumers may not value reviews as much as they should, they still value the connection an offline review provides them.
Even if you’re just getting started, you should still be aiming to build a relationship with your customers. Why? Because you never know when they might come in handy. As a business owner, this is certainly something you want to take advantage of.
One of the simplest and yet most effective ways to do this is through email marketing. You can use tools like AWeber to collect customer emails and integrate with your online store, social media accounts, and blog. This way, whenever you have new content to share, you can send out an email to all your contacts with information about the blog post or product launch.
This approach allows you to keep your customers informed about new offerings, significant discounts, or important news items, all while keeping up with the ever-changing world of digital marketing.
3. Email marketing provides you with detailed analytics.
If you’ve ever tried to run a blog or business in isolation, you know that it’s difficult to accurately assess the effectiveness of your efforts.
With email marketing, you have the advantage of being able to track the results of your campaigns and analyze the performance of each individual email. What’s exciting is that you can use these tools to determine the optimal time to send out your next email marketing message.
You can also use analytics to search for and examine patterns in your customers’ behavior. This way, you can determine what kinds of content your audience responds to and create more effective outreach campaigns in the future.
HubSpot Blogs research indicates that only 20% of consumers report having a positive view of online reviews, yet nearly half of the respondents still read reviews, even though they don’t always agree with them. This illustrates that while some consumers may not value reviews as much as they should, they still value the connection an offline review provides them. So, while this may not be for everyone, it’s important to recognize that there are definite benefits to having online reviews.
4. Email marketing allows you to segment your audience.
This is one of the major benefits of email marketing: you can target specific groups of individuals, based on criteria you set forth, and send out different types of messages to them.
For instance, you may want to send out an email to your customers who have rented a bike from you, as opposed to those who have bought one. Or, you may want to send out an email to those who live in a certain area, have a certain budget, or are more likely to purchase a specific product or service from your company.
The possibilities are almost endless. Why? Because you have the ability to segment your audience using several different tactics, such as location, language, or interest. In the coming weeks, we’ll be discussing how you can take advantage of interest-based targeting using email marketing.
In the meantime, you should consider using all the platforms available to you — whether you have a website or not — to further engage with your customers.
Traditional Versus Digital Marketing
You may be wondering what traditional marketing and email marketing stand for in today’s world, as both have been around for decades.
Traditionally, marketing and especially advertising on TV and radio have been the most common forms of marketing. However, with the explosion of online marketing in the last few years, traditional marketing has become significantly more digital.
What does this mean? Essentially, it means you can still do traditional marketing (such as TV and radio ads), but you can also use digital platforms, like blogging, and social media to spread the word about your company and raise brand awareness.