Email Marketing Part 2: Five Things You Can Do With Email Marketing

While search is still the most commonly-used way to get information on the internet, email can also be a valuable way to provide information to potential customers. It’s an effective way to connect with customers directly and personally, and can encourage them to take the next step in their buying journey.

In an earlier post this year, we explained why businesses should consider adding email marketing to their arsenal. In this post, we’ll elaborate on five ways that you can use it to help your business.

Here are five ways you can use email marketing to boost your business:

1. Drive Traffic

Let’s face it, even your most loyal customers don’t check your business’ website every single day. Using a newsletter can, therefore, be a great way to reach out to them to let them know when there’s something new.

A newsletter can include:

• company news
• product announcements
• details about new services or merchandise
• industry commentary or news
• events

Recapping these news items and including relevant links to your website can often help increase traffic.

Additionally, one study demonstrated that visitors who arrived at a site through the newsletter made up a modest percentage of the site’s visitors, yet were responsible for 41% of comments: in other words, the visitors were more engaged. Having engaged commenters can also “help a lot” with rankings, according to Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes.

Driving Traffic To Social Media Through Email

While most businesses prefer to drive traffic directly to their website, some may also benefit from directing traffic to social media. If you have a large mailing list but find your social media following is lacking, adding an array of Social buttons in your newsletter provides an easy way for potential followers to find you. Newsletters can also be an effective way to announce Social Media contests.

2. Distribute White Papers And Studies

If your company has a white paper or study that is interesting to those in your industry, send it to a relevant mailing list!

Additionally, link building is often cited as important for SEO. Getting useable content in the hands of those who will reference it on their own sites (and link back to yours) can be a useful tactic.

3. Boost Sales

Depending on your business and overall marketing goals, email marketing could have a noticeable impact on your sales.

Did you know:

• 33% of people have made a purchase based on email subject line alone?
• 44% of users check their inboxes for deals from companies that they know?
• While you may reach a smaller audience, email has a much higher open, click-through, and engagement rate than Social media?
• That according to the Data and Marketing Association, email can have up to 122% ROI?

4. Following Up With Customers

Sending a follow-up email to customers can help gain feedback about their interaction, foster a positive relationship. It also makes it easy to schedule follow-ups, bring related products and services to their attention, and more.

Additionally, reaching out via email after a transaction also provides an opportunity for you to ask for a review. Well-managed reviews are essential for businesses in all industries. For example, BrightLocal ran a case study where they tested two landing pages, the only difference being that one page had a review, while the other promoted company values. Visitors rated the site with reviews as 10% more trustworthy and were 14% more likely to contact the business with reviews.

5. You Can Boost Your SEO Directly, Through Repurposed Content

Finally, well-written and informative newsletters can be repurposed as blogs, or simply archived on your website for future reference. Provided the new blog contains the appropriate keywords, it can boost your SEO the same way as a standard blog or webpage can. Similarly, as mentioned in our first article on this topic, checking click rates to different links within your emails can show you what customers are interested in. This allows you to refine both your business offerings and your online content.

How Do I Know Email Marketing Is Working?

The beneficial thing about email marketing is that you don’t have to simply send an email out into the void and hope it will work. You can monitor your campaign and continually adapt to get the results you’re looking for.

You can monitor metrics including:

• open rate
• open times
• engagement and clicks within the information
• sign-up method
• location and other demographic details (can be collected on sign-up)

Email marketing can also be integrated with other tools and platforms, ranging from e-commerce to social media, to Google Analytics. This can provide more comprehensive information about the customer's entire journey.

For best results, it is essential to monitor your campaign, to follow up as required, and to continually improve. If you don’t have time to monitor and analyze your results, you might benefit from working with a marketing company.

Contact Us

At StyleLabs, our goal is to be your “Marketing Company In A Box”. In addition to website design and development, we provide ongoing marketing services such as social media and email marketing. Feel free to contact us at 587-880-3358, or reach out to our SEO and email marketing team through our online contact form.