Keeping Your Leads Warm with Email Marketing

Today's society has a lot on their minds, are we right? Our attention spans have shortened to a surprisingly short amount of time. Shorter than a goldfish, actually. Raise your hand if you can relate. If you're not raising your hand right now, then you're not being totally honest with yourself. Imagine how these two facts about society today affect your company's marketing strategy. With such a fast-paced society, how can marketers get their audience to remember them? It's an uphill battle, but a battle that can be won.

Put yourself in your audience's shoes. Imagine you're scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn - whatever your favorite social platform is - and you come across some amazing thumb-stopping content. Naturally, you stop scrolling. Whatever graphic or words that caught your eye have now persuaded you to click, and now you're looking at either a landing page, an article, or a company's website. You have just become a lead for that company. What now? Well, hopefully, the company reaches out to you. But if they don't, honestly, there's a high chance you're going to forget all about it.

This same process happens to your potential leads every day. The leads you get through social media, whether they're from Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram, need to be reminded. After they see your post, like it, follow the link, and ultimately fill out whatever kind of contact form you have put in place to capture leads - you need to reach out to them!

So how can you keep your leads' attention, or as we like to say, keep your leads "warm?"

This is where email marketing comes in! While email marketing may not sound near as exciting as social media, it has just as much, or even more, value. Studies show that a whopping 91% of people use their email daily! That's basically everyone! Therefore, chances are, all of your potential clients have an email address they rely on and use frequently.

Want to guess when the first marketing email was sent? If you're thinking about 40 years ago, you're right! In 1978 a man named Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email, and since then the platform has grown into very valuable space for marketers around the world.

Here are some stats to show just how valuable email marketing is today:

-The number of email users in 2020 is predicted to be 4.2 billion!

-For every $1 spent in email marketing, you yield an average $38 ROI

-Over 90% of people like receiving promotional emails from companies they do business with

-Email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined for acquiring new customers

If you're still not totally convinced of the magic of email marketing, allow us to explain in more detail.

10 Benefits of Email Marketing

Benefit #1: Personal Connections

A huge benefit to email marketing is the freedom it gives businesses to connect with a specific group of people with content that is personalized for them. Good leads are ones that feel special - sending out unrelatable content isn't going to make anyone feel special. With email marketing, businesses can design the perfect campaign for each group of contacts it has, right down to an email's subject line. This personalized, tailored content allows businesses to build stronger relationships with their customers, resulting in a loyal customer base.

Benefit #2: Get Quality Leads

Email marketing platforms such as MailChimp have an opt-in feature that allows businesses to give their customers the option of opting-in to an email subscription. A business can choose between a single or double opt-in feature. With this feature applied, businesses can build an email list of customers that genuinely want to receive their emails. Further, if a business chooses a double-opt-in feature for its emails, the customers they receive will be all the more dedicated and interested in the content. That's quality right there!

Benefit #3: Branding Defined

Just like in a social media post, a business can brand emails, too. It's important for customers to recognize a business' brand, so a business wants to make sure all their marketing efforts are cohesive with one another. With email marketing, a business can build an email template that matches the colors and message used throughout its other marketing efforts (like on social media pages).

Benefit #4: Crank Up the Sales

Remember the stat about the ROI in email marketing? Allow us to remind you: According to a recent report from the Direct Marketing Association, businesses can expect an ROI of $38 for every dollar it spends on email marketing efforts (on average). Further, more than half of consumers have made an online purchase due to an email marketing message they received.

One of the top objectives for creating more sales is making the buying process easier for customers, right? Well, think about it. With the help of mobile, those with email can use it everywhere they go - and they do! Users check their email at the gym, at work, at home, even while on the toilet. Imagine, with an effective email marketing strategy, you could get customers buying your product while they use the restroom!

Benefit #5: Diversity

Don't get us wrong, email marketing isn't just for sales. While generating more sales is the goal, not all emails have to be a direct sales pitch every time. Email marketing campaigns can also boost referrals, re-engage older customers, or simply let customers know about an upcoming event with your business. The options are endless!

Benefit #6: Stretch Your Budget Further

When compared to advertising space on social platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, email marketing is super affordable. Email marketing also gives businesses the freedom to invest as much time and effort as they want. You have the choice to spend every day on email marketing or simply put them on auto-pilot.

Benefit #7: Analytics

Email marketing platforms offer easy-to-read analytics. Knowing the analytics behind email marketing efforts can help businesses determine which emails are working for them and which ones could use some improvement. With these analytics, a business can quickly see its click-through rate metrics, allowing it to see how well their call-to-actions are performing.

Benefit #8: Website Traffic

All businesses want more traffic to their website, right? Well, email marketing can do just that! Each email a business sends out can have several links that lead back to its website. This benefit is pretty straightforward - more links to the website means more opportunity for website traffic.

Benefit #9: Stand out in Your Industry

By sending emails directly to your customers' personal inboxes, you stay in front of them. Receiving an email from your favorite company has a way of creating a repour between you and your customer. This relationship makes a business stand out among its competition and keeps customers choosing it. Not only will a business stand out, but it will also create a customer base that truly wants to hear from it and values its expertise in the industry.

Benefit #10: Build Excitement

If you get special deals from your favorite company, then you know what it feels like to be part of a business' exclusive group. We mentioned earlier that email marketing gives a business endless options for content. A business can take advantage of this freedom to keep its content exciting for their customers. Announce an upcoming product launch, send out rewards, or set up a promotional campaign. Think about the gold star campaign Starbucks does each holiday season with their members -their customers love to participate!

Newsletters: The Ultimate Email Marketing Strategy

One of the best ways to utilize all 10 of these benefits to email marketing is through a company newsletter. We believe in the value of newsletters so much that we have our very own newsletter sent out to our clients on a regular basis.

As an effective email marketing tool, newsletters are a great way to stay in front of your leads and keep them interested in your company. With a monthly or bi-weekly newsletter coming to their personal inbox, your leads are sure to remember your name.

With a newsletter, you can keep your company's brand personal. Customers and clients love to know what's going on behind the scenes at the company's they work with. It's essential to provide your customers with this personal information in order to keep them interested in what you have to offer them. Personality builds trust!

In addition to keeping your brand personal, you can also keep your clients in the loop with your newsletters. If you have an upcoming event, you can announce it in a newsletter and provide a registration link in your email. This makes signing up for your event extremely convenient for your customers.

Newsletters are also a great opportunity to expand your brand's reach outside social media platforms and into your client's email inboxes. You can use the same branding strategies your company uses on social media for your newsletters as well. Each newsletter you send out is another opportunity for a client to engage with your company and potentially sign up for one of your services.

The Next Step

Now that you're convinced of the value in email marketing and want to get the ball rolling with your company, it's time to determine which strategy will work for your company. While email marketing is an effective strategy for your business' marketing plan, that doesn't mean just any email marketing strategy will work for your company. It's important to figure out which strategy is right for your company specifically - and we can help you do that! Reach out to Hyperchat Social today!