Today’s marketing is very different from the sales techniques used up to a few years ago; All companies must base their strategies on permission marketing and an inbound marketing strategy that allows them to enter users’ lives through a relational and emotional approach to gaining their trust. Through email marketing, it is possible to attract new visitors, build brand awareness convert visitors into leads, and build a relationship with them to convert them into customers who, in turn, can become brand promoters.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a marketing strategy that uses email as a tool to communicate commercial messages, company information, or news about products or services to a list of customers and lead email addresses. It is considered a direct communication tool and represents the strongest an most intimate contact a company can establish with a potential customer because it is based on
“one-to-one” communication, i.e., personal and exclusive communication. The only way to correctly apply an email marketing strategy, avoiding SPAM and being immediately deleted, is to send emails exclusively to people who have permitted to receive commercial and informative emails. These contacts must give their consent to be added to a mailing list.
3 email marketing types for 3 different objectives:
There are three main email marketing formats to be applied based on the different objectives to be achieved: transactional emails, DEMs, and newsletters for different marketing objectives.
Transactional emails are “service communications” that contain important information for the user
regarding his purchases or actions on the website. These types of emails allow you to obtain very high opening rates because they contain important information for users, and it is in their interest to know the content of the emails. Example of transactional emails:
- Welcome Email:
For example, “Hello [ username ], welcome to our community.” In the welcome emails, it is advisable to include a special offer available only to new subscribers. - Confirmation Email:
For example, “Thank you for your order [username]; our team will notify you as soon as your package is shipped.” It is possible to enter up-selling or cross-selling practices and offer the user to purchase a new service or product consistent with the purchase just made.
DEMs are mainly used for commercial activity and represent advertising emails through which promotions, discount codes, and exclusive offers can be sent to users.
The DEMs encourage customers to purchase the company’s products or services by exploiting a direct communication channel, and it is possible to customize the offer based on the user’s characteristics. Here are some examples of DEM emails:
- Promotional emails: (discounts and special offers): This personalized and segmented
email is useful for increasing sales and reaching a certain group of customers. - Seasonal promotional emails: This is a type of branched email used during holidays and seasonal changes. These emails are generally sent before the event and followed up shortly thereafter; they are highly recommended for retail as they can increase revenue by up to 20%.
Newsletters are a type of informative email used to update customers on company or sector news, they must be sent periodically and must contain valuable content.
When applying an inbound marketing strategy, it is strongly recommended to send newsletters that contain useful and free resources, information, guides, and industry news.
Through these emails, it is possible to create a fixed appointment with users, improve the brand’s credibility and increase traffic on your website. In all the types of emails mentioned, it is important to apply a well-defined creative strategy, which is based on some fundamental elements:
- Copy:
The text of the email must be accurate and consistent with the images and the context present within it. - Visual:
It is essential to take care of the graphic side of the emails, from the color to the images. The latter must attract the user’s attention and must be consistent with the context; - The tone of voice:
Tone of voice is a corporate characteristic that applies to all textual content used in blogs, landing pages, social networks, and emails. It must be recognizable and consistent with the type of public to which it is communicated. - Call to action (CTA):
They represent a call to action and are essential in emails because they allow you to increase traffic on your site and send the user directly to the desired page.
Conclusion
Email is a complete digital communication medium: from commercial information to building a relationship of trust and affection, it adapts to all stages of development of your prospects.Pay attention to the frequency of sending in order to avoid both annoyance and oblivion. The balance between market information and value-added content is also crucial.