Marketers have been screaming for a while now, claiming the death of email marketing. However, the statistics have a different tale to tell. It is true that people are omnipresent, and marketers have to go omnichannel to make their presence felt but, emails are still indispensable.
A total of 74 Tn emails are sent every year, and the numbers are going to increase.
Despite the growing popularity of email marketing, we cannot overlook the fact that email fatigue is a real thing. Therefore, marketers need to use emails along with the other online and offline channels, including the brick and mortar shops to offer an integrated customer experience, thus channelizing the customer towards completing the purchase.
In a smartphone-dominated world where most people use their phones to perform a wide range of tasks, emails are core to the omnichannel strategy you will be adopting. It is email that builds your first point of contact with the subscriber and helps you engage them and win them over.
Here’s why email marketing is crucial to the success of your omnichannel marketing strategy.
Whether it is a teenager, business professional or homemaker, email is a part of their everyday life. From subscribing to blogs to registering for an event, people have to use their email address. It is difficult to imagine a world where there are no emails, and everything can be managed using social media channels alone.
From sending an invite for the inauguration of the new store to talking about a new product launch, emails can help you widen your reach and increase visibility.
Personalization is the key to boosting your marketing efforts. You cannot market the same product across your target audience. For instance, you cannot send an email concerning the launch of the new season of “Game of Thrones” to someone who has not yet watched a single season. It is obvious that they are not interested. Similarly, an e-commerce website cannot send an email promoting book offers to someone who has not been buying books from their site.
With proper segmentation, you know what your audience in a particular email list prefers to know of, and what kind of news or updates you need to share with them. Moreover, segmented email campaigns bring a 10.44% higher open rate when compared to non-segmented emails. You can segment the subscribers based on their age, demographics, past purchases and the stage of buyer’s journey.
Here’s an example of segmented emails by Nordstrom.
Emails are a data mine for the marketers as they give complete information on what the subscriber expects from the marketer, and what kind of products they are likely to endorse. If you don’t get the information from the purchases they have made, you can always ask them to talk about things they like at the time of sign up or the introductory email, in an attempt to know them better.
Emails can help you get the audience on various channels and encourage them to interact on alternative platforms. You can get people to follow your social media pages or visit the sales pages via emails. The email below by Article showcases the products users can shop for and takes them to the particular product page. Take note of the social sharing buttons too in the email footer.
When you send targeted emails based on the behavior exhibited by the customer, your chances of conversion are high. Let’s say you sent a welcome email to someone who has subscribed to your newsletter or emails.
Once you have welcomed them, and they have completed at least one purchase on your website, you should send product-based emails. Remember the emails that enter your inbox with the subject line “We thought you may be interested in these products.”?
Well, those are the kind of emails you will be sending to nurture the lead and make them a loyal customer. If someone has added items to their cart but not bought them, you might want to ask them about the same.
We strongly recommend you have a well-thought email automation program to communicate with your subscribers at regular intervals and keep your brand in the subscriber’s mind.
You can use free MailChimp templates to create customized content and for effective design. There are other email services too that offer you free and reusable custom email templates.
Emails constantly work towards getting improved customer data and better insights into the online behavior showcased by the subscriber. You can leverage this data to improve your omnichannel marketing efforts and increase conversions. The data available will help you personalize your content, know which social channels are preferred by the audience, and establish a strong presence on those platforms and finally enhance the customer’s experience through various interactive and personalized elements along the sales funnel. If you have got your email marketing strategy right, then you have chances of increasing business profitability the right way.