A game changer in modern marketing is the ability to foster genuine interactions between brands and people, creating a personalized experience for consumers.
Reaching out to and staying in touch with your audience is the number one priority in a consumer-driven environment.
It is a ticket to brand growth.
In the digital sphere, email marketing is an incredibly useful tool to reach customers.
And customers are spending a large amount of time checking email.
Adobe found people check their email at least once per day, with many admitting to doing so while watching TV, being in bed, commuting, or even while in the bathroom.
So, you could say an email address is a relatively stable touch point linking brands and customers.
The email newsletter is also gaining attention from PR people and journalists.
Early in 2017, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute published a story telling how freelance journalist, Ann Friedman, created a massively successful newsletter.
Friedman said:
People like people more than brands, and the big thing that works about my newsletter is that it’s created by one human being and reflects one human being’s point-of-view.
An email channel and its authenticity help build loyalty and engagement amongst your online community.
In this article, I will share how you should use email marketing to leverage your brand.
Email Marketing: Consumers Prefer Newsletters
People want to receive newsletters from brands.
In studies conducted by Marketing Sherpa and Adobe, email emerges as the most preferred way to receive updates and promotional content.
Source: Adobe
The main reason consumers sign up to receive email newsletters is to get the most recent deals on exclusive pricing and coupons.
Some want to be considered as ‘insiders’ for their favorite brands.
So when a newsletter promises to give the inside scoop, they are first to join.
Email newsletters are also a great platform to entertain or educate those who subscribe to carefully selected content.
All of this makes email newsletters accessible, valuable, and an entertaining source of topics, products, and ideas which engage consumers.
Email Marketing: Send the Right Content
With email newsletters, you can send subscribers the content they desire.
And you can do it from the moment they join your email list.
To set the tone for future communications and encourage new subscribers to engage with your brand, send them a welcome email.
Subscribers who receive welcome emails will show more engagement in your email program.
Welcome emails create an open platform for feedback and reviews and are a way to collect social and personal information from your subscribers.
Use the welcome email to ask your subscribers what type of content they want to see in the newsletter, as well as how often they expect to hear from you.
You can get to know your customers needs right away and further tailor communications to their specific needs.
Check out this infographic to find out what kind of content you should include in your welcome email when kickstarting a relationship with new subscribers.
Email Marketing: Make Your Voice Heard
By sending email newsletters, you speak to people who want to hear from you.
They chose to join your email list and grant you access to their email address.
It is similar to a contract in that you deliver what is promised upon customer sign up and in return, you gain access to their inbox.
To make sure you only collect valuable subscribers who gave consent to join your email list, use the double-opt-in method.
All of your subscribers must give their explicit permission to receive commercial email messages from you.
Make sure to communicate you will handle the email addresses you collect responsibly and the purpose of retaining the addresses is commercial.
Sending an email to permission-based lists not only makes you legally compliant, it enhances your chance to grow an engaged community.
Email Marketing: Stay Top of Consumer Minds
Email marketing allows you to build relationships with your audience and that is the most profitable digital strategy.
Your subscribers will become your biggest fans if you remain distinctive in their minds.
You can do this by regularly appearing in their inbox.
Make an effort to get to know the needs of your subscribers.
There are plenty of ways to do this using email marketing:
- Collect declarative data and target your content based on subscribers’ sex, location, declared interests, etc.
- Collect behavioral data and segment your email list based on subscriber loyalty and engagement. With email, you can easily track metrics such as email opens, clicks, or conversions. You can prepare different content for loyal advocates of your brand or for those who need more incentive to become fully engaged.
- Ask your subscribers directly about anything for which you want to receive feedback. Email a survey or a simple question where all they need to do to reply is tap a button.
Email Marketing: Curate Effective Newsletters
Become familiar with the needs of your subscribers and never send them bulk email.
Instead, use email personalization to reach them.
If your brand voice appeals to subscribers, they will stay in touch with you.
In digital communication, it is so important to be authentic and as relevant as possible.
Emails viewed as relevant by subscribers will get more opens and clicks.
This is the goal you want to achieve.
Make sure to convey intent within your content, creatively and impressively.
Email design impacts engagement metrics tremendously.
Appeal to consumers using beautifully crafted emails.
Ideally, your service provider has an intuitive and user-friendly email editor to help you craft these emails.
Or, you can check out FreshMail Designer.
Use this program to help you edit and redesign existing responsive email templates.
And you can even use it to build original templates from scratch.
This application uses the drag and drop method which creates your campaign from building blocks.
Image: Responsive email templates available in FreshMail
Start doing regular inbox drops and see for yourself how an email newsletter can help you with content distribution, community engagement, brand awareness, and growth.
If you have tips and tricks for creating and sending newsletters, I encourage you to share your comments below.
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