What is Email Marketing and How Can it Help You Build Deeper Connections with your Audience?
Businesses are always on the lookout for ways to connect with their audience in a meaningful, lasting way. That’s where email marketing comes in. But what exactly is email marketing, and why is it so popular?
Email marketing is more than just sending newsletters - it’s a direct, personal conversation with your audience. When it’s done right, it’s a cost-effective way to build relationships, boost brand loyalty, and drive revenue. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, understanding email marketing is essential to growing your business.
Keep reading to learn the ins and outs of email marketing and explore its benefits.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a strategy used by business owners around the world. They start by building a list of emails from their audience using things like freebies or incentives, then they send emails for selling, nurturing and connecting with that audience.
Even with Social Media being so popular for businesses, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective strategies for lead generation.
Not to mention, you own your email list! There’s no algorithm, there’s no shadow banning or getting punished by the social media gods. You can use whatever frequency or style you want!
Did You Know: Hubspot states that the ROI on email marketing is a whopping $36 for every $1 spent!
The Benefits of Email Marketing
Personalization: What you include in your email content is entirely up to you. The email world is your oyster. You can talk about whatever you want for as long as you want.
E-Commerce companies make great use of email marketing - you know the daily emails you get from Old Navy about jeans being on sale? And I’m sure you’ve gotten a “you forgot something” email after putting something in your cart.
But it can be more than sales emails! It’s a great way to tell stories and connect with your audience on a more personal 1:1 level. You have the opportunity to pull back the curtain and give your audience more behind-the-scenes value and insight that you might be keeping off social media.
Deeper Audience Connection: If you really think about it, most times if someone is signing up for your email list it means they’re invested in your brand. People don’t just give away their email for the fun of it anymore, they’re much more protective.
If you’ve got someone giving you their email address it means they really want to hear from you. They want to have a deeper connection with you. They’re looking to learn more about you before choosing to buy from you - in other words, they’re already a warmer lead.
Supports SEO: Instead of telling someone to ‘click the link in your bio’ or pissing off the algorithm by having a link directly in your stories or your post, you have 0 restrictions on sharing links in your email marketing.
This can help to increase the SEO on your website because you can link to blogs, service pages and resources. Having links in your email can lead to a higher click-through rate than social media and you’re sending people directly to your website where they can learn even more about you and what you do.
(Sidenote: SEO is great but if it’s leading to a website with run-of-the-mill, robotic copywriting then you could find yourself missing out on leads. Need a website that actually converts? Learn more about web copy here.)
Top Tips for Email Marketing
Using your reader’s individual name is scientifically proven to keep them more interested and engaged - this really helps to deepen that connection. This is an option available in most email software programs.
Always, always include a CTA. Even if you’re not necessarily selling in the email, ask your readers to take a small action like reply to you or answer a question to help keep them engaged.
The subject line will make or break your open rates. Choose subject lines that are eye-catching and draw the reader in. Try to avoid wording like SALE or FREE - those have a higher chance of landing you in the junk box.
Pay attention to your analytics and make adjustments based on what’s working/not working. If you find a pattern of higher open rates with a certain style of subject line, stick to that style.
Get permission first! To follow anti-spam laws, it’s important to make sure you’re not just adding people to your list, they need to opt-in and have the option to opt-out or unsubscribe at any time.
Audience segmentation is effective as your list continues to grow. You can narrow down what your readers are interested in and create campaigns for a specific audience - without losing uninterested subscribers in the process.
Make sure your content is actually engaging. Just like with social media, you want it to be interesting, helpful, relatable and have a purpose - that way your audience will want to stick around.
Choose a cadence and stay consistent. Your cadence is entirely up to your capacity and your audience. Some people email weekly, some email daily! But your audience should come to expect your email in their inbox, and even look forward to it.
Key Takeaways on Email Marketing
Email marketing is an incredibly effective tool for marketing. It can be fun and easy to use while building a deeper connection with a warm audience. It has benefits such as improving SEO on your website and having more control over personalization.
Now you know why you should be email marketing, but you might be asking yourself how? Not to worry - I’ve got just the thing. You can grab my Email List Starter Kit for step-by-step guidance on starting and growing your email list right here.
You can also get 50% off my go-to email marketing software Flodesk! It’s incredibly user friendly, has the best templates and designs AND growing your list doesn’t mean growing your monthly payment. Use this link to get 50% off your first year.