Email marketing is another long-standing staple of digital marketing and, when done the right way, can be an amazing tool for your small business.
In 2014, email marketing was cited as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the United States. (eMarketer)
There are two approaches to email marketing:
The first approach is to utilize email marketing as an integral component of a well-rounded inbound marketing approach. In this approach, the focus is on building opt-in – also called permission – email lists by using original interesting content on the website or landing page to entice potential customers to sign up to receive more content like this in the future. Businesses which build their own email lists tend to see open rates and click-through-rates much higher than those who “rent” or purchase email lists. However, this process involves quite a bit of work, so many businesses choose to outsource their list building to companies with a significant amount of resources dedicated to this, such as a digital marketing agency.
The second option is to work with an agency and use the agency’s email lists or email vendor resources to reach out to a significant list of potential customers in their area. This approach tends to require much less effort from the business owner, but also may not provide results as significant as those seen through organic email list growth.
Email marketing can be content based or promotion based, or a mix of both. Which you choose will depend on multiple variables, one of which is the type of business you have, another is your marketing goals.
Examples of the types of clients which often see success with this digital marketing tool: almost every type of business can benefit from email marketing
