What is Email Marketing and its Benefits For Small Businesses?

Email marketing is not an unknown term in the post-pandemic world. However, small businesses need to get more familiar to the concept and hence here is a simple definition of the term :-

Email marketing refers to reaching out to consumers via emails. Every email that you send to your existing or potential customers for commercial purpose (like product promotions, discount offers, donations, etc.) is a part of email marketing.

Now, the question is should you invest in email marketing? How effective is it? Will it benefit your small business? Well, if you are just starting, every investment matters. So before investing in email marketing, checkout the below stats :-

As per some recent data, email marketing offers ROI (Return on Investment) as high as 42 dollars for every dollar you spent. This is due to the fact that social interactions are more virtual these days. Where people used to meet for face-to-face discussions, they are doing it on Zoom or Skype.

Where hard copy documents were once mandatory for official purposes, many organisations have started accepting soft copies of the documents.

Due to many such cultural and official changes, the email users count has considerably increased from 3.8 billion in 2019 to 4.3 billion in 2022 and it is estimated that the count will reach 4.6 billion by 2025.

So, if your customers are spending more of their time online, why should you miss the scope of contacting them through the same medium? Besides this, there are some other crucial factors that makes email marketing a cost effective and efficient way of branding and business expansion. Let us checkout those factors.

The Personal Appeal

With hundreds of brands coming up with similar type of products and almost same marketing strategies, customers are spoilt for choices.

In such a scenario if you want to grab the limelight and get customer loyalty, personalisation is the best way out. Make your customers feel special.

Now how do you do that? Email marketing gives you the golden scope of catering to specific customer demands. Use emails for personalised marketing by sending targeted offers and discounts.

For example, if your customer prefers western apparels, there is no point of sending discounts on ethnic wear. Do your research and become the wish fulfilling genie for your customers.

You can also enhance the personal touch by mentioning the customer’s name in the email subject or by sending discounts or coupon codes on special occasions like the birthday of the customer or anniversaries.

Besides enhancing customer experience, this type of email marketing may also lead to better conversion of sales leads.

Creating the Brand Image

With so many big brands in the market, how do you create your space? This is one of the critical challenges small businesses face across the world. The answer lies in email marketing.

Identify your customer base and reach out to them at regular intervals via emails. This kind of proactive approach creates a brand awareness amongst the customers.

This is an easy way for customers to know about what you are offering without visiting your store or website.

Buyers often express the interest in promotional emails as this helps them get the required information on offers and new products without making much effort.

Also, it is easier for customers to connect with your brand through your company logo and slogan. Tell them your story through email marketing and they will read it and know you without feeling forced.

Setting Reminders

There must have been several incidents in which customers have added products to the cart and left without purchasing the same. Track such abandoned orders and email your customers reminding them of their pending purchase.

Make these emails catchy and funny for better results. To make this fact more convincing let us present some stats to you once again.

As per some recent surveys, almost 45% of the buyers read such emails and 21% click on the given links. Approximately half of such emails ultimately led to purchase of the items that were left in the abandoned cart.

Just a Catchup

Email marketing is always not about making a sale. Sometimes it is just about keeping your customers informed and gain their trust and loyalty.

Some such emails are related to notifications on brand milestones, wishes on special days like birthdays or Independence Day, a Thank you note for positive feedback or testimonial.

Making Customers as Brand Ambassadors

Got a loyal customer who is happy with your products or services? Use this positive feedback to gain more customers.

You can email your existing customers to refer new customers and earn discounts and offers. Customers can forward your promotional or informative emails to their friends and family members. This has 2 benefits:

First, as the customers are forwarding the emails to their known ones, they are aware of what kind of products their acquaintances are interested in and hence you get a readily targeted customer base.

Secondly, as the promotion is being done via someone they know, your new customers trust your brand more and the chances of buying your products increases.

Save Time and Money

Do you want to welcome each new customer? Email marketing is the best way to make your new customers feel welcomed without spending lot of time or money.

You can just automate the emails in such a fashion that after the first purchase, the customer gets a welcome email. In this case, you can save time and money and also ensure that every new customer gets a welcome email without a miss. It is same for getting customer feedback.

You need not maintain a whole call centre to call up customers and know their experience. Just send an email after the purchase and get the feedback. This will not only save your time and money but also give the customers liberty to take their own time to give detailed feedback.

Last but not the least, email marketing to promote your products and services is much cheaper than paid advertisements on Google, Facebook or LinkedIn.

So, why wait for your customers to reach out to you? Step into the digital marketing space with confidence using emails.