There are millions of ways to market. It seems that blogs, articles and experts are constantly telling us their thoughts and opinions on the best and newest way to attract customers. But which tried-and-true marketing tool has stood the test of time? If you guessed email marketing, you’d be right. Email marketing seems to epitomize what we all want in a marketing plan: simplicity, cost-effectiveness and efficiency. Simplicity Email marketing offers an easy way to connect with customers, and the tools available to companies make these emails easy to distribute. Websites such asMailChimp and iContact help to organize contacts, construct messages and send outgoing emails. These Web-based email marketing tools are made easily available to businesses, even offering list segmentation, targeting capabilities and tracking. Email marketing is also proactive and immediate. There’s no waiting around for customers – you are reaching out to them. Emails head directly to your customers with just the click of a button. It’s often the fastest and easiest way to get consumers to engage with your brand – a customer reads your company’s email on their smartphone, clicks on your enticing link and is instantly brought to your company page- quickly and easily connecting with your business and your message. Cost-effectiveness Marketing is an expensive, yet necessary, for a successful business. Customers can be frugal, and finding effective ways to market to them is often costly. The good news? Email marketing is a cost-effective way to connect with customers. Email messages require almost no materials, production or postage expense. Additionally, many self-service sites remove the need to pay someone to creatively design your message by offering ready-made templates and structures. Email marketing facilitator MailChimp allows you to sign up for free, and iContact offers free trials. For small or medium-sized businesses, where your reach is inherently smaller, email marketing offers an effective marketing channel for little to no cost. Reaching the masses Email marketing is a simple way to reach a large audience. While not all clients have a Facebook page or Twitter handle, the vast majority of customers have at least one email address. Even better, most of these consumers are in virtually constant contact through their email. With so many different Internet-friendly devices such as smartphones and tablets, users are able to access their email accounts from anywhere, at any time of the day. Though email allows you to include the masses, it also uniquely allows you to segment your master list, targeting specific customers with specific messages. Email marketing offers the chance to target your audiences, ensuring that certain customers receive certain emails at certain times or in certain locations. Though one of the keys to effective marketing is combining different marketing tactics to create a complete overall marketing strategy, make sure email marketing doesn’t fall through the cracks. Using this simple marketing tactic will save your company time and money, while easily reaching a mass of consumers by simply clicking “send.” Photo Credit
