There are so many advanced technologies and software tools nowadays for sales and marketing – everything from CRM systems to automated email solutions and social media management tools – that it can be easy to forget about email. Email might seem antiquated compared to all the newer technology. But the truth is, email is still one of the best ways to reach your customers. If you have customers and prospects who have agreed to sign up for your email newsletter or to receive regular email communications from you, you are sitting on a gold mine of potential referrals and repeat business.
Here are a few reasons why email newsletters and email marketing are still such a valuable way to market your business and build relationships with customers.
Email is Personal
Unlike most other forms of marketing, where you might be paying to fight through the clutter with sponsored social media posts or PPC ads, email is more personalized. There’s something personal and even intimate about an email – people still check their email inboxes multiple times per day, and if people are giving you their email address, that is a sign of trust and commitment to learning more about your company and having more of a long-term relationship with your brand.
Email is “Slow”
Instead of fighting to get people’s attention for just a fraction of a second with a social media post or a banner ad, email is a “slower” form of communication – people have to decide to spend a moment with your email and hopefully read through it. This gives you a chance to create email newsletters and email marketing content that are suited to longer attention spans. This characteristic of email marketing can be an advantage for companies that sell complex technical solutions or that conduct longer-term B2B sales processes: if you know that you’re going to be talking with these customers for the long haul, you can take a more patient approach in your marketing.
Email Builds Credibility
Every email that you send to your customers and prospects is a chance to either build, or lose, credibility. If you send spammy emails that don’t add value to your prospects’ life, they are going to get impatient with you and might unsubscribe. But if you send emails that are relevant, helpful, informative, and not too frequent, you will be able to build credibility and trust over time. It’s a big challenge, but think of it this way: ideally, your emails should be so good that your customers actively look forward to receiving them, and are disappointed when you don’t send an email. Can you create emails that are that fantastic? It might sound impossible, but that’s the high bar that every business should strive for – don’t just send emails that brag about your company’s latest achievements, send emails that have insights, advice, and helpful tips to drive your customers’ businesses forward.
Email is Versatile
Another advantage of email is that you can do so many different things with it. There are a variety of formats for email newsletters, with graphics, charts, photos and embedded videos. You can use your email newsletter to drive traffic to your website, share the top comments of the week from your LinkedIn page, or share the latest episode of your company’s video podcast. Check out the website Really Good Emails for examples of interesting email designs and formats.
Email is Trackable
Another aspect of email that makes it helpful for sales, marketing and customer service is its measurability. There are so many great tools out there to help you track and measure the results of your emails, whether it’s customer satisfaction surveys, email open rates, email click-through rates, email lead generation, and more. No matter what are your marketing goals, email can be a versatile, measurable method of communicating with your customers and prospects.
It seems that every few years, all the sales gurus start to bad-mouth some classic method of sales and marketing – “direct mail is dead, cold calls are dead,” and so on. Email marketing is another standby tool in the marketing toolbox which in recent years has often been overlooked and underrated – but there is still a lot of life left in the “old-fashioned” email. No other form of marketing can do all of the good things for your business that email can do. When used correctly, with smart strategies and focused metrics, email marketing can still be one of the most powerful tools to help drive your B2B sales.
