With the Internet’s growing influence, there are now a million and one ways to market a product or service. Yet, what’s so interesting about all these methods is that email is still preferred by 72 percent of people.
When it comes to business-to-consumer interactions (B2C), email is often one of the more ROI positive strategies you can implement. Here’s everything you need to know about using email for B2C digital marketing.
When in Doubt, Use Email
B2C email marketing has been demonstrated to contribute more revenue and generate the highest return on investment compared to other marketing channels.
Whether you’re after an increase in your conversion rates or simply more revenue, you shouldn’t hesitate to up your email game. Promotional emails are the number one way to connect with people who are familiar with your brand– especially millennials. They have grown up on email and are comfortable with it in their day-to-day lives.
Email Helps Build Your Brand
Email isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Whether your brand is dedicated to selling surveys, hair supplies, or relocation services, you can easily demonstrate your value proposition through email. Here are examples for using email marketing:
- Newsletters: Newsletters are great to send to customers. It allows subscribers to stay up-to-date with the latest news. You can send subscribers offers, discounts, or suggestions. Bonus tip: Make your newsletters visually appealing to help increase your engagement rate.
Morning Brew does a great job of branding and making their daily newsletters visually appealing.
- Segmented content: Not everyone loves reading long or wordy emails. In fact, a lot of individuals dread reading emails, specifically for this reason. Segmented emails break down information into bullet points or short sentences. They allow readers to easily digest information about your product and service without feeling overwhelmed.
Personalize Your Emails
Emails are notorious for being impersonal. Consumers don’t want to read the information that is irrelevant to them. So how does your brand address this with your emails?
You can improve your emails by adding small, personal touches. Adding the person’s name and a personalized subject line makes it much less likely that they’ll ignore your email. After all, how many times have you skimmed through 20, 30, 40 emails before mass deleting all of them? You don’t want this to happen to your email! Think of something that would make you pause a moment before hitting that trash icon.
Software now exists to help with email customization. You don’t have to input everyone’s name into each individual message. Email service providers (ESPs) like Mailchimp can do it for you.
Finally, it’s not just the email that you can customize. Targeted email campaigns are also highly effective. These campaigns closely evaluate who receives and does not receive an email that is sent out. These campaigns targets individuals who are most likely to engage and purchase your product or service. While an average email campaign may get a low open rate, targeted campaigns may get twice as many views because the individuals on the list are already interested in your content.
Harmon Brothers personalizes their emails by always starting with your name.
Use Subscriber Data to Your Advantage
To make your emails even more effective, use available subscriber data. This data can be anything from gender, age, demographics, or type of products they browsed on your site in the past. By using this information, you can further segment your email lists, resulting in even higher converting campaigns.
Get Started with a Welcome Email
When doing email marketing, what is your first interaction with subscribers? Usually, it starts with a welcome email.
Start out by sending an email message that allows subscribers to get familiar with your brand. It’s best if the first contact you have with the brand is non-sales. Perhaps send a message from the founder. Or include content about your brand’s mission or values. This will help you to establish a long-term email relationship.
Native Deodorant shares a touching story from the founder in their first purchase welcome email.
Use Automation & Scheduling to Your Advantage
Marketing emails are great, but they often take a backseat to many other day-to-day tasks. That said, email marketing automation is an important activity to help grow your business.
Make this easier for yourself by creating automated email funnels. Besides the welcome email, you can automatically schedule emails 3 days, 1 week or 1 month after someone subscribers. In addition, if a customer hasn’t made a purchase in several months, send an automated re-engagement email. This can encourage them to come back and visit your website.
Frey uses re-engagement emails for subscribers who haven’t made a purchase in several months.
In the case of newsletters, you might find the optimal time to send an email is at 5 am. This results in your email appearing at the top of subscribers’ boxes in the morning (a coveted spot). Instead of having someone stay up until 5 am, schedule your newsletter to send at the optimal time
Final Thoughts
B2C marketing is all about reaching your customer and email is proven to be the most effective way to do just that.
Whether you’re sending a welcome message or a weekly newsletter, email is one of the best ways to communicate information about your company. Start investing in emails today and watch as your business grows!
Written by: