(MKTG 348) Week 9 - Sending Effective Emails

Email Marketing? Is that still something we do? Yes! Email marketing is still really important and something that if used right can be very effective. According to Hubspot, email marketing is growing and the number of people that still use email today is exorbitant. Email allows you to converse one on one with your customer, there's no middle man in the way. When you use a social media site like Facebook, Facebook will always be in the middle of you and your customer. You own your email. Hubspot also makes the claim that you will get a 4300% ROI when you use email marketing. So for every one dollar you spend you can make forty three dollars back. Pretty crazy right? 

When you create an email you need to make sure that you are sending it to the right person at the right time with the right message. You need to be aware of what part of the buyer's journey your potential customer is in and tailor your content to meet that customers needs. You do not want to bombard your customer with thousands of email's trying to force them to make a purchase. You want to inform, create enticing offers, and send gentle reminders. 

It is important to remember that once you have obtained a lead as a customer you need to keep sending emails. You want to keep your customer happy and keep sending them offers. Everyone loves getting a coupon for their favorite store and it encourages them to keep making more purchases. Even if your email is just information about new trends or something related to your business you still want to send it to your customers. This will make them feel important and like you care enough about them to keep them in the know. Keeping your customers attention is very important!

Hubspot suggests four ways to create the best email:

1. Decide on your audience. Who in particular are you trying to reach?
2. Segment your contacts so that they match this audience
3. Determine what stage your buyers are in in the buying journey and tailor your content to fit these needs
4. Create an offer or message that encourages your lead to become a customer. Basically, create great content!

Some things to keep in mind when crating emails are that:

A. Personalizing is important: Customers respond to personalization, if they feel the content and email is really tailored to their needs they will be much more happy. 

B. Goals should be set: You should always have a goal with your email. Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to the site, encourage a purchase of a particular product

C. Engagement should be a main focus: You want to make sure your content engages your customer and makes them want to click on your email or respond to the message you have sent. After all, engagement leads to action.

D. You should test and analyze your results: You should always measure how effective your emails are. Is the content your putting in your email producing results? Could you being doing something wrong?

Now you may begin to better understand why emails are so important and how you can really send an effective email that produces an action that ends in a happy customer!