What is email marketing?
Email marketing is the practice of using email to promote your business. It is used to cultivate relationships with potential customers, keep current customers informed and updated on your brand, offer coupons to encourage customer loyalty, and more!
It is a direct form of marketing, similar to marketing through snail mail, but email marketing is much more efficient for your wallet and for the environment since it’s totally paperless!
Some people think email marketing is outdated, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Email marketing has been utilized since shortly after the birth of the Internet. It has evolved considerably since then and is still an incredibly useful marketing tool. In fact, many entrepreneurs argue that email marketing is more important now than ever before. There’s a good reason 85% of U.S. retailers consider email marketing one of the most effective customer acquisition tactics!
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:
- Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
- Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately.
- Adding advertisements to emails sent by other companies to their customers.
In its most basic sense, email marketing is the use of email to promote products or services. But a better email marketing definition is the use of email to develop relationships with potential customers or clients. Email marketing is one segment of internet marketing, which encompasses online marketing via websites, social media, blogs, and more. It is essentially direct mail done electronically instead of through the postal service.
This kind of marketing can be used to build relationships with customers or drive them away.
Email marketing has several key advantages over traditional mail marketing, including the following:
- An exact return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
- Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them.
- Over half of all Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
- Email allows marketers to reach out to consumers with personalized, relevant, dynamic messages.
- Transactional emails allow businesses to respond automatically to important consumer events like purchases or shop-cart abandonment.
Email Marketing Can Be Personalized
Email marketing allows you to target particular groups of customers or even specific individuals. Offering individual customers special birthday deals on merchandise or services is one way to do this. A restaurant might send an email to customers on their birthdays offering 50% off an entree, for instance. This kind of personalization helps a business gradually develop and maintain a relationship with a customer that can lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.
The disadvantages of email marketing surround the rejection/spam rate of the emails by the consumers’ email program, negatively affecting the delivery rate of the emails. This has somewhat been eliminated with the idea of “Opt-in” emailing, where the consumer consents to receiving the emails and therefore eliminates the idea of receiving unsolicited emails – Ideally maintaining emails that are relevant and appropriate to each individual recipient.
So what is email marketing used for?
Email marketing can be used to build trust with customers over time to turn them into repeat customers. It is also an effective way to keep your customers informed about new sales or promotions you are running. People want to stay informed about your brand, and email marketing is one of the best ways to stay engaged with that audience. In fact, 28% of US online shoppers report subscribing to store or product emails in order to stay informed on brands they care about.
Email Marketing Tips:
Effective email marketing takes effort though. Here are a few strategies for making the most of your email marketing campaigns.
- Build your own list. All you’re going to do by sending unsolicited email is turn off most of the people you’re hoping to turn into customers. Whether through your website, in your store, or at an event, make it clear when customers are opting in to receiving your emails.
- Adhere to the rules of the CAM-SPAM Act. These rules include having a non-deceptive subject line, a method of unsubscribing, and your name and address at the end of the emails.5
- Don’t just send out ads to buy all the time. Use your emails to build rapport with customers by sharing your expertise or that of others, giving them tips and insights they can value. Share information that lets them know more about you and your company.
- Treat your list well. Remember that the people you’re communicating with over email have trusted you with their information; they deserve your respect. If you want a chance to convert them from customers to fans and even evangelists for your brand, then make them feel special.
- Stick to a schedule if you’re doing a newsletter. Sending email on a regular day or days can help your subscribers know what to expect from you and when.
- Optimize your email for mobile usage, as statistics show that roughly half of emails are opened on mobile devices.
List of email marketing companies in Cleveland:
Hedges & Company:
“A digital marketing agency in the auto aftermarket”
A full service digital marketing agency serving the auto parts aftermarket, motorsports and power sports industries since 2004. Automotive digital marketing capabilities include auto parts SEO and PPC, email marketing, automotive market research and mailing lists. We’re also the aftermarket’s comprehensive source for vehicle registration data to understand how many vehicles were sold or how many are in operation.
We are the only Google Premier Partner agency dedicated to the performance & accessory and OEM parts aftermarket. Members of SEMA, Auto Care Association (formerly AAIA), CAN (formerly PWA), MRA and AASA.
Lead To Conversion:
“Ideation. Creation. Execution”
At Lead to Conversion, we specialize in helping companies of all sizes get more leads and sales through effective web design and online marketing. Lead to Conversion specializes in Responsive Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, PPC Management, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Video, & Conversion Rate Optimization.
We take pride in providing our customers with the highest level of personalized attention, care and commitment, with superior results and tailor-made plans designed exclusively for you, your business and your brand.
Whether you’re looking to improve your rankings in the search engines or need a web site that responds to mobile devices and converts visitors … whether you’re launching a new small business or looking to grow and overcome the competition at the Enterprise level, Lead to Conversion is your source for customized and innovative online marketing strategy and execution.
One 10 Media:
“We Built Bots. We Run Ads. You Get Sales”
One 10 Media specializes in helping business engage with customers and create conversations at scale using messenger marketing and chatbots. We also specialize in Facebook ads and email marketing. Our chatbots are entertaining and engaging and highly converting.
We love projects and brands who like to add humour to their bots and marketing. With both comedians and amazing sales people on our team, it’s a winning combination.
Modgility:
“Agile Business Solutions”
We’re an Inbound Growth Agency (Marketing & Sales) – HubSpot Gold Partner
We help established B2B technology companies predictably generate + convert more leads and sales with Inbound.
These are companies that have a sustainable revenue model generating >$3 million in revenue per year and their customers have a considered buying process. Typically, they have a website generating >2,500 visitors per month and have a history of doing some aspect of inbound, such as blogging, social media, and email marketing.
We operate as an inbound marketing and sales infrastructure that provides consistent growth for your business year-over-year. We don’t offer packages or partial solutions. We only work with companies that are serious about developing a complete Inbound strategy to grow their business and can invest >$75,000 annually to grow with Inbound.
Inbound investment costs are aligned with your growth goals, and we share the risk of investment by pricing our services using a base retainer + pay-for-performance model. On average, our clients see a Return on Investment (ROI) >200%. Due to competitive markets, we work with a limited number of companies per industry.
ADVAN:
“Are you ready to grow?”
Ohio’s Best Content Marketing Specialists | Digital Marketing Strategists | SEO Consultants | Graphic & WordPress Web Designers
An affordable Akron / Cleveland web design and digital marketing company providing website design, e-commerce development plus online (SEO, PPC, SEM) and traditional marketing services including graphic design, logo design and branding, brochure design, strategy and execution.
Our Marketing services include: Creative Services, Website Design, Web Development, E-commerce, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Management, PPC Campaigns, Graphic Design, Direct Mail, Branding & Logo Design, Brochure Design, Catalog Design, Marketing Strategy Development, and Tradeshow Design & Management.
Cogneato:
“Stronger customer relationship begin with a smart”
Cogneato was started in 1999 by our owner, Ronald Higgins. Website development was a natural extension of talents that he built long before the internet became the driving force that it is today. These include a wildly diverse background in video production, computer graphics, marketing, and programming. While the young internet of the late 90’s seems almost quaint today, the philosophy on which we were established still holds true today: never compromise on the customer experience.
Company 19:
“Bring Precision to Your Sales and Marketing”
Company 119 helps companies, maybe like yours, who are struggling to reach key prospects and frustrated with ineffective sales prospecting. Our Heat Seeker system brings precision to your sales and marketing and reduces–or eliminates–the need for cold calls, making your sales team more efficient than your competitors.
Adstuck:
Adstuck is a digital marketing practice agency working from all over the world with four locations India, Singapore, Estonia and US. Its mission is to provide instant access to a talented workforce to enterprise. They have 491 clients and worked over 700 projects, with 30 fortunes 500 firms.
Adstuck provide services in:
- Improving marketing results
- Creating social media marketing strategy
- Proper assessments of current trends
- Market research
- Campaign creation
- Growing market share
- Launching new product or enter new market.
It is a strong and leading digital media marketing service provider which can help you with cost cutting, plan execution, perfect reporting, strategy making, data collecting, and response collection from consumers. It handles all the aspects of your business. They don’t focus only on new on emerging brands who wants entail success and distribution in the market but also on brands that have successfully established the customer retail space, and need some assistance in managing their business.
WDD We Do Digital:
Your digital marketing technology partner we are an interactive agency committed to help you build strong relationships with your core audience should it be current or potential customers, members or employees.
Your interaction with WDD will not be a “one time and we are done”relationship. We are here for you every day to consult with you on new technologies and keep your online relationships strong and lasting. Most of our client base has been with us for many years, and counts on WDD as a trusted business partner.
Black Gate Creative:
“CLEVELAND SEO SERVICES”
We’ve been providing Digital Marketing & Hyper Local SEO Services for Cleveland area small businesses for over 15 years with 1 goal in mind: creating connections between you & your customers! Every day, companies lose money because their websites fail to align their messaging with what their “ideal” customers are searching for & competitors are eager to pounce on those missed opportunities.
We recognize the need to make your story compelling so it connects with potential customers. We help you develop your story & get your message in front of the right people.
