It’s not unusual for brands and businesses to invest in both options. Email campaigns reach people across multiple platforms and devices, while social media meets people where they are.

If you can only invest or spend time with one option, which is better? Should you create email campaigns, or would social media marketing provide superior results?

ROI Differences: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

When gauging ROI for your marketing investments, it is essential to set some clear definitions first.

Do you want to focus on profits on top of all your investments, the click-through rate, or reactions vs. an open rate when comparing email to social media?

If you look at the overall performance of each investment, email provides superior results in all three categories.

• The average click-to-open rate for a high-performance email campaign is at least 20%.
• Most email marketing efforts achieve an email open rate of at least 15%.
• The click-through rate (CTR) for WordPress email marketing is about 2.5%.

When investing in social media marketing, you’ll find a CTR as low as 0.07% on some platforms. That’s because your money is being spent to reach potential prospects that don’t know anything about who you are.

An email marketing list is filled with people who gave you their information to become part of your subscriber network. They know about your brand and want to stay connected with you.

From a monetary view, the average email generates around $40 for every $1 spent on it. Social media marketing still creates a profit, but the ROI is closer to $1.28 for every $1 spent.

Audience Reach Differences: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

About the same number of people use email and social media today. That provides you with a total potential audience of about three to four billion people globally.

Email and social media have similar problems when reaching out to an audience. You don’t know if the account is confirmed, duplicated, or fake.

That means a better measurement of audience reach is to look at the organic results that come from these two marketing investments.

People typically check their email more often than they review social media notifications. About 58% of people check their messages first in the morning, before checking on Facebook, searching for information on Google, or looking up a weather forecast.

Nearly 90% of people with at least one email account check their inbox at least once per day.

Social media algorithms are meant to maximize revenues and encourage marketing investments. Roughly 5% of people in the average fan base will see what gets posted organically. WordPress email marketing doesn’t have the same “pay to play” requirement.

The only disadvantage of an email campaign here is that you can reach people you haven’t already acquired.

Email lets you turn warm prospects into customers. Social media marketing provides a path that can convert strangers into leads.

Going Viral Differences: Email Campaigns vs. Social Medial Marketing

Emails and social media posts both have opportunities to go viral. Someone can send your outreach efforts to their network using either methodology.

Here is the one place where social media marketing could have an advantage. Many email servers are designed to prohibit spam and junk mail from being sent and received.

Social media posts don’t have restrictions to a specific follower network. When someone shares content, it gets seen by some of that person’s network. Others can share it directly from your page or indirectly from another account.

Emails can be forwarded or copied and pasted to be sent elsewhere, but the network reach for this sharing option is quite limited. It also relies on other people opening the message, whereas social media displays shared content right to each person’s news feed.

Although going viral isn’t for everyone, the results can completely change how a brand is perceived by the public. It delivers credibility through social connections, whereas WordPress email marketing creates the same result through transparent displays of your expertise.

Email doesn’t have the power of virality, but it does generate consistent responses from your targeted audience. If you want predictability, this option has more benefits.

Targeting and Security: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

Email beats social media for security without question. You’re the one who owns the email list, which means there isn’t a mechanism to have it taken from you. Although the platform you use could close, the addresses in your possession can transfer to another provider.

If you have a social media page, you’re at the whim of the platform. Your entire network can disappear instantly if it stops functioning or believes you’ve violated a policy. Many accounts have lost millions of followers because of information they posted that was deemed to break one of the rules.

Targeting is another component of marketing that gets overlooked today. Emails allow brands and businesses to segment lists in virtually any way to reach a particular demographic.

Paid social media ads provide sophisticated controllers and choices to limit who sees your promotion, but organic posts have virtually no targeting potential at all.

When you want to have more control over who sees your posts, an email campaign is the best solution.

Content Perception: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

People use emails and social media for business and personal needs. Depending on your specific industry, services, or products, either choice can deliver a distinctive edge that sets you apart from a competitor.

When looking at how people use these two communication mediums, email tends to be geared toward business and social media for personal needs.

That means, from a marketing perspective, it’s better to treat a social media investment as a way to connect with your audience. You can reserve email campaigns for those direct pushes that bring people to your products or services.

Since everyone on your email marketing list opted in to receive communications from your business, they’re less likely to become annoyed by a sales pitch. That doesn’t mean every message you send should try to sell something, but it does allow for more sales opportunities.

People subscribed to newsletters and email lists to receive valuable content. When you can offer this resource while sprinkling in the occasional offer, you’ll start a good conversation with your customer base that can often lead to more sales opportunities.

Gains and Losses: Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing

Email and social media are about equal here with this comparison point. Both mediums provide mechanisms for people to unsubscribe from posts and lists.

An email campaign has a slight advantage because unsubscribing takes slightly more effort than social media for the average person to complete.

When you scroll to the bottom of an email message, there’s some form of this comment: “If you no longer wish to receive messages from us, you can unsubscribe at any time.”

After clicking the unsubscribe button, you’re taken to a new page that confirms the information. Some providers allow people to resubscribe if an accidental click occurs, preserving the data from the list.

When you want to remove information from a social media news feed, you have the option to ignore it for 30 days. That means you don’t know who is seeing your messages as a brand. You could be sending content out to no one, and the only way you’d see it is through reduced interactions or changes in traffic metrics.

The goal here is to be as open and honest as possible. If you provide transparent mechanisms for reducing or eliminating contact points, staying in contact with the people who want to connect with your brand and business is more manageable.

Additional Pros and Cons of Email Marketing

When you approach WordPress email marketing or another platform’s options, you’ll find that this investment offers a few more advantages and disadvantages to consider.

Here’s a closer look to help determine if this option is the best idea for your brand and business today.

Additional Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing puts your value proposition in front of an audience where interactions are strongly encouraged. You can connect with people even when they haven’t heard of your brand and business.

Instead of using emails, some companies might find these additional pros and cons of social media marketing to be valuable.

Email Campaigns vs. Social Media Marketing: Where Should I Invest My Money Today?

Most companies use a combination of email and social media marketing to drive results. These resources often work with search engine optimization to generate organic attention while generating more brand awareness.

There isn’t a specific solution that works for everyone.

When looking at the specifics of each solution, email campaigns come out ahead because of their versatility, affordability, and customization. You can segment messages to connect with specific audiences while providing valuable information to encourage readers to want more.

People also tend to be more receptive to trusted brands in their inbox than in a news feed.

If your business hasn’t tried an email campaign, now is the perfect time to consider this option. When you combine the best email marketing software for agencies with each message’s benefits, it often becomes easier to reach your brand’s goals.

Many businesses attempt to reach out to people by using email marketing, but they don’t see the positive results this investment promises.

Why do some tech companies excel with email marketing and others fail? The answer to that question might surprise you.

How Can Technology Companies Take Email Marketing to New Heights?

The primary reason email marketing efforts fail is that they never got started. When the speed of business is quick, it’s tempting to take shortcuts. Investing some cash to buy some email addresses seems to make sense.

There’s only one problem. You haven’t verified the interest levels of each person behind a purchased email list. Do you even know if those addresses are active?

Emailing information about your technology products or services and getting few responses indicates a lack of interest in what you offer. It can also be evidence that your communication structures aren’t suggesting an accurate message – or they’re getting filtered by spam and junk folders.

Shortcuts rarely work. It might take a little more time to develop your own email lists, but the work is worth it because you have more information about each address.

Here are some ways to improve your email marketing after establishing those lists so that your message gets heard by the right people.

1. Have a Plan Before Starting

When you want to know how to do email marketing yourself as a tech company, it makes sense to introduce yourself to the reader. Who are you? What are your values?

What is it about your business that makes you stand out from competitors?

When technology companies invest in email marketing, they often make the mistake of promoting themselves instead of what they do for clients.

It’s great that you’ve won awards, have global contacts, and generate tons of revenue. How can you help the email recipient today?

If you’ve won an award, talk about how your expertise in that area can help the reader find success or solve a problem. Your global contacts are great when they can help other small businesses grow with the experience those partnerships offer.

Your email marketing plans should show people the value you offer while delivering evidence that you can produce consistent results. If the content comes across as being a self-serving ego boost, that delete button gets hit more often.

Before sending your first emails, plan what you want to say. Get different opinions on what you’ve written to ensure you can evaluate a complete perspective.

2. Maintain Opt-in Lists

Someone might have downloaded marketing materials from your website in exchange for an email address, but that doesn’t mean they want to keep receiving messages. You could be doing more harm than good by sending information to someone who doesn’t really want it.

One way to manage this issue is to create suppression lists. If you’ve sent someone repetitive emails without anything being opened, they’re unlikely to be interested in the next one going out.

You can set a specific number that automatically removes an email address from your list due to inactivity. It can be anywhere from five to 15 unopened messages – whatever figure feels right to your tech company.

These additional ideas can help you streamline this idea to make your lists even more effective and responsive in the future.

• Send people who haven’t been responding an email that informs them they’ll be taken off the mailing list unless they opt-in again with a response.
• You can place them on a different email marketing list with reduced message frequency. Even once per quarter can be a practical resource for some businesses.
• Create email categories that let people choose the content and frequency of what they receive. Some recipients want daily communication, while others might be satisfied with a monthly newsletter.

When you make an effort to meet people where they are, your technology company will find more success with your B2B and B2C email lists.

3. Personalize the Signup Process

Everything seems to be automated these days. Businesses in almost every industry are looking for ways to simplify customer contacts, ranging from self-checkout registers to form-letter welcome emails.

You can create a custom opt-in form to join an email list, but does that experience communicate a personalized process to every visitor?

Here are some easy ways to add more personalization to the signup process to encourage more list development opportunities, even with today’s data privacy requirements.

• Get consent right away.
• Use lead magnets to express personalized offers.
• Comply with age verification.
• Limit explanation to avoid additional confusion.
• Provide choices whenever possible, especially if you maintain multiple lists.

Clients want tailored experiences with today’s best brands. When you can show people that your technology company offers it through email marketing investments, your investments will inspire more curiosity to follow up with everything else you offer.

4. Improve the Subject Line

The first thing an email recipient sees is the subject line of your message. It might be tempting to spice that information up with different emojis or an ALL CAPS note, but that approach doesn’t usually work.

The best subject lines tend to be boring and informative. Instead of trying to sell your tech company, create a description of the value a reader can expect by opening your message.

Spammy phrases and keywords can trigger spam filters. Even using an extra exclamation point in the subject line can screen out your email marketing efforts.

The best subject lines tend to include the following traits.

• Real Promises. If you can’t keep your word, don’t send an email that promises the world. Clickbait rarely produces long-term results.
• Be Precise. People scan their inboxes quickly. When you’re clear and concise with your subject line composition, it’ll make a better first impression. Think about how your content offers benefits, and then create a powerful statement that accurately describes what readers can expect.
• Use Action Language. When you treat a subject line like a call to action, it inspires more recipients to click. Use relatable verbs that translate to the message you’re conveying while avoiding passive grammatical structures.
• Test Your Outreach. Use A/B testing on different subject lines (or email formats!) to see what structures communicate authentically and accurately.

Your content might be incredible, but no one will want to see it with poor subject line structures. Improving this area of your email marketing campaign can deliver some amazing results!

5. Segment Your Audience

Every email marketing for small business investment creates readers who want to see specific messages.

Some subscribers are interested in different email types, including news, events, and coupons. Many might want one or two of those categories coming to their inboxes, but they might not want all three.

That’s why it is essential to understand who receives each email. You can achieve that outcome by creating audience segments.

You can create segments based on traditional demographics, client behaviors, or even where you believe someone is on their sales funnel journey.

Imagine that you offer a discount to retirees. Would it make sense to send an email with that promotion to young families?

When emails have more relevancy, the content encourages more engagement and fewer unsubscribes.

6. Use Your Data

Email marketing can produce results in most situations, but it can deliver something better when decisions come from the data your efforts generate. Although you can analyze multiple statistics and metrics, the open and click-through rates tend to be the most important.

Those statistics measure the percentage of list recipients who open emails and those who click on a link or call-to-action (or perform other specific behaviors).

Technology companies should monitor the results of every message sent. The information gathered from each investment refines the message to make it more effective.

Each business sets benchmarks to hit based on previous results. If you fall short of your goals, the first step should be to review your opt-in list and remove the non-engaged contacts.

You can also use data to evaluate your audience segments to streamline your messaging.

7. Make Your Message Mobile Friendly

Knowing how to create mobile-friendly emails can help technology companies reach out with more effective messages. When you take advantage of what tech can do for this marketing effort, you’re sending a subtle message to each recipient.

You’re proving that your company is on the cutting edge of today’s tech by creating an email that works well on the reader’s device.

About two-thirds of people read emails on a mobile device. When that information is easy to read, you’ll create a strong and positive experience for each recipient with clear structures to follow.

Here are the essential strategies that improve the mobile email marketing user experience.

• Use single-column templates when composing messages to avoid having the content appear condensed or difficult to read.
• Keep the email to a width of fewer than 600 pixels to take advantage of responsive designs.
• Use a font size of 13 or 14 to make the message easier to read on a small screen.
• Display small images to ensure recipients with slow or throttled data connections can still review the information they want to see.
• Include a distinctive call to action that prompts the reader to complete a specific task.
• Avoid using menu bars, and don’t stack links in the email.

Once you have the email structure where you want it to be for mobile devices, it helps to test it on multiple devices. You can accomplish this final step by using emulators, using paid services, or sending test emails to trusted recipients for feedback.

If you send an email to an older audience segment, you might even consider sending a text-only email to be mobile-friendly.

8. Avoid the No-Reply Problem

Most people open emails based on the person sending them. They don’t want to click on something that comes from a “no reply” or “do not reply” email address.

When your next campaign is ready to go live, have each email come from someone on your team. It could be a person in your marketing department, a customer service specialist, or someone in your C-suite.

Letting people know how they should respond ensures that replies don’t get ignored or rejected.

This step might be required to deliver email marketing content in some jurisdictions.

9. Send Messages at the Right Time

It’s easy to assume that most people in business respond to emails during regular working hours. The definition of a normal day for a technology company is quite different than it is for a blogger, a teacher, or an attorney.

When you want to know how to do email marketing yourself, try to align your messages with the times when someone is likely to be reviewing their inbox.

Some industries see significantly higher engagement levels in the hour before operations start. Others see more activity at lunch or near the end of the day.

It’s good to segment your email lists based on time zones to ensure each region gets your content at an optimal time. The United States has six standard time zones to consider alone, which is why paying attention to a specific hour is crucial.

A Final Thought to Consider About Email Marketing for Tech Companies

Email marketing for technology companies must place the reader’s experience above anything else. Even when information is interesting or informative, people don’t want to spend extra time deciphering what you meant to say.

The best emails provide concise messaging, responsive formats, and problem-solving benefits.

If readers cannot see or understand the action you want them to take, they are more likely to delete the email or unsubscribe from the list.

That means your goal as a tech company should be to build relationships with potential subscribers before the opt-in process starts. You can’t do that when you buy email addresses from lists that others have created.

Students have numerous options to consider after graduation or completing a GED. Even after earning an undergraduate degree, pursuing higher educational opportunities is sometimes necessary.

Email marketing strategies, when properly implemented, allow your institution to get noticed when a student is looking for a place to learn.

What Are the Best Email Strategies Educational Institutions Should Use?

When creating an email marketing strategy for universities and colleges, it helps to think about how you’ll manage engagement while focusing on enrollment.

It’s not just the students who will read or receive these emails. Parents are also highly interested in what you have to say and offer.

That’s why the following strategies are excellent examples of how you can evolve your educational email marketing efforts.

1. Handle Each Message with Care

The college admissions process is a highly stressful time for many students and their families. It can feel like the entire future rides on the decision to accept enrollment. That’s why each email must have empathy and be sensitive to the reader’s feelings.

Most educational emails take one of four approaches when contacting students or families.

• It is a congratulations message because the institution decided to enroll the student.
• There is news about a scholarship program, including an opportunity to apply for funds.
• Accepted students might receive emails about what the expectations are for class attendance, personal conduct, and other rules.
• It is used to communicate various deadlines, including when assignments are due.

When composing your email, think about who will read the article. Businesses often create fictional personas to represent users or customers. Colleges and universities can do the same with students.

Brainstorming the struggle each reader potentially faces makes it much easier to brainstorm ways to solve problems.

It also helps to think about what questions the reader might have when reviewing the email. If you can provide proactive answers with a straightforward tone, your point will come across with more accuracy.

2. Segment Email Lists

Email list segmentation is crucial for educational institutions because there needs to be a separation in the message types sent.

Students might want to see email reminders about on-campus events, midterms or finals, and expectations for different classes.

Parents are more likely to want information about different application deadlines, special events on campus, and cost expectations.

Educational email marketing lists might include prospective students, guidance counselors, high school teachers, school administrators, and others. Each group comes from a different background, has a unique household income, or wants to enroll in various majors.

The only way to keep each group happy and provide value through email marketing is to personalize the messages. By segmenting your list to personalize communications, you’re more likely to increase the number of applications and enrollments.

You can take these steps to start segmenting your educational email marketing lists right now.

• Send surveys or quizzes that provide information about what each reader wants to see with your communication efforts.
• Review your metrics and analytics, including the open and click-through rates, to determine what messages receive the most engagement.
• Separate people and households with geographic location data to ensure the information is relevant to the reader.
• Review the past interactions of readers with your institution, including purchases, applications, and communications, to spot patterns that can deliver potential insights.

Although segmenting won’t create a one-on-one communications channel because you’re still sending emails to each list, taking steps to focus on specific demographics helps readers to see that you’re interested in who they are as people.

3. Get the Subject Line Right

When adopting email marketing strategies for educational institutions, the subject line selected for each message is arguably the most important content you create.

If the subject line doesn’t invite someone to open an email, you’ve already lost the opportunity to engage with readers.

It doesn’t take long to see that overdoing the subject line with emojis, capital letters, and highlights often sends a message to the junk or spam folder. You don’t want that outcome!

Here are some proven ideas that can help your messages stand out, avoid spam filters, and generate clicks.

• Keeping everything short and straightforward. If you don’t get to the point right away, your subject line will either feel boring or make your institution seem unfocused. When it is too long, the information can even be cut off on the reader’s screen.
• Use action words whenever possible. The goal should be to inspire the reader’s curiosity with the subject line. Terms like “discover,” “explore,” or “review” increase the probability that you’ll earn a click.
• Think about the preview text that displays for some readers. The information should be relevant and engaging to encourage people to read the entire message.

Inboxes get very crowded these days. Many of the people on your educational email lists receive 100 or more messages daily.

If you want your email marketing efforts to stand out, you’ll need to cut through all that white noise. These ideas to improve the subject line can do just that.

4. Think About the Call to Action First

What do you want readers to remember after reading your email? Far too often, the call to action is the last thing created during the composition process.

Try shifting the focus to build each email around the call to action you’ve created first.

Every email should have a call to action. The best method is to use direct, command-orientated sentences that leave no room for confusion.

People have already clicked to read your message if they’re seeing your call to action. You don’t need to sell them again! What the reader needs is an instruction that lets them take the next step.

Here are a few essential tips to keep in mind while crafting this part of your email marketing strategy for universities and colleges.

• Avoid using passive language and grammar in the call to action. Although it isn’t always avoidable, you’ll encourage subscribers to click because the active voice encourages people to be in the present. Passive language describes the past.
• Turn your call-to-action solution into a button. People are accustomed to clicking on these items when they’re seen, so you’ll be feeding into that subconscious habit when your message feels valuable.
• Use contrasting colors to have your call to action stand out from the rest of the message. That helps it to get noticed, remove possible confusion, and encourage progress through your conversion funnel.

Your call to action doesn’t need to have a sales emphasis. Your emails might ask prospective students to finish an application or review a list of potential scholarships.

You can even use email marketing strategies like this to encourage more engagement with online lessons and classroom interactions.

5. Automate the Campaign

You’d send a letter to each student and family on behalf of the educational institution you represent in a perfect world. These personalized notes build trust, form relationships, and encourage positive emotions.

In our world, you don’t have the time to send out hundreds or thousands of letters each day by email.

That’s why it is essential for automation to be part of all email marketing strategies for educational institutions.

With automated emails, you have pre-programmed messages to send when readers meet specific criteria. One of the best options in this category is the welcome email.

If someone downloads a brochure or other information on your institution’s website, you could have your email marketing campaign send a note of thanks.

These messages don’t need to be overly complicated. When you deliver communications that respond to specific actions, it allows subscribers to feel like they’re part of your community. Most people don’t choose colleges and universities for one reason. They want a place that feels welcoming, offers a degree program they need, and delivers additional perks.

When you create responses that automatically go to an inbox, you’ll begin the trust-building process that can win people over.

6. Create Responsive Emails

About half of all Internet traffic occurs through a mobile device today. When you look at the statistics for how people read email, that figure rises to over 70%.

No one knows what device someone will use to access your email. It could be a 10-inch tablet or a four-inch smartphone.

The reader wants the email to be readable on whatever device they have in their hands. If it is difficult to read because the formatting isn’t responsive to their screen size, they’ll likely stop reviewing your message.

Even if the reader is interested in the information you’ve sent, an email that is challenging to read is often deleted.

Investing in high-quality email software and services simplifies this process enormously. You can focus on creating a subject line, message, and call to action that stands out to the reader when you know the responsiveness is already taken care of for you.

If your institution doesn’t take that path, there are still a few additional ways that you can send responsive emails to your subscriber lists.

• Choose an HTML email template from a safe website. Have your browser check the safety ratings of each site before downloading anything. It helps to work with recognizable names whenever possible to avoid installing a malicious file.
• Use coding to create a responsive email from scratch. This effort takes more work, but it also enables additional personalization options that display well on virtually any device.
• Some apps offer the option to send responsive emails from content you’ve composed within them.

Emails that load faster and look better on the screen size of each mobile device encourage more clicks. It also makes your institution look more professional because you’ve taken a little extra time to be considerate of the reader.

7. Add Relevant Images

People decide to read information because it offers a value promise. It’s the same reason you might pick up a book from one author, but not another. You want the story to be intriguing for the reader.

Although text delivers relevant information, it isn’t the best attractant to what you hope to share with your educational email lists. Humans are a visually driven species. That means your messages will receive more attention when they offer relevant images.

When visual graphics or photographs appeal to readers, you’ll get higher engagement levels. These visuals can even help your college or university promote a unique brand.

Each image in your marketing campaign should contain alt text. If an email provider doesn’t render the image, this information lets the recipient understand what was supposed to be there.

Here are some tips to ensure that your alt text makes positive contributions to your email marketing strategies for educational institutions.

• Describe what the image conveys without editorializing the material. Write what you see and nothing else.
• Don’t use the terms “picture of” or “image of” at the beginning of the alt text. If you have multiple images and someone uses a screen reader, imagine how frustrated that would be to hear the same term repetitively! That irritation would transfer over to their perception of your institution’s reputation.
• Use keywords minimally in the alt text. A top keyword or two is fine, but don’t stuff it. When text is part of the image, it helps to transcribe it as the description unless it forces you to repeat yourself.

A Final Thought on Educational Email Strategies

Once you’ve implemented these steps, don’t forget to test your emails to ensure that your readers receive the correct message. Optimizing them to be specific and accurate will help your click-through rates rise while encouraging more interactions with students, families, and industry professionals. Email marketing strategies for educational institutions are an effective communication avenue if your college or university goes about it in the right way. By implementing these ideas in ways that make sense for your school, you’ll be on a path toward creating a future campaign that gets your point across.

People love to travel.

Even though there haven’t been as many opportunities in recent months, times are also changing. By the end of April 2022, most jurisdictions plan to have most (if not all) of their pandemic-related rules lifted.

That means life is getting back to normal. That also means people are getting ready to travel once again. Running an email marketing campaign in that environment can lead to some huge opportunities!

Best Ideas for Travel Email Marketing to Try

The email types you send in the travel industry are like what other businesses offer to customers. When designing your campaign, you can include welcome notes, exclusive offers, newsletters, thank you messages, notifications, and confirmations.

Authenticity is crucial in all industries, but it must be an emphasis for those working in travel. Hospitality is a priority for many clients. If your approach doesn’t feel warm and welcoming, someone might work with one of your competitors.

That’s why these ideas are worth reviewing to see if they’re implementable with your email marketing efforts.

1. Start with a Cohesive Campaign

It’s not easy to convince people to travel. They have specific desires about their destinations, experiences, and itineraries. When you begin the contact process with a cohesive campaign idea, it’ll be easier to generate the results you want to see.

Although travel is an individualistic experience, people also love guaranteed results. If others have tried something similar and had fun, it is more likely for others to have the same outcome.

Here are some ways to implement this idea for your next travel email marketing campaign.

• Add Testimonials. About 90% of consumers in the travel industry and others say that online reviews influence buying decisions. Adding this information to an email marketing campaign through pictures, written information, or videos can increase confidence in your services.
• Suggest Destinations. These ideas should vary according to each time of year. Have items to consider for the shoulder, high, and low seasons to give people extra options to review.
• Offer Incentives. It’s easier to turn down a full-price travel package than it is when free or discounted offers are included in the offer. Everyone wants to stretch their travel budget as far as possible.
• Ask Questions. If it seems like your email marketing efforts aren’t generating results, it could be that your approach isn’t connecting with the audience as expected. Sending questionnaires can help you get on the same page.

Once you know that you’re speaking the language your customers want to hear, it is much easier to generate results with your travel email marketing efforts.

2. Create Subscriber Shortlists

When you create an email marketing list within the travel industry, it’s important to treat them as you would the process of making friends. You might have a significant group of people you enjoy being around, but you’ll shortlist the most reliable people who have earned your trust.

Creating subscriber lists is a process that starts by offering a prominent signup option on your site. You can also collect contact information from people when they visit your office, speak with you on the phone, or send correspondence.

One of today’s best practices in email marketing is to use a double opt-in form. This extra screening ensures that the people you’re speaking with through this investment want to hear your messages.

3. Use Visuals Early and Often

About 90% of the information the brain receives is visual. If you want people to get to know your brand and business, the fastest way is to include graphics and videos with your travel email marketing efforts.

It might be tempting to throw in a picture here and there, but the authenticity rule is still active. If the imagery doesn’t match the message, there’s a higher risk of losing a hot lead to a competitor.

These tips can help you increase your email marketing efforts’ chances of getting noticed.

• Images Should Pop. The image should be the first thing that someone notices about your email. If it intrigues the reader, they’ll take a closer look at your text.
• Keep the Scheme. Your email colors and branding should match. Adding contrast can attract a person’s attention with strategic placement, but don’t overdo it. When someone sees the same thing consistently, it becomes white noise to the brain and gets ignored.
• Use Responsive Templates. Over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices today. If your design doesn’t adapt to that activity, you can still lose people.
• Add Scarcity. People act quickly when they think they’ll miss out on something. If you add timers or countdowns to specific offers, your email marketing efforts can generate a better result.

When you have a short email to send, about two or three pictures that relate to the content are enough to generate attention.

4. Convince the Reader

Your email text becomes your brand’s voice. Although images create attention, it is the power of the written word that often closes the deal for readers.

The best email marketing for travel agencies takes a conversational approach with each contact. You want to keep the messages personable, as if you’re speaking directly to that person. When readers feel like what they’ve seen was meant for them, it allows more interest to build for the outreach effort.

“I’ve tried this approach and it doesn’t work.” It does work, but simple mistakes can cause readers to go elsewhere.

• Industry jargon that someone doesn’t understand can be confusing and frustrating.
• Spelling or grammatical errors lessen the positivity that readers feel about your brand and business.
• When the email marketing message is more about you than the reader, it stops people from participating.

Travel is about what that person needs right now. That information can change daily, which is why having flexibility and empathy in your email marketing efforts is vital for a successful outcome.

5. Implement Segmentation

Think for a moment about the last customer service experience you had. If it was a positive one, what made it that way?

If it felt negative, what triggered your frustration?

Those same triggers that create joy or anger in customer service exist when reaching out to people proactively. The benefits of email marketing are challenging to find when people see your messages in negative frames.

The two ways to correct a negative mindset about your travel emails are to segment and personalize the message.

When you start segmenting your email marketing lists, think about the essential demographics and criteria that influence your brand and business. These categories might include the reader’s age, interests, or even their travel history with you.

Additional demographics to consider can include household income, geographic location, social media interactions, family size, and destination preference.

It is easier to personalize each message after you group recipients into your preferred categories. Although you won’t be writing individual letters, you can still create merge tags for your subject lines and messages to individualize your approach.

6. Send Purposeful Triggers

The travel industry has unique challenges to consider. People often plan trips several weeks (or months!) in advance, but you can also find families that make last-minute decisions. A generic email won’t satisfy either group.

You won’t find as many benefits in segmentation either. Spontaneous or meticulous travel happens because of choices and behaviors.

That’s why the benefits of email marketing include trigger messages.

A trigger message occurs when a subscriber acts or behaves in a particular way. When someone signs up to join your email marketing list, a welcome note is a trigger to that action. You might include a specific discount or travel deal to encourage brand interactions.

When someone buys something from your agency, a confirmation or transactional email provides a natural follow-up opportunity.

You can even send an email after a completed trip to thank your customer for their business, request feedback about the process, or invite them to explore a future traveling opportunity.

7. Ensure Legal Compliance

Your email marketing lists can do more harm than good when they don’t include the current set of CAN-SPAM regulations.

According to that legislation, all commercial emails must follow these specific rules when contacting individuals.

• Not send messages that identify as advertising.
• Avoid subject lines that could be considered misleading.
• Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.
• Provide a valid physical or postal address.
• Offer recipients the option to opt-out of the email marketing list at any time.

Most businesses get those items right. The one place where issues typically occur involves the use of headers. They cannot be “fake” or “wrong” when contacting people.

Travel agencies that fail to abide by these rules can face various penalties. Since people want authentic experiences, the foundation of your relationship with each customer should take a similar approach. A false identity won’t do that.

You’re asked to honor opt-out requests promptly. That means within ten business days. Once the recipient is removed from the list, you are generally not allowed to transfer or sell information to anyone else.

What is a commercial email? It is anything that qualifies as an electronic mail message for the primary purpose of promoting products or services – or serving as a commercial advertisement. Sending transaction confirmations, warranty data, or membership changes follows a different path.

If you add any advertising to any email, it can fall under the CAN-SPAM regulations.

8. Focus on the Holidays

Email marketing makes sense at any time of year, but there are a few moments when a majority of people think about traveling. When you’re proactive with messaging around each holiday season, you’ll be more likely to secure some business.

The benefits of email marketing allow you to put out the right message at a suitable time. When people are already thinking about visiting family or friends, a note that makes it easier to accomplish those plans can dramatically improve your lead generation capabilities.

Emails that focus on the holidays work best when they include limited-time offers or themes that represent the occasion.

You can talk about the ideal destinations at that time of year, different promotions, or even alternatives to visiting family for those who want a getaway during the holidays. You won’t want to miss out on this chance to establish closer relationships!

9. Give People a Reason to Choose You

Business travel alone in the United States represents over 1.3 million trips and $110 billion in tourism spending annually.

According to IBIS World, over 70,000 travel agencies are currently operating in the United States. When you consider the global community, that figure more than doubles.

That means you’ve got a lot of competition out there, especially since tickets and travel experiences can be booked online. How can your investment in email marketing for travel agencies pay off in the coming months and years?

The first step is to build excitement about a trip. That emotion comes from individualization, so don’t be afraid to ask people what they’d like to experience.

You can highlight special offers that appeal to each group’s demographics to utilize your segmentation work.

It also helps to build brand loyalty by establishing relationships through email correspondence. Even when it is one-way communication, your images and text let people know that you get where they are right now – and where they want to be.

Loyal clients keep coming back for more travel experiences.

Now Is the Time to Embrace the Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing works because travel agencies make it work. Unless you take the time to build lists and send messages, the information that clients want won’t come from you.

It’ll come from a competitor who is putting in the effort to reach out proactively.

When you’re ready to build your first or next email campaign, the tips and ideas offered here can help you have a successful experience.

Some emails might have more of an impact than others. That’s okay. When you stay persistent with this investment, it’ll bring dividends your way.

Although sending an email creates a personal touch that can start the relationship-building process, it’s not always the correct message at an appropriate time. Marketing must include sequencing to ensure each prospect receives the information needed for their journey with you.

Here are the best email types to send when you’re trying to boost your e-commerce businesses this year.

What Are the Best Email Types to Send to Prospects?

Email marketing for an e-commerce website is more than a note that says, “Hey! I’ve got something on sale that you want! Come buy it!”

It is a relationship-driven process that establishes your concern for each customer while delivering evidence of your value and expertise.

When you meet a stranger on the street, do you become best friends instantly? It takes time to get to know that person, discover what you have in common, and develop emotional attachments. The same process applies to email marketing.

That’s why the email type and its sequencing can positively or negatively impact your marketing investment. When you know how to write an email campaign with these options, your efforts can make a greater impact.

Email Type #1: The Welcome Email

Welcome emails are opened more than almost any other that prospects receive. That’s because it gets sent to them right after they decide to sign up for your list.

Think about that fact for a moment. When people are excited about something, they’re more likely to keep following through with an activity.

That’s why this email type is the best chance to create a positive first impression. If your introduction doesn’t make a sound, memorable experience, the rest of your messages might get deleted without a second thought.

Welcome emails can drive more revenues and transactions than other promotional mailing options.

These three ideas can help the welcome email stand out, even if your prospect gets dozens of emails from other brands each day.

• Be original. If you want your message to stand out, it must be authentic. That means your prospects need to see something unexpected. The goal should be to speak their language while delivering an item of value, whether that’s an instructional video or a blog post that solves a problem.
• Provide a discount. By offering an immediate discount for joining your email list, you’re enables a transaction to occur. Let your products or services speak for themselves so that their value encourages a customer to return.
• Keep it simple. Don’t try to overcomplicate the welcome message. Try to remove any barriers that would stop someone from clicking through to a landing page.

Email Type #2: The Curation Message

Shopping is one part of an individual experience, one part of a group experience, and one part of a corporate experience.

Think about it. When you feel hungry and have no food, you go to a restaurant or a grocery store to satisfy that need. Once you get there, you’ll see where people congregate or what they order because you want the best.

You also chose the in-person location to visit based on what you expected at the destination. People even select specific brands and products because they understand the value of those things in relation to their needs.

People want the best. This email type shares it with each prospect.

An added benefit of this message is that it allows for customer segmentation. If you offer multiple categories and tag subscribers, you can score each one based on their behavior.

Email Type #3: The Discount Message

Discount emails provide a targeted or retargeting savings opportunity that encourages people to return to your e-commerce business. When prospects know that they’ll get what they want without a big hit to their bank account, they’re more likely to follow through with that initial urge to get what you have.

Over half of shoppers are more likely to complete an abandoned transaction when it’s offered to them with a discount.

The trap with this message is that you can end up pushing revenues only when discounts are offered. When that issue occurs, you’ll see fewer profits. If you’re never offering a sale, people might check out what a competitor offers.

By delivering this email type, you can connect with people who engage with your brand without sacrificing your income.

Email Type #4: The Engagement Message

Emails are an updated form of direct response marketing. The only way someone pays attention to your message is to grab that person’s attention. In the past, that meant attaching coupons to brochures, sending a dollar bill with a letter, or offering something else of value that “paid” someone to see your pitch.

With people receiving over 100 emails per day, inviting people to engage with your brand is essential. Otherwise, your messages might not even make their way to the inbox.

Although attaching an NFT or cryptocurrency isn’t financially viable for the average e-commerce business, could you provide free shipping?

Once you have an idea of what to offer, make the prospect earn the discount. People value what they work to achieve, whether that’s free shipping or putting together furniture from Ikea. [[3]]

Email Type #5: The Cart Abandonment Message

About 70% of all shopping carts are abandoned by website visitors. The primary reason why people leave an anticipated transaction is the cost of shopping.

Outside of taxes, fees, and shipping costs being too high, here are the other common reasons people abandon shopping carts on e-commerce sites.

• 37% leave because the website wants the shopping to create an account.
• 28% abandoned carts because the checkout process was too cumbersome.
• 23% stopped a transaction because they couldn’t calculate or see the total order cost.
• 20% had the e-commerce site crash or have errors.

Additional reasons for cart abandonment include an unsatisfactory return policy, slow delivery, and not trusting a website with credit card information.

When you send this email type to your website visitors, it allows your business to address prospects’ objections when shopping.

The lifetime value a customer offers is enough to incentivize cart completion. If you can’t offer free shipping or a product completion, ask for feedback about that person’s experience. You won’t always get a response, but the information that does come along can help refine the checkout process for future customers.

Email Type #6: The Upsell Message

Upselling is the process of inviting a customer to purchase more of the same item or a more expensive product to boost the transaction’s value.

That’s different from a cross-sell message, which recommends complementary products.

If you wanted to upsell someone buying peanut brittle, you might ask them if they’d like a three-pound box instead of the one-pound container they’re currently purchasing. When you cross-sell, the message might be, “Would you also want a one-pound box of chocolate with your order?

Repeat customers spend nearly 70% more about three years down the road from their initial purchases. That’s why upselling makes sense, especially if someone has been on your email marketing list for quite some time.

Email Type #7: The Referral Message

Happy customers become brand ambassadors. When you encourage them to make referrals to their family and friends, you’re building a fantastic resource that can generate additional leads.

One of the most significant influences on a purchasing decision involves word-of-mouth marketing. Depending on the study, it is the top reason for a specific choice in 70% to 85% of eventual transactions.

Setting up a referral program ensures that your e-commerce business can take advantage of those potential opportunities. If you’re already asking for this activity on your checkout pages, you’ve got a good start.

The best referral emails provide three elements for the recipient to consider.

• There should be clear instructions for people to follow so that they can join the referral program or take advantage of the discounts provided.
• Go beyond the next order with your value. Consider offering the referent a free product (within reason) to encourage this activity.
• Thank people for being a customer of your e-commerce business.

You can use referral emails to encourage positive reviews for your company and brand. This information is often treated similarly to word-of-mouth marketing, creating more sales opportunities to consider.

Email Type #8: The Order Confirmation Message

This email type for your e-commerce business provides a practical purpose. It confirms the expectations a customer has when completing a transaction. It helps to think of this message like a receipt you’d give someone after checking them out at the register.

You can have this message provide more information than the details from a person’s order. It could be a way to set delivery expectations, discuss your return policy, or remind the customer why they made a great choice shopping with you instead of a competitor.

When it’s done right, the order confirmation email contributes an average of $0.25 of extra revenue per transaction. Although that figure doesn’t sound like much, it adds up quickly. For every 1,000 customers, you’re generating an additional $250 in revenue to use with virtually no effort on your part.

Email Type #9: The Win-Back Message

Every e-commerce email marketing list experiences a measure of unsubscribe activity. You can’t please everyone all the time. The goal should be to stop people from disengaging from your brand entirely because that can be a costly venture.

Even if you can re-engage only a few people who want to leave, the potential revenue boost is worth the effort.

One of the most common ways to use the win-back email is to offer a discount, extra credits, or something else of monetary value. It’s the same process you get from a customer service department when canceling a subscription. “Would you be willing to stay if we deliver a 25% discount for the next three months?”

This message can take other forms. You could use it to get feedback about why someone left, reinforce the expertise you offer, or remind a customer of their history with your e-commerce site.

Breaking up with a brand can be as stressful on some consumers as a divorce. If you give people a reason to stay within the scope of your email marketing efforts, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll win them back.

Email Type #10: The Thank You Message

One of the biggest complaints about society after the coronavirus pandemic is that people seem to have lost their manners.

You don’t want customers thinking that about your e-commerce businesses!

The truth is that most brands don’t express their thanks enough to their customers. Even when it is remembered, the experience rarely feels authentic or meaningful.

Today’s businesses need to go beyond a standard thank you note for a transaction or subscribing to an email marketing list. People want the recognition they deserve for keeping your company in business.

Instead of using this email message type as a reactive note, try to be proactive with it. Send your lists a thank you note without any other reason behind it except for your gratefulness.

You could always add a link to content that speaks positively about your e-commerce business or shows off an award, but don’t ignore the simple value of a thank you note. A little recognition goes a long way toward another sale.

Email Marketing for an E-Commerce Website Starts with a Valuable Message

Most people don’t open every email they receive. People are busy today, messages are forgotten, or the subject line doesn’t hold enough relevance to click that time.

Knowing how to write an email campaign starts with understanding what message a prospect or customer needs to see. When you include these options as part of your outreach effort, you’ll create a targeted, individualized approach that leads to more potential revenue-earning opportunities. Once you have each segment receiving an appropriate message type, you’ll likely see your engagement rates start growing.

Without donor engagement, the daily responsibilities become more challenging to manage. You need to find that healthy mix of human interaction with time management. Even if you’re speaking with people, those one-on-one conversations aren’t always lucrative when considering how long it takes to secure volunteerism or a donation.

One of the best steps to make your communication efforts more efficient is investing in email marketing. You can stay connected with your supports, speak with donors, and spread the word about what you do.

Nonprofit Email Marketing – Why It Matters

Nonprofits and NGOs don’t always get their message out effectively because their time and resources are directed toward activities that support their communities. Supporters and donors are equally busy with all their responsibilities.

The messages between the two are a lot like ships passing in the night. You both know the other is out there, but you don’t always know where to find them.

Nonprofit email marketing campaigns work to shine a light on that issue. Communicating directly to potential contributors through a medium that works well for them makes it easier to get the results that both parties want.

Nonprofits and NGOs receive the financial and volunteerism support they need to support public welfare initiatives. Supporters and donors earn the satisfaction of supporting a good cause.

Since email marketing can deliver an ROI above $40 for every $1 spent in some industries putting your often limited resources toward this asset makes sense. In return, it’s possible to have your message noticed while growing the number of engaged contributors.

What Are the Benefits of Email Marketing for Nonprofits?

Effective communication is essential to the success a nonprofit can experience. Without this asset, relaying information to others, building relationships, maintaining your network, and asking for donations becomes overly complicated – or almost impossible.

When you decide to include email marketing for nonprofits in your business plan, these potential benefits become available without requiring a significant investment.

1. Reach People Quickly

Most nonprofit organizations don’t have the necessary resources to run mainstream media advertising. Even the idea of using pay-per-click (PPC) or social media ads is likely more expensive than the budget can afford. When you add email marketing to the mix, you’ll find that the cost is relatively minor.

In return, you can reach hundreds or thousands of people with an important message. Since you can personalize emails today with different features and commands, the outreach effort feels customized even when you send a similar note to everyone.

You could use traditional print media, get on the radio, or use TV, but those options don’t give you verifiable numbers.

2. Top of the Mind

When you can reach out to donors and supporters regularly, it keeps your branding at the top of the mind for each person. Drip campaigns and automation let you stick with a predetermined schedule to maintain touchpoints without sacrificing scalability. That means your mission remains a priority for each reader.

Top-of-the-mind messaging means that when someone thinks about what you do as a nonprofit or NGO, they think about your organization first.

The best way to stay there is to provide consistency. When you can develop a rhythm with your email marketing efforts, you’ll find that the engagement process is relatively simple. Here’s a sample scheduling template to consider implementing.

People need to know that your nonprofit or NGO cares about them. Email marketing enables that communication process.

3. Relevant Messaging

Since time is a valuable resource for nonprofit organizations and NGOs, it’s common to see template marketing occur with their outreach efforts.

A simple Google search for email templates or donor messaging delivers thousands of results. The marketing manager for the nonprofit can find an industry-related one, copy the information, and tweak it just a bit to match the branding.

When combined with spraying messages to an entire list and using prepackaged verbiage, it feels like there is value in the time saved.

Getting a donation or some extra help shouldn’t feel like a bonus. With email marketing, an expectation of success should be there. It just isn’t for many organizations because they’re using old-fashioned cold-calling tactics.

How do you create a relevant email for today’s donors and volunteers?

• Deliver a compelling opening line. About one-third of email recipients open messages based on the subject line they see in their inbox. Personalizing that information can increase engagement by up to 20%.
• Segment your email lists. It doesn’t make sense to send a volunteerism email to your donors, or vice-versa. Email effectiveness requires a targeted message to a specific audience to feel relevant. Think about your audience demographics, individual behaviors, or even organizational roles. Then craft messaging that makes sense for the reader.
• Use a call to action (CTA). Emails are incomplete without including a call for the reader to take a specific action. Without this compelling content, the only thing you might earn is a click. The best CTAs are straightforward, exciting, and reduce confusion or friction points from the message.

4. Immediate Action

When your emails reach the right donor or volunteer at the right time, your email marketing efforts have the greatest chance to be successful.

This messaging creates an immediate engagement opportunity. The trick to it is to send the email at a time when that person has their inbox up or receives a notification that you’ve sent something.

Although the time of the message and the day it’s sent play a role in clicks and click-throughs (CTRs) for some industries, you’ll find that the best results typically follow B2B structures.

That means the best time for email opens is on Saturday morning. If you’re looking for clicks and CTRs to your landing pages, a Tuesday morning email works better.

When you want a response to your email, the best time to send an email is Tuesday morning at eight o’clock. Please remember to keep time zone differences in mind. If you’re in the Eastern Time Zone, sending a message at 8 AM means a Pacific Time Zone recipient receives it at 5 AM. That’s not as effective.

Every audience is a little different. Once you start getting information back on your email marketing efforts, you’ll want to look at some specific data points.

• What is the open rate data for your messages across the last six months?
• Do you see consistently specific days or times for opens, clicks, and responses?
• Is your response better or worse during weekends and holidays?

Once you can determine what motivates readers to click on your emails, it’s much easier to time your efforts to reach donors and volunteers at an appropriate time.

5. Trust Enhancement

A steady communication stream works hard to provide trust and familiarity for your nonprofit organization or NGO. Those two factors are critical elements in the process of engagement building.

It isn’t as easy to secure donations or time investments without trust.

Although you can’t please everyone all the time, you can implement a three-step process to ensure each email creates as much trust as possible.

• Personalize the message. What information interests your donors or volunteers the most? If your emails don’t captivate and inspire your audience to act, you’ve wasted your time on this effort. Think about the reader when composing your outreach efforts.
• Keep everything simple. Sending an overly complicated email with tons of information is usually not appreciated. When readers know that you’re sending a data-dense message (like a quarterly or annual report), it’s helpful. When you send 1,500 words about your nonprofit or NGO out of the blue, most of the content gets skipped or ignored. Keep your content precise, entertaining, and valuable.
• Make it readable on mobile. Most emails get opened on tablets or smartphones today, especially when they’re sent by nonprofits. That means your information must be readable on that device. It helps to preview what you plan to send before pushing out the message to fix potential formatting issues.

6. Traffic Generation

When your nonprofit or NGO produces engaging content through email, you can send traffic to your website. This process naturally improves your search engine optimization while encouraging readers to spend more time with your brand.

There’s a direct correlation between how long a person stays on a website with their desire to follow through with a conversion. As a nonprofit, that means you are more likely to have someone provide a donation or sign up to be a volunteer.

If you have multiple outreach efforts working to promote your organization, your website analytics can let you know where your traffic originates. That makes it easier to understand where most of your investments should be.

Email-based traffic also lets you know if you’re getting authentic traffic or something from bots. In 2014, up to 80% of a website’s visitors weren’t actual people. It’s even higher today!

By developing a meaningful outreach resource, you can generate actual leads. From there, it’s much easier to calculate what your actual ROI is when implementing an email marketing strategy.

How to Manage Email Campaigns In-House

Nonprofits are typically concerned with cost and email deliverability when investing in this marketing resource. Those are understandable worries since everyone wants to get the most value for a reasonable price.

When you decide to run your email campaigns in-house instead of outsourcing them, you can deploy your information more rapidly. There’s an increased relevance in your targeting and reader segmentation because you know your audience better, along with a lower cost of ownership.

Even if you use email platforms to send thousands of messages to your designated lists, you can eliminate the expense of outsourcing content creation, template design, graphics inclusion, and much more.

The only time outsourcing makes sense is when you have zero internal knowledge about email marketing in-house. Even then, the cost of partnering with a provider might be more than hiring someone to handle this responsibility.

For some nonprofits, turning to in-house email solutions increases the integration control and production mechanisms. You have more security because your messaging isn’t under the supervision of a third-party provider. That’s a crucial point for organizations that must comply with government regulations when sending out these messages.

Focus on relevancy with each email. Diversify your channels as needed, and focus on high-quality interactions each time.

When everything comes together for your nonprofit or NGO through email marketing, you’ll have a cost-efficient way to generate donations, volunteer hours, and other results. That’s why it’s an essential component of any outreach strategy.

You’re likely using email marketing to reach your clients and candidates right now. How effective is this asset?

A single message typically goes unnoticed in a busy inbox. If you send two dozen emails about the same information on the same day, you’ll get reported for spam.

How do you find a happy middle?

How Email Marketing for Recruitment Works

Email marketing for recruitment agencies follows a similar approach that you’ll find in other industries. You’re sending a commercialized message to a contact list that gave you their expressed permission to receive communications from your business.

This technology isn’t new, but the approaches are evolving for recruiting agencies that use it for marketing purposes. Even though the concept was first introduced in the early 1970s, we’re using it more than ever to stay connected.

You can use email marketing to build a community around your brand, drive sales, or inform contacts about specific information.

Email marketing is powerful because it delivers direct access to the inboxes of your clients and candidates. 80% of people check their emails at least once per day, and about one in four scope their inbox multiple times daily. [[1]]

Unlike other marketing options for recruitment agencies, you get to own your email list. If social media were gone tomorrow, you’d lose all your followers. That’s happened to businesses and individuals who get banned from a specific platform.

That means you’ve got an entire list of businesses and people who are interested in your services. Since the contacts feel like one-on-one communication with the right message type, you can get even closer to your targeted audience.

Is Email Marketing for Recruitment Agencies Valuable?

It’s not unusual for a recruitment agency to have dozens of clients and thousands of potential candidates in their databases.

Most people who work with you have dedicated some time toward filling out applications or signing contracts to work with your agency.

With all the time spent on each client and candidate, why have that information locked away in unusable data? By the time you reach out, they’ve forgotten about you or why they applied.

That’s why email marketing is valuable to a recruitment agency. When you create messages that work from a foundation of value, relevance, and timeliness, you can strengthen the connections you’ve forged.

Each message you send to an email list creates new data points to consider. If you work on optimizing your content each time you receive results, it’ll be much easier to finetune the process to encourage more click-throughs and conversions.

Types of Emails to Send as a Recruitment Agency

People are using email as a preferred communications channel more than ever. The statistics show that almost everyone is looking to their inboxes for relevant information.

• Almost 70% of email subscribers prefer to receive at least one branded message each week.
• Only 35% of email marketing efforts reach out to clients and candidates at least three times per week.
• 59% of B2B marketers report that email marketing is their most effective revenue generation channel.
• Email recipients are 88% more likely to look at a message favorably if it feels like it was written for them personally.

As a recruitment agency, you have the option to use email marketing in two fundamental ways. It becomes a tool to reach clients and candidates within your lists and databases, ensuring that your connections stay strong.

That process starts with the welcome email. It’s one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolbox because the open rate is consistently above 80%.

Although there can be some variety in what you’d send when comparing clients and candidates, you’ll generally see the following email types providing a positive experience.

1. Service Cross-sells

Email marketing is an effective tactic that works hard to increase your profits. It achieves that outcome because it allows you to sell more to your current clients and candidates.

If you think about the cross-sale emails you receive from your favorite online retailers, you know what this communication offers. It’s an opportunity to communicate about new services or opportunities, especially since those on this list already trust your company.

A great example would be sending an email that discusses the advantages of contract staffing to your clients who work with you for permanent hires. Letting them know you’ve got temporary help available allows for a potential boost in business activities.

2. Cold Contacts

With an effective email marketing presence, you can reach out to potential clients and candidates to promote your recruiting services.

Although these messages are unsolicited, you’ll often get email addresses from referrals, social media conversations, business card exchanges, and other networking opportunities.

These emails don’t need to be extensive. A short message that gets straight to the point with your offer is usually compelling. Show people who you are, and they’ll decide if there is value in reaching back.

3. Touch Base

Email marketing allows your recruitment agency to stay in contact with clients and candidates. Your services aren’t always needed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stay at the top of the mind. By letting people know that you’re thinking about them, it causes them to do the same.

It also helps to send messages to clients that worked with you in the past, but they haven’t reached out recently. Maintaining those relationships makes it more likely that they’ll use your services again.

The same principle applies to your best candidates. If someone hasn’t talked to you about placement opportunities in a while, an email can bridge the gap to see what is happening.

4. Newsletters

Most businesses send an email newsletter to help them stay at the top of the mind for each recipient. It’s not unusual to see this messaging serve as the cornerstone of an overall marketing effort because it works hard to educate clients and candidates about your recruitment company.

You can use an email newsletter to feature candidates, talk about specific clients, or discuss a passion project.

Before sending a newsletter to your email marketing list, it helps to set a goal to achieve. Are you trying to nurture your existing contacts? Do you need to push information out to resolve a potential crisis?

5. Stand-Alone (Dedicated)

A stand-alone email contains information about a single offer or event. You can use this outreach effort to talk about a specific candidate, provide a discount, or invite clients to an industry event you plan to host.

Dedicate messages make it easier to set up the context necessary for an effective call to action. That makes the structure similar to what you’d see on a landing page.

In most situations, you’d want to segment your email marketing list to maximize the benefits of this email type. You can focus on different interests, behaviors, or needs to deliver a relevant piece of valuable information.

Tips for Maximizing the Value of Your Email Marketing Efforts

It doesn’t take much to skip over an unexpected email. Some inboxes might even screen out your messages to a spam folder. If you want to get noticed, the best tip is to create readable content that the recipient needs.

Here are some strategies to consider when using email marketing for your recruitment agency.

Emphasize the Subject Line

The subject line is what encourages a recipient to open an email. If there isn’t verbiage to draw them into the message, the item will get skipped or deleted.

There are a few strategies to use when creating an intriguing subject line, but the most crucial step is to provide an accurate preview of what to expect.

• Ask a question that encourages someone’s curiosity to grow?
• Add urgency to the note so that the recipient will want to act quickly.
• Stay away from details or formats that could cause someone to report the message as spam.

It helps to stay away from ALL CAPS phrases when email marketing. As long as you provide valuable information and summarize it accurately in the subject line, you’ll get some attention.

Personalize the Message

Can you remember the last time you received a form letter? Did the message feel personal, customized, or important?

People want to receive emails crafted for them. That’s especially critical for clients and candidates with an established relationship.

The first step is to use the person’s name. From there, you can add reference information. It takes more time to put together these messages, but the investment is worth making when you can forge a connection.

It also helps to leverage social media for your emails when you don’t know a lot about someone.

Get to the Point

You don’t need to write a short novel about the recruitment services you offer. All it takes is a brief mention of how you can be helpful. Once you’ve made the pitch, let your work stand for itself.

If there’s interest in what you offer, people will follow up with you. If not, you can review how you present information to see if inaccuracies exist.

Focus on the Recipient

When you start talking about what your agency offers, it’s easy to fall into the trap of talking about yourself. Try to focus on who you are and let your clients and candidates learn about what you can do.

It’s not always easy to stay recipient-focused when creating a sales pitch. Think about what your clients or candidates need, then show them how you can solve that problem.

If you’ve won an award, how does that help the recipient? When you’ve placed 1,000 people in your community with various clients, what does that mean for the candidate who has been out of work for the past few months?

Be Specific About Actions

Each email should end with some encouragement for the reader to take action. After you’ve discussed the point of the message and why your approach is valuable, guide them toward the next steps to take.

When you’re specific about the actions the recipient must complete, it’s much easier for them to weigh the pros and cons of proceeding.

An effective call to action has five elements.

• It begins with an imperative. What is the reason behind trying to convince the reader to take another step? Use strong language to support the idea, such as an action verb. Terms like “Click” or “Respond” are used frequently, so try to switch things up to stand out.
• Use persuasive writing through the message. You’re summarizing the value proposition that your email offers. The incentive should benefit the reader in some way.
• Eliminate the risks. The best calls to action promote a high-value incentive while reducing potential issues when following through with the idea. Don’t put pressure on the recipient. People are more likely to explore when they have 100% confidence that they’re not committing to something.
• Be urgent with your verbiage. You need people to fear that they’re missing out on something.
• Make the idea pop. Structure your call to action with some extra white space in your email to help it stand out. You can also use brighter colors on the button to catch the eye.

Are You Using Email Marketing Effectively?

When recruiting agencies send emails to clients and candidates based on the information found in this guide, it becomes easier to diversify the created content.

The goal is to turn each prospect into a paying customer. When you communicate the value of your services to those who need them the most right now, you’ve got an excellent chance to see positive results. If you haven’t started email marketing yet, now is the time to begin! For those already investing in this space, think about refining your approach. When you can personalize and customize effectively, your messages will deliver an efficient lead generation process that helps your bottom line.

Your goal with a digital marketing investment is to connect with an ideal customer. These leads are already online, searching Google or clicking on ads for information they need to make their lives better in some way.

Without digital marketing, your resources are not findable. That means the individual will look to your competitor to find what they need.

That’s just the beginning of the story. Here are the reasons why your business needs digital marketing today.

1. You Can Measure for Success

When companies invest in traditional advertising methods, it can take several weeks or months to analyze how everything performed.

In digital advertising, a marketing investment generates enough data to make informed or empowered choices in days – and sometimes hours.

Several web analytics tools, including social media metrics, are quickly accessible through online dashboards where customer demographics become meaningful filters. This information ensures that you know how each ideal customer group interacts with your message.

Since the information is nearly instantaneous, every business must set digital marketing goals from the beginning. Here are some examples to consider.

• Online Sales Growth. A goal like this one would require monitoring the average transaction per customer or cart abandonment rates to determine if successful outcomes occur.
• Lead Generation. Metrics like your click-through rate can tell you if your digital marketing investments generate attention. It helps to have a conversion definition to know if your rates increase in that area.
• Company Awareness. Investments in this outreach effort let you see how many people get exposed to brand impressions through various advertising categories.

One of the best ways to get started is to try pushing your cost-per-thousand-impressions to the lowest rate possible to stretch your advertising money further.

2. You Can Increase Mobile Access

About three-quarters of American adults own at least one smartphone. People are more likely to use these mobile devices for their online needs than desktops or laptops today because of their ability to provide instant access.

Think about what you use your smartphone for today. Does it hold your calendar and schedule? Is it your connection to your social networks?

Digital marketing investments can help you tap into this audience effectively.

Options like text and email marketing can directly communicate with potential customers. You can use remarketing ads to keep your brand at the top of the mind for cart or site abandonment issues.

When you can reach people with mobile access, you can get your business in front of people wherever they are. That means your brand presence remains, even if different apps are active on the device.

3. More Advertising Flexibility

Digital marketing is a diverse category that delivers multiple ways to reach out to potential customers. Customers tend to engage with brands more when the marketing materials combine numerous content types.

That’s why it’s worth considering the following options if your business is considering an expansion into digital marketing.

• Banner ads provide a straightforward communication tool that highlights who you are and what you do.
• Email marketing provides a direct communication line that highlights a value proposition while delivering links that can lead to potential transactions.
• Search engine optimization creates answers for the questions that Internet users have, which means your information gets put in front of people who already potentially want what you’ve got.

A business can invest in everything or only one thing with digital marketing. That makes it suitable for startups, entrepreneurs, or freelancers who are just beginning their journey or large multinational corporations.

Some efforts combine multiple assets, such as SEO. With a suitable optimization strategy, you might upload audio clips from a podcast, videos, and photographs of what you offer.

Although investments in traditional media can provide multiple content types in a single exposure, it’s far cheaper and easier to incorporate them in digital marketing.

Digital marketing also provides scalability flexibility or stopping a campaign that performs poorly in real-time to avoid unnecessary expenses.

4. Exposure to Different Target Audiences

Today’s online marketplace is more competitive than ever. In 2020, approximately 223 million people considered themselves to be social media users.

When online use expands to a global audience, the number of worldwide social media users reached 4.2 billion people in 2021.

Businesses must engage digitally with consumers today because that is where the audience for almost every industry is located.

What makes digital marketing a unique asset in this environment is expanding your target audience. Suppose you know that one demographic in the United States is attracted to your product or service. In that case, it’s a reasonable assumption to think that the same truth might apply in Canada, Europe, or other geographic regions.

When a mobile demographic engages with your digital marketing messages, you can expand that effort by targeting tablets, computers, and other devices.

You can dial into specific demographics that match your ideal customer with absolute precision with filter availability today or set your investment to reach only households in the top 10% income bracket of a specific geographic region.

Do you want to reach families that wish to purchase a home in the next six months? You can find that audience with today’s digital marketing resources.

You can set your target audience to be in any age range, employment category, or gender.

You can also mix and match those demographics with digital marketing assets to research specific target audience opportunities.

Using the different examples above, you could put your message in front of someone between the ages of 18-25, still living at home, with an HHI of $150,000 that likes to use a tablet while researching new places to live in Seattle, WA.

Since finding a new target audience can be a little complex in some situations, engaging the services of a professional digital marketing agency can help your business build the foundation it needs to find these benefits.

5. More Revenue

Companies that use digital marketing strategies have 2.8 times more revenue growth expectancy than those that don’t make that investment.

Complete digital strategies create higher conversion rates because the messages are more customized to each target audience. When you can individualize the process while taking advantage of today’s automation technologies, you’ll find that the bespoke structures lead to more sales opportunities.

When you have a higher conversion rate, that means more people are buying goods or services – or the current customer base raises the average amount per transaction. Both outcomes provide positive results!

6. Build Stronger Relationships

Even though we’ve moved to a hybrid customer-business relationship structure that includes in-person and online interactions, some truths remain. One of them is that a brand is not as likely to earn transactions without consumer trust as those with an established connection to individuals.

Your business must attract, secure, and convert leads to be successful. The only possible way is to develop in-depth knowledge of your ideal customer.

The building blocks for trust are relatively simple.

1. Value the long-term relationship with each customer. Meet their current needs, but take the time to learn what it’ll take to go even further.
2. Be honest about what you can do. If you break promises, getting caught in a lie often ruins an entire marketing campaign.
3. Honor each commitment. Follow through on what you say you’ll do for each customer.
4. Don’t offer excuses. If you did something wrong, take responsibility for the situation. Then try to make things right.
5. Trust is easily damaged when miscommunication occurs. Try to communicate in ways that won’t leave any room for misinterpretation. Sometimes that means you need to listen first instead of pitching another idea.
6. Allow your brand to be vulnerable. When you show emotions with your customers, it can tap into places where you have some common ground
7. Be helpful whenever possible. That often means offering something of value first before you earn revenues in return.
8. Show people that you care about them. Customers shouldn’t be treated as commodities.
9. Stand up for what you believe is right. Even if some people want you to agree with everything they say because the “customer is always right,” the best relationships form when every insight and opinion receives value.
10. Be 100% transparent in everything you’re doing. Talking about why you’re making the choices for your business can help everyone understand where you’re coming from each time, even if they disagree.

You cannot build trust with consumers overnight. That’s why businesses should engage in a long-term approach through digital marketing assets.

When you can prove that your brand honors its commitments, admits when it is wrong, and works hard to provide valuable products or services, you’ll be on your way to achieving a successful result in this area.

7. Customers Prefer Digital Marketing

Before search engines were a viable way to find information, people turned to the Yellow Pages to find local businesses.

Now that digital marketing delivers so much information to people, consumers look online for data about local businesses first.

Over 70% of customers check online reviews or business ratings before buying a specific product or service. That information is treated in the same light as a personal recommendation from a trusted friend or family member. Some people read up to six reviews before proceeding.

Your potential customers are already online. If they try to find you there and no information is available, you might as well not exist. When there aren’t any reviews or resources to find an in-person location, it’s tougher to establish trust.

When you form a clear digital marketing strategy that takes care of these needs, you’ll find that most interactions are relatively straightforward today. People will come to you knowing what they want, simplifying the lead conversion process.

How can you use this digital marketing investment to your advantage?

• Encourage customers to leave honest reviews about their experiences. Even if the information is negative, responding to the situation can still win over people.
• Have people leave testimonials about your products or services and why they’re helpful.
• With more information available upfront, consumers can decide for themselves if they want to work with you without interference.

8. Save Money

40% of businesses report experiencing increased cost savings after implementing a digital marketing tactic, but even so, 15% of B2B companies don’t include outreach efforts to keep leads warm.

Nurturing leads doesn’t need to be a complicated process. All it needs is concise and relevant content to ease the nerves that customers have during the journey through your sales funnel.

When you hold regular meetings with your sales and marketing teams, craft messaging to follow the buyer’s journey, and personalize the outreach effort, you’ll find successful results are more likely out there to discover.

Then you can use your digital marketing investments to stay on top of buyer actions or feedback. By reviewing your performance data or taking note of what causes more engagement or unsubscribe results, your business can find ways to grow.

Since you’re not using trial and error methodologies for this process, the money you can save through digital marketing is massive.

Digital marketing represents about 2.5% of a company’s revenue when 100% funding occurs. That’s about 25% of the marketing budget each year. In return, you can boost your ROI to stratospheric levels because the return can be over $40 to every $1 spent in some categories.

Are You Ready to Start Your Digital Marketing Journey?

If your business hasn’t invested in digital marketing until this point, it is at risk of falling behind the competitors in this space. The good news is that it doesn’t take long to start catching up once you start making a few investments.

Once your ideal customer starts seeing what you offer, your expertise and value can stand out in a sea of similar items.

Once you’ve created an established email marketing list, your messages can generate more leads, build relationships, and formalize sales funnels.

The best way to start this process is to send different marketing emails to your subscribers. By varying the information delivered, more value gets added to this relationship.

That extra value is what often leads to more transactions.

Why Are Different Email Types Required for Small Business Communication?

While collecting email addresses is an essential part of this marketing effort, delivering something valuable to each recipient is crucial. Without the brand expertise associations from this messaging, a competitor always has a foot in the door.

By sending different marketing emails to active subscriber lists, you’re eliminating the risk of boredom while creating inspirational moments. That combination keeps people engaged.

If you’re ready to demonstrate that you’re prepared to deliver exceptional experiences as a small business, these emails are the ones to include with each outreach effort.

What Are the 7 Marketing Emails That Small Businesses Need?

Mixing different email content types when reaching out to readers and subscribers encourages engagement. Differentiated content stands out from the competition, fosters relationships, and creates anticipation for each message.

Here are the seven marketing emails all small businesses should start perfecting today.

1. Welcome Emails

The welcome email is sent to new subscribers after they sign up or opt into your email list. It’s one of the most common messages that consumers see because we all know good manners are essential to the relationship-building process.

This marketing email serves a second function. It’s also a way to formally introduce a brand to new leads.

Since the open rate for welcome emails is typically higher than other messages, the goal should be to create an attractive and informative message that delivers a positive first impression. The following information items should be included as part of the content.

• Greet each new subscriber personally and with as much individualism as possible.
• Give the reader an idea of what to expect from your small business in future emails.
• Highlight the best features of your products or services while offering instructions on how to interact with your brand in the best way.

People wouldn’t sign up for an email marketing list if they had no interest in what a small business offered. The purpose of this message is to reinforce the decision the reader made to join your community.

2. Promotional Messages

Many people sign up to receive emails because they want access to exclusive promotions and discounts.

Although you don’t want to send a sales pitch with every message, it can be helpful to deliver occasional promotional messages that provide this valuable resource.

The goal of this email type is to motivate subscribers to buy something from your small business. It’s nice to have an extensive subscriber list, but it’s even better when you can turn them into paying customers!

Many small businesses make the mistake of sending an email blast to everyone on a list when using this message. It’s a “the more, the merrier” attitude that does more harm than good in most situations.

It is critical to segment the email recipients on your list. When the promotional messaging is personalized based on identified needs and preferences, it’s much easier to achieve a higher conversion rate from each effort.

The best email marketing strategy for this message type is to be as specific as possible. Be clear about your goals and the value offered to each reader in return.

3. Newsletters

This email type is a popular option for small businesses because it delivers valuable information in a template that’s easy to read and understand. It usually contains the latest info about a blog, the company, product updates, and anything else that subscribers might consider valuable.

Newsletters allow a small business to stay in regular contact with its readership. By incorporating links to social media, blogs, and more, it’s possible to use this email type to boost traffic in other directions.

The key to a successful newsletter email is to create well-structured and engaging content. These steps can help to make that result happen.

• Define your content goals. How will you measure success with a newsletter? Do you want a specific open rate, or are you trying to push your conversion rate higher?
• Understand the audience. Content is only valuable when the readers find something of interest in the material. The newsletter needs to connect with enough people in the right way, which means you must understand how each demographic will view the material. Someone who works as an executive above the age of 55 might see the information sent in a different way than a 19-year-old college student.
• Focus on keywords. Even though an email campaign isn’t focused on optimization, readers still have mental triggers when they see specific words or phrases. These prompts can help keep people engaged, provide a call to action, or encourage more brand research.

When composing a newsletter email, it helps to create an outline of what you want to convey. Review at least three critical needs, incorporate your top terms, and then think about how that information can meet the reader’s expectations.

4. Announcement Emails

Some emails can function as a press release when sent to your various lists. It’s an excellent way to introduce a new product or service from your small business.

Don’t reserve this email type for that function alone. If your current products or services are getting an update, you can send out this message to encourage more interaction. It can even be a way to promote a new event your small business is hosting.

Some companies even use announcement emails to talk about their charitable donations, community volunteerism, or the great things their employees are doing.

The key to a successful announcement email is to keep it as simple as possible. You want the messaging to convey excitement about what is happening.

That process begins by clearly stating the announcement in the email’s subject line. You can follow it up with a brief description of the new product or service – or info about the upcoming event.

When structured correctly, an announcement email fulfills the value propositions promised to readers when they subscribed or opted into your list initially. It ensures a small business keeps its branding at the top of the mind and builds more relationship connections.

5. Lead Nurturing Emails

Some people on your email marketing lists have already become customers. When you send out a lead nurturing message to this audience segment, the goal should be to reinforce your small business’s value. Those consistent reminders encourage the reader to keep coming back to you whenever they need what you provide.

Others on your email marketing lists haven’t purchased anything from your small business yet. For this audience segment, the goal is to inspire the reader to buy something by reinforcing your products or services’ value.

Can you see how sending out one message or the other to everyone doesn’t make much sense? If someone already understands the value that your small business provides, you don’t need to convince them a second time!

This email type gives small businesses a chance to optimize their lead nurturing strategy. It works in conjunction with the following ideas to continue the engagement-building process until those readers become customers.

• Host educational webinars. Most leads are at a stage where education and information are necessary to reach a purchasing decision. Although the best lead engagement tactic is to host an in-person event, that option isn’t practical through email marketing. The best alternative is to host a webinar that guides each targeted audience segment through your sales funnels.
• Use multiple channels. Email marketing might nurture 60% of your leads. That leaves the other 40% thinking that you don’t care about them. Instead of letting them delete your messages or decide to unsubscribe, use different channels to keep them engaged. Social medial promotions, retargeted ads, and other strategies can be quite effective.
• Automate the process when possible. Lead nurturing doesn’t need to be a complicated task. You can create emails that trigger whenever people take specific actions, such as a thank you note whenever a download or purchase occurs. If someone abandons a cart, a quick reminder could bring that person back.

6. Special Occasion Emails

Many small businesses confuse this email type with their announcement emails. If you’re hosting a semi-annual sale, that isn’t a special occasion.

This email type should be reserved to celebrate the milestones of your small business. If you’ve hit a specific number of followers on social media, made it to a special anniversary, or want to celebrate a holiday, you’ve got something to share in this category.

Instead of focusing on your small business only with this email type, try to put the focus on each customer. If you know when their birthday is, consider sending them a note with your well wishes and an exclusive discount.

If someone has been a customer with your small business for five years, that’d be something else to celebrate with a special occasion email.

The difference between this option and the announcement email is the celebratory spirit that serves as the content’s foundation. It should make the reader feel important and special.

When you can accomplish that goal, it can differentiate your small business from the competition.

7. Transactional Emails

The transactional email is the message that gets triggered when a subscriber completes a specific action. Technically, a welcome email fits into this category because it gets sent to a reader after signing up to receive this information.

Although transactional emails seem boring or dull, they can be valuable because of the reminders they offer. Imagine that one of your leads signed up for a free trial of your services, but they didn’t find the experience as appealing as they’d hoped it would be.

By sending an email reminder that the free trial is about to expire, you’re communicating to the individual that your small business cares about them more than your profit margin. Even though you might lose a little revenue, that one message might trigger a positive word-of-mouth referral that brings another lead in your direction.

Some of the most common transactional emails small businesses send can include payment notifications, subscription confirmations, and account changes.

The objective of this email type is to deliver required information to the individual. Since most people anticipate these messages, the click-through rate tends to be relatively high. That means you get more brand engagement, which can eventually lead to more sales opportunities.

Is Your Small Business Engaging Appropriately Through Email?

Imagine that someone is interested in what your small business offers. When that person signs up for your email marketing list, there’s an expectation that you’ll provide them with something valuable in exchange for some personal information.

That exchange is a transaction that starts to build trust. If your emails don’t deliver something valuable, it won’t take long for that person to unsubscribe.

The best emails are individualized, adaptable, and focused on creating a valuable experience. Instead of focusing on your business, think about what the reader wants to gain by interacting with each email type.

You can educate readers about your products or services by helping them complete the onboarding process through a welcome email sequence.

With regular newsletters, your small business can inform potential customers about industry updates or company-related information.

You can even use emails to engage leads that have become inactive for various reasons. Each message has a specific purpose. That’s why understanding the different types is a critical part of every email marketing campaign. You can focus on the core details of each outreach effort to ensure each reader understands the value your small business offers. 

It’s not.

When small businesses want to bring in new customers while keeping their current audience engaged and profitable, email marketing is one of the most powerful options available in their toolboxes.

Although new tools and options seem to come out daily, the benefits of having an email list remain consistent. You can build awareness, generate leads, and increase conversions with this one investment.

If you neglect email as part of your digital marketing strategy, you’ll miss out on many potential connections.

What Are the Advantages of Email Marketing for Small Business Owners?

Although the first email was sent in 1971, it wasn’t until the 1990s when it became a viable option for small businesses to reach consumers.

Over the past two decades, this digital marketing platform has seen significant development and innovation. Today, it’s a useful way to connect with segmented audiences and specific demographics.

Small businesses can use it to build credibility, establish industry expertise, and increase sales. It’s easy to get started, and it is not unusual to begin seeing immediate results.

1. Email marketing delivers a high return on investment (ROI).

Although the average ROI for email marketing changes each year, it typically hovers in a range between $35 to $45 for every dollar spent.

When breaking that figure down further, some industries see significantly higher returns when small businesses invest in email marketing. Here are some examples to consider.

• Operators in hospitality, tourism, and travel can see returns of up to $53.
• Small businesses in media, entertainment, sports, consumer goods, and e-commerce earn an ROI of 45-to-1.
• Public relations, marketing, and advertising agencies average a return of $42 for every $1 spent.

It’s clear to see the profitable nature of this investment for most businesses and industries. We also know that this effort is effective because two-thirds of consumers consistently say that they’ve made online purchases because of an email marketing message they received.

2. It appeals to different target audience segments.

Email marketing is at its most effective when your small business can find its target audience.

The average signup experience follows these typical steps.

• A customer signs up to join an email list because of a specific discount that’s offered.
• They ignore the messages sent to their inbox because they don’t have a need for the content offered.
• The person eventually decides to unsubscribe since they’ve already received the value they hoped to get.

Even when someone didn’t sign up to get some free stuff, small businesses can let down their target audiences by delivering too many irrelevant messages.

Before you can discover the target audience for an email, you’ll need to segment your consumers into specific categories. If you operate a candy shop, that could mean putting together a group that loves chocolate, another that prefers lollipops, and a third that enjoys vintage brands.

Although you might see some crossover (chocolate lollipops, Charleston Chew candy bars), the primary segment focuses on the core quality attributes of the initial preference. That’s how the personalization process begins.

If you want to run a sale on Necco wafers, you wouldn’t send an email to the people who prefer chocolate. It’d be a waste of time, energy, and money. That information should go to the people who want vintage candy.

Why is this segmentation process necessary for small businesses? It’s because you need to create an audience based on the people who are most likely to engage with your emails.

Who would find the information in your next message to be the most valuable? The answer to that question becomes the audience segment to target.

When people receive emails that lack value, they’re more likely to unsubscribe from your list. That’s why recognizing who would appreciate your offer or content before sending it can help your small business to keep growing.

One of the audience segments that often gets ignored is the group that almost always opens your emails in real time. If you reward those engagement levels, you’ve got a tremendous opportunity to push your conversion rate higher.

3. Email marketing develops a robust following.

Why is email marketing such an effective way to reach out to an audience and grow sales? It’s due to the highly personalized messages that your small business can send to its targeted demographics.

That process starts by building an email list that lets you spread the news of your expertise far and wide.

The best email marketing lists capture information about each subscriber that covers more than the basics of a name and address. You need the next steps, such as a birthday, a favorite sports team, or their preferred items.

As a small business owner, you need to find different ways to connect to an audience. If someone’s favorite team is in a championship game, building a special event around that idea encourages like-minded people to interact, look at what you’re offering, and potentially purchase something.

You can also develop a robust following by finding out what your customers want from this investment.

• Are they looking for business updates, such as sales opportunities or special events?
• Do they want to join a loyalty club that’s tied to their purchasing activities?
• Have they spotted value in what your operations look like behind the scenes?

People who opt into email offers want to think they’re part of a special group that gets exclusive treatment. That’s why you don’t want to put the same thing on social media. There needs to be a clear idea of who receives each outreach effort to maintain the personalization aspect of this digital marketing investment.

4. It can deliver sales and revenue increases.

Every year presents a new challenge to small business owners. With inflation rising, costs adding up, and customers trying to save money, it isn’t always easy to sell your goods or services.

The best way to continue booking appointments or shipping items is to prove that you’ve got something valuable to offer. Email marketing is an ideal platform for that purpose.

When sending emails to interested subscribers, you can show off your expertise while demonstrating why your offering is better than what the competition provides.

If you send a well-timed offer, it’s possible to secure a transaction through this marketing effort.

Although most people won’t click on the “Buy” button, the expertise and value offered through this medium keep your brand at the top of consumers’ minds. If you create targeted and personalized offers, the motivation will be there to convert when they’re ready.

How can you encourage more people to complete a transaction through your email marketing efforts?

• Use this platform to re-engage with customers who left items in a shopping cart or haven’t purchased from your small business in a while.
• Add urgency to the personalized offer by setting deadlines or providing generous short-term sales.
• Reinforce the value of your services or products through demonstrations that directly impact a consumer’s pain points.

Email marketing for sales requires some careful planning and design to have a successful experience. That process starts with a value-driven subject line that catches the eye.

Writing concise text, combined with high-quality, relevant images, can keep a reader’s attention after a click.

It also helps to track sales from your emails to learn what works well and what doesn’t help at all with this marketing investment.

Before signing off, remember to include a strong call to action. It doesn’t need to be a sales-related activity. Even if you encourage someone to spend more time with their family, the interaction help to keep your brand at the top of the mind.

5. Emails connect with consumers personally to develop stronger relationships.

Email marketing is a significant opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and value to a targeted audience. It’s a straightforward way to show those individuals how to take the next step to work with your business.

Once someone decides to join your email list, you’ve got an opportunity to offer relevant and helpful content.

In the past, businesses promoted themselves by showing why their products were better than something the competition provided. Although that effort is still necessary, today’s customers also expect your company to deliver something better than their previous experience.

That means the only way to start building relationships with people is to reach out to them with authentic intentions. Most messages should not involve a sales pitch.

Here are some ideas to consider if your small business wants to connect with others authentically.

• Real people are behind the relationships that customers build with small businesses. Consumers want to get to know you, your beliefs, and your values.
• Networking opportunities help consumers find more social connections, leading to additional traffic generation for owners.
• People want to offer something valuable to the people they know. Creating shareable email marketing content provides that option while creating more awareness of your brand.

When you can demonstrate to people that your small business provides value, they’ll look forward to what you have to say. That process creates anticipation, which is the foundation of trust in a business-to-consumer relationship.

It also helps to list your social media accounts in your email marketing efforts. By encouraging subscribers to connect with other parts of your community, you’ll build more credibility within the targeted audience.

6. It enables a small business to develop its own brand voice and tone.

A brand’s voice involves what is being said while creating consistency within the delivered communications. This element provides reliability and understanding to the consumer because it produces one message through email marketing and similar investments.

Brand tone focuses on the message conveyed to the consumer. It looks at the specifics of interpretation, taking into consideration what it sounds like when heard or read.

How you deliver information in an email could be different in tone than what gets posted to social media accounts.

Although your small business voice should remain consistent, you can combine several tones to create a “conversation” that offers value to the consumer.

Since voice and tone reflect a brand’s personality, they impact how people identify with your small business. They demonstrate your goals and core values while delivering critical information at a time when it’s needed.

By reviewing the different responses your email marketing efforts receive, you can identify the audience type that engages most often. These authentic connections increase organic traffic toward your site, which often creates more transactions and higher revenues.

Small businesses have found in the past few years that customers only communicate openly when they feel like brands are listening to them first. If you’re successful in establishing a back-and-forth dialog, that conversation might bring in more lead generation opportunities.

If it seems like your email marketing investment isn’t taking off like it should, re-examine your brand voice and tone. There could be something in there that isn’t coming across as being relatable.

Have You Explored the Benefits of Email Marketing?

The benefits of email marketing cannot be ignored. 99% of consumers today check their inbox daily, making it the preferred way for everyone to receive updates from their preferred brands and small businesses.

That’s a statistic that cannot be ignored. When you develop an email marketing campaign, you create personalized content that does more than communicate with specific audiences. It gives you the option to collect feedback, distribute surveys, and host a forum for self-promotion.

Not only does this effort provide more value, but it also increases your lead generation development opportunities. In return, the extra traffic generated can produce more transactions and revenues.