Want to fully appreciate how powerful email marketing is? All you have to do is think about how many times you check your email a day. How many times do you do it? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? Probably more times than you care to really count.

And you’re not alone — most people are checking their email throughout the day, whether on their smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop. But the frequency with which your customers or potential customers are checking their email is only the start of why email marketing is so powerful.

A high return on investment

For many small businesses, marketing budgets are pretty tight. Even larger companies with plenty of dollars to invest in marketing don’t want to spend that cash frivolously. In your efforts to not only retain but also build your customer base, you need to be finding cost-effective options that bring you the most return for the lowest price.

Email marketing is ideal in this regard. Unlike advertisements in print, on television or even on websites, email marketing is in expensive. However, you’ll be increasing your visibility in a place where (as already established) people are frequently visiting.

You also know that the people who are getting your emails are people who want to hear from you, as they signed up to be part of your email blasts. They’re interested in your products or services, and they want to stay updated on what’s going on with your business. When people open up their email inbox and see information from you repeatedly, it keeps you in sight and in mind, all for a very low cost.

Email marketing empowers customer relationships

As with any kind of marketing, the aim of emails is to increase your revenue. But it does this in a way that’s very personal to your subscribers and helps nurture an interest in your brand.

Your emails are an opportunity for you to share what’s new within your business. Maybe it’s a new service that you’re offering. Maybe it’s a sale or a special. You might be introducing a new team member, or letting people know that you’ve moved your brick-and-mortar location.

You also might just want to inform people about important topics relevant to your industry. This helps establish you as a credible expert and someone they can depend on.

It also helps if emails are personable instead of stuffy and formal. People feel as if they get to know you and feel a stronger sense of loyalty.

However, all of this also depends on making your reader feel specially catered to. That’s another unique aspect of email marketing that you won’t find with advertisements — you can personalize your email blasts to the person who is receiving them. You can send specific emails to specific groups of subscribers based on their location, their interests, or their demographic (age, gender, income level and so forth). This ensures that your subscribers are getting the content that’s most relevant to them. Therefore, they are more likely to pay attention and less likely to unsubscribe.

And if your subscribers don’t have time to read your message right then and there, they still have the option of coming back to read it later. It’s much easier to find a message in your inbox, where you’ll see it again when you recheck your email at another time, rather than a social media feed that’s always changing.

Email marketing also tends to be interactive. You can not only guide people to your website or social media platforms but also encourage replies and solicit feedback. It’s a way of starting a conversation with your followers and showing them that you really care. It also helps you improve your business because you’ll be getting ideas straight from the people you need to please the most: the customer.

Email marketing is marketing you can track

If you stress out about how effective your marketing strategy is — because what successful businessperson doesn’t? — you will be happy to know that you can easily see who opens your emails and who clicks through the links. If they do this, you know that you’re providing them with content they care about. If they don’t open the email or they unsubscribe from you, it’s an indicator that what you’re including in that marketing plan isn’t effective.

Even email blasts that aren’t successful will help you build your business strategy by giving you a clear picture of what your customers don’t care about or aren’t interested in. You might realize you need to come up with another strategy, but at least you now have that knowledge.

Taking the first step

If you’re interested in connecting with more of your customers and potential customers via email, take the first step by collecting their email addresses and ask them what sort of information they would like to receive in their inbox.

Reach out to ASMM Digital Marketing for help designing your first email blast today.