Written By: Shannon Briggs

In my experience, many businesses are often interested in developing and implementing an email marketing strategy but get overwhelmed at the idea of building a list, creating regular content, and staying relevant over time. With the right strategy in place, this process becomes easier. Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools available. Here are five reasons why you should consider it for your organization.

Highly Targeted

The eNewsletter is the most intimate form of marketing. If a potential customer allows you into their email inbox, they are truly interested in what you have to say. Depending on the recipient, hours can be spent cleaning out an inbox, and the unsubscribe button can be a person’s best friend. If a recipient has chosen to keep receiving your newsletters, they want to hear from you. Consider it the opposite of a simple follow on social media that can get lost in the sea of content from friends, family, and other brands.

Build Loyalty 

Email marketing is an optimal way to build loyalty among your biggest fans. Offering exclusive content or offers through an email can make them feel special and eager to engage with you even further. If you work the email marketing magic to its fullest potential, these fans will feel a sense of loyalty to your business which can translate into full-on brand ambassadors who want to share your good news to their networks. 

Boost Social Media

Marketing tools do not work in silos, but instead assist each other in boosting your brand’s presence as a whole. For example, utilizing an ongoing email marketing campaign can help increase your follower count and visibility on social media. The most obvious way to tie these two marketing efforts together is to include links to your social media profiles in every newsletter. Running a social media contest? Talk about it more in-depth in your eNewsletter, and direct people to the social posts for more information. Announcing big news for your company? Do it on social media, then send a newsletter out with similar yet different content, and drive traffic to your social media pages to learn more.

Increase Web Traffic

Similarly to social media, an email marketing campaign can help increase traffic to your website. This not only gets you more visibility and can drive sales, but it also increases your search engine optimization (SEO) as well. Develop a blog on your website, and use your eNewsletter  to encourage people to read the posts. While they are on your site, they’re more likely to poke around and see what you offer. Run an online store? An email marketing strategy can help promote new items, sales, and holiday promotions. 

Impressions & Engagement

Lastly, email marketing campaigns regularly have the highest impressions and engagement rates* compared to any social media tool. Due to regular changes in algorithms, it’s not uncommon for an organic (ie: non-paid) social media post to only reach 1-2% of your follower base. With email marketing, you know that the email you send is guaranteed to end up in your audience’s inbox. There is no algorithm to decide whether your content is shown to the people who have opted into it. Therefore, people always see your name in their inbox and have the choice to click through to read more.

At Campfire Collective, we see email marketing as a reliable guide for your specific audience that maps all your news, achievements, and plans. A solid strategy will keep your readers in the loop and wanting more with engaging, friendly, and regular communication.

*Impressions are the number of times your content has been seen, and engagement is the number of times your audience interacted with the content in some way.