June 5, 2020

Email is having a resurgence as news reading habits, informed by Twitter and Facebook et.al., evolve. More people are reading news, learning more, and — because of this pandemic — taking advantage of actually having the time to read. I truly hope that as businesses return to their usual habits, they continue to take advantage of some of the changes they may have made these last few months.

I have always been a fan of email marketing, and newsletters are still at the top of my offerings to almost all my clients.

E-mail is an action-oriented medium in general. There is the idea that our e-mails are supposed to be, something you have been expecting from someone, something amusing and entertaining, or coupons and specials encouraging you to buy something.

But we also expect to do something following consumption of the content, a call to action. What we are forgetting is the newsworthiness of email. I have been teaching my clients for years to educate their consumers and prospects. Give them the information they want to read. Do not bore people with more information on your company or just a plain old ad or coupon.

Of course, there’s a limit to how much media people will allow being pushed in their face via email. The wrong content can make an email newsletter into a product that is incredibly annoying. But the right content can make the newsletter into a habit. And nothing excites a business like the chance to create a profitable compulsion.

One reason email marketing has value for business owners is that it’s an easy way to start reaching consumers without investing a lot in technology or software.

Email marketing isn’t something marketers do just because they can and it’s easy. The tactic is highly effective at helping business owners and consumers stay connected and informed. In fact, consumers often seek out email marketing campaigns from their favorite businesses and local stores. This goes beyond coupons. There is a real value to staying connected to customers and email marketing makes that easy to do.

It’s also easy to customize and integrate into other marketing tactics.

The versatility of email marketing is another reason that marketers keep this tactic in their marketing toolbox. Depending on the depth of the email database and the skill of the crafter, email marketing messages can range from simple to complex. Email marketing can also be utilized with just about any other marketing tactic, which makes email an important part of any integrated marketing campaign.

And email marketing is still effective and inexpensive.

To sum up, the best reason to use email marketing: It’s easy, effective, and inexpensive. Email marketing allows business owners to reach a large number of consumers at a rate of pennies per message. For small-business owners on a budget, this makes it a great choice.  You don’t have to take my word for it. A joint study from Shop.org and Forrester Research found that 85 percent of U.S. retailers consider email marketing one of the most effective customer acquisition tactics.

The point of all this is that email may be an old tactic, but it remains a vital one. It’s relatively easy to do a newsletter, so there’s no excuse for business owners to not be taking advantage of it. Understandably, business owners may be too busy to handle the email marketing on their own, but this is something with which any marketing professional (wink, wink) can help.