Did you know that email is one of the most effective digital marketing tools out there? In fact, according to a study by the Direct Marketing Association, email has an average ROI of $36 for every dollar spent. That’s why more and more businesses are using email marketing to reach their target audience. But what is email marketing, exactly? And what types of email campaigns can you run? In this blog post, we’ll answer those questions, show you some examples of how to use email marketing effectively, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. Stay tuned!
Which Email Marketing Approach Should I Use?
Whether you’re looking to re-engage old customers, increase your social media presence, or adjust customer experience—email marketing plays a crucial role in every business and marketing strategy. It takes fewer resources and time than most forms of digital promotion, but with so many types of emails available it can be challenging to know where to begin. We can break it down into B2B and B2C email marketing techniques. Email marketing can take several forms, some of which are as follows:
1. Welcome Emails
This type of email is used toward the beginning of the buyer’s journey when a new customer signs up or purchases something from your business. The goal here is to welcome them into your brand’s family and inform them about the next steps (i.e., purchase receipts, password reset, and so on).
Pro: Can be effective for bringing new customers on board and encouraging them to engage with the brand.
Con: Must be monitored carefully to ensure that messages are well personalized and that no spam complaints arise.
2. Email Newsletters
This type of email should be used more in the middle of the customer journey. This email will purposefully be more directed and show some level of engagement with the customer (i.e., a recap of their purchase history).
Pro: Allows businesses to re-engage customers deeper and helps bring them back for another purchase if they had a good experience before.
Con: Newsletter campaigns take time to produce, so they are not the best approach if you are looking for a transactional email campaign.
3. Dedicated Emails
This type of email is used toward the end of the customer’s journey after multiple purchases or other events that show engagement with your brand. You can use this email to re-engage customers on another purchase or even offer discounts/coupons.
Pro: It helps show increased engagement and re-engage the customer.
Con: If various other segments are not used within this email, there is a chance customers will miss the message altogether.
4. Lead Nurturing Emails
Use this type of email after a customer has made multiple purchases or you want to encourage continued engagement with your brand (i.e., getting people to sign up for the newsletter). This email is meant to bring them back into the fold (or onboard with another of your offerings).
Pro: It is excellent for bringing customers back after purchase and other interactions with your brand.
Con: It will not be as effective if it doesn’t have a call to action or offer within the email.
5. Sponsorship Emails
This type of email should be used toward the end of a customer’s product purchases and engagement with your brand. This email should be re-engaging and offer them discounts or coupons on future purchases.
Pro: There are few cons for this type because it leads to effective re-engagement emails, which could lead to future purchases.
Con: This campaign won’t be very effective if your business doesn’t have unique offers for new purchases.
6. Transactional Emails
Use this email at the back end of your customer’s journey (i.e., with product shipments). This email is typically used to inform customers about their order status or shipment information if they have opted to receive the email.
Pro: It doesn’t take much time to produce, so it’s easy to send out. Customers request these emails, so they are very effective.
Con: If customers haven’t opted in for this type of communication or the business doesn’t have a product that allows for shipment tracking, it won’t be very effective.
7. Re-Engagement Emails
You should use this email around the middle of a customer’s relationship with your brand (i.e., when they haven’t purchased or contacted you in a while). Use this email to bring them back and re-engage them on another purchase or give them other offers that might entice them.
Pro: Allows businesses to re-engage customers deeper and helps bring them back for another purchase if they had a good experience before.
Con: If various other segments are not used within this email, there is a chance customers will miss it. The length of time between interactions with your brand can also make this a less effective campaign.
8. Brand Story Emails
This type of email is used to begin a customer’s relationship with your brand. Entrepreneurs will use this email to direct them to learn more about your company, products, and services. This email often includes videos or other interesting elements that might entice them to read more.
Pro: Allows your business to show off its uniqueness and introduce new customers to products or services that they may not have known about before. Also, this type of email is great for attracting attention on social media channels.
Con: Depending on the portions of the video used within this email, it could take a long time to produce, making it a more expensive email marketing strategy.
9. Review Request Emails
This type of email is used within the middle or at the end of a customer’s relationship with your brand (i.e., three to six months for this specific example). In this email, you would include an option to leave a review on a particular social media platform or a widget associated with your company.
Pro: This allows you to gather feedback from people who may have never written a review before or had an experience with your brand, making this type of email very effective to grow your online following and reputation.
Con: People may not feel comfortable leaving a review on a public-facing site, or they may not want to take the time out of their day.
Make the Right Email Marketing Choice With Sapper
As you can see, there are many types of email marketing available, and each one is effective in its own way. The key to email marketing is to test out different strategies and find what works best with various segments of your audience. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to email marketing, so it’s essential to have a good understanding of your customers and how they interact with your brand.
At Sapper Consulting, we assist revenue teams in leveraging the promise of modern sales engagement solutions. We do this by helping them avoid mistakes and shorten the time to accelerate revenue growth. Contact us to request a demo today!
