Email Marketing

Email Marketing

How Email Marketing Can Help You in Various Ways

After the 2000s, especially from the mid-decade until 2010, the effectiveness of email marketing was questioned. It was one of the first marketing strategies companies started adopting. There were several reasons for this, however, over the last 10 years, a lot has changed, rejuvenating email marketing in sales and branding.

It’s precisely due to this renewal in strategy that email marketing has become one of the most important tools today for any company with an online store or one that wants to heavily invest in their business’s online authority and relevance.

Email Marketing

Creating an online store a decade ago was much more expensive and time-consuming, still facing functionality problems and consumer-friendly design. Only large marketplaces created more intuitive and easily accessible platforms. This big barrier reduced the chances of email marketing at the time.

Small and medium-sized businesses, in particular, were still highly distrustful of the virtual environment, which was much more informal, with many young people and social behaviors quite different from before the rise of social media. How to attract the consumer’s attention, how to speak the same language, and not appear awkward? All of these doubts hindered the potential of email marketing back then.

What is Email Marketing and Its Potential

Widely used at the beginning of virtual campaigns by companies in various sectors, email marketing was an important tool for sending internal messages within companies, as well as maintaining professional contacts between businesses, freelancers, and other workers.

With the advent of apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Messenger, sending documents and professional conversations was no longer limited to a single network like email. Both internally and externally, these apps grew significantly, providing a new format for creating offers and promotions.

In this context, it was discussed whether email would become a limiting tool, used less and eventually obsolete. The exact opposite happened. And why?

In 2014, McKinsey & Company conducted a study on email marketing and found that it was 40 times more effective than social media. At that time, it was more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined. These two tools have since adapted to be more commercial and open to all types of businesses, but they work much more as a complement to email marketing than better than it.

Other aspects of the study showed how email marketing works in a simpler, more practical way for consumers, ensuring higher demand compared to all other sales strategies, especially.

In summary, in addition to acquiring customers, the strategy accelerates the speed of purchase, with results up to 3 times faster than on social media. Today, email marketing automation tools exist, which were not common a decade ago. These tools are very helpful in creating campaigns focused on specific interests, avoiding the sending of generic and broad emails.

Automation has brought companies closer to consumers because messages can be divided into interest groups. For example, if a group is more interested in living room décor articles, they will receive emails specific to living and dining rooms, not bathrooms.

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Beyond Direct Purchases

Despite the great efficiency of email marketing during promotions and special periods, which boosts online sales, it is not just for direct sales that email marketing has become important. Like blogs and social media, email content can be quite relevant to bring more clicks and authority to your site.

Therefore, it is also an effective strategy for delivering urgent and essential information, or even for providing ebooks and extra content such as webinars, podcasts, and YouTube lives.

It is also possible to schedule emails for groups more interested in this type of content, making it more accurate when creating content and delivering it to the audience. However, always be cautious, as email marketing’s role is to send quality emails.

The biggest danger of email marketing is sending emails to recipients who are not interested, or even to purchased email lists. There is a real chance that all these emails will end up in spam and never be read. If the first emails end up in spam, no further messages will reach your contact.

That’s why it’s necessary to use automation tools intelligently and with planning, and always look for quality contacts, those who have a real interest and chance of clicking.

Email Marketing During a Crisis

Even though physical stores are important and drive commercial tourism, today it is possible to acquire new business through an online store, also known as e-commerce. Without territorial barriers, e-commerce has proven to be a good way to maintain sales and your business in difficult crisis times.

Crises come in various forms. Economic and political crises are the most damaging to smaller companies, as they face instability that is hard to deal with for long periods. These crises primarily affect industry and commerce, sectors that can be adapted to the virtual environment through e-commerce. Crises of this kind can last longer than expected and hurt small and medium-sized businesses more than large conglomerates.

However, crises also arise from catastrophes and similar issues, such as floods, fallen trees, power outages, and water shortages, which can deter consumers from physically visiting your business. Buying at home is safer and usually comes with less hassle.

In these conditions, email marketing is a powerful tool to send messages and promotions to customers, encouraging them to buy online and secure their products without the stress of the city, traffic, and inconveniences.

The Coronavirus Crisis

Apart from these factors, in 2020 we faced a global issue of a different magnitude: a pandemic. Covid-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is a highly contagious virus that has affected thousands of people worldwide, with over 300,000 deaths by May 14, 2020.

To avoid the collapse of health systems, the WHO recommended efficient isolation to prevent the spread of the virus. This led to the closure of shopping malls and all non-essential businesses worldwide. Countries were free to create their own strategies as long as they made sense in terms of isolation to prevent further contagion.

In Brazil, in early May, we had 13,000 deaths, with daily records being set, making it a global concern, just like in Italy and the USA. Maintaining isolation is crucial, as is keeping businesses closed. However, the reality is that Brazil is a developing country and less prepared to deal with sudden drops in general commerce.

This is why small and micro-business owners should keep in mind that the online environment can be a good alternative to gain relevance and reach consumers outside the territorial bubble of their physical stores/workshops. Families of all kinds depend on monthly income and cannot stop during critical situations with little public support, so sales through this alternative can be achieved.

As seen in other crises of smaller proportions, online commerce provided momentary relief for many families, and in the case of Covid-19, it was no different. Different businesses placed more emphasis on online visibility and the role of promotional and sales tools, and it paid off, as consumers also couldn’t leave their homes and needed a stronger online presence from businesses.

It would be pretentious to say that a pandemic that took so many lives brought business opportunities, however, due to quarantine, many businesses recognized the potential of the virtual environment. Practically speaking, online sales are better sustaining small and medium-sized businesses since a large portion of the population needs to stay home.

Therefore, email marketing is a very useful tool to send important notices and information to consumers, creating a base of rich contacts who will get to know you during this period of isolation.

The internet became a way to reduce the concerns of informal and smaller workers, offering an alternative that can be very interesting to explore. In these times of crisis, it’s not just email marketing that can be useful, so let’s list a few things you can do online for your business.

Is Your Website Outdated?

Look for simple functionalities like chat boxes, pop-ups, and better newsletter layouts that can update your domain. A clean and objective website is essential for consumers to notice you.

For these adjustments, it’s recommended to consult a website developer or an agency, such as WiFi Digital.

Social Media

Use your social media to inform your audience about the pandemic. It’s a way to show that you care and are with your consumers. But make sure to use reliable information to avoid harming families’ health!

These same messages can be adapted to email marketing and sent out to reassure people that they can count on a trustworthy company looking after their well-being.

Lives

Lives are live programs that can last from 30 minutes to several hours. They can be a great start to getting your brand more recognized. You can do them on Instagram and YouTube and use email marketing to notify your audience.

• Simple tutorials about what your business does
• A casual chat between professionals for the audience
• Upcoming news
• How employees and the company are dealing with the pandemic

Content Creation

Text, video, and audio content will be in high demand as people are spending more time online than ever. Research these types of media and see how quality content can bring consumers closer.

Still Don’t Have E-commerce?

Building a sales platform today isn’t difficult and doesn’t cost a fortune. As a last resort, platforms like Mercado Livre and OLX are options to start small while your own platform is under development. Remember, the postal service and delivery companies are still operational for shipping products.

Working with Food?

Restaurants are still considered essential businesses, but to avoid crowds, many are reinventing themselves online, using food apps like Ifood, Rappi, and Uber Eats. But that’s not the only way to sell food.

Social media can be a great way to promote your restaurant, from Instagram to Twitter. Having a website with contact information for orders can be an initial step to showcase your food, especially if you can deliver.

Final Message

The final message is simple: do not underestimate the power of the internet. Combining different digital marketing strategies can be very beneficial, even if done simply but with planning.

Email marketing fits perfectly into these combined efforts, and planning is not as complex as it might seem. Patience and calm can help you navigate this world of virtual possibilities, and don’t hesitate to seek help!