This is the first article in our “How Fortunes Are Made in Internet Marketing” series. The series will cover how entrepreneurs and companies use various internet marketing techniques to build six- and seven-figure businesses.
WHAT IS IT?
Invest a dollar and get 43 back. That’s what they say email marketing can do for you and your business, but what is it really? And is it worth? Gone are the days when email was a luxury, only afforded to a select few. The 21st century has seen rapid growth in the technology sector and with it a corresponding growth in the use of email; it is the rare person who does not have at least one email account. There are approximately 4.1 billion people who have registered email accounts, and this number may increase to 5.8 billion by the end of 2018. And those 4.1 billion people most likely check their email daily.
Ever since the first mass email was sent and the public discovered the potential of this quick and affordable way to reach a large audience, the marketing world has come to learn a dreaded word — spam. Suddenly, people were hurriedly applying filters to their email to whisk an advertisement away so it never even reached their inbox. The era of email marketing was born; the planned and selective use of email to ensure that a message reached users most likely to take action was created. We no longer send mass emails hoping to garner interest — we choose our audience.
If you have ever sent an email about your services or product to someone who has the potential to become a client or customer, you have already done some email marketing. Maybe you have used email to stay in touch with existing customers or clients, keeping them updated and interested. That’s also email marketing. If you’ve ever purchased something online after seeing a promotional email, email marketing has worked on you. Even in 2013, TIME was reporting that 80 percent of retailers planned on concentrating more on email marketing. This was back when Gmail had first introduced its Promotions box. If you’re wondering who is doing email marketing these days, in short, it’s almost everyone who has something to sell or something to buy.
WHO IS DOING IT?
Everyone, from your bank to airlines to clothing brands to magazines to non-profits, do some form of email marketing. HubSpot gave us a list of some of the best email marketing campaigns ever and there are a wide range of names on it, including charity.water, Dropbox and BuzzFeed. PayPal used email marketing to sell the fact that you can easily send money to a friend using their product. The tagline in the email was, “Good food. Good friends. Good way to split the bill.” People at the receiving end of that email had most likely, at one point or another, squabbled with friends over the bill after a night out.
Rip Curl used the tagline “Join the Revolution: to sell a watch. Rip Curl was inviting everyone on their target email list to be a part of a watch wearing group of people (who may or may not be plotting a revolution), because they knew that everyone just wants to be a part of something.
WHY SHOULD YOU DO IT?
The following factors make email marketing one of the best marketing methods out there:
1. Reach A Lot of People Very Rapidly
Many people have email accounts, and most of them check their emails every day. They even get instant notifications on their phones as soon as they receive an email. With the right approach, your message can reach the right audience quickly.
2. It’s Cheap Yet Profitable
Email marketing is much cheaper than traditional marketing methods. You can attach links and embed videos into your email, thus driving traffic directly to your website and generating views plus profit.
3. Keep Customers Informed
Email lets you be in touch constantly with your customers, improving connections with them and keeping your brand on their mind.
4. Track What Works
With email marketing, you can follow exactly what’s working and what’s not working by checking open statistics or link clicks and adjusting your marketing strategy accordingly. A lot of time, effort and money can be saved just by knowing how to track what your customers are thinking.
5. Target Specific Groups
You can filter your emails according to who your target market is. For example, if you need to send an advertisement out about a new store, you can choose to send it only to people living in zip codes near it.
6. Integrate Social Media
Using social media with email marketing is a double whammy. More companies are doing this in order to expand their reach. You can add your social media icons into an email and generate clicks and likes on those platforms, as well. With “re-targeting,” it is possible to build highly-targeted email lists using social media and your normal website traffic.
WHAT KIND OF PROFIT ARE SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE MAKING?
According to Kissmetrics, Jay Harper, who runs Red Apple Lipstick (a gluten- and paraben-free online makeup store) made $10,895.54 just by sending the people on his email list a couple of messages about the products.
A web designer named Nathan Barry made $12,000 in sales by promoting an e-book he created via email. This money was made within 24 hours. Barry went on to make $85,000 in his first year.
HOW TO GET STARTED?
Building an email list out of a target group is fast, cheap, trackable and yields results. Why print a brochure and pay for printing, packaging and shipping costs when you can send a version of that same brochure via email, potentially reaching thousands of people? Why wait when email is instant? Why wonder who was interested in which part of your marketing approach when you can track exactly who clicked on what with email click-tracking? Why try risky marketing ventures when email has proven time and time again to provide steady returns at low cost if you do it correctly?
If it sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is. Email marketing takes some learning and requires close attention to detail. If you randomly start sending emails to everyone you know today, hoping to make a buck in the process, there is less than a 10 percent chance of creating a successful business. In fact, sending emails to a much smaller, targeted group of people can usually make you more money than sending mass emails. The New York Times published an article about the science behind email marketing, including zeroing in on the best times to send emails back in 2007.
In the same way, shorter emails are sometimes better than sending longer, more informative ones. But when should each method be used? How do you make a target list and decide what content to put in your email? Should you make it easy for people to unsubscribe to your mailing list? It’s best to speak to someone who already has the knowledge and has successfully-tried methods to profit from email marketing. If you do it wrong, you could end up with a lot of wasted time and less money than you started with. You might even end up in legal hot water since there are laws that govern marketing emails!
There are companies like Simply Sales that sell step-by-step guides on how to become an expert at email marketing. If the thought of creating a targeted list to start email marketing scares you, or if you’re unsure about how to check what’s working and what’s not, this type of guide is something you can use. This type of guide usually sells for $97, but is currently on a discount at Simply Sales and selling for $9. You can find their landing page here: www.simplysales.com/eme. If you are an email marketer or have tried the Simply Sales or other email marketing guides, let us know how you are doing in the comments. And, if you’re successfully using email marketing let us know – we’d love to feature some success stories here.
