Currently, companies are increasingly claiming to have effective methods to maintain contact with their customers, something vital to the success of any business.
As technology evolves, the way companies connect and interact with their customers is also changing.
Whether a small autonomous company or a giant industry, it is essential to be present where customers spend most of their time.
In this article, we’ll talk about this and why the humble email has become the most effective option in the current market again.
If you have a business. This topic will interest you.
- 1 The importance of maintaining regular contact with customers
- 2 Summary of the advantages and disadvantages of social media
- 3 The rise of social media
- 4 The resurgence of email as a marketing tool
- 5 Limitations of social media in relation to email
- 6 How to move from social media to email
- 7 The role of email service providers
- 8 Best Practices for Email Marketing
- 9 Conclusión
The importance of maintaining regular contact with customers
Effective communication with customers is much more than simply transmitting information.
It is about developing solid relationships, building confidence and understanding what each customer needs.
When you effectively communicate with your customers, you are not just selling a product or service, but it also creates a connection that can result in a loyal customer for a lifetime.
And today, much of this communication is done on the internet, through social media and email.
This is because these are the tools that allow direct contact with customers, unlike other tools, such as paid ads or content marketing.
Social media platforms have transformed the way companies interact with their customers.
They allow an unprecedented degree of interaction and personalization, offer a platform for marketing and advertising and provide a way to reach a large audience with a few clicks.
However, they are not exempt from challenges.
The disadvantages of social media include the lack of control over the algorithm, which could affect who and how many users will see your publications.
In addition, the competition is fierce, with a content saturation that can make your messages lose relevance easily.
In addition, social media platforms have the power to change the rules of the game at any time, which can negatively affect your marketing strategy.
In this context, email emerges or returns, as a valuable and generally underestimated tool in your digital marketing arsenal.
Now we will explore how email can help you recover control of your customer communication strategy and increase your sales, especially if you are in the process of transition from social media.
To understand the current role of social media in digital marketing, it is useful to take a look at its history and evolution.
The concept of social media already existed for a long time, but have started to be used as a marketing tool in the last decade.
Social media companies began to gain importance in the mid -2000s, with the creation of platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
As these platforms grew in popularity, companies began to realize their potential to reach a broader and diverse audience.
Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn joined the mixture soon after, each with its own set of features and exclusive advantages for companies.
Over time, social media platforms have become a digital marketing pillar for many companies.
They allow companies to directly reach their customers and followers, sharing attractive content, interacting in real time and building a strong and recognizable brand presence.
Despite its advantages, social media marketing also has certain challenges.
One of the most significant is the dependence on the platform’s algorithms.
These algorithms determine who will see your content and when, and frequent and often unpredictable changes in these algorithms can drastically affect the display and scope of your publications.
The prohibitions and restrictions of social media platforms are another challenge.
These rules, although necessary to protect online communities, can be ambiguous and change frequently.
As a result, companies can be suddenly blocked or restricted, interrupting their marketing strategies.
Finally, saturation is a growing challenge on social media.
With millions of shared publications every day, it is increasingly difficult to stand out and capture consumers’ attention.
This has led many companies to look for alternatives or accessories to social media in their digital marketing strategy, and email has presented itself as an increasingly attractive option.
The resurgence of email as a marketing tool
Although email has been with us since the early days of the internet, it has suffered a significant resurgence as an effective marketing tool in recent years.
In the midst of the uncertainty and variability of social media, email offers companies a direct, controllable and highly customizable customer contact channel.
One of the main advantages of email when compared to social media is control.
While campaigns on social media are at the mercy of algorithms and moving policies, with email, you have full control over your message and how it is delivered.
You don’t have to worry about the fact that your messages could be lost in a sea of content or that they could be ignored due to algorithm updates.
In addition, email allows a high degree of customization.
With email list segmentation tools, you can send custom messages to different segments of your audience based on their interests, buying behavior, and more.
This can help improve the relevance of your messages and finally improve conversion rates.
And email can also help promote stronger connections with your customers.
Email is a more intimate contact channel than social media and can be a great way to build and maintain long -term relationships with your customers.
📌 Email Marketing Statistics
Statistics support the effectiveness of email marketing.
According to a study published by Campaign Monitor in 2002, the return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is $ 44 for $ 1 spent, making it one of the best performing digital marketing channels.
In addition, a 2022 Hubspot survey found that 78% of marketing experts saw an increase in email participation in the previous year.
And, according to the 2022 Litmus email marketing trends, 77% of marketing experts said email was among the two most effective channels for achieving their marketing goals.
These numbers clearly show that while social media can be a valuable part of a company’s marketing strategy, email marketing remains a powerful and effective marketing tool.
Social media platforms have transformed the way companies interact with their customers.
However, while offering unique opportunities to interact and attract the public, they also have a number of limitations that email can overcome.
🔎 Dependence on the algorithm:
Social media systems use algorithms to decide which content is displayed to which users and when. These algorithms are opaque and change constantly, which means that even if you have a lot of followers, not all will see your content.
On the other hand, with email, you can ensure that your message reaches all your subscribers without depending on the algorithms.
🔎 Content saturation:
Social media platforms have a lot of content, which means your message can be easily lost.
Instead, an email arrives directly in the inbox of your subscribers, where it is more likely to be read.
🔎 Prohibitions and restrictions:
Social media platforms have strict policies, and if you violate any of them, even if it is inadvertently, your account may end up being suspended or even removed.
With the email, although there are regulations, you have much more control and don’t risk being “expelled” by an external entity.
🔎 Less personalization:
Social media platforms offer some options for personalization, but not at the same level as email marketing.
With emails, you can segment your list and send personalized content to different groups of people, depending on their individual behavior and preferences.
🔎 You don’t own the data:
On social media, your list of followers belongs to the platform, not to you.
If the platform closes or your account is suspended, you may lose access to your followers.
Instead, with email marketing, your subscriber list belongs to you.
Although social media and email are different marketing channels, they don’t have to be disconnected.
In fact, you can take advantage of your presence on social media to create a solid email list with engaged subscribers.
- Promotions and Contests: An effective way to encourage your followers to sign up for your email list is through promotions and competitions. For example, you can offer an additional entry into a draw for subscribers who register on your email list.
- Lead Magnets: Lead Magnets are free offers (such as guides, ebooks or discounts) that are delivered in exchange for an email address. Promoting these lead magnets on your social media profiles can be an effective way to capture new subscribers.
- Ads and Publications: Social media companies allow you to work with paid publications and ads, many of which can be created to capture email addresses. These ads can lead users to a landing page in which they are asked to sign up for your email list.
- CTAS in social media publications: Never underestimate the power of a call to action (CTA). Regularly invite your followers on social media to register on your email list, explaining the advantages they will get when doing so.
After creating your email list, the next step is to keep your subscribers engaged and interested.
This is where an attractive and effective newsletter comes into play.
- Add value: Each email sent should add value to your subscribers. This can be in the form of educational content, industry news, exclusive offers or even entertainment.
- Keep consistency: Decide how often you will send your newsletter and obey this calendar. Whether weekly, fortnightly or monthly, coherence helps to establish expectations and keep your subscribers interested in your brand.
- Take care of the design: An attractive newsletter goes beyond content. Pay attention to email design. The layout should be cleaned, easy to read and be well organized. Make sure your emails are responsive and display correctly on different reading devices.
- Customize your messages: The more your subscribers consider your email as relevant, the better the chances that the message will be read. Use the list segmentation options and customization to make your emails more relevant to each subscriber.
- Include Calls to Action: All emails sent must have a goal. If you want your readers to buy a product, read a blog article or follow you on social media, include a clear and convincing CTA.
The role of email service providers
An Email Service Provider (ESP) is a company that offers email sending services on behalf of its customers.
ESPs play a vital role in email marketing, providing the tools you need to manage email lists, create and send emails and track and analyze the results of email campaigns.
💡 Analysis of different email service providers (ESP)
- MailChimp: This ESP is popular among small businesses due to its friendly interface and generous free plan. MailChimp offers a variety of email templates, a tool for creating a newsletter with drag & drop editor, and solid analysis and segmentation features.
- Brevo (SendinBlue): This ESP stands out for its strong automation resources. SendinBlue allows customers to create custom work flows based on user behavior, such as emails sent when a user clicks on a specific link. It also offers a free plan, although with limitations in the number of daily emails.
- Mailrelay: Mailrelay is another ESP that has gained popularity in recent years, especially in the Spanish and Latin -American market. It offers a very generous free plan, with a significant amount of subscribers and emails allowed. In addition, Mailrelay offers a complete set of features, including email automation, a drag & drop editor, and a powerful spam analyzer to ensure your emails reach the inbox of your subscribers.
💡 How to choose the best ESP for your needs
When choosing an ESP, it is important to take into account your specific needs and the features you value the most.
You could consider:
- Make sure the email marketing software offers a free account: some these offer free plans that can be enough for the needs of smaller companies or self -employed professionals. These free plans may have limits in terms of the amount of emails you can send or the number of subscribers you can use, but they can be a good way to test the service before buying a paid plan.
- Ease of use: Is it easy to browse the ESP interface? Can you create attractive emails without any design or coding skills?
- Features and resources: What features and tools does each ESP offer? Do you need to work with segmentation, automation and analysis?
- Price: Are services too expensive for your budget? Remember that some ESPs offer free or low-cost plans for smaller email lists, but prices may rapidly increase as your list grows.
- Customer Support: What type of support does the email marketing service offer? Do they quickly answer questions and have a large online knowledge base? Good customer support service can be very valuable, especially when you face technical problems or have questions about how to use the different features.
Remember that what works well for a company may not be the best for another. Therefore, it is worth spending time to investigate and test several platforms before making a decision.
Best Practices for Email Marketing
📣 Customize your email lists
For the best results with your email marketing strategy, it is important to customize your messages as much as possible.
One way to do this is to segment your email list.
In other words, divide your list into different segments according to criteria such as geographical location, age, customer interest, purchasing history, etc.
After that you should customize your emails to meet the specific needs and preferences of each segment.
For example, you can send special offers to customers who made a purchase last month or send educational content to those who subscribed to your newsletter, but haven’t bought anything from you yet.
📣 Create relevant content
The content of your emails should be attractive and relevant to your audience.
This may include exclusive discounts, product information, useful tips, company updates, etc.
Use a clear and direct language and include a call to action to guide your readers about the next steps they must follow.
The design of your emails is also important: they should be visually attractive, easy to read and should be optimized for mobile devices, as many people read their emails on their phones.
📣 Analyze and adjust to improve the result of your email marketing campaigns
Finally, it is essential to measure the performance of your email campaigns and make adjustments as needed.
The main performance indicators (KPIs) that you may consider include open rates (the percentage of recipients who open your email), the CTR (the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your email) and the Conversion rate (the percentage of recipients who act after reading the message, such as making a purchase).
If a campaign is not getting the results you expect, try different approaches until you find what works best for your audience.
Experimentation and continuous improvement are fundamental in email marketing.
Conclusión
This article highlighted the relevance of email as a vital tool for increasing sales and retaining customers.
Social media platforms, despite their impact, have challenges such as dependence on algorithms and content saturation, something that doesn’t happen with email marketing.
We explored the creation of email lists from your social media followers, the preparation of attractive newsletters and the choice of email service providers.
We reviewed best practices and presentd success case studies to illustrate the effectiveness of email marketing.
Now we invite you to start working with email marketing or make changes to your strategy.
This is the time to take control of your communication strategy and create a stronger relationship with your customers.
Don’t wait any more; Take the next step today.
