The Top 10 Benefits of Email Marketing

Imagine cooking your favorite meal, only to forget the most essential ingredient: salt. 

Suddenly, the dish loses its appeal, doesn't it?

Email marketing is that seasoning when it comes to building a marketing strategy– an indispensable component of your overall marketing strategy.

It's not just an option; it's a necessity. The benefits of email marketing aren’t unknown to us. 

Be it giants like YouTube and Airbnb or newsletters like The Hustle and Morning Brew – it is clear that email marketing holds immense potential when it comes to growing a business.

While starting can seem tedious, the returns that you can expect out of email marketing are beyond measure. 

What are the perks and how can emailing be more fruitful than social media, you ask?

In this article, we will uncover the top 10 benefits (amongst many) of email marketing and how you can get started today.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves sending targeted messages to a group of individuals via email. 

While it might seem like any other marketing strategy, the main advantage of email marketing is the ability to own your audience and not rely on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

At its core, email marketing involves the practice of sending targeted messages to a group of individuals through email. 

These messages span a wide spectrum from promotional offers and newsletters to product updates and personalized recommendations, each designed with a particular purpose in mind.

Let’s examine these three content types:

Promotional Offers: Many businesses use email marketing to deliver promotional offers to their subscribers. The way Uber, Airbnb, and Tinder have done it over the years!

Newsletters: The newsletter business has grown immensely over the past couple of years. They often contain a mix of valuable content, such as industry insights, company updates, and curated articles. A fitness newsletter may send out a weekly newsletter featuring workout tips, healthy recipes, and success stories. That’s exactly what Arnold Pump Club is all about.

Product Updates: For businesses that regularly ship new updates and products, email marketing is an ideal channel for showcasing those product updates to their audience. Example - beehiiv product announcements newsletter.

Is email marketing a good strategy?

Yes, it is. 

With the first ever email being sent in 1971, email marketing has stood the test of time in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing. 

It remains a viable and valuable strategy for businesses of all sizes. The effectiveness of email marketing lies in its ability to directly connect with your audience, delivering tailored content and driving conversions.

Why is email a good marketing channel?

Email has maintained its status as a prominent marketing channel due to its widespread adoption and effectiveness. It's a platform that people are comfortable with, use daily, and trust. 

When executed correctly, email marketing can foster stronger customer relationships and boost brand loyalty.

Why is Email Marketing Important?

Modern marketing strategies revolve around keeping up with trends and meeting with the ever-changing consumer behaviors.

Email marketing remains a reliable tool that continues to deliver impressive results. Email marketing is vital for a few key reasons:

• It's a direct line of communication to your audience.

• It drives traffic and conversions.

• It provides valuable data and insights.

10 Benefits Of Email Marketing

There are countless reasons why you need to include email marketing in your strategies, but these top 10 are the ones that stand out the most.

Now that we've established the importance of email marketing, let's delve deeper into its benefits.
TL;DR:

1. Increased Reach and Engagement

2. Cost-Effectiveness

3. Targeted Marketing Campaigns

4. Improved Conversion Rates

5. Measurable Results and Analytics

6. Time Efficiency and Automation

7. Building Customer Loyalty and Relationships

8. Easy Sharing and Forwarding

9. Viral Potential of Email Content

10. Integration with Other Marketing Channels

1. Increased Reach and Engagement

Living in a state of Information overload is natural because of doomscroling and the ease of access when it comes to content.

Email marketing holds the stakes high as it can help reach a global audience without worrying about algorithms.

• Wide Audience Reach

As there are no algorithms that one has to please, email marketing transcends geographical boundaries, allowing you to reach your target audience with ease. 

Whether your customers are down the street or in a different time zone, your messages can find their way to their inbox.

• Personalized Communication

Personalization is the heart and soul of successful email marketing. 

You can tailor your emails based on your audience’s behavior and preferences. This can be as small as referring to them by their name. This personalized touch results in higher engagement rates.

• Higher Engagement Rates

There are many side effects of doomscrolling and one of them is the fading audience engagement. Compared to other marketing channels, email consistently boasts higher open and click-through rates.

People know what they have signed up for and hence actively check their emails and are more inclined to interact with your content when it's relevant and personalized.

2. Cost-effectiveness

Budgeting is one of the key aspects of business strategies. Email marketing comes to the rescue as a cost-effective solution. It offers a low cost per contact, allowing you to reach thousands of potential customers without breaking the bank.

Even the elimination of expenses like printing or mailing reinforces its cost-efficiency.

• Low Cost Per Contact

When we talk about the "cost per contact" in email marketing, we're referring to the amount of money you need to spend to reach an individual through email.

This cost is significantly lower compared to traditional marketing methods like direct mail or telemarketing.

• Reduced Printing and Mailing Expenses

Unlike direct mail campaigns that involve printing flyers, brochures, or catalogs and incurring postage expenses, email marketing is entirely digital.

You save not only on the costs of printing materials but also on postage fees, making it an eco-friendly choice as well.

3.  Targeted Marketing Campaigns

A product's true value is only realized when it successfully reaches its intended target audience.

Email marketing empowers you to create laser-focused campaigns through segmentation and personalization. 

With these tools, you can reach your target group and speak directly to their interests and needs.

• Segmentation 

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
- Archimedes

The tools that email marketing offers can get you closer to your marketing goals, as you can segment your audience into smaller, more targeted groups.

By doing so, you can send messages tailored to the unique needs and interests of each segment. This precise targeting leads to higher engagement and conversion rates.

• Tailoring Content to Specific Audiences

Imagine receiving an email that addresses your specific needs, interests, and previous interactions with a brand. It feels like a personalized conversation rather than a generic sales pitch. 

That's the power of tailoring content.

Customizing your content to cater to the preferences and behavior of your audience is akin to crafting a bespoke suit. This tailored approach is a necessity in the world of marketing, and emailing can help you build on that.

4. Improved Conversion Rates

The primary goal of marketing is to generate revenue i.e. higher conversion rates. 

Email marketing excels in this domain by optimizing call-to-action effectiveness and nurturing leads through the sales funnel. 

Emailing can help you build awareness and conversions, ensuring that your efforts yield tangible results.

• Call-to-Action Effectiveness

CTAs are your remote to encourage people to take a desired action, be it making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource. 

Optimizing your CTA can guide your audience to go beyond your emails and maximize conversion rates. Even optimizing your sign up page can boost your conversion rates by a significant percentage.

• Nurturing Leads through the Sales Funnel

Email marketing excels in guiding leads through the sales funnel.

At each stage of the customer journey, you can nurture your leads. Email automation can take some of this work off your plate.

 5. Measurable Results and Analytics

“Your job isn’t done until the job is done.”

If your marketing doesn’t drive results, it isn’t done well enough or there is some area you need to refine.

Email marketing can help you make data-driven decisions, as it provides a treasure trove of data through email metrics and tracking. Dive deep into open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to gain invaluable insights. A/B testing can take your campaigns a step further, allowing continuous optimization for better outcomes.

• Email Metrics and Tracking

Tracking your campaign metrics is essential as you get insights into open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and more.

This can help you make informed and calculated decisions, enabling you to know what needs to be tweaked and what you should double down on to refine your marketing strategy. 

• A/B Testing for Optimization

Your subject line is the first point of contact between you and your subscribers.

A/B testing helps you to experiment with different elements of your emails, from subject lines to content, to find the winning formula for your audience.

6. Time Efficiency and Automation

As a creator or business, you have to wear many hats when it comes to getting work done– wouldn’t it be amazing if somebody could help you with it?

Email marketing can alleviate some of your workload with scheduled email campaigns, drip marketing, and autoresponders. 

Automation streamlines communication and removes the time-intensive aspect of sending emails. 

• Scheduled Email Campaigns

When a new subscriber signs up for your email, the first point of contact is the welcome email. You must make sure they are happy with their choice of opting in for your email list through this touchpoint.

Automation is a game-changer in email marketing. You can schedule your email campaigns in advance, ensuring timely and efficient communication with your audience.

You don’t have to rush at the last minute to send out important updates.

• Drip Marketing and Autoresponders

Nobody wants to be spammed with 10 emails a day by a sender they subscribed to a week ago.

You can share your best emails, and opinions, and welcome people over a period of 15 days rather than blasting them with all too much information in one go.

Drip marketing can help in engaging with customers over a period of time. These automated sequences deliver the right message at the right time, boosting customer retention.

7. Building Customer Loyalty and Relationships

“It takes years to build trust and seconds to destroy it.”

Loyalty and trust are the cornerstones of lasting customer relationships. 

Email marketing strengthens brand awareness by consistently appearing in your subscribers' inboxes. Transparency and community make people feel seen and valued.

• Strengthening Brand Awareness

Consistent email communication reinforces your brand's identity. By regularly appearing in your subscribers' inboxes, you strengthen brand recognition and awareness.

Your brand colors, introduction, CTAs, and content are synonymous with your brand and that is what your subscribers will recognize you for.

• Establishing Trust and Credibility

No matter what your niche is, if it is valuable and reliable your subscribers will trust you and feel more connected with you.

This is the foundation that helps in building long-lasting customer relationships.

8. Easy Sharing and Forwarding

The simplicity of sharing and forwarding emails cannot be understated. If your content speaks to your subscribers, they will share it with their friends and family. 

Emails, by their very nature, are designed for easy forwarding. With just a click of a button, people can pass along your message to others who might find it relevant or interesting. 

This feature enables your content to reach a broader audience organically, all through the actions of your existing subscribers. It's like word-of-mouth marketing in the digital realm.

Encouraging sharing and forwarding should be a deliberate part of your email marketing strategy. Including social sharing buttons within your emails can further facilitate the process. 

9. Viral Potential of Email Content

Email content that resonates with your audience has the potential to go viral. As your recipients share your emails with their contacts, your message can reach an even broader audience.

The essence of email content that goes viral lies in its ability to resonate with your audience on a profound level. It could be a captivating story, a humorous video, or a thought-provoking article. When your audience finds your content resourceful and engaging, they become enthusiastic advocates who willingly share it with their friends, family, and colleagues.

The ripple effect of viral email content can be astonishing. As each recipient shares your email with their own contacts, your message spreads exponentially. This organic growth can lead to a surge in new subscribers, increased website traffic, and heightened brand visibility. It's a powerful phenomenon that demonstrates the far-reaching impact of well-crafted email marketing campaigns.

It requires a deep understanding of your audience, a knack for storytelling, and an element of surprise or delight that captures attention.

While this might seem unrelated to emailing, Paul Graham’s essays on work and life have inspired many people and you can see hundreds of people talking about it on Twitter every other week. That’s just how valuable it is, that people can’t stop sharing it.

10. Integration with Other Marketing Channels

Integration extends beyond mere coexistence; it involves orchestrating a symphony of marketing efforts that complement and enhance one another. Here's why the integration of email marketing with other channels is vital:

• Consistency in Messaging

When your email marketing aligns with your social media, content marketing, and advertising efforts, your brand's messaging remains consistent across all touchpoints. 

This consistency reinforces brand identity and fosters trust among your audience.

• Maximized Reach

By combining email marketing with channels like social media and content marketing, you can maximize your reach. Promote your email campaigns on social platforms to attract new subscribers, and vice versa. 

Share your blog content via email to engage your subscribers and drive website traffic.

• Cross-Promotion

Integration enables cross-promotion opportunities. For example, use email to promote your upcoming social media contests or share user-generated content from social platforms in your emails. 

Such cross-promotion bolsters your overall marketing strategy.

• Data Synergy

Data collected from different channels can provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. 

Email metrics, social media analytics, and website data can be analyzed collectively to refine your marketing strategies and content.

• Enhanced Customer Experience

A seamless customer experience is a hallmark of successful businesses. Integration ensures that your audience receives consistent messaging and experiences across various touchpoints, enhancing their overall interaction with your brand.

Why Email Marketing Has to Be a Part of Your Marketing Plan

I’ve heard this phrase multiple times while reading about marketing and selling – “If you want to sell something, talk about its benefits and not the features.”

Here’s what our CEO Tyler Denk thinks about having email marketing as a part of your toolkit:

Whether you want to segment your existing email list or automate your welcome sequence, beehiiv does it all. You can start today, for free.

beehiiv boasts a simple user experience and no-code template editor, and if you ever feel stuck, the beehiiv support team is always there to help. Built by creators, built for creators.

Why trust me: I have been a writer for 6 years and part of the beehiiv content team for over a year now. This has given me a deep understanding of the benefits of email marketing and the power of ESPs and automation.