Since the dawn of the Internet many communication platforms have come and gone but email has withstood the test of time. Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your products or services. It gives you the opportunity to send multiple messages to your target market at a very low cost.
Creating and distributing e-newsletters is a powerful way of utilising emails in your content marketing strategy. With a qualified writer to craft your newsletter and a database of leads, you can send your emails to a large group of recipients and have them read it instantly.
With more than 4 billion current subscribers and a projected growth of 4.6 billion by 2025, emails are an important communication channel especially since it’s a popular choice for Millennials and Gen Z. Aside from establishing professional and personal communications, younger email users rely on this platform to build and maintain their interests in social media campaigns.
A study by Optinmonster proves how much of a powerhouse emails are:
- 92% of people who use email are adults
- 61% use it on an average day
- Around 60% of email users open their inboxes first before looking through other communication channels (e.g. social media accounts and news websites)
Creating an email marketing strategy can help you reach your target audience and promote new products or services, sales, events or provide company updates. When it’s used correctly, your message can turn email recipients into leads and bring traffic to your website. You can visit copywriting services for the strategy you need on building your brand.
On its own, email marketing is an effective way of communication between businesses and prospective customers; but when you supplement it with content marketing, it can help to further increase brand awareness, boost brand recognition and potentially earn you a higher revenue.
How content marketing works with email marketing
Content marketing is more than just uploading information to your communication channels (i.e. website, social media, podcast, etc.), it’s about creating and sharing valuable, relevant and consistent content on your channels to entice your target audience to want to know more about your products or services. When enough people get interested in your brand, it can increase brand awareness, drive sales and potentially boost your revenue.
Incorporating content marketing in your business emails (or e-newsletters) will enable you to create personalised messages that address your subscribers’ concerns and interests.
Strong email marketing coupled with engaging content will allow you to boost your influence and build a loyal customer base.
5 ways to integrate content marketing into your email marketing campaign
Here are the five ways you can start utilising proven techniques to drive traffic to your website, increase brand recognition and give you more exposure and better opportunities for lead conversions using email.
1. Choose unique content to send to specific customer groups
Not all of the content you publish will be relevant to everyone at the time of emailing. This is because every prospect is at a different stage of awareness. So, it’s important to pick the content pieces that will have the highest appeal and get the best engagement for your email database and send it to whoever needs to read it.
To help match your content to your reader preferences you can segment your email subscribers into groups based on demographics. This is especially helpful if your business deals with people of different ages, locations etc. This way you are providing relevant and targeted information to the people who need it most. The worst thing you can do is to send content that will be confusing, irrelevant or annoying, it will not only leave them with a negative impression of your brand, but they will also unsubscribe.
To learn what specific topics appeal to your customer groups, you can ask them directly through an online survey. Doing this lets you see what the points of interest are, as well as the best way to make valuable connections. Once you’ve compiled the survey answers, you can group customers according to their content preferences.
Taking the extra step to group email recipients means you will be able to engage with readers and connect with them on a personal level.
2. Use attention-grabbing subject lines and visuals in your emails
You can create engaging emails through copywriting and visual elements. Attention-grabbing headlines can encourage your email recipients to instantly click your message and view its contents. If the headline is interesting, your readers will be excited to open and look through your email.
Another way of elevating your email marketing is by integrating visual elements like photos, gifs and videos to the email message. This allows the recipients to see an actual image or video of your product, and not just read a description about it. It brings the product to life and allows them to set their own expectations about it.
The more they see the value in the items you offer, the better they’ll remember the product and the brand associated with it. Going the extra mile by adding these two elements to your emails can delight your audience and keep them interested in further interacting with the brand.
3. Ignite interest by resharing content
Don’t let good content go to waste. If your content is connecting, creating engagement and getting quality responses, use it again. You can slice, dice and spice it into social media posts, quotes, facebook posts, email text body and more.
You can repurpose your content by either resharing it as it is or only using some sections of it. The way you go about this will depend on your content material as well as your target audience’s online behaviour and current topics.
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4. Tell your audience good stories
Email gives businesses the opportunity to tell interesting stories about who they are, how they work and what they do. You can integrate powerful stories in your emails by highlighting your business’ journey as well as industry-relevant opinions and ideas that may resonate with your target audience.
If you want, you can embed storytelling methods in the email message itself. Just remember that every story has three main parts:
- An interesting hook or beginning. Your introduction immediately captures the reader’s attention and entices them to continue reading.
- A meaty middle. The body of your email should include all the details that you alluded to in your introduction, and it should keep your reader engaged until the end.
- A satisfying ending. Your conclusion should make the email reader feel like they have benefited from what they have seen and read, leading them to feel satisfied and motivated to respond to your call to action.
Stories can make your emails memorable and capture your subscribers’ interest so that they look forward to your next message.
5. Include a call to action in your emails
Adding a call to action (or CTA) in your email encourages your readers to continue engaging with your content even after they’ve read it all.
Your CTA can come in the form of a button or a hyperlink that directs a user to the business website or social media pages. Doing this supplements the message shared in the email, adds value to your message (since the content provides information in addition to your email message) and encourages your customers to continue interacting with your business brand.
Completing actions also drives traffic back to the business’ website, social media, video (wherever the link goes to), to keep the email recipient interested and engaged with what you have to offer.
Some of the most commonly used CTAs include:
- Download our video.
- Sign up now.
- Join our online community.
- Read our eBook.
Content marketing can elevate your email marketing efforts, add value to the information received by your customers and create excitement around receiving emails and updates from you.
As a business owner, you can start to integrate and support your email marketing efforts by producing high quality content and selecting content pieces to reshare or repurpose through emails.
If you have an especially large or varied email database you can create unique emails to cater to their different interests by segmenting your email recipients according to their age, demographics or previous purchases. Grab their attention with powerful headlines and use visuals and embedded media if that’s appropriate for your email message. Most of all, be upfront about sharing your business stories and asking for your readers to take the next step in their own journey with a call to action.
Emails are a proven lead generation tool for any business, but maximising email marketing initiatives starts with creating a content strategy targeted towards your ideal customers.
