Email has been around for decades and may be considered “old school.” But used strategically, email can still be a powerful tool in your digital marketing arsenal. 

Using email simply as an easy, quick means for sending out messages because that’s the way you were taught is a waste of email’s potential. Maybe it’s time for your organization to shake things up with expanding the role and uses of email in your marketing strategy.

Either marketers aren’t aware of how powerful email can be, or even if they do, perhaps the final decision makers are too removed from the actual work to understand the resources needed to make email a powerhouse marketing tool.

Email was the original push tool before apps, SMS or web notifications. Once you’ve received the customer’s permission, you can start personalized conversations at any time. You have an incorporated target audience, so make use of it.

In addition to sending out promotions, email has these uses:

• Check on customer behavior. Learn how your customers react with your emails. What type of campaign motivates them? What inspires them to be loyal to your brand? Looking at web traffic rates coinciding with the dates the emails go out to look for an effect on organic, paid and direct search. Just seeing an email from your brand can prod customers to go to your website to check it out. Once they’re on your site, where do they go and how long do they stay there? And how does the behavior of these visitors compare to those who found you through search?
• Assessment of content. Determining what your customers do and don’t react to can be valuable. Things like sender names, subject line content, types of content – long vs. short copy, inclusion or exclusion of supporting copy with promotions, e.g. – can be used to evaluate customer motivation.
• Build customer loyalty and sustainability. One of email’s powers is stimulating fast conversions. But a constant stream of dollars-off or percent-off promotions won’t bring long-term loyalty. A combination of personalization, email automation, messages focused on lifestyles, and optimization can lead to a channel providing long-term conversions.

Bottom line: email is your top tool for keeping customers for the least cost. And we all know that keeping customers is cheaper than recruiting them.