Although marketing to broad audiences has become more accessible in recent years with social media, these strategies will only get your company so far. Eventually, your startup will need to put more focus on tapping into customers that are ready to enter your sales funnel.

The best way to do that is with email marketing. It’s the keystone to growing your business, and it allows you to deliver a level of personalisation that cultivates engagement.

Big lead generation for big and companies of any size

Small businesses typically feel the stress of competing with larger companies. Email marketing takes away a bit of that concern. When considering your typical marketing strategy, you’re looking at social media, outdoor advertising radio or print ads, and lead generation. However, lead generation for smaller businesses is more challenging than for large companies.

You should ditch the idea of telemarketing and put your cold marketing efforts into email marketing. Cold email software can be an excellent solution for anyone trying to gain traction and build an email list. It also aids those who don’t have much time to devote to cold marketing efforts.

High ROI with minimal risk

Decades ago, marketing was costly, and it was challenging to make every dollar count. The correlation between risk and ROI has changed drastically within marketing because of how inexpensive email marketing is now. When calculating your costs, you’ll need to consider:

• Available resources – such as your email subscriber list
• Who develops and monitors your campaign – in-house or a third party
• Campaign opportunities – considering the information you’re offering in the email

Many small businesses don’t have the resources available to develop and manage an email marketing campaign. You don’t need it. The most expensive aspect of email marketing is the time it can require and outsource that to a company that focuses only on email campaigns can save you money.

Consider these insights when calculating the risk of adding email marketing into your strategy:

• Customers who receive email offers spend about 138% more than other customers.
• 73% of marketers rank email as the top channel for ROI
• The average ROI on email marketing stands at 38 to 1.

Consumers know that ads go to their email

As a startup, you may feel that the only road to success is through social media advertising. Take a step back and consider the forum, however, and you’ll see that social media ads are less than effective. First, user’s aren’t on social media to buy products. They may click-through, and you may see an increase in views, but your conversion rates will be lacklustre. Second, they’re disruptive. Users report constant irritation with ads, but the same can’t be said of the email.

Consumers know that they receive ads to their email; they may even remember signing up for a newsletter or email list. Consumers open these emails because there is usually helpful information or a discount included.

Use email as part of your marketing and business strategy because it’s the professional, and non-disruptive platform for communication with your customers. Building an email list takes time, but even as you build your list, you can see the benefits of using email marketing.

Email marketing cultivates a connection

In recent years the email marketing template changed from,  “valued customer,” or “hey, you” to “Hey Joe,” and “Joe we put your favourite _____ on sale!” The contrast between the two is stark. Email marketing provides a level of personalisation that you cannot achieve through other mediums except maybe traditional mail.

How can you personalise email more than placing their name into a template? Segmentation has made it possible for emails to appear as genuine personal interactions. Through segmentation, you can deliver relevant offers, information, or provoke action.

Many brands are using unique aspects to segment their email lists such as cart abandonment, rather than traditional factors like age or location. Personalised emails acknowledging cart abandonment or providing more information on a product they viewed but didn’t purchase can stimulate a connection between the brand and consumer. Email list segmentation can impact your campaign, engagement level, and ultimately, your ROI.

A strategy that impacts your business on multiple levels

The effectiveness of your business strategy will largely depend on your relationship with your customers. Email marketing allows you to find customers, develop those relationships, and provoke actions, which will lead to sales. Few other forms of marketing can claim all of these benefits while also providing a high ROI.

If you’re a new company, take advantage and begin using email marketing to grow your business. Successful email marketing does require a bit of strategic planning, but new and small businesses can see outstanding results from email marketing.