One of the great things about using email within your PR and marketing strategy is that it’s a form of communication that you own – your email list is yours. No one can take those contacts (or leads for your business) away from you. Anyone that subscribes to your email list has expressly agreed for you to contact them directly; they want to hear from you. With email, you have the ability to communicate with new prospects, current customers, old clients, plus anyone else that wants to connect with you. It also helps to know that 99% of consumers check their email account on a daily basis. That means you’re delivering a message to them in a space that they use every, single, day.
Whilst your email list belongs to you, social media on the other hand is known as ‘shared’ media. What that means is, the social channels that you use are third-party controlled platforms. There is a real risk of losing access to any one of your social media profiles – whether by you breaching terms and conditions, or being the victim of a security breach. If the only space you interact with your target audience is on social media – and you lost access to it – what would the ramifications be for your business?
In addition to this, your interactions with your target audience – are dictated by the algorithms of the social media channel that you’re using. And if your account is a business one, you can bet good money on the fact that those algorithms are designed so that your organic reach is detrimentally impacted. After all, social media platforms are in the business to make money, so they want you paying to engage with your target audience through ads and boosted content.
Organic reach (any content that you don’t pay to publish on social media channels) has been, and continues to be, negatively impacted on social media channels. Only 2% of your Facebook fans are likely to see your posts in their News feeds. Your odds of engaging with your audience are far better through their email inbox than their social media news feeds.
What you ultimately use email for is up to you. However, there is a plethora of ideas and ways you could utilise it for your business. From a standard monthly newsletter and regular email campaigns to after sales and re-engagement emails – there are plenty of legitimate reasons for you to be sending emails that are worthy of your audience’s time.
Approach email marketing as a long-term strategy, a slow burn, not a quick win – and you’ll be primed for success. Emails are all about building brand loyalty, reminding people you exist and for providing share-worthy content. Using them as a sales tool shouldn’t be a primary objective. Your emails should educate, entertain and inspire your audience, all the while building upon your budding relationship that’ll naturally lead them to become not only a buyer, but also an avid promoter of your business.
With all that in mind, what’s not to love about email? As long as you’re not spammy in your approach – email marketing is a great tool at your disposal that’s often under-utilised.
This article was first published in the Suffolk Free Press, Thursday 11 March 2021.
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