If a robust email list isn’t a core component of your digital marketing playbook, now may be the time to start building one.
Mailing lists provide companies big and small with direct access to their consumers. This targeted, personal connection with your audience can enable you to accomplish a lot, from improving consumer engagement to boosting revenue.
Learn the basics of mailing lists and the myriad benefits they can offer.
What Are Mailing Lists?
Mailing lists in the online realm refer to a series of email addresses a company collects (or email subscribers). These addresses may be used for a variety of purposes, such as:
- Announcing a sale
- Introducing a new product or service
- Requesting feedback or testimonials
- Offering gift guides
- Explaining your brand’s story
- Revealing a new brick-and-mortar location
Companies ranging from independent boutiques to titans like Target leverage mailing lists to develop and maintain a personal bond with their consumers.
What Are the Advantages of Email Marketing? 7 Key Benefits
Email marketing’s biggest benefit is that it increases your chances of capturing your audience’s attention when compared to social media, channels that are scrolled quickly and seem far less personal than receiving a direct message in one’s inbox.
Savvy digital marketers capitalize on this, while the numbers themselves demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy:
- 59% of digital marketers say email is their leading source of ROI
- More than half of consumers interviewed in a recent survey claimed that marketing emails shaped their buying decisions
- 73% of millennials, 60% of whom make the lion’s share of their purchases online — prefer email over other forms of brand communication
Let’s examine the power of email lists in more depth.
1. Potential access to other avenues of communication
When a consumer subscribes to your email list, you may be in a prime position to ask them if they would prefer to receive communication from your business in alternative or additional ways, such as text messages or print.
With the latter, you’ll be at liberty to communicate with them by creating a comprehensive offline marketing campaign, one that features custom mailing products like:
- Catalogs
- Postcards featuring promotions
- Gift guides
- Brochures on services
- Business cards
Moreover, you can elevate your offline marketing efforts by partnering with a company that provides mailing list rentals or targeted addresses of consumers who fall into your audience’s demographic.
2. Increased traffic
Email marketing can be leveraged in many ways, from announcing the latest blog post on your website to introducing a new employee. Directing your recipients to your website will drive more traffic, which may raise your SERP.
3. Enhanced timeliness
In order for your message to land, it must be seen at precisely the right time.
Social media is increasingly used to guide buying decisions and make purchases themselves, with 82% of consumers turning to their social channels for shopping.
Even so, some 47.1% of users log on not because they’re in the mood to buy but because they want to connect with their friends, family members, and followers.
Email has an inherently different feel. It’s where people go to conduct business, both professional and personal. Receiving an email from a respected brand away from the “noise” of social media can feel more pointed and attuned to their online habits, behaviors, and preferences.
4. Valuable Consumer Information
The success of any business hinges on the key players — particularly those in the marketing and sales departments — knowing their target audience well.
Email may prove indispensable in gathering information about your product or service, as well as your customer service and your consumer’s experience with your brand.
You can use the platform to submit quizzes pertaining to your offerings or request a recent consumer’s feedback (you might also offer your customers special discounts or promotions to incentivize them to participate).
This may influence how you approach future marketing campaigns or even prompt modifications to your product, service, brick-and-mortar store, and more.
5. Improved Sales
If a consumer has agreed to give you their email address, they’re likely interested in what you have to offer. Using emails to inform them about an upcoming sale, a product that’s almost out of stock, or a sales event specific to subscribers may naturally translate to a boost in your sales transactions.
This is particularly true if you use the email format to automate the purchasing process. Consumers demand swift, efficient, and streamlined purchasing experiences; automation offers a way to give it to them.
6. Cost-Effectiveness
PPC advertising, influencer marketing, social media marketing, video marketing — the expenses associated with these marketing tactics quickly add up.
Emails are far less involved. To create an eye-catching and informative email, you essentially only need:
- High-quality images
- Clear, concise writing
- Creativity
Chances are you already have someone on your team who possesses these skills, or you might have them yourself. Alternatively, there are a host of outstanding marketing agencies at work today that can provide the talent needed to create results-driven email marketing campaigns.
Regardless of the approach you take, email marketing is one of the most economical services available to modern businesses.
7. The Opportunity to Create Highly-Personalized Email Content
Ulta is one company in a sea of many that use consumer data collected via email or other means to develop brand loyalty. This may include:
- Birthday discounts
- Product recommendations
- Loyalty memberships
Email and print mailing lists allow you to provide these incentives to your consumers in a valuable, non-intrusive manner.
How Can You Build Your Mailing List?
Fortunately, there are numerous ways to encourage your audience to subscribe to your emails. For instance, you might:
- Allow users to sign up in various places throughout your website
- Offer incentives to new subscribers, such as 20% off their first purchase
- Include a call-to-action in your blog posts inviting readers to sign up
- Advertise exclusive deals to email subscribers
Will it take time to develop your email list? Perhaps. Will it pay off? Based on the data highlighted here, the answer is likely the affirmative.
Elevate Your Marketing Efforts with Complete Mailing & Printing
Mailing lists, both for emails and physical addresses, can offer myriad benefits to businesses of all sizes and specialties. They enrich consumer engagement, broaden brand awareness, and keep your products top of mind.
Complete Mailing & Printing can help simplify your direct mail marketing endeavors. From digital printing to fulfillment and shipping, we make sure the products your consumers receive are of the highest quality. Explore our services today to join our list of satisfied customers!
