How to Use Email Marketing to Increase Sales

Email marketing is an essential tool for boosting brand awareness and increasing sales for modern businesses.

11:33 05 March 2020

It provides a means to connect with your audience, familiarize them with your brand, and ultimately promote sales. Discover what it can do for you and study some of the best practices and examples.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves sending emails to specific customers or audiences. Through niche targeting, these emails guide users through the sales funnel, encourage purchases, and create loyal customers. In 2019, there were an estimated 3.9 billion email users with 293.6 billion emails sent out that year, making email a prime marketing tool for many businesses.

Building target audiences

Building target audiences and email lists for your products involves thinking like a customer. Consider existing customers and their previous purchases. Identify their specific needs and how your products meet their needs.

The next step is to send them your message. To ensure your target audience reads the emails you send, segment them into different branches. This allows you to send individuals unique messages that don't end up in a spam folder. The three most basic segments many marketers use to get started include new customers, unresponsive subscribers, and loyal subscribers.

Best practices for starting email marketing campaigns

Consider the following best practices when starting your next email campaign:

• Take time to research and understand your target audience. Understand their likes, dislikes, and overall responses to certain marketing tactics. This may include testing to get a better idea of the populations you're working with. 
  
  
• Include an email signature. Even if you're sending automated messages, always include a formal email signature. Consider using a specific person, such as the CEO, to represent the brand within the signature to help give your messages a more personal feel.
  
  
• Keep important content above the fold. When creating your messages, ensure that your objective and your call to action (CTA) are above the fold. This means that your most important information appears as soon as users open the email. Additionally, it can help to repeat your CTA a couple times throughout the email.
  
  

Examples of successful email marketing

Many companies have successfully used email marketing to grow their brand. Here are a couple examples:

• Chubbies: Chubbies, a men's shorts brand, delivers a famous newsletter to build brand awareness and increase sales. It's consistently funny and encourages users to read all the way through its content, which in turn promotes sales.
  
  
• Uber: In contrast with the previous campaign, Uber keeps its newsletter simple and professional. Their emails are brief and offer clear CTAs. They often send promotions for more affordable rides, detailed driver maps, and other helpful essentials. One of their most defining features is brand consistency, and they offer a detailed guide for third-party marketers.
  
  

When appropriately, email marketing can build a loyal customer base and significantly increase sales. It takes time and experimentation to get it right, but as the companies listed above can contest, it's worth the effort.