Over the years, email marketing has yielded positive results. It converts your potential customers into actual ones, targets new audiences, boosts sales, and increases your overall revenue. Data from Orbelo observed that there is a massive return on investment (ROI) through email marketing. There is an average return of $42 on every $1 spent on email marketing. Tapping into the world of email marketing the right way could give you a great yield far beyond your expectations. However, achieving this without your customers is impossible. In fact, many businesses don't seem to get it right. So, how do you utilize email marketing in your business? How can you retain your old customers and target new ones? Let's find out in this article.

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that uses emails to promote products or services. It is effective for promoting your brand, targeting new audiences, and promoting potential customers to real ones, and above all, increasing sales. Data from Statista observed that the global email users equal 3.9 billion users. However, the figure is set to amount to 4.9 billion by 2023. That's a huge market for prospective businesses. In other words, email marketing is one of the most effective strategies used in promoting your business. As the market booms, you can generate more revenue.

Once a prospect visits your website/store, uses your app, or makes a purchase, they become your customers. However, buying a new product can be frustrating when the customers are unfamiliar with your products. Here is the moment to seize the opportunity of retaining your customers. Send them a "welcome email" after an hour of purchase. Incorporate educational content in the email. It can be a  product walk-through, demo requests, tutorials, or other educational content in your email. With a thorough onboarding process, you help your customers adapt to the new environment with ease, direct them and gain their loyalty.

Engagement is a vital strategy in email marketing. Here, you develop a one-on-one relationship with your customers by interacting with them frequently. Also, you encourage your customers to interact more with your business. The best way to achieve this is by sending newsletters. A newsletter is a publication containing current events of an organization that is sent to targeted audiences. It varies from business to business. It could be a product update, special offers, tips/tricks, blog recap, and many more. Here, the goal is to inform your audience. Get their attention to products they have never tried before. Send them emails on how to use your products. Inform them about a new product or feature. Tell them about an upcoming event. Give them newsletters about your industry. However, ensure your emails are sent at regular intervals, maybe once a week. Frequent emails from a business can make a customer unsubscribe. 

Every customer has a special day - birthday, anniversary, and more.  Celebrating this occasion with your customer makes them beam with a smile.  Make them feel special.  Send personalized emails to celebrate their incredulous milestones.

Your customers know your product best. They know the problems that have been solved or the ones that continue to exist. In this way, you have to gather their insights, analyze them, and share them with the rest of your team. A survey gives you insight into how you are performing and the areas that you need to improve. Use customer surveys to get answers from them. Let them rate your products or services. Conduct user tests to get honest feedback from them. For instance, NPS (Net Promoter Scores) reveals your relationship with customers. They give a rating on a scale of 1-10 for every question you ask. 

Testimonials imply trust. That's the proof customers need to interact with your business. Sending your customers emails to retrieve testimonials makes them feel valued. An honest reply shows how well you are doing or otherwise. Receiving honest reviews from your customers reveals how much they like your business. Encourage them to share their opinion on a public platform. Send emails that enable them to rate your product, mobile application, a new feature, and lots more. It could be a review on Google Play Store, Quora, and more.

Make customers loyal to your brand by promoting loyalty programs. Let them have special bonuses others don't have. It makes them feel appreciated and valued. Furthermore, they can develop an emotional feeling for your brand by patronizing you. So, how do you do this? Give them rewards. Many customers feel valued for every reward you give them. Give them reasons to always come to your business for more. Send emails that offer them discounts, prizes, store credits, and other benefits. The more you reward them, the more they become loyal to your brand.

Email marketing can be bothersome to some customers. They may not be interested in what you have for them. Hence, they may stop visiting your app or your site. In this case, you can set up an email preference list to know what their interest is all about. Let them opt from the categories they don't like and stick to the ones they like. Also, do not make your emails too frequent. If customers sense it is getting too much, they tend to unsubscribe. An email sent once a week should be okay for your business. The first can be a "we miss you" email. The second can be the "what you are missing" email. Then, you can offer them promotions or discounts. Re-engaging inactive customers is a plus for your business.

Email marketing is a bonus to your business. To make it easy for you, automate every process. Sites like Marketo, Drip, Customer.io makes email automation a simple process. That way, you get to retain your customers and enjoy the benefits.