In marketing, the use of email to promote a business’ products and services, as well as to encourage customer loyalty. By sending emails to your email list, you can inform your customers about new products, discounts, and other services. Educating your audience about the value of your brand can also serve as a softer sell as a way of keeping them engaged in between purchases. The possibilities are endless. Your marketing program can be optimized with Mailchimp to get the best ROI by designing, implementing, and optimizing your email marketing.

What is email marketing?

You can use email as a direct marketing method, as well as a digital marketing method, to market your business’s products or services. By integrating it into your marketing automation tools, you can let your customers know about your latest items and offers. In addition to generating leads, building brand awareness, and keeping customers engaged, marketing emails can also be an integral part of your marketing strategy.

A brief history of email

In 1971, computer engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email. It was only a string of numbers and letters, but it marked the beginning of a new era of communication. Among other things, Tomlinson introduced the “@” symbol into email addresses. This new form of direct communication was used by a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp named Gary Thuerk to announce a new product in 1978. Only 400 email addresses were on his list, but he generated $13 million in sales from the emails he sent. The internet had become commercially available in the 1990s. During the twentieth century, the way people communicated changed dramatically, and marketers began using email to advertise. Regulatory updates were also needed when marketing emails emerged; the U.K.’s Data Protection Act was modified to require an opt-out option for all marketing emails.

The benefits of email marketing

Businesses have become so popular with email marketing because it forces the user to take action; an email will sit in the inbox until it’s read, deleted, or archived. However, email is one of the most cost-effective tools available as well. An email campaign can generate an average return on investment (ROI) of $38 for every $1 spent, according to a 2015 study by the U.K.-based Direct Association (DMA). Check out our email marketing statistics by industry to learn more about the power of email marketing. In addition to building relationships with your audience, email marketing can drive traffic to your blog, social media pages, or any other place you’d like people to come. Email can even be segmented by demographic, so you can target people based on what they’re most interested in. To get started, here are a few email marketing tips. By using software that can also be configured to easily send emails, you can run A/B tests of a subject line or call to action to identify the best-performing message. You can learn more about what you can do by checking out Mailchimp’s email templates.