Email marketing is way more dynamic than you think. It’s not just loading up a bunch of cold contacts and blasting them with 25% off deals. It’s a way to keep your customers engaged and informed with your brand. More specifically, it’s a useful tool to add to your inbound marketing efforts. At HatchMark Studio, we assist clients with all of their email marketing strategy and execution. In this article, we will discuss the difference between inbound and outbound marketing, how email can support an ongoing inbound strategy, and how targeted landing pages can be the difference maker for conversions.
Understanding Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is content-driven marketing that entices customers with content that is relevant to their interests. One example of inbound marketing is creating trendy social media content. There doesn’t need to be a sales hook. You’re just creating content that should resonate with your potential customers and letting them find your product organically. You can also do this through blog content creation. By answering questions your customers have, you’re providing a service to them without making it about your product. You can niche down your content to resonate with very specific target audiences to make your strategy even more effective. It’s more important now than ever for customers to feel a connection with the businesses they support. Inbound marketing opens the door and nurtures that relationship throughout the customer lifecycle.
The Difference Between Inbound & Outbound Email Marketing
Outbound marketing is much more direct. It’s disruptive by nature and puts your product or service directly in front of your target audience. You can think of this in classic, more traditional marketing efforts like billboards and print ads. In both cases, a person stumbles upon those advertisements because they either took a turn down a road or opened a magazine. You can apply this same thought process for emails.
Inbound Email Marketing: Targeting existing customers with email content that is often segmented and tailored to their interests that you already know. For example, this can look like an email that links to new articles on your blog or a heads up on a new rewards program for existing customers.
Outbound Email Marketing: Sending cold emails to a list of leads who are not already customers with an offer. In this scenario, the person you’re reaching out to often did not know about your product beforehand and the content of the email is focused on introducing the product and selling. This can come off as spam or unwanted if done incorrectly or too often.
How to Leverage Content Creation with Email
Whether you’re making long-form video content for YouTube or short, trendy Reels on Instagram, email is a good way to supplement the views and traffic to your content. If you have just uploaded a new video or podcast, send out an email to your existing customers to let them know. The best part is that this doesn’t have to be an overly designed or complex email. It can be a simple, plain text email that links to the content you want to share with your customers. Companies like StickerMule do this best. Each email is one or two sentences with a link to the offer. It’s simple, to the point, and effective.
The Importance of Landing Pages & Inbound Marketing
It’s important to make sure you are always engaging with your existing customer base. However, when it comes to using email, you never want to send customers to the homepage of your website. Especially since, with email, you have a chance to segment your customers into categories and interests. For instance, if you have an online candy shop, you can have a segment of customers who always buy sour candy. So, if you wanted to send an email to that segment, you might want to consider putting together a landing page with only your top-selling sour candies. You could also tweak the messaging in the email and the content to be top to bottom sour candy. This does two things for you.
- Telegraphs to your customers that you’ve taken the time to learn about what they like. It makes them feel valued and less like they’re just part of one big group of emails. They’re part of a special community.
- Drops your customers in the middle of content that is specifically for them. If a customer who loves sour candy is on a page with nothing but sour candy content, they will be more likely to convert.
Let Automations Do the Work for You
What if you could put yourself at the top of your customer’s inbox on a regular basis without lifting a finger? This is what automated emails can do for you! Staying top of mind is a big part of inbound email marketing. Below are a handful of automated email ideas that you can try with your existing customer email list.
- Send an automated birthday email to customers annually to give them a free gift or a personalized message. It’s a nice surprise and delight that can pull existing customers back in if they’ve been away for a while.
- Have a triggered drip campaign after a customer makes a first-time purchase to introduce them to your brand story with a video message from the CEO or owner to give them a closer look at the mission and brand.
- Automated review request emails are the perfect way to keep your existing customers engaged, especially after a recent purchase when it’s fresh on their mind. This gets you a review on Google all while re-engaging with a customer to keep them coming back to your product.
Final Thoughts on How Can Email Marketing Fuel Your Overall Inbound Strategy
Email is a powerful inbound marketing tool. Between automations and one-off campaigns, you have an endless list of possibilities to keep your existing customers looped in with your brand in a way that feels personal and one-on-one. The more tailored and special you can make it, the greater the chance your customers will stay subscribed to your email list and keep them loyal to your brand. For a more comprehensive deep dive into email marketing and how to add it to your marketing mix, you can read this article we wrote!
Let Us Support Your Email Marketing
If you’re amped up to get started with email marketing for your business and just can’t find enough hours in the day, you’re not alone. As a matter of fact, most business owners struggle with allocating the resources necessary to all of today’s marketing channels. That’s why hiring an agency, a team of professionals who live and breathe marketing all day long, can really give you the boost you need. At HatchMark Studio, we have a dynamic team of designers, social media masters, and marketing experts who can help you from start to finish with your email marketing program. Get in touch with us today for a free discovery call to learn more about how we can support you!
