Benefits of email marketing for agencies
Email marketing helps agencies to communicate consistently, share insights, and show expertise — all at a reasonable cost.
But that sounds too hypothetical, right?
Let’s explore the real benefits of email marketing in more detail.
1. Offers great return on investment (ROI)
Email marketing delivers one of the highest returns on investment among digital channels. In fact, a recent study by Litmus shows that each dollar spent on email marketing likely returns an average of $36.
This high ROI is mainly due to its ability to reach a highly targeted audience at a low cost while nurturing relationships over time.
Unlike other marketing channels that require constant investment, email campaigns reach a targeted audience with minimal extra expenses — provided that the sender reputation and email infrastructure are properly maintained.
For example, you could use a personalized email drip campaign to guide a lead through the sales process. When a potential client downloads a free eBook, an automated email sequence triggers.
The client starts by receiving a warm welcome email. After that, they get messages tailored to their needs, with relevant case studies, and, eventually, an offer for a personalized consultation.
This campaign engages prospects over time without manual follow-up. It increases conversions while keeping costs low.
However, keep in mind that achieving this ROI isn’t easy and can vary considerably. The success of your email marketing campaigns will depend on various factors, including:
- Quality of your contact list
- Content quality and value
- Email deliverability and sender reputation
For instance, only a well-timed promotion that aligns with your clients’ needs and preferences could encourage immediate responses and drive conversions.
2. Support advanced personalization and dynamic segmentation
Unlike other marketing tools and approaches, only emails let you use all the collected data on your users, and hyper-personalize messages automatically (if you use the right tools).
For instance, Maichimp marketing platform allows you to segment your email list using demographic data, purchase behavior, engagement history, and custom attributes of your choice. Then, when creating a targeted email campaign, you can layer these criteria and target them separately with curated content.
GetResponse, another email marketing platform, offers dynamic segmentation, meaning contacts are automatically transferred from one segment (e.g. new users) to another (e.g. loyal customers).
And the email marketing platform ActiveCampaign offers a dynamic content feature that automatically personalizes sections of an email based on each user’s preferences, actions, or other data.
3. Allows scalability through automation
Email marketing automation allows you to handle repetitive tasks without manual intervention. Instead of manually sending each campaign, you can create automated workflows that trigger messages based on client actions.
Here are some of many examples of email automations that companies use:
- Welcome emails
- Onboarding sequences
- Birthday or anniversary messages
- Post-purchase follow-ups
- Re-engagement campaigns
- Upsell or cross-sell recommendations
- Feedback and review requests
- Event reminders
- Lead nurturing sequences
- Drip campaigns
- Seasonal campaigns and holiday promotions
4. Increased customer retention and loyalty
Businesses are ready to invest in personalization and loyalty programs because they pay off. The PwC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023 revealed that businesses delivering personalized experiences see a 1.7x increase in incremental revenue year-over-year and more than double their customers’ lifetime value.
Retaining loyal clients is far more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, and email marketing helps with that through hyper-personalized, relevant content delivered at the right time. When subscribers receive regular, helpful information, they feel appreciated and develop an emotional bond with the brand—almost as if it were a friend or even a family member.
How to get started with email marketing
It’s now clear that there is a lot to gain from email marketing. But where should you begin?
Here is a simple framework for any business ready to hit the ground running. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a digital marketing agency, a travel agency, or another service provider.
We’ll cover foundational strategies and best practices that work across industries.
Step 1. Develop the strategy
Start by deciding what you aim to accomplish with your email marketing strategy. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, nurture leads, or drive sales?
You can use a SMART framework to ensure your goals are both realistic and trackable. SMART stands for:
- Specific. Clear and precise goal
- Measurable. Trackable outcomes
- Achievable. Realistic and attainable
- Relevant. Aligned with broader objectives
- Time-bound. Set within a timeframe
For instance, if your goal is lead generation, you can define your smart goals as follows:
- Specific. Generate 100 new leads in December through email campaigns from a website that generates 10k visitors per month.
- Measurable. Track the number of leads collected via sign-ups or downloads.
- Achievable. A website generates 10k visitors, so we need to convert 0.1% of them, which is quite realistic with the right strategy.
- Relevant. Lead generation aligns with the agency’s broader objective of increasing sales.
- Time-bound. Achieve this goal in December.
Having well-defined objectives from the outset will provide direction for each email campaign and allow you to assess its success.
Once you’ve established your goals, the next step is to create content that truly resonates with their interests and needs.
This directly impacts open and click-through rates, as subscribers are more likely to engage with emails that are relevant to them.
Start by gathering data on your website visitors, looking at metrics like:
- Demographics (e.g., age, gender, location, income level)
- Behavior patterns (e.g., frequency of website visits, time spent on site, past purchases)
- Interests (e.g., preferred product categories, hobbies, or topics followed on social media)
- Engagement levels (e.g., email open rates, click-through rates, social media interactions)
- Browsing history (e.g., pages visited, items viewed, searches conducted on your site)
This information can reveal insights about your audience preferences and help you design emails that capture their attention.
With goals and audience segments defined, list the tactics you’ll use to achieve them. For example, for lead generation, you might consider:
- Offering a discount or special offer for new subscribers.
- Hosting webinars or online workshops that require registration.
- Using exit-intent popups to capture emails before visitors leave.
Remember that flexibility is essential, especially for small businesses starting a campaign from scratch. If a strategy isn’t working, adjust as needed.
Step 2. Build a quality email list
A well-targeted email list ensures that your messages reach people who are genuinely interested in your content. This increases the likelihood of higher engagement and conversions.
Focus on relevance, consent, and engagement potential rather than simply increasing numbers. A small, targeted list with high engagement rates often delivers better results than a large, unfocused one.
For instance, working with 100 people and achieving a 1% conversion is better than sending emails to 1,000 people with no conversions.
Begin by creating valuable content that attracts subscribers. Offering something of interest, such as an informative guide, exclusive discount, or access to premium content, encourages people to sign up willingly. These are known as lead magnets and provide an immediate benefit in exchange for an email address.
When selecting a lead magnet, think about what would most appeal to your target audience. For instance, a downloadable e-book or checklist may work well for users looking for detailed information, while a discount code might attract shoppers to an e-commerce site.
The lead magnet you create will also depend on the distribution channel you want to target. Organic channels are ideal for attracting people who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
These channels ensure that the list of email subscribers is built with engaged subscribers who are more likely to interact with your content. Some of the organic channels you should consider include:
- Social media
- Referral campaigns
- SEO-optimized blog content
- Google ads
- High-impact landing pages
- Webinars or virtual events
Avoid the common pitfall of buying email lists, as these lists often contain unqualified leads and can harm your sender’s reputation. Purchased lists can lead to high spam complaints and low engagement, which may damage deliverability and violate regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.
Lastly, regularly clean your list to keep it up-to-date and engaged. Remove inactive subscribers, as keeping them can lower engagement rates and harm deliverability. Maintaining good email hygiene keeps your list fresh and focused on engaged subscribers.
Step 3. Send relevant and personalized content
A 2023 research by Statistashows that 62% of consumers are less likely to trust brands with poor personalization. This means that only relevant, personalized content has the power to capture your audience’s attention, leading to higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
