Among these options, it goes without saying that email marketing is the most reliable channel for communication. And for many good reasons.

Email Marketing and Its Value to Businesses

According to several studies, email marketing has been proven time and time again that they’re the most reliable marketing channel for retailers and brands:

• There are approximately 4.3 billion people using emails every day, and the number is expected to rise in the coming years. 
• Among these users, 99% report that they check their inbox daily, which ultimately results in higher open rates than other channels.
• Email marketing offers a higher return on investment: for every $1 you spend, the average return is $45 for the retail and e-commerce industry.

Email marketing gives you the opportunity to interact directly with your customers, all while being able to promote your products and grow your business. 

3 Main Benefits of Email Marketing

With the right strategy, you can reap the many benefits of email marketing for your business. Among the top 3 benefits it offers are:

1. Reaching more qualified leads

It’s required by laws all over the world to get explicit consent from users to send them brand emails, it’s safe to surmise that people on your email list are considered more qualified leads than those who are not. 

Essentially, these people are already interested in your brand, so they’re more receptive to your marketing messages, ultimately making it easier to convert them.  

2. Widening your reach

One overlooked value of email marketing is that it’s very easy to share. When you send targeted, personalized emails that users can easily relate to, they’re more than likely to forward your email to their family and friends.

Compared to other channels, sharing/forwarding emails is much more straightforward. This leads to a wider reach, even to those you didn’t intend to target initially. 

3. Driving more revenue

The combined benefits of targeting more qualified leads, the higher open rates, and the higher engagement in emails all results in better conversions and higher revenue for brands.

You can leverage email marketing more when you segment your audiences and tailor each of your email campaigns depending on their unique needs and pain points, as well as where they are in the customer journey. 

4 Best Types of Emails to Catch Customers’ Attention

There are several types of emails that you can use for your campaigns, but the following are seen to be the most effective ones to catch customers’ attention.

1. Welcome emails

As soon as your target audience subscribes to your email list, it’s important to make them feel valued and welcomed. Sending welcome emails not only creates a positive perception about your brand, but also guides new subscribers on what to expect from you. 

For example, you can include in your welcome email the benefits that subscribers can enjoy — special discounts, first-to-know about new products, and if applicable, member-exclusive content.

2. Weekly/monthly newsletters

Regular newsletters enable subscribers to be in the know of the latest updates about your company. Newsletters are also a good opportunity to subtly remind your customers about your existence and how you can help them with their needs and pain points.

Aside from special offers, it’s best practice to send informative and relevant content through your newsletters to add more value to your campaigns. Some examples are short guides on how to use your products in everyday life, the latest research about the benefits of products, and more.

3. Discount/special offer emails

This is perhaps one of the best types of emails to drive more engagement and conversions to your website. Customers are naturally inclined to better deals that can save them money, and there’s no better way to communicate these offers than emails.

You can optimize your campaigns even further by always including a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that directly takes customers to your dedicated landing page. This is crucial so that the customer journey is simplified.

4. Abandoned cart emails

Abandoned carts are a reality for all retail and e-commerce brands. Several studies have found that the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is a whopping 70%. One of the ways to effectively lower that number is automated abandoned cart emails.

These types of emails become more effective if you add benefits to customers who decide to check out within a certain time — for example, offering them time-bound discounts for the items already in their cart.

Amplify Your Email Marketing Campaigns with Alpine IQ

Despite the existence of many other channels to communicate your marketing messages, email marketing remains to be the most reliable. Billions of people use and open their emails every day, email marketing is legally done with consent, and it offers better revenues and higher engagement.

This is why it’s important to use email marketing tools that are specially created for retailers and brands. Alpine IQ offers a suite of AI-powered marketing products that allows retailers and brands to optimize their campaigns all while staying compliant. 

We also offer an omni-channel messaging approach to build your audiences even better. Pair this with our waterfall delivery system to ensure the deliverability of all your messages and you have a winning marketing strategy for your dispensary.

If you want to know more, contact us at https://alpineiq.com/ and we can discuss more on how we can help you with your marketing campaigns.

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Here are key things you need to know about iOS 15 and how you can prepare your email campaigns the update that is set to be released on September 20th.

What is happening to email with the iOS 15 update?

Apple will be introducing Mail Privacy Protection with the iOS 15 update, which will make it more difficult for marketers to get insight into Apple users’ email behaviors. With iOS 15, users can now:

• Disable open tracking – Marketers will no longer see whether an iOS 15 user has opened their emails.
• Hide IP addresses – Marketers will no longer be able to implement IP-based segmentation in their email campaigns.
• Hide email addresses – Users can opt to use randomly-generated email addresses for signups.

When is this happening?

The update is expected to be released on September 20, 2021.

What You Can Do Before and After the iOS 15 Update 

A/B testing subject lines

Get your email campaigns right by starting with a well-strategized and compelling subject line. For every campaign, create variations of your email subject line and do A/B testing. As open tracking will no longer be relevant to Apple users with iOS 15, you can measure the effectiveness by their click-throughs.

Clean your lists

Weed out inactive contacts and invalid email addresses from your list as early as now. It’s also considered best practice to regularly evaluate your lists to avoid high bounce rates, which could affect your overall deliverability.

Back up your channels

Start utilizing Waterfall to use backup channels for your marketing campaigns. With our l technology, you can set up preferred channels for your campaigns based on what works best for your customers. You can also protect your campaigns even further by using automatic backup delivery through Waterfall to ensure that your messages are actually delivered. 

How will I know my audience is engaged going forward?

You can gauge the performance of your email campaigns by the number of clicks in your call-to-action (CTA), as well as unsubscriptions and conversions.

We will discuss more on this in the next section.

What Metrics Matter Now

CTR

The click-through rate (CTR) is the most common metric in determining the effectiveness of your email campaign. It actually provides far more insight than email open rates, because you will know how your contacts are engaging with your content. 

Top Tip: Be sure that your email has actionable content (a CTA) so that your readers will have a clear guide on what to do next. 

Unsubscribes

While unsubscriptions can be a negative metric, they can still be used as a good baseline for creating your email list growth strategy. 

It can also help in cleaning up your email lists and improve the quality of email recipients. This is more preferable than continually sending emails to uninterested parties and increasing the likelihood of being reported as spam.

Top Tip: Include a feedback option on your opt-out landing page. This gives you a prime opportunity to learn what worked, what doesn’t, and what you can do to improve your campaigns.

Conversions

On a similar note to click-throughs, conversion rates give you insight into how customers complete specific actions through your emails. Whether it’s completing a sale, signing up for a free trial, or making an inquiry, conversions tell you the progress users make from your email campaigns.

Top Tip: Provide something of value in your CTA so that email recipients are more compelled to take action, increasing your conversions in the process.

Final Notes

It’s important to note that since the update will only apply to Apple-related products, users who use other email apps (e.g., Gmail or Microsoft Outlook) on an iOS 15, iPadOS 15, or macOS Monterey device are not affected for now—that is, marketers can still gauge email open rates.

However, it’s safe to anticipate that other email providers will likely follow Apple’s lead in protecting email users’ privacy in the future. It will be practical for marketers utilizing email marketing to take precautions as described in this article as early as now. 

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Social media channels come and go but email will live on after we are gone. If your business hasn’t allocated a marketing budget to email marketing, your business is missing out on significant growth opportunities. Unlike SMS, email marketing has significant advantages. 

As our team of engineers and experts collaborated with our partners to design and develop our latest email marketing technology, we put together a guide on email marketing best practices for both beginners and email marketing pros. If you’re not sure where to start or are interested in brushing up on what you already know, this guide is for you. If your business is an online highly regulated market, email marketing can be used to increase customer trust and revenue. 

Email marketing is older than social media marketing. While consumers may choose which social media platforms suit their lifestyle, email is used by virtually everyone. It’s true. Email is needed to log into social media platforms, book airline reservations, and so much more. With email playing a crucial role in the lives of consumers, it’s important to define how crucial your business is to your contacts. 

When customers and patients visit your business, it’s easy to understand each visitor has different needs. The same can be said for email. While it is not realistic to manually write individual emails to thousands of customers, there are a few strategies your team can leverage to ensure customers read your emails and find value in what your company has to offer. 

To improve marketing with email, read on. 

Most Effective Email Messages  

First Timer Email 

When a new customer leaves your store, it is imperative to use email marketing to extend their experience. Why? An experience doesn’t end when a customer leaves the store. As customers use products purchased from your store, your business is top of mind. Use Alpine IQ’s email marketing software to welcome new customers into your brand with high-value creative such as branded videos and stunning photography. 

New Inventory Email 

What could be more exciting than being the first to try a new product on the market? Nothing. That’s what. When new products are acquired, compose an email to customers. Tell them where the product comes from, what the benefits of the product are and why they should stop in the shop to get a closer look. 

Promotional Email 

If your business has excess stock of a particular product, send a promotional email. If your business has data that proves a specific product has the highest profit margins, send a promotional email. Yes. There is always a good reason to send a promotional email. 

Event Email 

If foot traffic in your business is down, plan an event. Partner with a local business to offer an incentive for customers who arrive between certain times.

Newsletter Email 

Most newsletters suck. Your business’ newsletter doesn’t have to. Encourage your internal team to create content for your company’s newsletter. Share customer success stories. Build an email list of customers who have only shopped with you once or twice. Send your newsletter to that list too and see what your open rates are. 

Customer Survey 

Your customers are the lifeline of your business. Transform customer complaints and praise into business opportunities by using your email marketing software to send out customer surveys. Business stakeholders can also have one-to-one relationships with customers. 

Corporate Social Responsibility

If your business is up to all good, it’s important to let your customers know. Use your email marketing software to build community. 

Best Practices 

Know Your Audience 

Before sending an email to a customer or a list of customers, identify the needs of the person you’re sending an email to. If you’ve ever received an email that is anything less than helpful, you’ll understand why it’s important to know who your audience is and what your email can do for them. Prioritize email messaging under customer needs. 

Segment Your Audience 

Don’t worry. Knowing your audience is easier when you have the ability to segment them. We give you the power to identify and group customers based on many factors. After you’ve segmented audiences, you’re ready to deliver customer-centric messaging that moves your business forward. 

Follow The Law 

Before you segment audiences and send messages, your business needs to know what’s allowed and what could get your business in trouble. For the most up-to-date information on email law, read FTC’s compliance guide. 

Avoid Becoming Spam 

Spam filters are designed to protect customers from malevolent senders but they aren’t perfect. To ensure your emails don’t land in your customers’ spam folders, ask your customers to check their spam folders if they don’t receive your business’ emails. You should also ask customers who have received your email to save the businesses email address in their contacts folder; this will ensure emails are received. 

Subject Line 

Your subject line is the first line of messaging that will either compel a contact to open your email or ignore it. To ensure emails are open, craft enticing subject lines that evoke curiosity.

Example:

Good:
New Lemon Cookie In Stock 

Better: 

GSC or Lemon Cookie? Learn the difference 

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