Open Up to Email Marketing with Sixteractive

In today's digital world, communicating with customers is a key part of any effective marketing strategy. Even though social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or X/Twitter are usually the first thing that comes to mind, one of the most powerful tools for meaningfully increasing the reach and effectiveness of marketing efforts, and probably the most underrated one, is email marketing.

In response to the growing demand for personalized, effective customer communication, we're rolling out a new email marketing service. To mark the occasion, we want to explain why it's so valuable, how it's used in practice, and what's possible when it comes to automating email marketing processes. Read on to find out more.

Good old email… - what exactly is email marketing?

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that involves sending emails to current or prospective customers. It's a way to build relationships with your audience, strengthen their loyalty and engagement with your brand or products, promote products and services, and, of course, drive sales. A key advantage of email marketing is the ability to reach a precisely targeted audience with a tailored message, not just in terms of content, but crucially, at exactly the right moment, which greatly increases the effectiveness of your promotional and marketing campaigns.

It's worth noting here that sending marketing messages requires the recipient's consent – under GDPR, that consent is the legal basis for sending such messages. Consent is most often obtained through newsletter sign-ups, event registrations, or downloading materials.

Email marketing can, of course, be done manually, by sending messages directly from an email client, and as a business owner, you've probably already done some email marketing on a small scale yourself. But once your contact database grows into the thousands, or even tens of thousands of addresses, that task can become too much to handle on your own. That's where dedicated email marketing tools like GetResponse come in, a platform offering a set of advanced features that take email marketing to new heights, letting you squeeze even more value out of your efforts. Thanks to its simple interface, GetResponse helps build customer relationships and grow sales through customer segmentation, personalized messaging, and automated marketing actions.

So what does this look like in practice? Email marketing can take many forms, including:

• Newsletters – regularly sent messages with news, tips, articles, or special offers that keep the customer interested and offer them value,
• Promotional campaigns – emails with promotional offers, discounts, or information about new products, encouraging engagement and purchases,
• Transactional emails – messages sent in response to a specific customer action, such as an order or registration confirmation,
• Occasion-based emails – messages sent for holidays, birthdays, or work-anniversaries of the relationship with the customer; these are a great opportunity to give the customer something of unique value that turns into a purchase, such as an exclusive promotion or a discount code.

Don't underestimate email marketing - see why it's worth using

Why is email marketing worth choosing? For your company, it's one of the most effective communication channels with customers, offering a range of benefits:

1. High return on investment (ROI) – email marketing is one of the cheapest forms of promotion, and its ROI often outperforms other marketing channels, such as social media or PPC ads;
2. Email has been with us for many years - and is one of the fundamental building blocks of customers' online identity. We use email to create accounts, make purchases, handle payments, and exchange information;
3. Reaching customers through personalization – thanks to advanced mailing list segmentation tools, you can tailor message content to the specific needs and preferences of your recipients. By taking advantage of the fact that every message can be personalized, you can make the customer feel special, as if you're speaking directly to them. This is how you grow and strengthen the customer's relationship with your company and its products;
4. Direct contact with the customer – an email you send lands straight in the recipient's inbox, which increases the odds that it will actually be read;
5. An expanded marketing message- the nature of email lets you deliver much more content than other channels, such as social media ads. By using HTML in the structure of your email, you can create rich, interactive messages that leave a positive impression on the recipient;
6. Easy tracking and measurable results – email marketing tools let you closely monitor metrics like open rate, click rate, or conversion rate, which allows you to optimize your campaigns;
7. Automated processes – advanced platforms like GetResponse let you automate many marketing activities, saving time and increasing efficiency. Building comprehensive sequences will smooth out your customers' decision-making and purchase journey.

Because of certain preconceptions, and the difficulty of implementing it on your own, email marketing often gets pushed to the sidelines or undervalued. It's worth noting, though, that some of the features it offers provide unique value that you won't find in other marketing channels.

What are the benefits of email marketing for B2B and e-commerce companies?

If you operate in e-commerce, or your company works in a B2B model, email marketing offers unique benefits that will help you better reach customers, meet their needs, and gain an edge over the competition.

Here's what you can gain from email marketing if you run your own store:

• You increase sales – promotional emails, special offers, or product recommendations based on past purchases effectively boost conversion and cart value;
• You reduce cart abandonment– automated emails reminding customers about an abandoned cart are among the most effective tools for winning back lost customers, especially if you add extra value, such as discounts on their next purchase;
• You build customer loyalty – regularly sending valuable content, such as shopping tips, product reviews, or exclusive offers for returning customers, helps build lasting loyalty.

Working in a B2B model? Email marketing can give you:

• Stronger customer relationships – in the B2B sector, where the sales process is often longer and more complex, email marketing lets you maintain regular contact with customers, build trust, and establish your position as an expert in the industry;
• Nurtured leads – with well-planned email campaigns, you can effectively carry out lead nurturing, providing leads with valuable content that helps them make a purchase decision;
• Segmentation and personalization – in B2B, where relevance of communication is critical, email marketing allows you to precisely tailor content to your customers' specific needs.

No matter what industry you're in, as you run your business you come across the email addresses of your customers, partners, and contacts. It's worth putting this marketing channel to work for your business, especially given its very broad reach and its ability to deliver messages directly to the recipient, straight into their inbox.

Wondering how to make the best use of the power of email for your business? Get in touch with us and put your email marketing in the hands of specialists. We'll be happy to advise you on choosing the right strategy, and on which features will help you get satisfying results.

Real-world examples of email marketing for your business

Email marketing can be used in many different ways, depending on your business goals and… your creativity! Below are a few example use cases that can deliver results for your company:

• Promotional campaigns – regularly sending special offers, promotions, and discounts to subscribers effectively boosts sales. It's worth segmenting your customer base here, so you can tailor the offer to their interests.
• Industry newsletters – especially valuable for B2B companies. Regularly sending newsletters with industry news, expert articles, or case studies can help establish your position as a market leader.
• Welcome campaigns – automatically sending a series of welcome messages to new subscribers is a great way to introduce them to your company's offer, present your brand's value, and encourage a first purchase.
• Abandoned cart reminders – in e-commerce, automated messages reminding customers about an abandoned cart can significantly boost conversion rates by reminding customers of their unfinished purchase and encouraging them to complete it.
• Personalized recommendations – based on past purchases, you can send customers emails recommending products that might interest them. This kind of personalized approach increases the likelihood of repeat purchases.

Email Marketing Automation – what is it, how does it work, and why do you need it?

Automation in email marketing is the process of sending emails without human intervention, based instead on specific events, user actions, or predefined rules. In other words, rules and workflows are built as cycles that, once activated, run automatically until certain conditions are met or they're stopped manually. The saying "work smart, not hard" fits perfectly here, because by harnessing the power of automation, you can save a huge amount of time and resources. Email marketing automation lets you deliver the right content, at the right time, to the right recipients, which is the recipe for highly effective marketing.

Email marketing automation makes running email marketing much easier and brings valuable benefits to your business. Through automation, you can achieve:

• Scalability – automation lets you run complex email marketing campaigns at scale, without having to manage every single message by hand;
• Efficiency – automated campaigns run 24/7, meaning emails go out exactly when they're needed most, for example, right after a cart is abandoned, or right after someone registers on your site;
• Higher conversion rates – personalized, dynamic content sent at the right time has much higher open and click-through rates, which translates into higher conversion rates;
• Better funnel building and lead management – in B2B, automation makes lead nurturing much more effective, automating content delivery at different stages of the sales funnel;
• Cost optimization – automation can significantly cut the operating costs associated with manually managing campaigns, which matters especially for larger companies with an extensive customer base.

We're a GetResponse Partner

Everything described in this article is possible thanks to the most advanced email marketing tool we use: the GetResponse platform. It's a complete solution that combines tools for creating and managing email campaigns, marketing automation, landing pages, webinars, and many other features that are invaluable for running effective marketing efforts. Its wide range of capabilities, intuitive interface, and high reliability make GetResponse a dream tool in any marketer's arsenal. As GetResponse Partners, we're able to provide our clients with comprehensive, high-performing, and cost-effective email marketing and email marketing automation solutions.

Summary

Email marketing is a powerful tool that can deliver measurable benefits for any company, regardless of its size or industry. Thanks to what the GetResponse platform offers, along with its advanced automation features, it's possible to run effective, high-performing campaigns that deliver real value, no matter your industry or the type of company you run. If you're not yet using email marketing in your business, now is the best time to change that. Bring email marketing into your strategy and see how it can boost customer engagement and drive sales growth.