While many people mistake EDM marketing and email marketing as the same thing, the reality is that advertising via email is a big term that covers many tactics.
Technically speaking, every email sent directly to a client or customer can be considered as a form of email marketing. When applied in commerce settings, the term is usually used to describe a commercial email that contains text, image, flyer or even a meme, and sent on behalf of a business to an individual or group of customers.
There’s a high chance that you’ve probably been a recipient of a form of email marketing. Abandoned shopping carts, price drops, or availability changes are all common tactics used by e-commerce outlets, while service based small businesses will often use this strategy to send out a weekly or monthly newsletter to check in with their client base.
For business owners looking to harness this resource, many presume that email marketing and EDM marketing are one in the same. In reality, the latter is technically an extension and expansion of the former.
How EDM Marketing Differs From Email Marketing
The concept of email marketing is actually pretty simple – use subscriptions to generate a list of users to target, draft an email promoting your message, product or service, send that email out in bulk, and hope that it motivates the reader enough for them to take action.
Although email marketing was one of the very first digital strategies used to connect with customers once the internet arrived, many brands have shied away from using it, with some digital marketing strategists even declaring the practice as “dead” when compared to newer and flashier marketing techniques.
However, the numbers say otherwise. According to research published by marketing giant HubSpot, email marketing generates $42 for every $1 spent. With a gobsmacking 4200% return on investment, it would seem that email marketing isn’t a form of advertising that’s on its way out after all.
It’s also worth noting that email marketing is one of the most powerful tactics to deploy when it comes to boosting your customer retention rate. As an example, you’re 70% more likely to close an existing customer, as opposed to 5 to 20% for new prospects. Audiences who have purchased from you before are already familiar with your brand, and are also more likely to spend more now that they trust you.
When you’re ‘pitching’ to a potential new client, it takes time and resources. In comparison, doing business with an existing client cuts out a lot of the ‘selling’ as they know what they’re signing up for. In turn, having a solid base of return customers also helps to cut down on expenses, with email marketing being one of the best methods to help get you there.
Today, options for email marketing are vast and varied. As technology has progressed, so has the quality of content and options for personalisation. In fact, EDM marketing – or electronic direct mail – is a ‘spin off’ of email marketing that covers every angle of a customer’s journey, and increases the number of potential touchpoints.
EDM marketing also generally uses a third party software tool to not only formulate, customise and personalise the emails in question, but also has a big focus on CRM, or customer relationship management.
CRM and EDM marketing tools use automation to identify relationships between customers and their actions, and use this data to generate time sensitive emails to them based on their user journey. If you were looking for a new dress online, added it to your shopping cart but didn’t end up actually purchasing it, it’s not uncommon for the website to use EDM marketing to send you an email to not only remind you that you didn’t buy the item, but for them to also suggest similar options based on your shopping habits.
While mastering an in-depth EDM marketing strategy is usually much more advanced than traditional email marketing methods, they do have one thing in common: content is king. Just 22% of people actually open an email from a business out of the blue, so what you choose to include in that text is crucial. According to industry leader Campaign Monitor, average email benchmarks for all sectors are as following:
- Average open rate – 18.0%
- Average click-through rate – 2.6%
- Average click-to-open rate – 14.1%
- Average unsubscribe rate – 0.1%
Although it’s often worth promoting a sale or a discount on your products or services, if you inform your customers on too many of them, then it loses its effect. To avoid being the boy that cried wolf and losing your client’s interest, keep these to a minimum and only promote the big ones. In addition, try to include content that adds value to your customer’s day, such as informative blog resources that include how-to guides, FAQs and even list based articles.
When email marketing is paired with dynamic retargeting across social media and a strong blog on your website, you’re going to be at the forefront of consumers’ minds when they think of a particular product or service – which is ultimately the end goal for any business owner.
However, forming an all encompassing strategy like this isn’t easy for the inexperienced, which is why a growing number of brands are choosing to outsource to the professionals – but where do you find them?
The Key To Good Marketing Is Great Content
Here at Content Hive, producing top quality digital content is exactly what we do best. We have itemised a list of digital content services, and allocated credits next to each of these. This means that each month, you can use your credits with us to produce digital content such as blog articles, social media posts, videos and even animated Instagram stories. By using this model, we believe that it enables us to produce high quality content with faster delivery times.
If you aren’t quite sure where to start on your digital marketing journey and would like to speak to a professional, why not book in a free discovery call with us at Content Hive today to discuss how we can get your brand buzzing online.
