There’s a common thread that is woven throughout businesses that have underperformed over the course of the last four years, and believe it or not, the economy isn’t to blame. Companies continue to sell products using antiquated methods that don’t reach out to their target audience and that aren’t customized to generate leads, but only to make sales. What difference does it make if you’re trying to sell a product if you don’t lure people in first and tell them exactly why they want your product?

In the 21st century, we’ve gone digital, with record sales being achieved by companies like Starbucks, who make big bucks off of digital marketing through social media, their mobile app and their Facebook page. Interestingly enough, Starbucks employs another incredibly clever method when it comes to marketing themselves online, and that is email marketing.

Have you ever had a Starbucks gift card that you’ve registered online? You need to enter your email address to do it, and before you know if you’re sucked into the whirlwind of rewards levels and free birthday drinks. So what does this have to do with your marketing strategy? Everything. Email marketing needs to be an important part of your campaign and provides immeasurable benefits to all types of business in every industry.

Save Money By Obliterating Print Mailers

The majority of print advertisement will make its way to the trash if it isn’t personally addressed to the sender and enclosed in an envelope. For a typical postal mailing, there are costs associated with designing and then printing the mailer. Add on to that additional expenses for postage and envelopes as well as personalized printing, and you can watch your marketing budget slip through your fingers before you even know what happened.

Email marketing allows for the creativity of your design department to shine through, by creating a personalized email advertisement that not only contains the same information that a printed mail out would, but also has active links embedded within its content so that clients can click on parts of the message that will direct them back to your website. Send out an email marketing blast with a promotion on a new item or service or maybe even a buy one get one sale!

Printed copy only accomplishes one task, which is that it gets your clients attention. Direct email marketing however accomplishes several. It is personally delivered to your clients inbox, informs them of important information or promotions and also drives traffic to your website by using active links. Three advantages at a significantly lower cost, or just one at the higher price? The choice is all yours.

Communicate Faster And More Frequently With Your Clients

As we’ve already established, print mailing is costly and can’t be done nearly as often as emails can. A digital marketing agency can customize an email marketing campaign that is geared towards targeting a specific demographic and market. When you send an email, you will know right away if the message has been transmitted or not but with print mailings, you may never find out if you’re even hitting the mark.

Digitizing your marketing schematic means that you can monitor results and create measurable statistics in order to gage the success of your campaign. No company should be without an email marketing strategy if they expect to stay relevant and in touch with their clients. Whether it is generic sales copy that you’re sending out or a call to action like a grand opening or summer sale, email marketing will reach more people in more places where you work and around the globe.

Sean Martin writes about social media, online marketing, advertising and more for the digital marketing agency EAOnlineMarketing.co.uk.