OK, so you’ve probably heard of email marketing — and you’ve definitely been a recipient of it! But are you aware that email marketing is one of the most powerful tools in a business’s marketing toolbox? Read on to learn how you can utilize this potent strategy to grow your business.

First, let’s define email marketing a bit more clearly. You know that email you recently received, promoting the launch of a new product? Or the one reminding you about a limited-time offer that’s about to expire? That’s email marketing. Put simply, email marketing is defined as any business marketing effort involving communication through email. Simple enough, right? So what’s the big deal?

Well, when you look at the stats, the answer becomes clear. Seventy-three percent of consumers say email is their preferred channel for receiving marketing-related communications1. When executed correctly, email marketing can dramatically increase your business’s ROI by building more customized relationships with your customers.

Another important point: Email marketing is more likely to reach its intended audience. Compared with, say, social media marketing, there’s no contest. While social media marketing can be great for reaching first-time customers, email marketing is ideal for building lifelong fans of your business or brand. That’s because, while social media accounts (and platforms) come and go, many consumers retain the same email address or addresses for decades. What’s more, we tend to focus on emails in a way that we’re unlikely to while absentmindedly scrolling through a social media app.

Perhaps more importantly, sophisticated and purposeful email marketing allows you to interact with your customers on a more personal level. It allows you to get to know your audience by communicating directly with them, responding to their inquiries and concerns while keeping them up to date on new offerings.

Here are a few ways to leverage email marketing for your business.

Newsletters: A newsletter is all about keeping your customers in the loop. What that means will look different for each business, but a newsletter provides a great opportunity to share news about your business, product, service or industry. This roundup of information gives customers­ — current and prospective — insight into what’s going on with your brand and reasons for shopping with you. Helpful tip: Make sure the tone of the newsletter matches the vibe of your business. A florist’s newsletter can be bright and fun, while a financial advisor’s newsletter will want to strike a more serious and “trustworthy” tone. It may be worth hiring a copywriter to get the tone exactly right.

Offers or Incentives: Because email is such an effective (and cost-effective!) way to communicate to hundreds — even thousands — of customers at once, email marketing has proven to be an excellent tactic for sharing promotions, incentives and offers. Sending prospective customers an email with an offer or incentive is a great way to get them to engage with your business. Helpful tip: Determine who your most loyal customers are, and send them special offers that show you recognize and reward their loyalty. This is how lifelong fans are cultivated.

Reminders: Email is about harvesting relationships with customers and adding value to their lives. Intentional email reminders can help do just that. An unfortunate fact: Your customers’ lives don’t revolve around your business! For this reason, customers need to be reminded constantly — about items they left in their cart, about when their order ships, about when a sale will be happening or about new product launches. You name it, there’s an effective email-marketing strategy for it! Helpful tip: It’s possible to be too helpful. You’ll want to remain a presence in your customers’ lives, but don’t overload them with reminders.

Blog content: This strategy works similarly to a newsletter. Email marketing can provide a great method for promoting new posts on your business’s blog (such as Acima’s blog — the one you’re currently reading!). This cross-channel marketing can keep your customers engaged in the content they’re interested in. Helpful tip: Use blog-based marketing as a way to bulk out your social media presence! Make sure that your blog, Instagram, Facebook, etc. have a consistent tone and feel, to convey a sense of professionalism and security to the customer.

The Enduring Effectiveness of Email Marketing

In today’s retail landscape, this communication increasingly takes place online ; more customers research and shop digitally now than ever before. To that end, email is a tactic that meets your customers right where they are. And, considering there are more than 3.9 billion email addresses worldwide, there’s never been a better time to put this marketing tactic to use.2

Email marketing allows you to speak directly with customers, tailor communications in ways that feel personal and retain loyalty within your community. This tactic can generate a huge return on investment, help you reach more customers and allow your business to grow larger than you ever dreamed.