You heard it here first. Run with this idea and you can say in 2017 that you were one of the ones who made money with this digital marketing trend. If you (or your digital marketing company) apply this knowledge you have the chance to explode your marketing success because so many of your competitors will either neglect it, misuse it, misunderstand it, or just plain overlook it as a key to profit. It is contained in just two words: Email marketing.

One of the reasons we think that digital marketing company account managers and marketers don’t embrace email marketing is that they don’t understand what it can do for them. We created this mini intro to showcase email’s power. Talk to your agency and get them onboard if they aren’t already. And if you are already driving customers to conversion using email – that’s great, and there’s always room for improvement. Email is not dead, it is just misunderstood. Implement these tips in 2016 and watch your customer base and your profits balloon by 2017.

1) You have to grow your email list. Put an email sign-up box on your website. Ask your digital marketing company to help with this if you don’t already have a sign up. Promote your email offers on social media to get people to join your list. There are tons of other ways to grow your list. Each month add a few more. Build your email audience every chance you get. A great way is at live events. Have people provide their email address so they get on the list to receive exclusive offers.

2) The email subject line is crucial. People rarely open emails without a subject line. Even if you have created a powerful subject line, ensure that it is not too salesy, as it may land in your recipients’ spam folder. It will take some testing but your digital marketing company should be tasked with perfecting this so they entice people to open your message and read it.

3) Social media sharing is key when managing email campaigns. The point to an email offer is not to have it die in the hands of one person. Of course you want the recipient to act on your offer, but you also want them to share it so it has the chance to reach even more like-minded people. Include those sharing buttons in your email messages!

4) Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Succeed! Email is one of the best vehicles for providing insights into your audience. You can segment your list to send out offers to specific groups of customers. You can analyze stats to see what messages resonate with your recipients. All of these insights go way beyond open rates. Hire a digital marketing agency that understands how to mine email data for customer insights.

Email, dead? Far from it. It is the most underutilized marketing tool out there, and you can make it your marketing secret weapon for 2016. Talk to your digital marketing company today about how you can make the most of email marketing. Or contact us now and see how we can create an email campaign for you.