When most people think about the best marketing practices, they often think of calls to action and advertisements to sell a specific product or service. It may surprise companies when they realize developing and strengthening brand awareness without overtly pushing sales is one of the best investments they can make. Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective and impactful ways of getting your customers to continue thinking about your brand and is an excellent tool for both marketing strategies.  

The Benefit of Being Top of Mind  

Although customers often make impulse purchases after seeing a particularly compelling advertisement online or an intriguing product in a store, many customers wait to purchase as they consider it further or research alternatives. Keeping your brand at the top of their mind through your marketing increases the chances they'll choose your product or service, as they will consider you more often. 

Top of mind awareness among consumers means that your brand comes to their minds first when they think or talk about products or services in your industry. You can reinforce this phenomenon by delivering positive customer experiences with your brand. When customers think about your brand ahead of the competition, they are far more likely to buy your products when they purchase, and it allows your company to build trust and gain loyal customers.  

Building Awareness with Email   

Email is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience, and harnessing the power of email marketing can help you form deeper relationships with your customers. When a company uses a reputable email platform for their email marketing, they can view analytics that helps them discover customer preferences in email marketing, which can help you further target your campaigns.  

One top-of-mind marketing strategy is to segment your email list to focus on providing your recipients with value instead of sales pitches. Value can come as helpful tips or free resources, which helps your brand foster a sense of loyalty and trust. Once your recipients are more familiar with your expertise and offerings, you can shift toward appealing to customers emotionally to close more sales.  

The information you have gathered from your segmenting list can help you decide which strategy to appeal most to different groups. Email marketing is an art and a science, but you should keep a few elements of successful email marketing in mind.  

The Elements of Successful Email Marketing  

Small businesses have an advantage over larger corporations regarding email marketing. One of the main benefits of email marketing for small businesses is providing a more personal touch, which increases the odds a recipient will open and read your emails. To make emails more personal and more appealing to consumers, brands should: 

• Write quality subject lines that grab recipients' attention 
• Personalize emails to the customer, so emails appear to come from a person, rather than a mass push
• Provide value for the customer with every email, whether that this industry news or tips and tricks 
• Maintain the stylistic components of your marketing campaign as a whole (color schemes, words, phrases, or icons) 

Email marketing can be a powerful tool when used correctly, but it's far too easy for brands to get lost in the noise of a cluttered inbox and fail to get noticed. However, by using the above elements, your emails stand a better chance of getting opened and read by your customers.  

To really up the ante and increase your campaign's success even further, you can pair your email marketing practices with other forms of advertising. Leveraging multiple forms of marketing makes it easier to achieve top-of-mind status, as customers will recognize your brand across various channels. Digital ads are beneficial in conjunction with email marketing, but even radio, television, or print ads can pack a punch too.   

Consider Enlisting the Help of a Media Partner 

Email marketing is a relatively straightforward concept to most small business owners but can still be tricky when in the thick of it. There are many confusing terms within the email marketing world. Teaching yourself practices like A/B testing and reading email analytics can be challenging if you don't have any previous experience.  

Fortunately, partnering with a quality media partner can take much of the guesswork out for you, helping you skip to the good parts of email marketing: better brand awareness, more loyal customers, and high volumes of sales! If you'd like to achieve top of mind status among your current and potential customers, get in touch with a media partner today.