When it comes to the buffet that is content marketing, there is a lot you can load your plate up with. There’s blogging, social media, online advertising, and more. Maybe your plan is to pile your plate high with blogging? Maybe your appetite is more tuned towards a healthy dose of social media? No matter what ends up on your plate, always be sure you make room for email marketing.

Sometimes overlooked and questioned, email marketing is an important and relevant tool that, when used along side the previously mentioned tools, is part of a balanced and healthy content marketing diet. But what is it about email that makes it such a darn nice part of your content marketing? Well, here you go.

Email is Personal & Customizable

Not everyone on your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn page is bound to be a hardcore fan of your business or even a customer. Your email list should ideally be filled with previous customers, current customers, and high-quality prospects who made their way on the list because they’ve shown direct interest in your products or services by filling out a contact form, downloading a white paper, or taking advantage of a landing page offer. If your list was purchased, you’ve started the email marketing process out on the worst foot possible and you need to start from scratch.

This single fact about the makeup of your list and the functionality and tools of many email marketing programs can allow you to craft customized, personalized, and focused emails and messages. by including the recipient’s name in the subject line or body, you have almost a 30% better chance at being opened and read. Creating separate lists that receive separate emails and messages more tailored to the list’s interests or needs is a great way to improve the chances of action being taken as well. Knowing your audience will also help you shape the overall style, layout, and content you choose to present.

Email is Extremely Measurable

Email marketing is one of the most easily measurable marketing tools because of the way results are presented and the lack of confusing jargon used to interpret the data. Here’s a quick look at how typical data from an email campaign is presented, in this case from Constant Contact.

Without having to do much head-scratching or interpreting, you can tell exactly how many emails were sent, how many were opened, who clicked through, and, just in case you want to dive in deeper, you can see exactly WHO opened or clicked and WHAT it was they clicked on. This amount of easily accessible data is tremendous as you fine-tune and develop your future campaigns and marketing.

This data can help you learn what to include and what to leave out to drive the highest level of interaction possible. And, with the A/B subject line testing available on most email marketing tools, you can even find out exactly what kind of headlines drive the most action. This level of information isn’t just applicable in email marketing, but is also useful across all levels of your content marketing.

Email is Action Oriented

Social media and blogging can be used for a variety of purposes like building a community or showcasing your business personality. For the most part, however, emails are directly designed and distributed for one reason: action. At the core of just about every email is a push for the reader to take an action.

Read This NOW. Contact Us NOW. Get This Coupon/Offer NOW. Download This NOW. Buy This NOW. Forward This NOW. Respond to This NOW. Schedule Service NOW.

Email is the place you go when you want someone to do something. And since your email list is mostly current and former customers in addition to some high quality leads, your chances of those actions being taken is greatly increased.

Emails & Auto Response Campaigns Constantly Keep You in Front of People

Some days, your followers may not be on Facebook or Twitter and your content won’t be seen. Sometimes those pesky algorithms will just flat out keep your content out of their timeline. Point being, left to the whims of the cruel digital gods, your content won’t always be seen. However, email marketing has the luxury of not having to fight any algorithms or timelines. Every time you send an email, it goes directly to the recipient’s inbox, and there is no hiding from it.

Maybe they will be too busy to open it right that second (or ever), but it is still going to be there and seen with their eyes, whether they choose to open it or not. The subtle power of constantly staying in people’s minds is amazing at converting leads into customers and driving repeat business from past customers. And, with auto response campaigns that can regularly send out emails at set intervals – every week, every few weeks, monthly, or whatever you want, you can make that presence even more consistent with specific and timely messages.