Businesses involved in marketing skin care products directly to consumers may be surprised to learn that social media is not the preferred channel for capturing new business. According to a recent report from Custora, a predictive analytics agency, email is more effective than social media networks for this direct marketing purpose. To capture new business, skin care marketers should go back to the basics and refresh their email campaigns.
This survey analyzed data provided by 72 million shoppers visiting 86 different retailer websites. It revealed a quadrupling of customer acquisition via email since 2009. Organic search results were the most effective tool for businesses acquiring new customers, responsible for 16 percent of this new business.
Direct marketing via email was responsible for 7.5 percent of all acquired customers. Social media results were far less impressive. While customers who discovered a brand through an organic search were 54 percent more likely to stick with this brand than the average customer was, customers acquired via Twitter were 23 percent less likely to remain loyal to a brand.
Email is a unique online marketing tool because it is not tied to a particular platform. Regardless of when people were born, where they live, or what language they speak, many of them have email addresses and they can use these to contact any other email address anywhere in the world. When using email to acquire new customers, a company should make the content stand out. A long subject line that provides an overview of the message and does not include “spammy” words is most effective.
The goal of most marketing efforts is to convert prospects and former customers into loyal buyers. By tracking results of email marketing campaigns for skin care products, advertisers can determine the effectiveness of these efforts. Marketers can also use these metrics to refine email marketing strategies to meet consumer needs and desires. Tracking behavior of a new customer helps a business reap the most benefit from that individual and discover how to get more customers just like him or her.
Email marketing should also be used as a listening tool. When marketing skin care products through email, businesses should test different approaches such as sending a one-day sale email early in the morning and again in the middle of the day to remind consumers that time is limited. If consumer response exceeds expectation, the marketer will know that the strategy worked.
