Effective email marketing campaigns and digital advertising initiatives must look and feel like they’re part of the same campaign. Rather than compete for their customers’ limited attention, they should function as two parts of a larger whole. Though they’ll look and sound similar, each part targets a separate market, covering one another’s weaknesses as they go to work.

Where one option falls short, another picks up the slack. Paid advertisements reach many users who may not care. They generate little interest, if any. Emails reach a smaller audience of opt-in readers, resulting in a much higher conversion rate—that won’t necessarily correspond to higher conversion volume. 

How Emails and Ads Support One Another 

Ads build the volume of emails needed to succeed by gathering potential customers and signing them up for mailing lists. Data collected from these stages allows marketers to “segment” their email list, sorting customers into groups most likely to respond to certain campaigns and offers. 

By default, email notifications recapture failed conversions and abandoned carts. Marketers use this additional information to send readers email-exclusive promotions. This automated yet personalized experience generates demand with relatively little ad spend. Marketers create the rules that machines follow and never need to type and send messages manually, which wastes time and money.

This system is effective if businesses leverage each part's full capabilities. Failing to understand either emails or digital ads will cause both to fail.  

The Difference Between Email Marketing and Digital Advertising 

Though the two work together, they accomplish different goals and follow very different principles. Digital advertising is the next stage of publicly viewable advertising, a custom stretching back thousands of years. On the modern Internet, advertisers pay for a portion of publicly viewable digital space on a website. These spaces promote products and services like billboards and print ads before them—with the added benefit of sound and animation. 

Customer targeting and analytics companies push ads on the highest-quality leads, but websites still show ads to users who are not interested — and then charge for the view. Ads' involuntary, passive presence helps cast a wide net with unfortunately low interest and even lower engagement. 

As a voluntary program, email marketing engages with more trusting consumers. Automated internal analytics lets email marketers segment their audience based on demographics, buying habits, and other key factors rather than relying on external data providers. This segmentation lets marketers present initiatives and deals only to customers likely to convert. 

This counterintuitive reversed reach increases sales despite the lower volume. Customers are more likely to buy when presented with personalized ads. They can identify mass market communication and delete it before reading. Customers appreciate the personal touch that only email can provide—digital advertising directs emails to them. 

How to Seamlessly Integrate Emails and Ads 

When combining email marketing and digital ad campaigns, make them work together. A campaign should present the same information, which clearly comes from the same company, at the same time across channels. That campaign needs a concrete goal to measure its success and be as high-quality as is affordable. 

Coordinated and Consistent Messaging

Presented information should always be consistent and come out at the same time. Never let broad-spectrum advertising reach consumers two days before valued mailing list customers. Everyone relevant should hear about new deals at the same time. The messages should also clearly come from the same company. 

Shared Business Identity 

Though the marketing materials come across multiple channels, they should all be similar. Anyone should be able to tell at a glance that the email or ad comes from the same company and is part of the same campaign. 

All copies should use the same voice and tone. Styling, format, and imagery should all follow a common design philosophy. Colors, patterns, and logos should always match. This consistency builds brand recognition and keeps customers focused on the content instead of its aesthetics. 

Have Clear Goals for Email Marketing Campaign Results 

Before beginning the campaign, determine its goals. What does it hope to achieve? Improved click-through rates, lower email unsubscribe rates, increased repeat purchases? Choose the metrics to measure and review changes over time at regular intervals. 

Create Quality Copy 

Emails and advertisements must capture the reader's attention in a few short words. Content should be brief and content-dense, hooking the reader with relevant information the moment they glance at the page. Any offers available should be featured early and prominently, with language and imagery to match. 

Knowing and following those rules is often challenging. Fortunately, there’s help.  

Work With a Digital Marketing Agency 

In the US, businesses unsure how to start their integrated marketing journey should contact Alan and Company. Its experience marketing SMBs, especially in challenging and life-changing marketing for drug rehabs, makes it the perfect agency for serious businesses with high standards. Start creating and coordinating multichannel marketing campaigns suited for any industry today.