It may be a bit out of style, but it is certainly not out of here. Email marketing still has some clear advantages over the new ways of online advertising. In fact, there is more to email than many might think. A new report published by Custora shows that email crushes social media marketing when it comes to increasing sales. Over the last four years, the number of customers acquired by email has quadrupled, reaching 7 % over the past two years. In comparison, Facebook and Twitter have barely registered any sales in the same period of time.

“Custora came up with its figures by analyzing data from 72 million customers shopping on 86 different retailer sites. They tracked where customers were clicking from (email, Twitter, Google, etc.) and what and how much they bought, not just on that visit, but for the next two years”, explains Wired.com. author Marcus Wohlsen.

So, yes, email customers are nearly 11 percent more valuable than the average. Just in case you haven't thought of these already, here are 5 ways for boosting your email online sales, to catch up with all the businesses that are already focusing on e-marketing first:

1. Communicate, communicate

Without over doing it, email is a great way to keep your customers informed on any news your company might want to offer them : new store developments, promotions or new stock. The main advantage from sending information through email is that, if valuable, it can be kept and re-read after a long period of time. Use this advantage and give your customers structured, secure, long lasting data that they can access any time.

2. Get valuable feedback

One important asset in using email to connect to your customers is getting valuable feedback from the persons receiving your messages. Even if you don't conduct surveys through email, customers can still reach you quickly and easily, asking questions about your services, soliciting directions, complaining or simply requesting price offers. Answer all your emails quickly, in 1-2 hours maximum time.

3. Offer rewards for your VIP customers

You know who they are, that's the best news. You've emailed them 100 times, so use this opportunity to email them once more. Offer VIP customers different types of rewards and promotions through email. Not only will they stick to your brand but they might also tell others about your reward system.

4. Recover dormant customers

Which are never too far away through email. Even though they appear to be dormant, many customers will immediately react to a well written newsletter.

5. Segment your audience and monitor your results

Email offers you the opportunity to have all data stored into this one place. The details provided to the email provider can turn out to be useful for segmenting your audience and monitoring your campaigns' results. Use Jentla's reports to see the total number of email subscribers, unsubscribers, but also the most accessed pages on your website and the number of unique and return visitors.