What is Email Marketing?
Email is one of the oldest forms of digital communication, but it's also one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies.
There are many newer ways to communicate with customers and your audiences, such as live chat and social media platforms. Email is still the most popular marketing channel with over 4.5 billion users. Email marketing also has an ROI of $36 per dollar, so it is a worthy toolbox addition.
Email marketing remains the most effective channel for marketing, surpassing Search Engine Optimization, social media, and affiliate marketing.
Why? Why is this technology still the best marketing strategy despite all the hype surrounding new channels?
Although this post is quite long, it's well worth the effort. This post will cover tips and strategies to build an email list, create transactional emails that users love, design automated campaigns, and track your efforts.
Email Marketing Fundamentals
Let's start with the basics before we get into the strategies that you will use to leverage and build email marketing. These tips will allow you to maximize your email marketing campaign. We'll get into the next.
- Stay Human. Email marketing has become very popular, which means it is highly competitive. Email marketing allows you to communicate directly with your potential customers, using their names and letting them know the human side of your brand.
- Use engaging titles, but don't bait and switch: It is important to increase email open rates by using interesting subject titles. However, keep them on the topic and not spammy. Users who feel cheated are more likely to unsubscribe from your email list or mark your message spam, which can impact deliverability.
- Keep your messages short: Most email is read via a mobile device. So keep your copy brief and to the point. If you have a lot of information to share, direct users to a landing page or blog post.
- Add CTAs to the Top and Bottom: CTAs should always be included above the fold on landing pages. For email, you can use the same strategy by adding strong CTAs after each paragraph and at the end.
- Get Permission to Deliver on Your Promises Never purchase email lists. This is illegal and will not deliver ROI. You should always offer great content and deals.
You are a guest in their Inbox
People are bombarded with pitches and interruptions everywhere they turn. Although you might believe your email is unique, the reader will see it as one in a million. It is important to have good manners. It's like inviting someone to your home for dinner by getting into their inbox. Respectfully take off your shoes if they ask. You should treat their email inbox the same way. They can invite you into their lives at any time and ask you to leave. Be polite and keep in mind that you are a guest in their inbox.
Let's now talk about building your strategy from scratch.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies. This is due in large part to its effectiveness. Quite intuitive and often automated. It can also be used to support other marketing initiatives such as lead generation and sales.
Three essential components are required for an effective email marketing campaign:
1. An email list
An email list is a collection of subscribers who have consented to receive emails from you.
An active and engaged email list is essential for successful email campaigns.
There are many methods to build an email database. One way to build an email list is by creating a lead magnet (also known as an offer), that your target audience is interested in, such as a coupon. In exchange for their email addresses.
2. An email service provider
Email service provider (ESP), also known as an email marketing platform, is software that manages your email list. It can also help design and execute automated email campaigns.
An ESP allows you to set up automatic triggers for specific actions. For example, if a user adds a product to their cart but doesn't checkout, an ESP will send a reminder. These triggers allow you to personalize interactions which increases engagement and open rate.
3. Clearly Defined Goals
Email can be used to help you reach a wide range of business goals.
- drive sales
- Increase brand awareness
- Leads can be generated and nurtured
- keep customers engaged
- Increase customer loyalty and lifetime value
Your email list, ESP, and goals need to align in order to execute an email marketing campaign that works. Once you have this alignment, it's time to get to work.
Segmenting your marketing email list based on subscriber actions or demographics is the first step.
Next, create an email series or email series that will encourage consumers to take action (your goal).
Send promotional emails to your ESP and track the campaign automatically.
The Advantages and Disadvantages Of Email Marketing
Email marketing is just like any other channel for marketing. There are pros and cons to it. Let's take a look at some of the most important ones.
Email Marketing: The Advantages
Email marketing has many benefits. These are only a few benefits that you should keep in mind.
Email is Permission-based
It's like being granted the keys to your house if a customer trusts that you have their email address. Engagement and conversion rates are higher when you have permission to enter than if you just show up uninvited.
Direct Access to Your Audience
It is possible to communicate with subscribers at their convenience. Your message will be more visible because people check their email subscribers multiple times per day.
Email Offers More Control
You don't own most marketing platforms. All your hard work will be lost if the platform stops functioning. Your reach may be severely reduced if Facebook or Google changes their algorithm.
The email program is your tool for building relationships with your subscribers.
More Personalization Capabilities
You can use psychographic or demographic data to create hyper-targeted and personalized campaigns. Segmented and personalized campaigns can increase revenue as high as 760 percent, according to research.
Measure Your Success
Automated email marketing makes it easy to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
Scalable
Email marketing campaigns are easy to scale with your audience without compromising quality or straining your resources.
The Disadvantages Of Email Marketing
Email is not all sunshine and roses. There are some disadvantages that you need to be aware of. A great strategy can help reduce the adverse effects of such things as:
Tough Competition
It can be difficult to stand out in an inbox full of junk mail. To ensure that your emails are opened, you'll have to be creative.
Do You Need an Email Database
Email marketing requires that you have an existing email list in order to make your campaigns effective. It can be difficult and time-consuming to build an email list.
There are many rules and regulations to navigate
There are many laws that govern email use for commercial purposes. The GDPR, CANSPAM, and CCPA are some of the most common examples. These laws prohibit businesses from sending unsolicited emails and provide guidelines for data storage.
Some subscribers may report your emails as spam, even though they have subscribed. Your sender's reputation can suffer as a result.
Delivery and Delivery Issues
Delivery is not guaranteed. Spam filters are used by many email providers, such as Gmail and Outlook. You must address delivery and deliverability issues in order to run email marketing campaigns that are effective.
How to Automate Email Marketing
Although the automation process will vary by ESP, there are a few common steps that you can follow when automating it.
Define Your Email Segments
List segmentation is the key to effective campaigns. To group subscribers, use the data you have about them. This will allow you to create more personalized campaigns.
This data could include, depending on who you are talking to:
- Your website can collect behavioral data.
- Demographic data such as age, gender, and location.
- They are interested in topics that matter to them.
Efficient and Designable Email Series
After segmenting your email list, it's time to design a series. This is a set of emails that accomplish the campaign's objectives.
Find the Right Triggers
Once you have created your workflow, decide what actions will trigger the next email. Customers can click on a link or open your email.
Your email triggers may look something like the following depending on your goals:
- Sign up for your email list. Send a welcome email with a coupon, and other popular items.
- After one week, send a second email to promote new arrivals.
- Subscriber visits your women’s clothing section. Send an email to promote a new collection.
- Subscriber adds an item to their cart but does not convert. Send an email reminder and a 10% discount coupon.
This example is meant for an ecommerce business. However, similar series can be created for nurturing leads or promoting courses, as well as driving traffic to your website.
Best Email Marketing Strategies
You need to create strategic campaigns if you want to succeed with email. These are the top strategies that you can use.
The Right Email List Building Strategies
Your email marketing campaigns will be successful if your list is quality. List-building strategies that target your audience are essential to building a list.
A case study that is promoted on LinkedIn might help a B2B brand to build a list, but it would fail if used by a B2C company.
Here are some examples of list-building strategies that work:
- Offer a coupon
- Create a downloadable asset
- Hosting a webinar
Good Email List Hygiene
Good email list hygiene is another important strategy for email marketing. Your sender's reputation will be improved by removing inactive subscribers or incorrect email addresses.
Send an email to subscribers that have not opened your emails and ask them if they are still interested. If they don't respond, you can remove them from your mailing list.
Keep your List Warm
To keep your subscribers interested (warm), send regular emails. Frequent emailing can lead to subscribers forgetting who they are and low conversion rates.
You can run paid ads to reengage subscribers who have gone cold.
One Goal
Each campaign and email should have a single purpose. Email marketing is not about trying to kill multiple birds with one stone. This confuses your audience and decreases your conversion rates.
Track and Define the Right KPIs
It takes more than just sending emails every few weeks to your subscribers. You must monitor the results of your campaigns to determine which strategies work. This means tracking and defining the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are most relevant to your campaigns.
Your KPIs may vary depending on your goals.
- Open rates
- click-through-rates
- sales
- blog traffic
- Unsubscribe rate
Conclusion
It's time for you to rethink your email marketing strategy if you have been neglecting it or setting your strategy on autopilot. Marketers who learn how to properly use email marketing can reap huge rewards. It doesn't need to be difficult.
Remember that you are a guest in your subscribers' inboxes. One-click away, you could lose their attention forever. You can be polite, respectful, or provide value. It is important to keep your promises. Give people what they want and send them emails regularly to meet their expectations.
There is no one formula to increase email automation. It all comes down to your voice and the style of your company. Once you have mastered the basics, you can move on to email segmentation or analytics. You can send separate emails to different groups in order to deliver more useful emails.
