Email marketing is one of the most lucrative marketing channels. However, aside from visual design and copywriting, it requires a strategic mix between testing, measurement, and automation to be successful. This article will cover all aspects of email marketing and help you get started.
It's rare to receive a handwritten, physical letter from a friend. But it's 100x rarer to receive an email with a promotion that you enjoy. Email campaigns aren't dead. It's saturated and, more often than not, not executed well. Email preferences are one of the most lucrative marketing channels. Marketers estimate that it sends out over 144 billion emails each day. What makes email marketing so lucrative? We will discuss all aspects of email marketing metrics so you can not only understand them but also become an expert in email marketing to generate more revenue for your company.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a direct marketing strategy that promotes a company's products and services via email. Email communication allows you to send information directly to your customer experience without the need for an intermediary.
Owning your own distribution channel is a valuable asset in a world where digital advertising is rising and organic social media marketing is becoming increasingly difficult.
Email Marketing: The History
Ray Tomlinson, an engineer, sent the first test email in 1971. Larry Roberts created the first email management system that allowed users to forward, select, and respond rates to emails. Gary Thuerk created the first email blast in 1978. According to reports, it generated $13million in sales. AOL's iconic sound bite "You've Got Mail" was launched in 1989.
The email was popularized in the 1990s, and we still use it as an email today. Microsoft created Internet Mail in 1998. It later became Outlook. Hotmail, the most widely used and accessible form of digital communications, was also launched that year.
HTML was introduced in 1998, which allowed email marketers to enhance the visuals and user experience. As internet speeds improved, HTML allowed marketers to add fonts and graphics to their emails. Responsive emails were created in 2009 to optimize emails for mobile, desktop, and tablet devices. This article will explain why responsive emails are important.
Does Email Marketing Still Work?
Email is important to businesses today, contrary to headlines like "email dead" or "email is dead". It is one of the most cost-effective and delivers incredible ROI. It is a great channel to establish direct relationships with your audience and drive traffic to your featured posts.
There are many ways to segment, design, and compose email messages. Let's explore how to effectively manage an email marketing campaign.
These are the 4 types of email marketing
Email segmentation can be sent out on multiple occasions to promote a product or service. Marketers often create automated email flows that can be triggered by actions and timing. These bulk emails can use a variety of email formats that can be easily divided into these four categories.
1. Email Newsletters
They provide updates and news on a regular basis, to engage your email list. This is an easy way to grow your email list without having to push a sales message.
2. Emails for Acquisition
Email services are called acquisition emails to focus on sales and provide information about your value to convince prospects to buy from you. Your ultimate goal is to get leads down the conversion funnel quicker and more targeted.
3. Retention emails
Retention emails can be used to re-engage cold leads and people who have not heard from you for a while. If the opportunity presents itself, retention emails can be used to spark interest and even push prospects into buying. They can come in many forms, including:
Revival emails to re-engage the churned customer relationships
Cross-sell emails, renewals, and upsell to increase your sales to existing customer engagement and increase their purchase frequency.
Retention emails for product users that increase satisfaction and usage.
4. Promotional emails
Promo email marketing tools can be used to promote your product or service by presenting a compelling offer or new product offering to get prospects to buy or subscribe. This valuable content strategy can be used to cross-sell or upsell products to potential customers.
How to Create an Effective Email Marketing Strategy
Although sending unlimited emails is easy, running an effective email marketing campaign can be difficult. It is important to identify ways to collect the most relevant email addresses, create the best-personalized content, and then deliver it to the correct audiences at the right times. Here's how.
Step 1: Create an email list
Building an audience is the first, and perhaps the most difficult step in building an email marketing campaign. You will need to begin collecting email marketing services in the following ways if you don't already have one.
Sign-up forms can be created on your blog or website to receive newsletter updates, discounts, and/or relevant content updates.
Allow an exit-intent popup to be enabled on your website. It asks visitors to enter their email addresses to receive an offer.
In return for unlimited contact list information, you can offer exclusive content, such as an ebook or long-form article.
Create a viral campaign to encourage people to sign up for your email clients and get an early look at your product. Gamifying the process with a visual leaderboard can help increase performance.
You can convert your social media platforms by driving them to a squeeze site that provides value and captures email addresses.
Step 2: Segment your Audiences and Target them
Once you have identified an audience, it is important to make sure you are sending the right message at the right time to them. This is where CRM software can come in handy. Your sales team might have additional information about the loyal customer loyalty or lead, such as their behavior and where they are in your sales funnel. Segmented audiences will improve open rates and increase ROI because they can be targeted at the issues they face. There are many ways to segment your audience, but these are the four easiest:
Segment according to industry. Where are they employed? What is their annual salary? What are their core business problems?
Segment based on company size. What is the organizational structure of their organization? Who are the top decision-makers?
Segment by geography Is the email template required to be translated? What language should the email use? When is the best time for this email to be sent?
Segment by funnel stage. Is this segment close to purchasing? When was the last time they were contacted? Which part of the sales funnel does he or she sit in?
Segment based on user behavior. A user engagement visited your pricing page. Are they logged in but have not opened the product within the past 24 hours? Are they reducing the frequency with which they log in?
Step 3: Create the perfect email subject lines
The email provider is both an art and a science. Sometimes, even the most clever email subject lines are not as effective as one that is more simple and more straightforward. Email marketing is an iterative process, which requires lots of A/B testing.
Your open rates are one of the key KPIs in email performance. Well-written subject lines can directly impact your open rate. There is no one best practice, but here are some things to remember:
- Keep it short. We recommend a minimum of 9 words and a maximum of 60 characters
- Don't use filler words, and don't be afraid of breaking grammatical rules
- You must avoid spelling errors to maintain credibility. Trust is everything.
- Personalize the subject line using their name and company. Use all caps. Draw curiosity!
To help you get started, you might consider using an email subject-line tester or generator.
The pre-header is the part of your email that appears right after the subject line. To entice recipients into opening your email deliverability, the pre-header should be written in the same way as your subject line.
Step 4: Add the Elements of a Good Experience for Email Users
How can you make a good email great? These are the principles that will guide you.
Make scannable. Is it possible to quickly scan through an email and take in all the relevant information in a matter of seconds?
Be mobile users responsive. Is it easy to read your email on mobile? Is it between 25-30 characters long? If so, you should use a preheader text and concise copy. Also, make sure that images are easy to load.
Use a clear CTA. Are you clear in your question? Do you want to promote a blog post article? Are you trying to get readers to download an application? No matter what your goal is, make sure your CTA is front and center.
Step 5: Test emails and optimize their CTR
Many email marketing platforms now offer A/B (multivariate) testing powerful tools, which allow you to test multiple versions of the same email. These are the best methods to test them.
One variable at a given time will yield greater results. You won't be able to determine the driving force of a variable if you test too many.
You should have a clear KPI for testing. Do you want to test open, click, or bounce rates? You can choose one at a given time.
Litmus, an email QA platform that ensures your emails are available on all devices, is a great way to make sure they do.
You can also run the test to a random test audience, which is large enough to achieve statistical relevance.
Step 6: Email marketing automation
Email marketing automation refers to the sending of emails in a particular sequence that is based on specific rules. This encourages recipients to take an action.
If someone signs up for a newsletter, and you want to know more about them, you can send a series of automated emails that direct to a downloadable resource. The form requires the user to complete additional information. You can automate follow-up emails for sales teams based on whether a reader opened an email or not within a specified time.
Email Automation: The Benefits
Personalization increases: Automation improves your relationships with your audience by automatically tailoring messaging based on their activity on your site or how they interact with your emails.
Scale output allows marketing teams to send more emails and not have to repeat redundant tasks. It is easy to create an email sequence that follows a set of repeatable and tested rules.
Increase retention: Automate follow-ups to ensure you are communicating with customers effectively.
Different types of Email Marketing Automation Software
Email software is complex, expanding, and very large. This chart shows that email technology can be anything from software to ensure your emails get delivered to all your email lists to more complex tools for designing email content.
The complete list of email software will be left for another article. Let's focus on email marketing automation software. This software allows marketers to send timed and triggered emails to their subscribers. This software often offers tools for complex workflows, personalization, and design tools. These features are available and priced according to the size of your business goals. These are the top email automation software for business owners of all sizes:
- Small to Medium Business (SMB)
- B2B (Business to Business)
- Enterprise
Wrapping it All
Marketers are taking advantage of one of the most lucrative channels, with over 144 million emails being sent each day. Email marketing requires more than just copywriting and graphics. It also requires a strategic mix of measurement, testing, and automation in order to be successful.
Email marketing has many technical aspects. These include deliverability, inbox placements, and sender IP management. You can also avoid being labeled a spam folder by sending relevant emails to the correct recipients. To help you get started, it's a good idea to consult an agency, consultant, or freelancer who specializes in email.
Now that you know how to create a successful email strategy, you can go out and start building one. You can produce newsletters, acquisition, retention, promotional, and other emails. But remember to always test!
