Email Marketing 101: A Quick Guide
In 1978, when the first commercial mass email was sent to 393 recipients, promoting the availability of the new model of computer. Ever since then, email marketing has been evolving.
Even though the first-ever email was unsolicited and is now considered the first spam message ever sent, the campaign worked. Despite numerous complaints, it did generate a lot of sales. Some 42 years later, email marketing still rules – as for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average ROI of $42.
Statistics show that today there are 3.9 billion daily email users who check their inboxes every single day, and the number is expected to reach 4.3 billion by 2023. Unlike social media platforms, where people are exposed to all sorts of ads and promotions, email inboxes offer a great deal of control – a simple click and the intruder ends up in spam. To increase the chances of your email campaign being successful, you need to be worthy of entering your recipients’ private space and deserving of their attention.
This quick and easy guide will explain what email marketing is and how to best use it to grow your business.
Let’s begin with the basics.
Build Your List
To begin a campaign, you will need to build your subscriber list, which you’ll be using for your email marketing efforts.
There are many ways you can do this and build your list from scratch. All you need is a valuable incentive that is combined with a simple subscription form that anyone can easily fill in from any device.
As for your incentive, think about what will best match the needs of your target customers. Would it be a first-order discount? A free ebook? Free or express shipping? Maybe high-quality content being delivered to their inbox every week? Use whatever you think suits your audience best, and don’t be afraid to highlight the advantages of becoming a subscriber.
To reap the most benefits of your incentive, make your opt-in form super easy. Your call to action needs to be visible and prominently placed within the body of your email. Don’t bury it in the text – it needs to stand out from the rest of the content.
If you’re adding your existing customers’ email addresses to your database, make sure you have their permission to email them. The fact that they provided their email doesn’t necessarily mean that they want you to send them promotional material.
Segment Your Campaigns
You want to think about the ways you can categorize your subscribers into different segments early on. This way, you will be able to send them only relevant content and offers, thus minimizing the odds of ending up in their spam folder.
Here are some of the most common segmentation strategies:
- Demographics – You can choose to target your prospects depending on their gender, age, education level, or income.
- Geographic location – When the offers and content are related to a particular location, you can make sure the message gets delivered only to those who live there.
- Market – You can segment your campaigns depending on the industry/market your subscribers are most interested in.
- Previous behavior – You can learn a lot about your target customers by their responses to your previous campaigns. Open and click-through rates are a great indicator of engagement, for example, so use this knowledge to segment future campaigns.
- Funnel stage – Send campaigns only to your subscribers based on the funnel stage.
- Customer data – Send highly targeted emails to your existing customers and use all the data you have to personalize them.
While you can segment the list afterward based on data your subscribers provided during the sign-up process, you can also choose to use separate subscription lists and let your potential audience choose the content they want to receive.
Make Sure Your Personalize Your Emails
While segmenting your campaigns can bring as much as a 760% increase in the revenue, adding personalization to the equation will make it even more effective. The trick is in approaching each one of your customers as someone you already know so that your emails feel more engaging and authentic.
One of the basic ways to personalize your emails is by using your customers’ name in the subject line, but personalization goes well beyond this. Based on the data you have, you can personalize the images you use in your emails, as well as your offers and product recommendations, which will help increase click-through rates and conversions.
Use the Power of Automation
Sending effective email campaigns manually – that is, segmenting and personalizing your emails, keeping track of the replies, bounces, and other important KPIs – is doable, but only if there are no more than ten recipients on your list. And even then, it’s quite an ordeal.
Thanks to all the technological advancements, you don’t need to spend your time and energy on these menial and repetitive tasks. Automated email marketing platforms allow you to send campaigns that will perfectly match your target audiences’ needs, without having to worry that you’ve accidentally sent the same message twice, forgotten to reply on time, or used words that will get you right into the spam folder.
All you need to do is set up specific criteria that will trigger the workflows, and the automation tool will help nurture your leads to the final conversion.
Follow Up
Another important email marketing rule is not to give up on your leads too easily. Most of the email marketing newcomers decide to call it quits if they don’t get a reply to the first email they send, out of fear that they’ll be too intrusive.
Unless your recipients have opted to unsubscribe, there is no reason for you not to follow up and give your campaign some time to work. It may take a while to warm up your prospects to take action, whether that means opening your email, clicking on the link, or converting.
Don’t neglect form
Pay attention to how skillfully you craft your subject lines and your copy, ensure your spelling and grammar are always correct, and check whether your email can be easily read on various devices.
If you’re not a sales or marketing expert, make use of the automation tools with predefined templates for different business situations. You can draw inspiration from them, personalize them, and use them for your specific purposes.
Final Word
The very essence of your email marketing success is the unique value you’re bringing to your target audiences’ lives, through their inboxes. Always aim to deliver on your promises and give your customers what they’ve bargained for – top-notch content that will fit their interests, needs, and preferences. Your offer should be a perfectly tailored solution to their problems.