When it comes to emails, our minds cringe at the fact that we have so many unread emails and you remind yourself every day waking up “I need to take care of that”, I know I do.
But you’d be surprised to know that this is defined as the act of establishing a relationship with customers by sending emails where they make people aware, show options to consider regarding their products.
So scroll down what exactly email marketing is, and how to get started.
1. What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a practice in a business where potential clients or customers have reached out via emails about for example features of a new product or feedback surveys after a shopping experience or for newsletter subscription for the future. According to the statista reports, the total number of email users recorded in the year 2019 was 3.9 billion. Hang on; we’re just getting started, according to the predictions of the same report, emails users are said to rise to the number of 4.3 billion by the year 2023!
That is almost half of the population around the world. Need I say more?
2. What are the main objectives of email marketing?
Apart from having a huge audience, one can target, email marketing sure has its perks. First of all, it takes the lowest investment one can afford or practically nothing and is so easy to maintain. With precise and measurable results, email marketing is now becoming a staple in the marketing business. And not to mention with huge ROI (an average of $42 for every dollar you spend) one would be really out of their minds not to consider email marketing at all.
But before we learn how to build an email marketing campaign, we need to figure out our needs, the “why” to get this right.
Email marketing has a few objectives as follows:
⦁ Awareness
⦁ Promotion
⦁ Take care of the existing client relationship
⦁ Assessment
2.1. Awareness
General awareness about a particular brand or a product or any type of business happens with a nice warm welcome mail. This is how a user or a client is made aware of the brand and knows how the business works with the information shown.
2.2. Promotion
With enticing emails projecting new features and new launches, email marketing sure has become the next “IT" thing in the business circles. A successful business always makes sure promotion is done right; email marketing is a medium no one would miss. Right from new upcoming events or webinars or any new big thing, a business needs clients or customer’s attention; email marketing is one good choice for you.
2.3. Taking care of existing client
For a business to make it big, one can never call it a day by just focusing on scoring new clients every time. Like any successful relationship, the customer/client relationship also needs work and effort. Sending feedback surveys, polls, sales and discounts in case of sales or announcements or new launches in case of B2B businesses. Email marketing is needed to strengthen and nurture the existing established relationship with your clientele.
2.4. Assessment
Now with all efforts, one makes, you also need to check what is working and what you need to get rid of. There are many metrics in email marketing which helps sellers or business finding their unique selling propositions (USP’s). Some of the metrics are as follows:
⦁ Email list size – the number of people or subscribers in your list.
⦁ Open rate – the percentage of total numbers of times a link was opened.
⦁ Click-through rate (CTR) – the percentage of clicks on the link.
⦁ Unsubscribe rate
These metrics tell you how well your email marketing is going on. Although, the importance of these metrics can change depending upon the type of business as well overall these are some of the ones that really matter. These metrics give you a vision of the areas to be improved.
For example, the click-through rates are low, which means that the message is not targeted strongly enough or if open rates are low then the relationship between you and the client needs more work.
Now that we got the purpose and the objectives of email marketing, here’s a step by step approach to get started with email marketing.
3. Step by step guide to activate your email marketing campaign
There are many ways to get started when it comes to email marketing campaigns. Here we will be discussing the methods apt for most of the types of businesses.
Below are a few methods.
⦁ Plan
⦁ Getting the email template
⦁ Segmentation and email analytics
⦁ Reviews and tests
3.1. Plan
Before we get all overwhelmed about how to start email marketing, planning your email marketing campaign really helps. As said by the renowned author of five successful books on the business including digital marketing Dave Chaffey,
“You need a strategy with your email marketing and your marketing automation. Driving prospects down the funnel won’t happen by accident. You need a planned project to map out all the different potential customer touchpoints and when you can potentially send emails, and then to build them in.”
Having a goal on why you need email marketing and what kind of audience you want to target is vital for your marketing campaign. Strategizing email marketing in a way to match the customer’s needs is important as well.
Planning in email marketing also involves figuring out unique selling points (USP’s) of your product or businesses and how the email marketing will be projected to your audience. Apart from the client's needs, one should plan the key performance indicators (KPI’s) so that testing out new strategies becomes easier as well as figuring out the areas that need more work.
Having a plan makes it easier to push things to get done and manoeuvre easily when it comes to handling problems along the way. But while planning out, one should also be practical and have attainable goals like Increase clientele by 15% by the end of the month, Increase sales by 30% by 6 months etc.
3.2. Getting the email template
Choosing an email template depends on what your business goals are. The email template can be built by tools and software (we got a list down below) or you could hire graphic designers, email marketing specialists who can guide you. The template should have the following:
⦁ Catchy header subject line and footer line
⦁ Enticing body of the email
3.2.1. Catchy header subject line and footer line
Having a catchy header and subject line makes a real difference when it comes to email marketing. Using a humanized tone establishes a good relationship with the clientele. According to the statistics in the Yes Lifecycle Marketing, 2017, states using personalized subject lines increases the open rates by 50%.
Using the name of the subscriber with appropriate salutations adds value to the email. While signing up, always have the customer fill in details for the right greeting. Also never forget to use a proper “from” address as well; this makes the email a little more personal.
3.2.2. Enticing body of the email
After sorting out header and footer lines, we need to focus on the main material in the body of the email.
The main body needs to be precise and short with messages to be conveyed. Using images, how to-s, infographics or videos would add an advantage to the email. According to the reports by Martech advisors in 2017 adding videos to emails increased CTR’s by 300%. Along with that, the email should have proper structure for sharing across other mediums as well.
With mobile devices used more in this hi-tech age, the content needs to be mobile-friendly. With small screens, it would really frustrate people when the page is not at all compatible with their phones.
The page should have proper placement of the unsubscribe option and call to action button. One can use a nice short story or something informative to get the customer curious to know more. And as per the spam regulations in the country, the unsubscribe button should be present so that the person can get remove themselves from the mail recipient list.
Having a discount code or promo code informing the client of the features he’ll get on subscribing or getting a membership would really help in the case of sales marketing.
3.3. Segmentation and email analytics
Once having the whole email template is ready, it is important to consider the audience to be targeted now. There are a few practices one should practice when it comes to email marketing, and one of the important practices is segmenting the email recipient’s list. By dividing or segmenting the email list to potential clients, subscribers, and so on would help you to focus on each area without tiring yourself out. Handling a set of clients is easy, but if the list grows, segmentation is really helpful in handling a large number of people.
In email marketing, there are various types of clients/customers one will come across, some join to get the latest news, or for a few free products. So one must plan accordingly and place their emails to their client base. Providing options to choose from is how one can segment the customers.
Email analytics like click-through rates, open rates, unsubscribe percentages and KPI’s help you analyze the areas where more work is required. This analytics help figuring out one must pour efforts and what action is needed to be taken.
3.4. Reviews and tests
Testing out new models or features that can be done with existing client lists will help get an idea of what the customer needs. Using automated responders or workflows will help maintain relationships even when you cannot manually send emails.
Using workflows is generally considered a good practice because it is adaptable with each and every scenario customer presents which autoresponders do not.
Get the feedback and survey results and make sure you study them so that it gives an idea to plan what to present next. Basically, it all depends on how excited you get the customers regarding your venture or product. Just like the answer is always “no” if you never ask, after making efforts, it is really important to evaluate the feedback received as well.
4. Best Tools to Execute Email Marketing for your Organization
While one can always hire people for email marketing, having an idea about tools would not hurt you.
Some of the most preferred email marketing tools in 2020 are discussed below:
⦁ Mailchimp
⦁ Sendinblue
⦁ Constant Contact
⦁ GetResponse
⦁ AWeber
4.1. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the leading choices when it comes to email marketing. With its user-friendly interface, drag and drop email builders, autoresponders, easy segmentation strategies and simple analytics tracking.
With other competitors Mailchimp has always been ahead because of its features like you can set auto responders according to the time zone of the receivers, or how easily can be integrated into platforms like Shopify or WordPress etc.
4.2. Sendinblue
With a beginner-friendly interface, Sendinblue has been one of the most preferred in email marketing in Europe.
Sendinblue also allows the user to get marketing with SMS as well, with charges applied. This also has an easy drag and drop email template with many ideas for workflows, along with a premium plan offering landing page builder, CRM and ad integration starting at the rate of $25.
4.3. Constant contact
Constant Contact is also considered a good choice with a good segmentation strategy like segmenting clients to interested, most active and specific topics etc,.
This tool is also considered a good choice when it comes to small scale businesses. With easy management of your email lists, calendars and reporting, Constant Contact can sure be taken as a good option for email marketing.
4.4. GetResponse
With many tools and tracking abilities, GetResponse is also a good option when it comes to email marketing.
Having a nice tracking system regarding unsubscribing, a number of emails sent, A/B testing, Getresponse offer all of this with a rate of $15/month.
4.5. AWeber
Aweber is another tool to think of regarding email marketing.
With cool designs for landing pages, and a prebuilt template library, campaign automation among various features, AWeber offers all these free till 500 subscribers’ posts which the charge is $19 per month.
5. Conclusion
Rounding up, email marketing is slowly becoming the most sought out method when it comes to increasing brand awareness and promoting to the client base.
With an estimate of 293.6 billion emails being sent on an everyday basis, and with a calculated estimate of 347.3 billion email marketing is on its way to conquer almost the whole marketing scene.
Having easy strategies that can be implemented easily and the tools with a beginner-friendly interface, email marketing is sure one good thing to get your business to the next level.
