Email marketing is a form of digital marketing that allows businesses to communicate with current and potential customers through email.
While the medium is quite popular, sending out regular emails can be rather costly. This is why most email marketing services (formerly known as email marketing automation platforms) offer a free trial or premium account for new users.
Digital Marketing Is A Growing Industry.
According to HubSpot, a digital marketing agency, digital marketing is a $13.8 billion industry, and that’s just the beginning. The industry is expected to grow 21% year from 2020 to 2025.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing covers all the tasks necessary to attract, engage, and convert potential customers into paying customers. These tasks include but are not limited to:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Paid search marketing (PPC)
- Social media marketing (SMM)
- Email marketing
- Mobile marketing
- Google Ads
- Display ads
- Content creation (Blog articles, webinars, and more)
- Performance tracking
- Content curation (Quartz, social media)
- Online reputation management (ORM)
- Inbound Marketing
Why is digital marketing important for business?
Digital marketing provides a better glimpse into a firm’s marketing efforts than the more traditional methods of print advertising and radio spots. For example, when a company increases their social media presence or starts a blog, these are all signs that they are investing in digital marketing.
Not only that, but due to the increased reach and open lines of communication that the internet provides, individuals now have the opportunity to research a company before doing business with them. This means businesses can no longer get away with ambiguous marketing messages or hidden fees.
What is the difference between email marketing and digital marketing?
While email marketing typically refers to the automated sending of broadcast emails to a group of people, digital marketing includes all of the tasks above plus the application of tracking technology to monitor, analyze, and improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
What is the role of the digital marketer?
The digital marketer is responsible for creating and executing marketing plans that integrate marketing software, such as HubSpot or Marketo. These platforms allow marketers to organize and track all of their marketing and sales activities from one place.
The marketer’s primary goal is to gain a clear view of how well their efforts are performing and to understand what can be done to improve results. To achieve this, they use tools that can track and analyze marketing and sales data, such as Google Analytics, to determine marketing effectiveness.
Which Email Marketing Service Is Right for You?
Now that you have a basic understanding of what digital marketing is and the different elements involved, it’s time to choose a marketing platform that matches your needs and goals. Keep in mind that not all digital marketing platforms are created equal, and you must choose a system that is the best fit for your business.
Here are some of the most important things to consider when choosing an email marketing platform:
Features
The features that a given platform offers determine how easy it is to use and sets the stage for the functionality needed to fully leverage the platform. Some of the most important features to consider are.
- Sending
- Marketing Automation
- Email Campaigns
- Triggered Emails
- Drip Marketing
- Multi-Channel Marketing
- HubSpot & Marketo integrations
- Content Library
- A/B Testing
- Automated Responses (Auto-replies)
- Video Messaging
These are just some of the important features to consider, but don’t forget about the less visible aspects, such as the overall look and feel of the platform. Does the dashboard fit your needs? How are the menus organized? Is there a quick and easy way to get support if you need it?
Security And Privacy
Security and privacy are two important aspects to consider when choosing an email marketing platform. As we’ve established, the internet is a treasure trove of information, and not all of it is beneficial to businesses. Having your email marketing data compromised can seriously damage your business. This is why you must take the time to review the security and privacy policies of each platform and make sure that your personal and confidential information is safe.
For instance, look into how the platform stores personal information, how credit cards are processed, whether or not your emails will be opt-in or opt-out, and more.
User Interface And Design
If you’re looking for an intuitive, easy-to-use interface and design, you should consider HubSpot. The software is highly flexible and allows you to quickly build out your campaign in a few minutes. You’ll also need to consider whether or not you want to build out your own templates or use a third-party tool.
As we’ve established, the internet is a large, untrusted network that often requires careful consideration when determining where and how to send your emails. If you’ve ever shopped online, you may have experienced a few minutes of ecstasy (in a good way) as you browsed through a variety of products and brands and found exactly what you were looking for.
The feeling of finding the product that suits you best is an amazing one, and you can replicate that feeling with your next purchase by taking the time to research and read reviews about the company you plan to work with.
In the realm of email marketing, you must take the time to read reviews, look into the company’s security and privacy policies, and study how to use the platform for maximum effectiveness.
Conclusion
Choosing an email marketing platform requires you to think about several important factors, including your company’s needs and goals, the features available, security and privacy, and the design and user experience.
Consider everything before making your decision and you’ll be able to choose an email marketing platform that is the best fit for your business.