Have you ever considered using email marketing? If not, you’re actually missing out on a lot. Having an email list is a surefire way to reach a large audience and have your message delivered to those who want to hear it. You can use email marketing to advertise for new products, promote upcoming events, or just provide customers with valuable information.
If you’re wondering how to get started with email marketing, continue reading.
The Basics Of Email Marketing For Executives
Let’s get the basics out of the way first. When someone signs up for email marketing with a company, they are typically provided with a list of email templates to use. While this may seem limiting, it’s actually an advantage in terms of having a clear picture of what the campaign looks like. You don’t want to get bogged down in details and have the campaign looking muddy or chaotic. Simply choose one of the email templates provided and get started.
The name of the list will depend on the company who the subscriber comes from, but it’s always a good idea to ask for the unsubscribe list as well. The reason for this is that, if you’re sending out bulk emails, especially if you’re sending a lot of them, people may question whether or not they agreed to receive these emails in the first place. Having a separate unsubscribe list ensures that companies know you really do want to keep in touch with them, but you also don’t want to spam them. If you do decide to keep in touch with a company, you can use the unsubscribe list to do so. Just remember that most email platforms will mark your IP as being from a spammer if you send out too many advertisements.
Marketing On A Budget
This may seem like an odd one, but it’s important to understand that when you’re starting out, you’ll have very little money to spend on marketing. Typically, the best plan is to spend what you can on the basics – web hosting, domain names, and so on. Once you have those established, you can look into spending on flashy email marketing tools, social media ads, or other similar things. These are all costly items to purchase and use. Instead, use the budget you have left over to scale your list. Once you have a decent size list, you can look into purchasing some of the more expensive tools out there. This will depend on your needs and how advanced you want to get with your email marketing campaign. When it comes to marketing, less is more. You want to spread out your efforts and get as many people to hear about your product or service as possible. Having a large list is great, but it also means that you’ll have to spend more time pitching to them and encouraging them to buy. There’s no magic number in terms of how many subscribers you need before you can begin spending on more advanced tools. It depends on your needs and how far you want to go with your email marketing.
The Two Kinds Of Lists You’ll Need
To get started with email marketing, you’ll want to have two kinds of lists – one for customers and one for leads. When you send email messages to your customer list, you’re encouraging those people to do business with you. When you send email messages to leads, you’re encouraging them to further investigate your product or service. One important thing to note is that you should not send any email messages to your customer list before you’ve had a chance to establish trust with them. This could result in a lot of open rates – particularly if you’re new to email marketing – but also a lot of unsubscribes as well. It’s always a good idea to ease people into the concept of receiving email messages from unknown sources. Why? It’s simple. When you initially begin email marketing, you won’t have any credibility with your subscribers. They’ll see every email you send out as a marketing ploy. That being said, once you’ve gained their trust, you can start sending out helpful advice, tips, or whatever else you have to offer. This is the preferred way to go about marketing via email. So, make sure you establish a rapport with your customers before you ask them to buy. The last thing you want to do is scare away potential customers with an unsolicited message. They’ll just think you’re a spammer.
Creating An Email Campaign Plan
When you’ve decided to get started with email marketing, the next step is to create an email campaign plan. An email campaign plan defines the goal of your email marketing campaign, the structure of your email messages, and much more. To create the plan, sit down with a notepad and some pens and make a list of everything you need to include. It’s a good idea to look into the different platforms available to help you make the plan. Some of the things you may need to include are:
- A description of the product or service
- The target audience
- Keywords
- The reason why you’re emailing this particular audience
- The call to action
- The budget
- The deadline
- The sender’s name
- A physical address
- Phone numbers
- An unsubscribe link
This is really just a starter plan. You don’t have to go overboard and make it overly complex. Just make sure you have everything you need to move forward. Having an organized plan will make things much smoother when you’re actually getting started. Having a plan also means you’ll have a clear picture of what you’re doing and can easily find the information you need when you need it.
Getting The Word Out
Now that you have a plan, the next step is to get the word out. For this, you want to use the tools already built into your email platform. Why? It takes less time to get the word out using what’s already available to you, as opposed to having to build everything from scratch. For example, if you’re using HubSpot, you can easily create an email with all of the information you need using its built-in templates. These templates make it easier to get started and allow you to take less time to get the word out. You can also use tools like Constant Contact or MailChimp to do the same. All you have to do is choose a template, type in your details, and you’re ready to go. These tools will take care of the rest. You don’t want to overuse this tactic, as it may become obvious that you’re trying to market your product or service. Instead, use this tool sparingly and only when you need to. Doing so will help you seem more natural and not like you’re marketing every email you send out.
Measure The Results Of Your Email Marketing Campaign
This is the most important step. After you’ve gotten the word out and started to receive responses, it’s important to measure the results of your email marketing campaign. To do this, you need to set up tracking mechanisms within your website and social media to monitor what’s working and what needs to be changed. For example, if you’re using Google Analytics to track the results of your website, you can set up conversion tracking within Google Analytics to monitor how many people are actually taking the action you need them to take. Having this information will help you determine what parts of your plan are working and what needs to be changed. Make sure to measure the results of your email marketing campaign both immediately and 6 months after your last email.
Getting To Know You Better
Along with measuring the results of your email marketing campaign, it’s important to get to know your customers better. This means you’ll want to gain more insight into what they want, how you can help them, and so on. One important technique is called the Ask Your Customers Method. This is where you listen to and learn from your customers. You can ask them questions about the product or service you’re promoting and, in turn, learn something new about your product or service or the marketing of it. This is also a way to get feedback and make changes as needed. If you were previously unaware of the method, now is the perfect time to find out more. Simply search for “ask your customers” on YouTube and you’ll find hundreds of how-to videos to help you get started.
Getting Started With Email Marketing Is Easy
If you’ve followed this article up until now, congratulations! You’ve just learned how to get started with email marketing. This is an easy and effective way to get the word out about your product or service and, most importantly, make some money. Just remember that, just like with anything else new, you’ll need to learn how to use these tools effectively. Once you do, you’ll wonder why you didn’t use them sooner. Good luck out there.