You’ve probably heard of email marketing. Most people have at least some familiarity with this digital marketing method. But, if you’re still wondering how exactly email marketing works and whether or not it’s right for your brand, this article is for you.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is, quite simply, marketing that occurs via email. Instead of going to a store and making a purchase, you are providing some value to the merchant by buying their product or service via email. With email marketing, you are usually promoting something digital – whether that’s a product or service, a webpage, a blog post, or an app.
This marketing method takes place mostly online. However, email marketing doesn’t exactly stem from the internet alone. You can use email marketing to target people who are already interested in what you have to offer. Whether you are a brand new business or you’re simply looking to shake things up a bit, email marketing is a great fit.
Why Should You Try Email Marketing?
There are several good reasons why you should try email marketing. First, and perhaps most importantly, is that it is a proven method. The practice of marketing via email has been around for more than 60 years and has many successful case studies. Second, email marketing is relatively easy to do. You don’t need a lot of expertise to set up an email marketing campaign. In most cases, you will only need an email account and a small number of email marketing tools.
Third, and probably the most important reason why you should try email marketing, is that it gives you the opportunity to build and grow a list. The list of subscribers you can build with email marketing is huge. There are entire marketing lists that you can use to target your audience. Plus, you can use tools like A/B testing and custom tabs to see which tactics work best for your product or service.
Here is an example of an email marketing campaign for a jewelry store. The goal of this campaign was to build a relationship with potential customers in order to encourage them to make a purchase. Using a combination of tactics, the store was able to see significant results from their efforts.
How to Do Email Marketing?
Now that you’re convinced that email marketing is a good idea, it’s time to learn how to do it properly. As we talked about above, there are only a few basic things you need in order to get started. Specifically, you need an email account and a list of contacts (or subscribers). Let’s look at each one.
1. Email Account
You need to have an email account. It doesn’t have to be fancy – any type of email will do. You can use something like Protonmail, which is the email account that Google uses, or you can use Gmail, which is what most people use. The most important thing is that you have an email account. You can then use a tool like MailChimp to integrate all of your email accounts (Gmail, etc.) into one place.
2. List Of Contacts (or Subscribers)
Next, you need to have a list of contacts (or subscribers). A list of contacts is simply a list of people you’ve emailed with in the past. The key is that you’ve gotten them to agree to receive emails from you. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest way is to ask people to sign up for your mailing list when you send them information about your product or service. They’ll have the option of opting out later if they decide they don’t want to receive emails from you.
If you already have a list of contacts, you can simply add people to this list. If you don’t have a list yet, there are several ways to go about getting one. You can use a tool like EmailDB to find and connect with potential subscribers. You can also use tools like SurveyMonkey and GetResponse to collect data and send out emails to potential subscribers. Make sure to follow their instructions carefully, as you will need to ensure that you have an accurate list before you begin your email marketing campaign.
3. Automate Email Marketing
Once you have a list of contacts (or subscribers), it is time to automate email marketing. The goal of this step is to make the process of sending emails to your list as easy as possible. There are several tools out there that can help you automate email marketing. You can use a tool like MailChimp to integrate all of your email accounts (Gmail, etc.) into one place. You can then use their autoresponder feature to automatically send out emails to your list. To get started, simply create a list of emails (using the method mentioned above) and click the ‘create campaign’ button. From there, you will need to fill out the form with your name, email address, company name, and any other information you deem useful. Once you have submitted this information, you will see a success message and be able to continue with the process.
4. Set Up Email Marketing Template
Since you’ll be sending out emails to an audience that you’ve built, it’s a good idea to stand out a bit and make the emails look unique. In order to do this, you need to set up an email marketing template. Templates allow you to standardize your emails (thus making them less likely to be flagged as spam) while also allowing you to add more personality and style to your work. You can use tools like MailChimp’s template library to easily find and create templates in no time at all. Simply click the ‘Create a template for this list’ button on the left-hand side and you will be presented with several different templates. Find one that you like and begin adding your own customizations.
5. Customize Email Marketing Message
The last step in the process of doing email marketing is to customize the email marketing message. This is the email that will be sent to your list of contacts (or subscribers) when you finally go through with your automation email marketing campaign. This is a critical step, as you’ll be giving the email recipients information about your product or service. You want to make sure that this message is relevant and interesting enough to keep subscribers engaged. You can add a bit more personality to your email by using a service like CrazyEgg to add a bit of flair to your website’s copy.
You can also use tools like A/B testing and Google Analytics to see what types of content your audience responds best too. This way, you can ensure that you are providing the best possible value to your contacts and can tailor your marketing strategies accordingly.
Emails that are poorly written and lack personality tend to get flagged as spam. Therefore, it is important to take your time and write an engaging email that will make your contacts want more.
In the next section, we will discuss some of the best practices surrounding email marketing.