Email marketing is here to stay and If you want to up your marketing game and make the most out of it, you should surely try it out.
Why you may ask?
Email marketing is one of the most profitable direct channels in the realm of digital strategies and techniques to promote your business and gain new customers.
A study shows that an email marketing campaign has the potential to give you close to 122% return on your investment, higher than any other channel. Not having it in your marketing efforts can solemnly limit your reach.
Before we dive deeper, let’s understand…
What is email marketing?
As the name suggests, email marketing is using emails to reach your existing as well as targeted audience.
Email marketing is a channel that can primarily be used to send:
- Announcements: Promoting new releases, product launches, offers, discounts and webinars.
- Newsletters: A newsletter is a way to connect with your customers by writing letters sharing business news, product tips, guides, blogs and other aspects they seem interested in.
Moreover, the biggest advantage email marketing holds is the fact that it’s essentially free and takes comparatively low efforts to build customer loyalty than all other channels.
A well-written email can not only bring new customers but also help you retarget the previous ones. Here’s how…
In the case of acquiring new customers, emails crafted with clear call to actions (CTAs) may drive new and quality leads to your website, where all your products are. It’s a high chance if customers need the product, they’ll make the buying decision.
If a customer has previously bought something from you, chances are they’ll be more responsive to your new emails. More responsiveness means the likelihood of them buying again.
What platforms can you use for email marketing?
As mentioned above, email marketing takes very little effort, because it can be easily automated, meaning you can set up a welcome mail every time new subscribers join in.
The simplest way to do that is through the use of applications mentioned below.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a multi-featured programme wherein you can create/manage mailing lists, experiment with different email templates and automate all your email marketing campaigns.
Mailchimp can help you design and customise each mail you send using free and paid email themes while also giving you the option to send the same email to all of your email subscribers, this is known as bulk email sending.
Mailchimp also offers a tracking feature to assess factors like open, close and bounce rates, which further helps you to know whether your campaign is running successfully or not.
ActiveCampaign
Another tool to use is ActiveCampaign. This can be used to automate your email campaigns.
One key difference between ActiveCampaign and MailChimp is that ActiveCampaign is more suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises.
Though, all other features such as sending tailored and bulk emails, tracking your campaigns and audience segmentation are identical to MailChimp.
You can sign up for a free trial of ActiveCampaign which includes all features to get you started.
MailerLite
Launched in 2005, MailerLite also offers basic automation features such as bulk sending, audience segmentation and creating customised templates. However, there is one thing that differentiates it from others in the market, this is its YouTube embed feature.
Using this feature you’ll be able to include any YouTube video in your email as it can be linked inside the email and then turned into a GIF.
MailerLite’s paid version is cheaper than both MailChimp and ActiveCampaign, making it suitable for newer and smaller companies.
Integrations with websites
Popular eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce, which were used to build this Newcastle dog training website, can help to directly connect your email marketing platforms with your eCommerce platform — allowing the collection of customer data to be more automated.
What to consider when sending out an email
Whether you are new or experienced in writing content for email marketing, there can be certain areas that if ignored, can result in a bad email copy.
Here are some areas we recommend you should pay close attention to:
1. The legality of your email
It is crucial to ensure that wherever you are sending the mail to, it should abide by that country’s law.
For example, the UK has some specific laws regarding receiving emails, namely GDPR and PECR. According to these laws, a company can only send an email to a user if they have given their consent to them.
The UK also has strict regulations against holding a user’s data. PECR makes sure that email providers don’t use any cookies or trackers to collect data.
2. Why you are sending the mail
The reason for sending the mail should always be clear. Whether it’s for an announcement like a new launch, a new policy, any major business change or whether it’s a newsletter, both have different formats and should be crafted with a clear purpose in mind.
You should only send information that is relevant for the users, something the user is interested to know.
3. The content within the email
Catchy subject lines
Once a user sees your email in their inbox, the next 5–7 seconds will decide if they want to open it or not. Therefore, catchy subject lines are necessary to engage the user
We recommend that to craft a great subject line, you should keep it between 25–30 characters, most of it is about what you have to offer. This makes it easier to engage the user in the short timeframe you have to entice them to open your email
Body of the email
The content of the mail is the most crucial part and it’s best to keep it as simple as possible
You should refrain from using complex jargon and procedures, because the users may not understand it.
Furthermore, the content of the email should be short and direct without too much build-up, as this may increase your bounce rates (which is bad).
Avoid going into the junk/spam folder
Emails can often go into users’ spam folders, as deliverability rates vary per provider.
To avoid this, we recommend that you send out less spammy and well-optimised content, otherwise mail providers may put your emails into spam folders. Due to this inconvenience, users may miss your emails.
4. View your previous mailout reports
The last step before sending an email is to check your previous mailout reports. These reports will show you if you have repeated any mistakes from last time.
Applications like MailChimp and MailerLite have these features in their plans.
This concludes our basic guide to email marketing, which should help you to get started — best of luck!