Email Marketing Made Simple: Getting Started

The marketplace is constantly evolving. As the concept of the marketplace is being redefined with each new business innovation, marketing, as a necessary tool for sales, must also change. One of the most widely used marketing tools in the world today is email marketing.

The level of versatility makes it possible for users to achieve their marketing goals. As with many other marketing tools, mastering it might take long hours of studies and practices. Without over-simplification, we’ll be addressing email marketing and how best you can take advantage of it.

What is Email Marketing and How it Works?

Essentially, email marketing is a significant step up from the more classic mailing service from the old days. Where before, you had to send a piece of paper across long distances to prospective customers, you’re now able to do all that and more now, with a few clicks of your computer.

Email marketing involves the use of electronic communications to promote or increase awareness levels for your product or service. In the strictest sense, every time you email a customer/prospective customer, you’re technically already practicing email marketing. 

That said, how do you successfully harness this tool to make your brand flourish? The first of many things you need to do is gain a functioning understanding of how it works. Only then will you be able to analyze how best to use email marketing.

Like every other tool, email marketing works best when you have a predefined goal you want to accomplish. With a set goal in mind, you can then channel the resources optimally at your disposal. 

For example, you can use email marketing campaigns with the aim of encouraging prospective clients to convert. Similarly, you can use it as a way to build and maintain customer loyalty to your brand.

Even simple email marketing can yield very fruitful results when you complement it with the right marketing practices.

Why is Email Marketing Important?

Understanding even the basics of email marketing can do your brand and business a lot of good. While email campaign results might not look to be on par with social, in reality, that is far from true.

Even from the onset, emailing and sending newsletters have two significant benefits overusing social media. The first is,

Ease of Use

The value of email marketing shines in how relatively easy it is to use. While this might not seem a sound enough reason, bear in mind that there are several more complicated tools out there you need to master for your business to succeed. Having one that is easy to handle means you get more time and energy to focus on the others.

One interesting thing to note here is that due to the nature of email delivery, your customers are far more likely to get and see your email than they are to read social media posts. As a matter of fact, statistics have shown that email campaigns generate almost twice the conversions that social media does.

Cost of Operation

This is another area that email campaigns trump social media. They are inexpensive and still cater to as wide an audience as social media. All you need is your clients’ email address and you can keep them updated on any relevant development at very low costs. 

Considering this, email marketing can be said to be more cost-efficient marketing when compared to social media platforms.

Of course, to get optimal results, you still need a solid mix of email marketing strategies and social media advertising.

Relevance of Email Marketing in Digital Marketing Today

As email usage continues to increase all over the world, its relevance to digital marketing continues to increase. Email statistics usage in 2019 strongly indicates how powerful a tool email marketing is. 

Even better, email marketing maintains a level of consistency not found in other digital marketing methods today. In a world where SEO tactics and Social Media practices evolve at a moments’ notice, your email list is a stable medium you can always rely on to connect with your clients at your leisure.

Where changing algorithms serve as an important variable for determining the success of your business, a steady communication channel like email marketing is indispensable.

How to I Start Email Marketing Today?

Now that you know how important an email can be to the success of your business, the question becomes, “How do I start email marketing today?”

1. Creating your Email Marketing List
2. Send Top Quality Content
3. Segment your List

To start email marketing, the first thing you need to do is work on is:

Creating your Email Marketing List

The importance of building your own email marketing list cannot be overemphasized. Do not randomly pick peoples’ emails or purchase a list somewhere, and send them newsletters. That is one of the fastest ways of getting your brand blacklisted. 

When customers willingly give you their email address, you can rest assured that on some level, they are actually expecting to hear from you. Naturally, when you eventually send your newsletters, this increases the chances of having it opened and read. 

You can find interesting ways of having your prospective clients give you their email address. For example, you could use,

• Pop-ups on your brand website,
• Paid advertising, or
• Contests and giveaways

Next, you need to,

Send Top Quality Content

Keep your prospective clients interested in what you have to say. The best way to do this is to ensure that your newsletter constantly carries content relevant to your audience. Don’t focus on making sales pitches directly. Rather, find an engaging way to tell your readers why your product or services are good for them. 

Through this, you are able to build trust and familiarity with your brand while guiding your prospective customers through the marketing funnel till they are ready to finally convert.

Finally, you have to,

Segment your List

In essence, this is where you group the contacts on your email list according to specific, preset parameters. The aim of this is so you can better optimize the content you send accordingly. Avoid generalization as much as possible as you may take the risk of sending unrelated information to your readers.

Afterwards, you can now carefully study the analytics data obtained from your preferred email marketing tool, and group your email list according to their actions and perceived preferences.

As an example, you could break your comprehensive list down into,

• The frequency of the email,
• The content of the email,
• The style and tone of the email,
• Specific campaigns such as a sales or drip campaign, and so on.

Doing this helps you give customers on your email list the right information that keeps them involved and engaged.

Evaluating Progress and Assessing Weak Points

One of the best things about email marketing is how easy it makes monitoring your progress. Any email marketing tool will supply the data on the following:

1. Your open rate
2. Your click-through rate or CTR
3. Your unsubscribe rate.

The data you get here is entirely dependent on how effectively you organize your campaign. For instance, your open rate is directly proportional to the interest of your customer. As such, you’re likely to see a decreased open rate if you don’t provide content considered valuable to your customers.

Using the information you have at this point, you can better tweak your email campaign, cover any lapses, and prepare properly for the future.

Tips to Remember

To get the best results possible with email marketing, below are some best practices to follow:

• Always build your own list.
• Follow every law guiding the sending of newsletters.
• Keep your content fresh and engaging. Avoid constant sales pitches.
• Maintain a respectful approach at all times with your subscribers.
• Get a routine and stick to it.
• Make sure your content is optimized for all devices (mobile and desktop.)

The opportunities available with email campaigns are endless, so tap into it today. There isn’t any magical formula to guarantee immediate success, as customer preferences are different, depending on your industry and niche. 

By continually reviewing and redefining your email marketing strategy, the results you’ll get are certain to be worth the effort.

Is this information useful? What are your experience with email marketing? Comment below and let us know!

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