There’s no time like the present to learn about email marketing and all the benefits it can provide to your eCommerce business. Greg Gillman is here to tell you everything you need to know:
What Is Email Marketing and How Does It Work?
Email marketing is a type of digital marketing that involves using email to communicate between brands and customers. Email marketing has been around for over 40 years, although it has gone through many changes as other forms of marketing like Google Ads and SEO, or search engine optimization, have grown. However, contrary to popular belief, email marketing is still useful in 2022.
Email marketing works by sending content to subscribers via email. These subscribers must opt-in to receiving emails before a company can legally contact them. Additionally, subscribers must be able to opt-out of receiving emails from a company at any given time. As a result, the key to email marketing is to send the right subscribers the right content at the right frequency.
What Are the Different Types of Email Marketing Campaigns?
Now that you know more about what email marketing is and how it works, let’s dive a bit deeper and discuss some of the different types of email marketing campaigns:
- Welcome emails: Welcome emails should go out when someone initially joins your email list. They’re a great way to jumpstart your relationship with your new subscribers and give them an idea of what they can expect to receive in the future.
- Announcement emails: Announcement emails should go out when you have exciting news, like a new product or service. They’re a great way to spark interest in your new offerings and educate your email subscribers about these new offerings.
- Email newsletters: Email newsletters are the foundation of email marketing and should be sent out regularly (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.) to keep in touch with your subscribers and keep them up to date about your brand and products. These can help encourage customer loyalty.
- Promotional emails: Promotional emails act as a reward for subscribers by providing them with a discount or a special deal designed to incentivize purchases and drive conversions.
- Abandoned cart emails: Abandoned cart emails are also designed to drive conversions by doing follow-ups with customers about items that they left in their online shopping carts without actually completing the purchase. You can further incentivize purchases through abandoned cart emails by offering small discounts, free items, or free shipping.
What Are the Business Benefits of Email Marketing?
Email marketing is highly beneficial to both large and small businesses, and it should definitely be one of the key components of your marketing strategy. Here are just a few of the benefits that you can expect to receive when you invest in email marketing:
- Save money: Email marketing is extremely cost-effective since emails themselves don’t cost money to send. The only money you have to spend on email marketing is on graphics and maybe copywriting if you decide to outsource this. You may also invest in email marketing software and other tools to make it easier and more efficient.
- Build relationships: Email marketing allows you to build relationships with your new customers/subscribers. Easily maintain contact with everyone on your list via email, and they will come to learn more about your brand and products. Conversely, you will come to learn more about your subscribers to tailor your content better.
- Boost brand awareness: Email marketing is an extremely effective method of boosting brand awareness. You can motivate people to join your email list with a special offer and then send informative content about your brand and products to help subscribers learn what you offer and what you’re all about.
- Drive conversions: Once you’ve established brand awareness, you can continue to use email marketing to drive conversions. For example, you can use promotional emails and abandoned cart emails to drive conversions.
- Customize and track content: Email marketing is also very customizable and trackable, meaning that you can customize content for each subscriber and track the results of your campaigns. The more you learn about your subscribers and campaigns using your metrics, the better your email marketing strategy will be.
How To Get Started With Email Marketing?
A solid email marketing strategy isn’t something that you can create overnight. Instead, it’s a slow and methodical process that requires patience and effort. Follow these steps for an easier way to get started with email marketing:
Step 1: Choose an Email Marketing Provider
First, you need to choose an email marketing provider.
Email marketing services can help you manage your contacts list, automate your email marketing campaigns, and more. Marketing automation can help you maximize your workflows and spend less time crafting a series of emails and more time interacting with your customers in real-time.
Some email service providers and email marketing tools also provide you with email templates (though you can also find free email templates). These will help you reduce the effort and pricing of your effective email marketing efforts while still maintaining the quality of your email content. Some tools have landing page builders as well as the ability to build integrations. You may also want to consider working with a marketing consultant to help you manage your strategy and draft your campaigns through your email marketing platform.
Step 2: Outline Your Email Marketing Goals
Next, you need to outline your email marketing goals. Your specific goals will depend on where your company is and where you want to take it. For example, if your company is just getting started, you might want to focus on brand awareness.
If you’ve been around for a while and have established brand awareness but need actual leads, you might want to focus on lead generation. Finally, if you have leads but have trouble converting them, you need to focus on conversions.
Step 3: Build Your Email Marketing List
With this information in mind, you can start building your email marketing list.
The odds are that you already have a customer list that you can use for the foundation of your list. From there, you can start adding contacts through online sign-up forms on your website, social media profiles, and even in-person in your stores. Study your target demographics and build your list from there.
Just make sure that all your customers have signed up and opted-in to receive your marketing emails before you contact them via email. You also want to make sure you give them an option to unsubscribe. Additionally, never purchase an email list from a third party.
Step 4: Create Your First Email Marketing Campaign
Now it’s time for you to create your first email marketing campaign. Start with a clear and enticing subject line that draws people in. Next, the best emails include email copy that’s relevant and straightforward. End with some eye-catching graphics that incorporate your brand image and personality to create a quality email design.
Step 5: Test, Track and Adjust Your Campaign
Before you send out your first email campaign, you still need to test your content to ensure it’s effective. From there, you need to track your email marketing metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. A/B testing might come in handy here.
If any metrics are underperforming, make any necessary changes to get your campaign back on track. Ensure that you’re keeping track of your return on investment (ROI) to create a successful email marketing campaign. You should also track your unsubscribe rate and perhaps include a survey to see why customers are unsubscribing, as well as tracking your email open rates and click through rates.
Email Marketing Best Practices for Success
With all this information in mind, let’s discuss some email marketing best practices for success to help you tie everything together:
- Send high-value emails: Don’t just send emails for no reason. Make sure that they offer some sort of value to recipients. Your potential customers receive a large number of emails each day, so make sure the ones you’re sending are worthwhile. Include CTAs so your email clients know what it is you’d like them to do.
- Send emails at the right time: Don’t send emails multiple times a day. Also, don’t send emails in the middle of the night — your customers likely have their emails connected to their mobile devices. Instead, find the ideal frequency and time for your content marketing based on your unique contact list.
- Send personalized emails: Always try to include the recipient’s name in your emails. Also, segment your contact lists into different categories to send more relevant and valuable content to your target audience. Targeted emails tend to be more effective overall when you’re trying to stay in constant contact with your customers and can help prevent your messages from falling into spam folders.
Conclusion
Don’t just stop with email marketing! Instead, embrace an omnichannel marketing approach with the help of marketing experts like Greg Gillman. Reach out to him today for more information on marketing channels, personalized advice, and marketing tips.
Sources:
Email Marketing: Still the Most Powerful Tool to Take Your Business to the Next Level | Forbes
