What is Email Marketing? Guide to Successful Campaigns

Most people know emails as a way of communicating with each other. Although communication is its basic functionality, people are using it for marketing purposes as well. Whenever I open my email inbox, there are dozens of promotional messages from different brands and companies. Sometimes, I even get influenced by these messages and end up making a purchase or signing up for a fitness program as well. 

This is precisely the reason why companies focus on email marketing. If you’ve never been involved in this marketing strategy, don’t worry at all. I’ve got your back. In this article, I am going to discuss what email marketing is in detail. Plus, I’ll go over some important points that will help you design a successful campaign for it.

What is Email Marketing? 

Email marketing is a process of using email messages to promote a brand or a service among existing customers as well as to nurture new permanent customers.

One reason why companies focus on this strategy is to build brand loyalty. They do it to keep the audience engaged and keep the brand at the top of people’s minds. 

Emails have been a main source of communication in the business. People are also using it as a means of personal communication. It gives marketers a chance to reach out to customers and promote brands directly. 

Benefits Of Email Marketing

Email Marketing brings tons of benefits. It is not only very effective but also costs much less compared to other marketing means. I’ve discussed such benefits in detail below:

1. No Need For Ad Space:

The biggest advantage of email marketing is that you don’t have to worry about purchasing ad space on the Internet. Many other marketing strategies require competitive bidding to get an advertising spot, which is both frustrating and financially demanding. 

On the other hand, email marketing is pretty simple and straightforward. You don’t have to bid for any ad space. Instead, you simply send messages to people in order to bring results. 

2. Direct Communication:

This marketing strategy gives you the opportunity to speak with people directly. Each email, if designed perfectly, ends up directly in the people’s inboxes. Unlike other Digital Marketing strategies that depend on algorithms, emails have the ability to reach out to people directly. That’s the reason why this strategy is able to bring so many positive results for marketers. 

3. Cost-Effective:

This marketing strategy is extremely cost-effective. Other marketing strategies, even social media marketing, may require you to invest a good amount of money before you can start getting results. Sending emails, on the other hand, is very cost-effective.

Sending and managing emails is usually cheaper here. Besides, the outcome you receive from this strategy is far more than the money you invest in it. 

4. Personalization: 

I usually prefer reading emails that speak to me directly, and so do many other people. Personalized marketing messages usually have a better impact on the audience, which promises better results. That’s precisely the benefit you get from email marketing. 

You have full control over personalizing each message for a certain type of segment. It means people will be receiving messages that mention them directly and there will be a higher chance of converting them into leads. 

Steps For a Successful Email Marketing Campaign:

An email marketing campaign is successful when it reaches out to the right type of audience, with the right type of message, in order to bring the required results. As a marketer, you have to go through different procedures in order to make this happen. The following guide can help you with it. 

1. Understanding The Audience:

Understanding the audience is the first thing that you need to do. If you’re unaware of who you’re sending the message to, there are very few chances that the message is going to be impactful.

Understanding the target audience includes a lot of things. You need to know their preferences, general demographics, and past behaviors. 

How To Understand The Audience?

• Segment the audience based on common demographics and characteristics. 
• Try understanding how people have interacted with similar brands in the past. 
• Use surveys in order to understand people’s preferences. 
• Create buyer personas to make audience segments accurately. 

2. Build An Email List:

The next thing to focus on is building an email list. It is a list including the email addresses of people. This list is used to send messages directly to the people included in it. Keep in mind that you will have to segmentize the primary list into several other lists to make the campaign successful. 

How To Build An Email List?

• Use sign-up forms on your website to collect addresses. 
• Provide discounts or free resources in exchange for addresses. 
• Ask for addresses from people directly.

3. Use Email Marketing Tools & Platforms:

If you’re truly serious about making the campaign successful, you need to use an email marketing tool. Although most of the work will be done by yourself, the tool will help make the procedures easier. 

Email marketing platforms are designed to help manage the email lists and even write a great piece of content for the messages. There are many email marketing software available in the market, including Mailchimp and HubSpot. So, picking the tool depends on your needs and requirements. 

How To Pick An Email Marketing Tool?

• Try picking a reputable tool to get the best quality possible. 
• Pick a tool that is easy to use. 
• Make sure the tool has the integration feature with other useful marketing tools. 
• Compare the tool’s pricing with other tools in order to pick the one that is within your budget. 

4. Create Engaging Messages: 

Now, you need to start creating and sharing engaging messages via email. Engaging content means creating messages that capture the reader’s attention and persuade them to take action. It should include valuable and useful information so that people will spend time reading it. The exact nature of the message depends on your marketing purpose. However, you need to make it as relevant and useful as possible. 

How To Create Engaging Messages?

• Include a compelling subject line that influences people to open the email. 
• Keep the content personalized by adding the recipient’s name to it. 
• Add useful information such as tips, guides, or general educational data. 
• Use the storytelling technique to have a better impact on the reader. 
• Add a CTA that is clearly visible.

5. Use Email Marketing Templates:

Conducting email marketing on your own can be a bit difficult. As a beginner, you’re unaware of what type of messages work best with the audience. To solve this dilemma, you can use email marketing templates.

They are pre-designed formats that give an idea of how a perfect message should be written. They contain general information that you can modify according to your company’s needs and requirements. Using these templates will not only help you create a well-optimized message but also save time. 

How To Pick The Right Email Template?

• Decide the end goal that you want to achieve from the email message. 
• Pick a template that matches your brand’s identity. 
• Pick a template that has a mobile-friendly format. 
• Avoid picking a template that requires too much editing. 
• Make sure it has a clearly visible and compelling CTA.

6. Monitor And Optimize:

Once you’ve sent the emails to people, it’s time to monitor the performance. Monitoring the performance is important since it helps understand whether the campaign is bringing in the required results. There are different metrics that you can use to measure success, such as click-through rate and open rate. 

This analysis will help in optimizing the email campaign as well. You can use the A/B testing technique to analyze two different types of emails and their impact on the audience. It will help in optimizing the messages better so that your campaign can bring better results. 

How To Monitor And Optimize?

• Set up key metrics according to your needs and monitor them closely. 
• Use the A/B testing technique carefully to pick the best message. 
• Analyze the unsubscribe rate to see how many people aren’t willing to receive messages from you. 
• Segment and focus on the audience according to how responsive they are of the received emails. 

7. Hiring An Email Marketing Agency:

Designing and implementing a proper email marketing campaign on your own is possible. However, to bring the best results, you need to hire an email marketing agency. It is a company specializing in creating, managing, and monitoring effective marketing campaigns.

Their employees are experienced in creating compelling emails that are capable of attracting readers’ attention and persuading them to take action. It’s a great strategy for people who are very serious about using the power of email marketing and growing their business in the market. 

How Hiring An Email Marketing Agency is Beneficial?

Working with email marketing services is beneficial for a number of reasons. I’ve mentioned the main ones below: 

• Agencies have years of experience in this field and they can help you create a perfect promotional campaign via emails. 
• It helps with saving time as well as avoiding frustration. The agency will be responsible for handling this marketing technique and you’ll be free to focus on other aspects of the business. 
• These services understand the target audience and can help segment in a better way to get better results. 
• The content these companies create isn’t only persuasive but also very useful and valuable for the audience. 
• Your campaign will be designed and implemented with the help of advanced tools and technologies for proper email marketing automation. 

Final Summary

Email marketing has become one of the best and most effective marketing techniques. It involves getting people’s email addresses and then sharing promotional messages with them. This strategy comes with a lot of benefits. It’s cost-effective and allows you to speak to the audience directly. 

Creating and implementing a successful email marketing campaign is easier. You only need to follow the discussed steps and you’ll be able to implement a great campaign. Keep on doing these things for a while, and the strategy will start giving the best results soon. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): 

What Is Email Marketing? 

Email Marketing is all about sharing email messages with the audience in order to promote a brand. It is performed to attract new customers and keep the existing customers loyal. 

How Do I Start Email Marketing? 

Starting this marketing strategy is easy. First, you need to understand your audience. Then, get their email addresses. Once done, start creating and sending quality and compelling email messages. 

What Is An Email List?

An email list is a list containing the email addresses of the audience. These addresses are gained in multiple ways and then organized to send relevant information. 

What Is Email Marketing In SEO?

Email marketing in SEO is pretty much the same as the normal one. However, one difference in this type is that SEO experts use it to direct people towards the website in order to improve its traffic. It helps with improving site’s search engine rankings.