How to start email marketing
What is the Email Marketing – how email marketing works
Are you familiar with email marketing? You do not need to worry just yet if you are not. Because of the relatively new concept of email marketing, many business owners are yet to discover the immense benefits of using this marketing tool. A few smart entrepreneurs have already embraced email marketing strategies to increase their business and gain a competitive edge over their competitors. Even if not having a lot of knowledge of email marketing will not threaten your business immediately, you should start learning it now so you will not be caught off guard later when more and more businesses in your niche embrace this concept. If you have no experience with email marketing, this article will provide information that will be helpful to business owners.
Those who are considering email marketing for their business should first understand the options available to them. In addition to emailing promotional materials, publishing and distributing e-newsletters, and offering correspondence courses via email, these are the most common methods of advertising. These marketing strategies all have the distinct advantage of being able to reach a worldwide audience. In contrast to traditional marketing methods like television and radio spots and print media ads which only reach a limited audience, email marketing techniques can reach anyone who has access to the Internet.
Most email marketing is done through mass emails. Sending an email to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of recipients at once falls under this category. There is a possibility that your emails could be regarded as spam if you use this type of marketing. Sending your emails to recipients who are uninterested in your products or services and do not wish to receive emails from you may result in your emails being ignored.
Text, images, ads, links, or any mix of these components can be used in e-newsletters. One of the first considerations you’ll have to make is whether you want your e-newsletter to completely text or incorporate visuals. If you’re on a short budget, it can be worth it to only use text instead of hiring a graphic designer. You may be able to include graphics on your own, but they will not seem as professional as graphics created by a professional. You may absolutely write your own material for your e-newsletter, but hiring a competent professional writer to develop the content for you will likely make a far better impact.
Hiring a professional graphic designer and a professional writer may appear to be an unnecessary expense, but it is actually very important. Because your e-newsletter may be the first impression many potential customers have of you and your work, you must ensure that everything is of the highest quality.
The final email marketing strategy we’ll go over is correspondence courses delivered via email. These courses could be offered for a fee and turned into a source of income, or they could be made available for free. The theory behind providing these courses for free is that they frequently contain subtle advertising urging visitors to invest in your company’s products and services.
Whether you charge for email correspondences courses or offer them for free, care should be taken to ensure the information contained in these courses is completely accurate. If they are filled with errors the potential customer may doubt the quality of your work and seek out the products and services of others.
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Email Marketing Types
1) Welcome Emails
Prospects are usually unprepared to do business when they first contact you. According to research, only 25% of leads are immediately sales-ready, while 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. As a result, nurturing is critical for moving your leads closer to the buying stage.
When you offer a personal touch and introduce your organization without slathering on the sales pitch, welcome emails have higher open and click-through rates. Introduce a new product or service only after you’ve established a relationship. Simply work on making a good first impression — one that demonstrates your industry knowledge and expertise — to open the door for future contact.
2) Email Newsletters
Many businesses and organizations send email newsletters to stay in front of their customers’ minds. Most industrial businesses use email newsletters as the foundation of their email marketing program because they are excellent tools for informing customers and prospects about your company as well as showcasing employee profiles, company passion projects, and relevant graphics.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of creating email newsletters, you must first establish your goal. What do you want your email newsletter to accomplish? You may want to cultivate your existing contacts and become the first brand they think of when they require a product or service in your industry. Alternatively, your goal could be to increase sharing in order to attract new subscribers to your list. Consider what metrics you can use to track your progress as you define your goal.
3) Dedicated Emails
Dedicated emails, also referred to as stand-alone emails, contain information about a single offer. For example, you could notify your target audience about a new whitepaper you’ve published or invite them to an industry event you’re hosting.
Dedicated emails assist you in establishing the context for introducing the main call-to-action. In this regard, they are comparable to landing pages. Dedicated sends are typically used to reach out to your entire email database, which is not always efficient in terms of optimizing conversions and minimizing unsubscribes.
While there are times when you should notify all of your subscribers, such as a timely new offer or an unprecedented national emergency, in most cases you should segment heavily based on your subscribers’ different behaviors and interests.
4) Lead Nurturing Emails
Lead nurturing, as an inbound marketing tactic, is all about understanding the nuances of your leads’ timing and needs. That is why it is critical to define your buyer personas in order to effectively reach your target audience. Otherwise, your emails will be ignored or deleted.
Lead nurturing is the introduction of a tightly connected series of emails with a clear purpose and plenty of useful content. In this context, lead nurturing provides more benefits than a single email blast.
Promotional emails are a complex beast. They can be designed to promote a variety of things, including marketing materials like blog posts, webinars, and eBooks, as well as discounted service offerings. These emails can also be used to keep your customers up to date on what’s going on in your company. You can even use an automated system to send these emails, saving time and labor.
Make sure to tailor different types of promotional nurturing emails to your users’ needs based on where they are in the marketing funnel. This ensures that you are providing directly useful content to all prospects at the appropriate stage of their purchasing journey. The overarching goal here is to guide them through the sales cycle, moving them down the funnel and eventually converting them into loyal customers.
5) Sponsorship Emails
All of the marketing emails we’ve discussed so far are based on the assumption that you’re sending messages to your own email database. If you want to reach a different audience and gain new leads, you could try using sponsorship emails in conjunction with display ads. A sponsorship typically entails you paying for your copy to be included in another vendor’s newsletter or dedicated send.
Sponsorship email campaigns are a subset of a paid media strategy that includes pay-per-click (PPC), display advertising, mobile advertising, affiliate advertising, and other tactics.
You benefit from being extremely specific when describing the target audience you want to reach in this paid media universe.
6) Transactional Emails
Transactional emails are messages that are triggered by a specific action taken by your contacts and allow them to complete that action. For example, if you register for an industry webinar, you will fill out a form and receive a transactional (thank-you) email with login information. People will receive an email asking them to click on a link to confirm their registration if you use a double opt-in.
Transactional is also the messages you receive from eCommerce sites that confirm your order, provide shipment information, and provide other information about your recent purchase.
7) Re-Engagement Emails
If metrics indicate that a portion of your subscribed client list has been inactive, it may be time to send a re-engagement email to re-establish contact and goodwill. Asking for feedback is an excellent way to reintroduce your company to their minds, and if they respond, it’s a win-win situation: they’re now actively aware of your company, and you’ve got new feedback to work with to improve processes and marketing tactics.
Even if they do unsubscribe, there is a silver lining: your overall email engagement rates will improve, and your email reputation will improve among internet service providers (ISPs).
8) Brand Story Emails
By leveraging emotional responses, storytelling can be a powerful tool for communicating with customers and prospects. So consider the following: Is there a personal backstory to your brand? Do you have a video of your company’s profile that you’d like to share?
This story is evident throughout our emails and other marketing collateral, and we use our history to demonstrate reputation and highlight our industry focus to demonstrate purpose. This one-of-a-kind story conveys to our audience who we are, what we do, and how we can assist them.
Even if you haven’t been manufacturing or distributing goods for over a century, every company has a unique story to tell. It is a good idea to begin with your unique selling proposition. Here’s an example of how a manufacturer shares their brand story on their website, making it simple to share this page in emails in order to reach out to more customers:
Manor Tool is a metal stamping business that specializes in punching, bending, forming, and deep-drawn stampings. They created an interactive timeline on their About Us page to highlight the company’s innovative milestones throughout its history. Manor Tool was founded over 60 years ago, and this page confirms the company’s deep roots in the industry. If you’ve created a newly designed website page like this, notify your customers and prospects via email! The email will drive traffic to the website and, hopefully, nurture a lead into a sale.
9) Review Request Emails
According to Pew Research & Merit, millennials are the largest generation of workers in the United States, with 73 percent involved in purchasing decisions for their companies. In accordance with the industrial buying cycle, these buyers do not make a purchase decision until they are 70% of the way through the purchasing process before speaking with a supplier. We frequently see buyers use review sites such as Glassdoor, G2Crowd, and Google Reviews to research companies based on what previous customers have said. By requesting reviews on these sites, you can increase your credibility and help boost your search engine results.
10) Video Emails
Video emails and brand story marketing go hand in hand. They can share your company’s story and expertise in a more creative way. You can contact me via email at:
- A video of a factory tour
- A video highlighting a product/project
- An Overview of the Company
Incorporating your videos into email marketing is a wise strategy because 95 percent of a video message is retained compared to only 10% when reading text. They simply generate a lot of interest! Wistia tested their email marketing campaigns with A/B testing and discovered a 21.52 percent increase in clicks from image to video thumbnails. Our marketing emails to professionals in the manufacturing and industrial industries that shared video content converted 14 percent higher than eBook promotion here at Thomas.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Email Marketing
Advantages of Email Marketing | Disadvantages of Email Marketing |
---|---|
Email marketing can be much more cost-effective than many other forms of marketing. There are no fees for advertising, printing, or media space. | Size concerns – files must be small enough to download quickly. Emails with a large number of images may take too long to load, frustrating your recipients and losing their interest. |
Conversions and sales increase – if you have a new promotion, people can immediately click on links and follow your call-to-action. Email marketing is also effective at all stages of the purchasing cycle. You can, for example, persuade someone to buy your product, nurture the customer relationship after the transaction, and encourage future purchases. | Problems with design – your email must be designed so that it appears correctly across multiple devices and email providers. There may be a trade-off between design and functionality. Some people prefer to receive text-only emails; if this is the case, consider how your message will appear. |
Saving time – with automation, you can send emails to customers based on an action they took on your website, such as sending a welcome email when a user signs up for your website or sending an email offering a discount incentive if a user abandons an online shopping cart. Once you’ve created a template, you can reuse it for multiple email campaigns. | Resources and skills – In order to run a successful email campaign, you must have the right copy, design, and marketing list. Consider outsourcing some of these elements if you don’t have the time or skills in-house. |
Shareable – It is simple for people to forward and share your email content, allowing you to build your reputation through word-of-mouth or viral marketing. This may persuade new customers to become fans of your brand. | Spam – commercial email, also known as spam,’ irritates customers. If your messages aren’t being delivered to the right people, the recipient may delete or unsubscribe. You must ensure that your email marketing is in accordance with privacy and data protection regulations and that it is properly targeted at people who want to receive it. Untargeted emails are likely to have a very low ‘click-through rate.’ |
Benchmarking allows you to compare your results to those of others in your industry. There are numerous free email marketing benchmarking reports available online; simply search for them. Benchmarking data can assist you in evaluating and prioritizing opportunities for improvement. | Undeliverable emails – Emails that are poorly designed may not be delivered. Emails with specific spam keywords or characters in the subject heading or email content, such as £££s, FREE, click here, are likely to be filtered out by email software and internet service providers. If you do not keep your marketing lists up to date, you will discover that incorrect email addresses mean your messages will not reach the intended recipient. |
Creating Email Lists for Email Marketing Campaigns
If you plan to use Internet marketing to promote your business, you should seriously consider including email marketing as at least one tier of your campaign. Because they believe that all email marketing campaigns are spam, because of many business owners avoid email marketing.
However, this method is ineffective and we do not recommend it. The issue with purchasing an email list is that you have no way of knowing whether or not the list members would be interested in your products or services. This is critical because, while you want to reach a large audience through email marketing, you also want this audience to be part of your overall target audience.
When you buy an email list, you may send email messages to some users who are interested, but this is largely coincidental and unlikely to be well received because the message was not solicited.
Internet users are very quick to delete materials they believe to be spam without even opening or reading the emails. In fact, some Internet service providers include spam filters which may automatically delete your emails if your messages are deemed to be spam. These filters run complex algorithms on the subject heading and content of the message to determine whether or not it is spam and are quite adept at weeding out spam. Therefore you run the risk of having your email marketing effort turn out to be a complete waste if the majority of recipients never even read or receive the message.
Internet users are quick to delete materials they suspect are spam, even before opening or reading the emails. In fact, some Internet service providers include spam filters that may delete your emails automatically if they are deemed to be spam. These filters use complex algorithms to determine whether or not a message is a spam based on the subject heading and content of the message, and they are very good at weeding out spam. As a result, you run the risk of your email marketing effort being a total waste if the majority of recipients never read or receive the message.
Email marketing is not the best way to build an email distribution list for your email marketing campaign. A far better way is to invite current and prospective customers to register with your website. This provides you with a database of email addresses from current customers as well as potential customers.
Once you’ve compiled a list of interested or potential customers, you can send emails or create an e-newsletter for distribution to the members of your email list. These documents should be filled with useful information as well as a soft sell pitch for your products and services. This information will be appreciated by the readers and may persuade them to try your products and services.
You may also want to include useful links to your website as well as other websites that your readers may find interesting. Your content should also include a section that encourages the reader to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or researching a product further.
How To Choose The Right Email Marketing tools
On the market, there are hundreds of tools that specialize in email marketing. Choosing the right one can be difficult, whether you are new to this type of marketing or a seasoned pro.
But, before you choose the right tools for your business, you must first decide whether you want to do the full cycle of marketing yourself or outsource the task entirely to a third-party marketing agency. It is also possible to have a combination of both.
If you are a busy person who wants to focus on other important aspects of your business, you can outsource your email marketing campaign, which will save you time and effort. Because these third-party companies specialize in this type of business, the results of outsourcing your marketing campaign are usually better. In some cases, their services will be significantly less expensive.
However, doing full-cycle marketing on your own has its own set of benefits. Because you are the one doing it, you have complete control over the entire process. You can do whatever you think is best, giving you more freedom. When it comes to long-term savings, doing your own marketing can be less expensive than paying an outsourcer on a regular basis.
If you decide to do the full cycle marketing yourself, you will need to select a good email marketing tool to assist you. It may be difficult to find a good tool among the hundreds available.
Tips on Picking the Right Ones
To guide you in choosing the right email marketing tools that will work best for your campaign, here are some tips that you can follow:
- Purchase tools that are specialized in their own right. Yes, purchasing tools that can do a variety of tasks in a single package may be appealing. However, it is not what you are looking for because it may not be capable of doing what you are looking for in a tool. These all-in-one tools are also difficult to use most of the time because they ostensibly perform a variety of functions. Email marketing has several segments getting email addresses, managing them, creating messages, sending emails, and analyzing the results. As a result, it is best to select a tool that specializes and focuses its functions on email marketing.
- Select tools that are simple to integrate with other mass mailing tools and email marketing services. It should also be vendor agnostic.
- Select a tool that is simple to use and compatible with the majority of computers. The tools you select should also not require any additional software or hardware to function properly.
- A good email marketing tool should also allow you to pause or terminate the application even if it is in the middle of a process. It may not seem significant at first, but as your marketing volume grows, you will realize the value of that feature.
- Email marketing is an ever-changing process. In the marketing world, things are always changing and growing at a rapid pace. If the tools you want to buy are made by a company that specializes in Movie Players, it may not be the best option. These tools may be unable to keep up with the industry’s rapid pace. As a result, it is preferable to purchase from a company that specializes in email marketing.
These are just guidelines to give you an idea of what a good email marketing tool should be. You can read reviews of these tools on various websites to learn about their benefits and drawbacks.
Make a list of tools that you believe will be useful to you. Then try to find more reviews about them. Knowing what their customers have to say about the product will give you an idea of how it works.
Check to see if the tool has a free trial version. If this is the case, take advantage of the opportunity to try out the product and get a feel for it. This will assist you in making a more informed decision about selecting the best tools that will do their job while also being user-friendly.
Email marketing tools that increase web traffic
HubSpot, perhaps best known for its marketing automation platform, has recently launched a free email marketing tool that can handle many of a small business’ transactional email needs.
HubSpot Email Marketing’s free version can send kickback emails from lead offers, thank you emails after purchases, or simply promote current campaigns. One of the best aspects of HubSpot’s free email tool is its simplicity. The tool includes a convenient drag-and-drop visual editor as well as ready-made templates to get you up and running quickly.
The native integration with other HubSpot tools, such as the free-forever CRM, is what distinguishes HubSpot Email Marketing. When you sign up for an account, you gain access to both tools, allowing you to create a centralized contacts database, organize it into lists, and manage and track email performance.
2) Sender
The sender is one of the best free email marketing tools on the market, with deliverability features. It allows you to create visually appealing newsletters without any HTML knowledge. Simply select a template and personalize it with elements such as images, videos, and text. To make an even bigger impact, you can personalize your newsletters for each recipient.
One of the main reasons Sender is on our list is its robust analytics feature. It allows you to see who opened your emails and clicked on the links, as well as when they were opened. It even assists you in creating accurate buyer profiles based on subscriber actions, allowing you to optimize your current email strategy and craft compelling offers.
3) Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a marketing communication platform that includes email marketing tools as well as other features like customer relationship management and landing page creation. Sendinblue’s email design functions make it simple to create a visually appealing email with over 70 design templates. Furthermore, all of these templates are responsive, and you can preview your results to ensure that your design looks good on any screen size.
After you’ve designed your email, you can use features like A/B testing and segmented recipient lists to automate the process of optimizing your campaigns and targeting your ideal audiences.
4) Mailchimp
Sendinblue is a marketing communication platform that includes email marketing tools as well as extra features like customer relationship management and landing page creation. Sendinblue’s email design functions make it simple to create a visually appealing email, with over 70 design templates to choose from. Furthermore, all of these templates are responsive, and you can preview your results to ensure your design looks good on any screen size.
After you’ve designed your email, you can use features like A/B testing and segmented recipient lists to automate the process of optimizing campaigns and targeting your ideal audiences.
5) Moosend
Moosend is a fantastic email marketing tool that allows you to automate repetitive tasks and save time. You can create behavioral email campaigns based on the information and/or activities of your subscribers. You can use its advanced segmentation feature to send highly personalized emails to each recipient, increasing open rate, click-through rate, and ROI.
This tool generates a detailed campaign performance report for you, so you know exactly how to optimize your campaigns and achieve even better results. You can even integrate it with some of your favorite apps to seamlessly transfer data between tools. It is also one of the few free email marketing tools that will not include its logo in your emails.
Email Marketing Tips & Tricks
Email marketing is a cost-effective and efficient way to reach both current and prospective customers. Creating a strong email marketing campaign correctly can propel your company to the next level and provide you with a healthy ROI. You can also use your email marketing campaign to drive traffic to your website and increase subscriber engagement with your company. Here are five email marketing strategies to help you increase web traffic.
Start with a Healthy List of Subscribers
Your subscriber list is the most important thing to consider when developing an effective email marketing campaign. Instead of purchasing a subscriber list from a third party, use effective strategies to grow your subscriber list and implement a double opt-in procedure for your emails. This will ensure that your list is made up of high-quality subscribers who are genuinely interested in hearing from your company, as well as increase traffic and repeat visits.
Keep Your Landing Pages in Sync
If you want to keep email subscribers engaged when they visit your website, you must have relevant landing pages that provide additional information about the offer from the email. Directing your subscribers to a relevant landing page will aid in increasing traffic to your website.
Create Lists Based on Subscriber Interests
It is critical that those who subscribe to your email list receive emails with information that is of interest to them. Make sure to include a clickable list that subscribers can use to share their interests when creating your initial opt-in request, and then only share emails with information that focuses on those interests.
Monitor Your Email Metrics
To determine which email marketing campaigns are effective, you must monitor your email marketing metrics. If your click-through rates aren’t meeting your expectations, it’s time to improve your email copy and consider changing the placement, design, or text of the call-to-action buttons. Many email service providers will give you the tools you need to check your metrics.
Combine the Email with Social Media
You must integrate your social media and email marketing campaigns to increase the visibility of your website. Highlight your social media sharing icons in emails to provide a consistent marketing experience across all marketing channels.
A well-planned and well-designed email marketing campaign can entice your subscribers to visit your website, click on the offers, and be persuaded to make a purchase. Execute it correctly and you will quickly reach your website traffic targets.