With the rise of social media, SEO, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, it seems like email is lagging behind technology but the truth is, email marketing is still one of the best ways for connecting with customers and growing your business. According to recent studies, email is the most effective channel for marketing. Corporate businesses use email more actively than any other platform. In terms of figures, 85 percent of adult internet users are active in emails whereas only 22 percent of them are active on social media.
This is why building a successful email marketing campaign is more important for entrepreneurs. The only reason why some email campaigns fail is due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of how email marketing campaigns actually work.
Also Read: 9 Best Email Marketing Services for Small Business (2022)
We are here to help you learn how exactly an email marketing campaign works and how you can build your own email marketing campaign from scratch.
1. You are a guest in their inbox
People are engulfed and irritated with interruptions, promotions, and advertisements everywhere they look. You may think your recipients give priority to your emails but they treat all the emails as the same. This is why it is important for email marketers to consider themselves as a guest and follow good manners before entering their inbox.
When people subscriber to your emails it’s like being invited to a stranger’s home for dinner. If they ask you to be at your good behavior, you respectfully do so. It’s the same with email marketing, so before you start sending your emails make sure you have the best approach and best behavior at all times.
2. Getting permission is the first step towards building your email list
To get started, first, you have to get the permission of your recipients, which means you have to build a sizable email list. There are many ways to build an email list such as:
- Creating interesting and relevant content
- Free gifts
- Discount offers
- Free downloads
- Free eBooks
- Free shipping
- Online contests
There is no such thing as right or wrong answer for your approach, but it is always important to have a clear purpose before asking for permission. A strong call to action and creative copywriting can be the key feature in this subject.
Simply asking for an email address is not going to work to establish your trust. Explain what the emails are for, share specifics, and get people interested in receiving them.
By sharing a specific call to action or benefit to giving your email address, you can get more people to subscribe and follow your posts as well. Whatever incentives you are providing, make it unique, clear, and enticing, and don’t be afraid to promote it.
3. Follow through with interesting and relevant content
Email marketing is all about expectations and how closely you can relate it with your subscribers. If your call to action is strong, and your follow-up is consistent, then you can count on a positive campaign. Consistency is a big part of your email campaign, make sure you don’t underdeliver your content and also don’t exceed them in terms of daily email sent.
Create an auto-responder sequence so that you can be consistent in your follow-ups. The initial follow-up email should be sent immediately as a way to show you are aware and attentive to the subscriber’s response.
In the first follow-up you should also introduce yourself or your company and share details about what emails your recipients will receive in the future, but try to make it short.
4. Knowing the right time to pitch a product
Transitioning from introductory emails to pitching a product for money can be tricky. Before switching to pitching your products it is important to plan out in advance as you don’t want to surprise your subscribers.
It is a good idea to first understand the interest of the customers and provide sales pitches once in a while. Remember that an email list is a permission asset so it’s better to keep it safe than to lose subscribers.
5. How to write a good email newsletter?
The first thing to remember is to send your emails only when you have something important to say. Your subscribers won’t remember your emails if your subject is not important or if you fail to maintain a regular email routine.
Secondly, keep your newsletter simple and focused on the subject. Keep your copy short and precise so that your customers can understand what you are talking about just by scanning through.
You must also remember not to talk about sales and promotions every now and then. Lastly, focus on design and measure click-through rates so that you can add improvements in the future for better results.
6. Using the auto-responder
At the beginning of your email campaign, you will have to personally respond to subscribers. Once your subscribers start to pile up and you may not have time to follow through with every new subscriber, it’s time to use the auto-responder.
An autoresponder automatically sends out emails that you schedule in advance. By scheduling your emails you will be able to follow up with your subscribers immediately which will save you a lot of time.
If you wondering how big companies and marketers send emails to millions of subscribers, they make use of autoresponders. They plan out a series of emails that are automatically delivered to the email list. That way, when you do need to announce a new product or sale, you’re much less likely to annoy your readers.
7. Analytics and segmentation
Now that you went through the basics and effectiveness of an email campaign, it’s time to talk about analytics and segmentation. The 3 most important email analytics to keep in mind are:
Open rates: Open rate explains how many people opened your emails. It’s based on a single invisible tracking pixel that loads when someone clicks on your email. If your open rate is low, it usually means you have a lot of unengaged subscribers. You need to work harder on providing value and managing the expectations of your subscribers.
Click-through rates: Click-through rate shows how many people clicked on a link in your email. If your CTR is low, it means that your message is either not targeted enough, or simply not getting through. In this case, focus on improving your copy.
Unsubscribes: Finally, your unsubscribe rate tells you how many people have clicked the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of your email. If your unsubscribe rate is high in relation to your subscription rate, it means you have to work on building your email list again.
8. How to segment your email marketing list?
Segmentation is the practice of splitting up your email list into more targeted groups such as customer list, newsletter subscribers list, and leads list. With segmentation, you can send a broadcast only to those who didn’t open your last message. You can also split test messaging amongst different groups in order to refine your best practices.
Email marketing is delivering huge returns for marketers willing to get started with it. If you’ve been ignoring email marketing, it might be time to reevaluate your strategy. Follow the above-given points and you are ready to go.
Data Sources: Smart Insights
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