Email marketing is one of the most common marketing tools in all types of businesses. Think about all the companies you interact with; almost all have sent you at least one email. With over 4 billion users worldwide, email marketing has proven to be the most effective direct marketing channel, generating an average revenue of $36 for every dollar spent. According to a SaleCycle study, 59% of the surveyed consider marketing emails to influence their buying decisions.
With such a positive reputation, it is only typical for a business owner to want to jump on the email marketing bandwagon and diversify their marketing efforts to increase revenues. So, if you’re wondering where to start harnessing the power of email marketing, read until the end of this guide and start today!
Email marketing is a direct marketing channel used to communicate, attract, and engage with potential and existing customers via email. You can use email as a promotional tool to inform your subscribers about new products or services, discounts, or upcoming events. It can also be for informational purposes, such as sharing your business’ information, values, benefits, stories, or any insights about the niche your subscribers may be interested in.
Nowadays, email marketing’s primary goal is understanding your client’s interests to develop long-standing and close relationships. Thus, email marketing heavily focuses on the messages’ personalization, segmentation, and consent, allowing a more direct approach than other channels.
Unlike social media, email gives you direct access to your customer’s inboxes without being affected by algorithm updates that can negatively affect your reach. As you follow the required security protocols and build effective campaigns, your messages will reach your intended audience.
Not all emails serve the same purpose, and choosing the right type is essential to reach your goal. Let’s look at the five most common types you can use in email marketing and what they are ideal for.
These campaigns promote special offers, new product/service launches, ebooks, and events. They have a clear call to action (mostly known as CTA) that encourages customers to take a desired action, such as buying your product, downloading an app or visiting your webpage.
Promotional emails can be sent all year round, but they are most commonly used during special dates and events like Black Friday, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day, as people are most prone to buy and spend during these times. However, the frequency of your promotional emails will be dictated by your sales rhythm and marketing strategies. For example, you can send your clients a special discount on the business anniversary to promote sales and deepen the relationships.
These emails aim to engage your customers with the brand, keeping them satisfied and returning for more. With a retention campaign, you can target customers who appear to have lost interest by sharing tips on using your product, welcoming them to your subscriptions, or sending surveys to gather audience insights. Some retention emails are:
This is one of the most popular informational email types. It is typically used to share news about your company and industry, such as milestones, product and service updates, case studies, tips, and more.
Since they are sent at regular intervals, such as weekly, monthly, daily, or quarterly, they are a perfect way to stay in touch with your subscribers and give them information they’ll find valuable.
These are automated responses triggered by a specific action by your customer, such as buying something from your shop. Although they don’t promote sales, transactional emails are crucial in maintaining customer satisfaction as they confirm that your customers get what they signed up for. Transactional emails include:
These are more strategic emails that target a specific segment of your subscribers with a series of thorough emails. They are meant to lead your potential customers from consideration to purchasing your product or service.
These are five of the most common email types you can use when crafting your marketing strategies. However, there are more you can learn about as you get more experienced in email marketing.
Choosing the right email type to start your campaigns can be tricky, as they aim for different goals and sometimes may not align properly with your general marketing objectives. Say that you’re aiming to increase your sales during Christmas. In that case, promotional emails offering your customers eye-catching discounts can work better than a weekly newsletter sharing the business’s Christmas stories.
Email marketing campaigns can help you get more potential customers interested in your business and drive more sales in the long run. However, before starting any campaign, you must have three essential things: an email service provider, an email list, and clear goals.
This is the first thing you must do before sending out any email. Your goal is to determine the content and structure of your emails so that they are clear and measurable. For example, suppose you’re looking to drive sales for your newly launched product. In that case, your emails should focus on introducing the product and its benefits to your clients and, eventually, encouraging them to purchase by offering discounts, coupons, or other incentives.
The email list is the database of subscribers who have agreed to receive your emails and is the backbone of your campaign. After all, you first need subscribers to start sending emails. The key here is to have an engaging and active list interested in your business instead of accumulating many email addresses.
If you’re just beginning, you can start building your list through paid ads on social media, pop up on your website inviting visitors to subscribe, or offering valuable content like an ebook, a checklist, or a webinar in exchange for the client’s email address. Doing this increases the chance of getting subscribers interested in your business, which can promote a later purchase.
Also known as an email marketing platform, this tool allows you to send massive amounts of emails and manage all your email marketing campaigns. An ESP helps you manage your email lists, segmenting them by interest, topics, and other demographics. You can also design your emails on them thanks to their pre-made templates, which allow you to automate repetitive emails like welcome or thank you emails and offer you helpful analytics to measure the performance of your campaigns.
Unlike typical email providers like Gmail or Outlook, built for personal use, an email marketing platform handles the technical aspects to avoid your email being marked as spam so you can focus on crafting the content.
Now that you’ve gathered all the requirements to start your email campaign, we can focus on some ways to help nurture your potential clients and increase your business’s sales.
Writing enticing subject lines is key to increasing your opening metrics and driving sales. The subject line of your email tells your client what the email is about and, more importantly, why they should read it. One helpful tip is to start with questions that resonate with your prospects. For example, instead of “The benefits of Z Sunglasses,” appeal to your client’s curiosity: “Do you know how Z protects your eyes from UV rays?”
About 80% of people check their email inboxes at least once daily, which makes sense since the average office worker receives roughly 121 emails daily. With so much information, most emails we receive are likely archived, ignored, or deleted. That’s why it is important to send emails regularly to increase the chances of your emails being opened and your messages being delivered.
It is expected that emails should be spaced out of fear of appearing too “desperate” or “spammy,” which is valid. Sending endless promotional emails will likely get you blocked and put you in the spam folder. However, sending one email every month will result in your business losing awareness and consideration in the minds of your clients, which will not drive any sales from them.
Balancing promotional and content-value emails is the key to sending constant emails without becoming spam. Instead of sending three emails a week with a coupon, you can alternate between a promotional offer and helpful articles about your product or service, which can help build trust and your business’s authority in the industry.
Holidays throughout the year are the perfect time to send your subscribers email marketing campaigns with targeted offers. Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, Easter Day, and more allow you to craft trending campaigns that induce customers to open your emails, click links, and often purchase your products. Since there are so many events year-round, you can run different promotions and benefit from the festive sentiments.
Email marketing automation is one of the best ways to increase revenue without spending hours tracking clients and sending emails. Most email marketing platforms let you set up automated emails from behavioral triggers.
One of the most common examples is abandoned shopping cart emails, sent when a user exits the website without finishing the purchase. It’s been shown that sending them within an hour converts almost 6.33 of your shoppers. However, you can set up automated emails for many other things, such as welcoming a new subscriber with a story, a welcome letter, or even a coupon or retargeting users who have previously visited your website.
Starting an email marketing campaign can be challenging. From getting subscribers to designing emails and segmenting your lists, it can put an extra load on your shoulders. If your emails are not getting the results you expect or you feel your marketing team needs additional help to fine-tune the email campaigns, you’ll find the solution in Xperience Marketing Solutions.
Whether you’re just starting and want to promote your business among new customers or get the most out of your email database, XMS has a dedicated team of marketing professionals ready to help you optimize your campaigns.
