Everything you need to know about Email Marketing

What is email marketing?

It is an area of digital marketing that focuses on email campaigns. To communicate with visitors/consumers, companies use email marketing methods. In this way, the content of the site is promoted, and in the case of the e-shop, discounts and news on business expansion are announced. The content of the email can be varied, but the goal is unique - you want to animate the recipient to complete the desired action (purchase, visit the site, fill out the questionnaire. The way you do this can be the key to the success of your email campaign.

According to a study, email is still one of the most effective methods of promotion, so it still ranks at the very top when it comes to digital communication channels. Research has shown that marketers around the world believe that email is more effective than PPC and Display advertising. Of course, this online activity is only part of an overall digital marketing strategy.

If you are thinking of an email campaign, you need to know how to reach your audience. You need to draw attention to yourself and be interesting enough to "force" the reader to perform the action you initially sent the email. As we mentioned, there are various types of activation, and it only depends on your skills and knowledge whether you will succeed in your plan.

However, to send an email at the beginning, you need the addresses to which you will send your message. It is clear that without contacts, your campaign is a failure. That's why it's important to know how to provide relevant contacts that will interest you in what you offer.

How to get email contacts?

To start a successful campaign, you need to build your contact list. There are many ways to get in touch effectively, and some methods involve going out into the field and communicating directly with potential customers. What is important to know is that for each email address, you must have the approval of the owner to avoid embarrassing situations where someone accuses you of spamming them with unwanted content.

Depending on your business, some data collection methods will be more effective than others. It is advisable to combine all the methods available to you to reach contacts.

Gathering contacts through the site

Since you will want to direct people to your site, the search for contacts should start from there. Interest visitors to leave their contact because, in that case, they are people who are interested in what you are doing. After all, they are on your site. The Newsletter subscription in a visible place is a good option, but there are many more interesting methods.

Try to offer visitors a benefit so that they decide to sign up. It can be additional, exclusive content, free e-book, cooking recipes, prizes, etc. The point is to offer something and based on that you are looking for something in return. This way, you will have many more newsletter subscribers than a simple "Sign up" message.

Opt-in Page Email Marketing

It is a process in which you invite everyone who comes to this site to leave their email address. When you create an opt-in landing page or a page that you use as a place to reach by clicking on a banner on or off your site, you direct potential customers to a page whose sole purpose is to persuade them to leave the contact.

Due to its role, the opt-in landing page must look attractive, and, as a rule, there are no links other than the one that leads to leaving data. Aesthetics, in this case, is almost as important as the text on the page.

With a quality "premium" look, we are telling the visitor that this is not a scam but a successful business. In this way, trust is gained at first sight, which is necessary to build through affirmative text, video, or infographics. If you have created the page correctly, you will receive a conversion, ie contact.

Social Networks Email Marketing

Email marketing can connect with social networks is a great way. One of the benefits is the ability to target audience searches through ads that would be placed. On the other hand, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others are great places to gather contacts because if you are present on these networks, it is very likely that you already have a fan/follower base.

In that case, you should present the benefits that await them through various activations if they leave their contacts. There are several tactics, and one of the most effective is the organization of the prize game. If the reward is attractive, the response of users will be extremely high, but in this case, you should carefully choose what is given away so as not to get a large number of useless contacts.

For example, if you have an e-shop that deals with video games and accessories, giving away a Playstation console will get a great response. However, a large number of contacts can be older people, who are not the target group, but children forced them to apply. Of course, the sweepstakes are just one way - there are several strategies you will try until you find the best one.

On the other hand, Facebook has a call-to-action option that allows you to direct an interested audience directly to the opt-in page. You will notice that we mentioned Facebook the most. This is because this network still has the most users. For specific groups, it is sometimes better to try on Instagram or Twitter. It all depends on whose contacts you want and where that target group is moving.

Direct meetings with potential customers

Although everything is online, you will often get the best contacts offline. If you are dealing with cars, the best place to make contacts are car shows, car services, motorcycle rallies, old-timer exhibitions, etc.

In other words, if you move where your potential customers are, it will be easier for you to present all the advantages of leaving contact in a direct conversation. Also, when meeting face to face, people lower their guard, so they are more willing to listen to what benefits await them.

Which email form is the best?

Depending on the goal you want to achieve, the forms of emails also differ. There are several types, and this time we draw your attention to the most important ones.

• Standard promotional email - if you want to present a promotional message (discount, a new product on offer, opening a new store. As you are not the only one who sends similar information to the inbox, your email needs to be different from the others. Be original, witty, informative, give something away, stand out with outstanding email design.

 

• Transaction mail - after the customer completes the transaction, he will receive a notification in the inbox thanking him for the purchase. Since someone just bought something, there are huge chances that they will open this mail. It is a great opportunity to draw his attention to similar products, offer a discount for the next purchase, and thank them for choosing you.

 

• Welcome email - as soon as someone signs up for your mailing list, they will receive a thank you message. In this email, it would be good to use the opportunity to briefly present your brand, explain what they will receive in the future, and give them something (discount or e-book). Don't forget to thank them, that's the main reason why you sent them an email!

 

• Newsletter - one of the most popular forms of communication with clients or visitors is the periodical newsletter. The newsletter is information that may be of interest to subscribers and is usually sent once a week. Write about interesting things that will interest people. Don't try to sell them something right away, it will only turn away readers. Focus on the useful things, be fun and informative, and you will be able to count on a large number of emails.

 

There are various forms of emails, and their appearance and content depend on your strategy and recipients. Sometimes even the best-created mail has no effect if it is sent at the wrong time or to the wrong target group.

 

Email strategies that deliver results

 

Email marketing can bring great results, but it can also fail. It all depends on the approach to the target group and your commitment to monitor the results and make timely changes. It is a continuous process there is no formula that 100% guarantees the result you want. 

 

Personalization and segmentation

The message will always be better accepted if you address the recipient in person. Some researchers have concluded that the number of e-mail openings increases many times if you address the recipient in the subject by name. And while this is a very effective tactic, it is not desirable to overdo the use of the name because it will sound unnatural and offensive. Limit yourself to two mentions at the beginning and the end of the message. 

 

In addition to the name, you can further personalize the email by segmenting the mailing list based on the information you received from subscribers when signing up. The division can be established on age, occupation, gender, profession, etc. When you make a segmentation, it is easier to create a mail that will be interesting to a particular group, which automatically increases the chances of a successful conversion. 

 

Drip campaigns

It is a set of prepared emails that are sent automatically when a certain activity is performed. Campaigns can be set to activate when someone, among other things, subscribes to a mailing list or downloads a file from the site.

The trigger for sending can also be that someone did not respond to your previous five messages or if users have not logged in to your service for a long time. The role of drip campaigns is to remind and encourage "sleeping" users to reuse your services.

 

Interactive campaign

An interactive campaign is unlike most one-way campaigns. Interactive emails are expected to interact with the recipient. By inserting infographics, tasks, and tests, you will get the reader's attention. It is not a bad idea to send an email from time to time that does not even have any ambition to "pull out" something, but simply to entertain and thus convince the recipient of the email that we have something to offer.

Sometimes it can be information that will tickle the user's imagination to start thinking about something. The topic could be "Calculate whether it pays more to buy a new or used car". After a few days, you can send an offer of your cars with a time-limited discount.

What is spam, and how to avoid being blocked?

Dozens of messages arrive in the inbox of each of us every day, but most are blocked. Spam filters are responsible for that. Spam filters are responsible for that. For your campaign to be, successful you need to go through the filtering and reach the user's email inbox.

To reduce the chance of being blocked, you need to send emails from a server that is not recognized as a source of unwanted content. It is also essential that you send emails only to people who have subscribed to your mailing list and avoid words that are used in malicious emails. It is also important not to overdo it with photos.

Reputable programs for sending marketing emails will provide you with additional security. Currently, MailChimp is the most popular email marketing platform. If the message was sent from an inadequate program and a suspicious server, be sure that you will not even reach the inbox.

It is extremely important that you set the unsubscribe option in each email. Many countries are required by law to clearly state this option, but even if this is not the case, you are expected to offer this option. Otherwise, your email campaign will likely be marked as spam either automatically or by the user himself.

Email Marketing Terms you need to know

• Autoresponder - a service that automatically sends an email
• Subscriber - a subscriber who has subscribed to the mailing list
• HTML Email - a specially designed mail that looks like a web page
• Plain Email - plain mail that contains only text, without decorations, images, and links
• Open rate - the percentage of people on the list who opened an email
• CTR (Click Through Rate) - the percentage of people who clicked on the link
• CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) - use of collected information about the user for more effective communication with him

 

Conclusion

Email marketing has a very important function in business strategy. It is an essential and indispensable item of every marketing campaign. It gives good results without a lot of investment, so we need to devote a lot of time to designing its form and how to interest our potential customers with our creative message.