Nov 13, 2019
Your list of email subscribers is starting to build, and you are raking in new leads.
Well, now what? You can’t just let them sit there! As a vital part of your digital marketing strategy, email marketing is a great way to keep subscribers in the know about your business and products. However, it requires a little more attention to detail than sending out a quick email to the world.
In this quick guide to email marketing, we will go over the essentials you need to know before sending emails. Follow along and get a jump on your next email campaign with these tips!
Why Does Email Marketing Still Matter?
Email marketing isn’t a new digital marketing tactic, but it’s far from dead.
Think about how much money you spend on print mailers that may or may not reach your intended audience. Emails are a cost-effective alternative that create new opportunities for you to reach potential customers. By using segmented audience lists and precise messaging, you can craft effective, targeted emails that appeal to your subscribers.
With email marketing, you can foster a relationship with individual subscribers, leads, and customers. Every email campaign you send shines a light on your readers and what they need most. By personalizing emails for your target customer, you can:
- Build brand awareness
- Build connections with your audience
- Generate leads
- Nurture leads
- Promote your website content
- Show subscribers your value
- Promote products and services
We all check our emails regularly throughout the day. With email marketing, you can use these moments to engage and interact with potential customers. Remind them why they subscribed in the first place, add more value, and start bringing leads back to your website.
Now that you know why emailing matters, let’s look at how to do it right.
Email Marketing First Steps
As you read this quick start guide to email marketing, you’ll notice we’re pretty big on planning. Having a plan in place before creating an email campaign can help you avoid unnecessary bumps in the road to success.
1. Know Your Goals
Before you begin designing, composing, and sending out emails, let’s talk about your goals.
As a piece of your bigger digital marketing puzzle, email marketing can help you achieve your overall marketing goals. So before you press “SEND,” ask yourself: what waits at the finish line?
Maybe you’re sprinting towards:
- An increase in website traffic
- More sales for a specific product or service
- New sign-ups for your next event
- Boosted awareness
It’s essential to know your goals before you dive into the rest of our easy guide to email marketing. Otherwise, you could end up missing items that are critical for a successful campaign, such as:
- The type of campaigns best designed to achieve your goals
- Your target customer for this specific campaign
- The content that best communicates with your customer
- The KPIs you need to measure success
Once you determine your goals and plan it all out, you can create a focused email campaign to achieve them
2. Know Your Customers
Sending an email to your list of 5,000 plus subscribers may seem easy, but without a targeted message, it’s not as effective.
Those 5,000 people all have different personalities, interests, and behaviors. Not everyone in your email list will respond to the message in the same way. Instead of sending one email to a big audience, break it down.
Segment your list into different audience types using variables such as:
- Demographics
- New subscribers
- Interests
- Locations
- Open rates
- Inactivity
- Shopping cart abandonment
- Purchase history
There are dozens of ways to segment email lists. Breaking an extensive list into smaller groups can help improve open rates and click-through rates while decreasing unsubscribes. It can make email automation a lot easier, too.
3. Simplify Sign Up
An email subscriber list is never complete. Whether you have hundreds of subscribers or only a few, there are always new opportunities for you to build your email list.
Here are a few ways to do so:
- Import your contacts
- Offer a white paper or exclusive content in exchange for contact details
- Add a contact form to your website
- Place an opt-in newsletter form at the bottom of your blog posts
To discover which sign-up method works best for your audience, use analytics to track the source of your subscribers. It’s essential to make sure you have permission to send emails to these contacts. Your campaigns might suffer if you fail to follow email regulations.
4. Consider the Campaign
Emails come in all shapes and sizes. Below are a few campaign types from which you can choose. Each one has its strengths, so finding the right one for your business depends on your digital marketing goals.
Newsletters:
- Sent out regularly (monthly, weekly, etc.)
- Cover one main topic or theme
- Help you keep in touch with subscribers
- Keep you at the forefront of the reader’s mind
- Increase website traffic
Offers:
- Show readers new stock
- Include a special promotion or discount on a product/service
- Encourage purchases by using a strong call-to-action
- Increase website traffic
- Drive direct sales
Announcements:
- Inform subscribers of new products, services, or features
- Keep your audience up-to-date
- Increase website traffic and engagement
- Can drive sales
Invitations:
- Tell subscribers about a future event
- Promote attendance or sign-ups
If you’re unsure about which campaign is best for your business, look back at your goals. Offers and announcements can help boost sales, but a monthly newsletter can keep your business top-of-mind with subscribers.
Now that you’re familiar with your campaign options, you can get to work drafting those emails!
Fable Heart Media is Here For You.
Whether you own a small company or lead a marketing team, Fable Heart Media can help you achieve your business goals. Our process focuses on driving measurable growth and obtaining results. Of course, we love creating beautiful websites and writing awesome blogs, but for us, nothing tops the feeling of seeing our customers grow online due to our partnership.
We Help You Achieve Measurable Growth
We are Fable Heart Media, a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, FL, that focuses on driving measurable growth and obtaining results for our clients. Whether you own a small company or lead a marketing team, our team can help you achieve your business goals. We love creating stunning websites and writing awesome blogs, but for us, nothing tops the feeling of watching our clients grow online due to our marketing partnership.