As you’ve evaluated marketing strategies, there’s no doubt you’ve come across email marketing. Incorporating email marketing into your marketing plan is essential.
It’s actually capable of becoming your most successful marketing campaign.
With email marketing, you reach out and engage with new customers. There are over four billion email users around the world. And most of those check their email at least once a day. Email campaigns are fantastic for reaching as many potential clients as possible.
Through email, you can share your products and services. Along with familiarizing prospects with your brand. The conversion rate from email recipients to paying customers is high. Email campaigns are also cost-effective, have an amazing return on investment (ROI).
As imagined, email marketing drives your business sales. At the same time, it increases brand awareness for both new and existing customers.
Speaking of existing customers, email marketing maintains positive relationships with former clients. This connection encourages existing customers to purchase from your company again.
It also improves customer loyalty to your business. This loyalty plays a role in building a community around your company. And building a community improves your sales and lead generation.
The benefits of email marketing are undeniable. But how do you get started?
Define Your Target Audience
If you want a targeted email marketing campaign, first know your target audience. This involves understanding customers’ likes and dislikes. Along with their age group, location, and other demographics.
When you know your target audience, you know what makes them tick. You have a better understanding of who would be most interested in your business. You know what font and colors would appeal most to them. And what information they expect from marketing emails.
With this information, you create more personalized emails. The relevant content results in higher conversion rates. You get more sales from your relevant email marketing campaigns.
It’s likely you already know your target audience. But, if you don’t, here is an article about discovering your target audience.
Determine Your Goals for Email Marketing
Setting up an email marketing campaign is simple. You find an email marketing tool and set up a new campaign. But what’s the purpose of the campaign? What are you trying to achieve?
You want a successful email marketing campaign. Well, part of that involves determining the goals you have for the campaign.
This is the first step to creating a strong email marketing strategy. Along with defining your target audience, of course. Having a goal in mind affects the type of content you put out. If your goal is increasing sales, have a campaign that highlights your products. If you want more brand recognition, highlight the work your company does.
Goals are the purpose behind your emails. When you have them in place, your emails come across less as spam mail. They have a clear purpose. And recipients recognize that purpose.
Further, goals help you determine the type of email marketing campaign you need. For some, having a newsletter campaign makes the most sense. For others, its blog and content updates.
Develop a Mailing List
You have your goals and target audience in mind. Now is when you develop your mailing list. This involves gathering up a list of individuals interested in your marketing. These people will open and read your emails. Uninterested parties just put your emails in the trash. Often without opening them at all.
The latter group is what you get when purchasing mailing lists. As with many things in life, building a strong list takes time. Don’t rush things and spend the money for uninterested recipients.
Anyway, there are several methods of developing a mailing list for email marketing. First, import known contacts. These are individuals who have purchased from your business. Including them in email marketing campaigns maintains a connection to them. However, do not assume you have permission to email existing customers. Without the right permission, your emails are unwanted and intrusive.
Another way of developing a mailing list is building one from scratch. Encourage new subscribers by offering incentives. These include shipping upgrades or discounts on first orders.
Include different calls to action on your website, too. Provide encouragement to visitors who subscribe. Consider having a call to action on your home page, or as a slider. You can also opt for creating calls to action at the side bar or at the bottom of posts.
Make sure you don’t overload visitors with calls to action. Keep your website functional and appealing.
Design Your Emails
At this point, you’re ready for designing your email marketing campaign. Consider how the colors match and complement your brand. Make sure the text supports your goals. And include language that your target audience finds appealing.
Designing an effective email isn’t difficult. Assuming you completed the above steps. You already know what you want. And you know who you want it from.
An important part of designing your emails is personalization. Include each person’s name in the heading of each email. And consider altering the content so it more matches their interests.
Personalizing emails takes time. Especially when you have a larger email list. But it is worth it. It increases the chances that recipients open the email. Along with increasing the chances that they’ll connect with the content.
Dive Into Other Devices
During the design process, consider mobile and tablet functionality. You don’t want an email optimized only for the computer. A lot of people check emails on their phones or tablets now. If you create something that is not optimized for these other devices, you lose potential.
This goes beyond making sure the emails appear properly on other devices. It extends to the content contained in the email. And even the subject line. Many devices are smaller than computer screens. Having long emails are tedious reads for mobile device users. Even long subject lines aren’t ideal since they get cut off on smaller screens.
Draw Conclusions From Results
You’ve sent out your first email. And now, you wait.
As time passes, draw conclusions from the results of your first email. Compare purchasing habits pre- and post-email. Consider how many times recipients opened your email. Look at how many of them visited your website.
As with any marketing campaign, you can’t know how effective it is without analysis.
Track the performance of your email marketing campaign over time. And identify areas of improvement. These include the time when you send emails, the subject line, or the email body. Whatever it is, compare it to past performance. And also compare it to the goals you have in mind. There is nothing wrong with making changes to your email marketing campaign.
The only goal is creating something successful. No matter how many changes you need.
A Well-Rounded Email Marketing Strategy
Following these basic steps gets you started with email marketing. Yes, there are improvements you’ll make over time. None of us begin something new as experts.
But, you want a well-rounded strategy. This guarantees your success in email marketing. You will make changes within the steps. Just don’t eliminate these steps.
You’ll be well on your way with email marketing before you know it.