Email is one of the oldest forms of digital communication. It is also one of the most effective digital marketing and lead generation strategies if done correctly. Yet, most businesses make frequent mistakes. So, how to create a successful email marketing campaign?
What is Email Marketing?
Email Marketing is
“a digital marketing strategy where businesses send promotional news to people on an email list.”
It is used to expand the impact of content marketing, create leads, and generate sales by sharing promotional offers.
Best practices: how to create a successful email campaign
Creating a good email to inform, entertain and sell to an existing customer base, is tricker. These are the best practices in email marketing. Follow these practices to create a successful email marketing campaign of transactional emails:
#Best practices1:
Write an engaging title
Interesting subject titles are important to increase email opening rates but do not spam your customers. That will only leave to fewer subscriptions.
#Best practices2: Create a personal copy and speak directly to your customers.
Using the name of your customer in your email will help them feel appreciated. And creating personal copy, let them see your brand is human.
#Best practices3: Keep your messaging short
Most people read their email on the go, on a mobile device. Therefore, keep your email messaging as short and to the point as possible. Add a link for further reading, if needed.
#Best practices4:
Use an attractive email design and check the email display
Email is a visual communication strategy, so make sure your email campaign is visually attractive. Use a professional design template and check if the email displays correctly on different screens.
#Best practices5: Always include a CTA at the top and bottom of the Email
On websites and landing pages Call-to-actions (CTA) are included at the bottom. For an email campaign, add your CTA after the first paragraph and at the end.
#Best practices6:
Always ask for Permission
It is important to ask your customers for consent about staying on your business email list. Also always give your customers the option to opt out of your emails.
How does email marketing work?
An email marketing campaign requires three basic elements:
1. An email list
A database of customers that have given their permission regularly. To build an email list, create a signup form on your website and add a signup link via social media.
2. An email Service Provider (ESP)
An email marketing software platform that helps you to manage your email list, design email templates and automate email campaigns.
3. Clear business goals for your Email Marketing Strategy
A clear business goal for your Email Marketing to create a successful Email Marketing Campaign. This can be:
Boost brand awareness
Lead scoring
Increase sale
Improve customer engagement
Increase customer loyalty and Customer Lifetime value (LTV)
When you have these basic elements in order, you can:
Segment your email list according to specific actions and demographics.
Create a series of emails to let customers take action to let you fulfil your business goal.
Automate sending and evaluating the Email Marketing Campaigns with an Email Service Provider.
Types of effective B2B email campaigns
There are two main types of marketing emails: engagement emails and transactional emails. An effective and strategic marketing plan will include a mix of emails intended to engage and sell:
1) Engagement Emails
This type of email is for branding and company storytelling. The goal of engagement emails is to keep your email subscriber list interested and engaged.
By the time, visitors are ready to buy, they already are familiar with and have trust in your company.
2) Transactional Emails
This type of email is based on transactions and customer experiences.
Transactional emails are created to generate sales and improve customer experience. They can also be used to send updates to customers about order details.
Examples of Email Marketing Campaign Type
Examples of Email Marketing Campaign Types are:
Welcome Emails
Brand Stories
White papers, Tutorials and Tips
Emails to improve engagement
Shopping Cart Reminders
Customer Stories and case studies
Promotional Emails
Order Follow up Emails
Customer Review Request Emails
Receipt Emails
Email Marketing Benefits and constraints
As with every digital marketing strategy, email marketing comes with pros and cons.:
The benefits of Email Marketing are:
#Benefit1: Permission to Email
A customer gives your business permission to send an email. You now know you will get their attention and the customer will be more engaged.
#Benefit2: Direct communication
People check their email various times a day. You can communicate directly with your customers and your message is more likely to be seen.
#Benefit3: You are in control
With most marketing platforms, you do not own the platform. Yet, with email, you own the relationships with your subscribers.
#Benefit4: Create personal messaging
With data from your Email Services Provider, you can easily personalize the business messaging, based on customer segments and country information.
#Benefit5: Scalable marketing strategy
Email marketing campaigns can scale without resource restriction or need to compromise on quality.
#Benefit5: Email can be measured and automated
Using an Email Marketing platform makes it possible to measure results and automate repetitive tasks.
Whereas the constraints of email marketing are:
#Constraint1: You need an Email list and permission
You cannot just start to send emails. You need an email list and permission. Building an email list and getting permission from prospects and customers takes time.
#Constraint2: Fierce competition
Email marketing is a competitive field, so you must be creative to ensure your business emails will be opened.
#Constraint3: Delivery is not guaranteed
Although you have permission and sent your email campaign to a personal email address, delivery is not guaranteed. People change email addresses; emails can end up in the spam folder. So, email delivery issues might occur.
#Constraint4: Email marketing regulations
Aside from customer permission, your business also needs to take care of many rules and regulations on email marketing. Countries have several laws in place on the use of commercial emails. GDPR, CAN-SPAM and CCPA are a few of these laws you need to comply with.
Email marketing strategies
To create a successful email marketing campaign, you need a strategy. The best strategies you can use for email are:
#Strategy1: Use an Email list-building strategy
Use an email list-building strategy that is designed to attract your target audience. The success of an email marketing campaign depends on the quality of your email list. Hosting an online seminar, creating a downloadable asset, or offering a discount coupon are good list-building strategies.
#Strategy2: Remove inactive subscribers
Make sure your email list is always up to date. Remove incorrect email addresses and inactive subscribers as soon as possible to keep your email list clean.
#Strategy3: Regularly send email
Send emails regularly, so your customers remember what your brand is about.
#Strategy4: One subject per email
Only use one specific subject per email campaign. This helps you focus and makes it clearer for your customers to follow your intentions.
#Strategy5: Measure your business goals.
By creating and sending emails to your email list, you are all about ready. To understand if your email marketing campaign is successful, you need to measure if your business goals are met. The following are ways to measure the success of any email campaign:
Blog Traffic
Email open rates
Click-through-rates (CTR)
improve the sales funnel
Unsubscribe rate
Email marketing tools
There are many email marketing tools out there. To set up a successful email marketing campaign, you need at least to have the following email marketing tools:
Email Service Provider (ESP)
Email Delivery Tool- include email delivery testers
Email Testing & Measuring Tool- to improve your email campaign
Email messaging tool- personalize your email campaign with copy & images.
Email marketing automation
Automating email marketing has several benefits. The most important ones are:
Time savings
Lead generation
Increase in revenue
Customer retention
Easy tracking and monitoring
Shortened sales cycle
How to automate your email list?
1. Define your email list segments
Use data from your Email Service Provider to group your email list by preferences, locations, demographics, and topics. In this way, you can create specific and personalized email campaigns.
2. Design an efficient email series
Create a workflow and list of different emails that fulfil the business objective of your email campaign.
3. Investigate the correct email triggers
Find out which actions will trigger the next email in the email campaign flow.
Open the email
Click on a link
Open the email at a specific time
When a prospect or customer subscribes to your email list, follow the below strategy:
Subscriber signs up for email list- send a welcome email with discount or assets.
Next week- Send a second email promoting blog articles or new product or service arrivals.
Visitor on a website- send an email promoting the specific product.
Add an item to a shopping cart. If no sale has gone through, send an email reminder with a discount to follow up.
Conclusion
This article has given insight into what email marketing is and how to create a successful email marketing campaign.
Contact our marketing team to help create your business's next successful email marketing campaign.
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