E-mail Marketing: What Is It and How to Create an Effective Campaign?

E-mail marketing isn’t something new, but is far from becoming obsolete. E-mail marketing is the perfect way to connect with your potential and current clients directly and effectively.

But, do you know how to run an E-mail marketing campaign? In today’s world, thousands and thousands of E-mails are sent on a daily basis, and you probably have to compete with some of them for your client’s attention.

So, you need to know how to run a successful E-mail marketing campaign to reach your target audience, catch their attention and convert them into clients.

We’ll tell you everything you need to know to plan and execute a successful E-mail marketing campaign. Take some notes!

What is E-mail marketing?

E-mail marketing is one of the most efficient digital marketing strategies when done right. It consists of sending E-mails to potential clients, aiming to convert them to actual clients, increase sales, interact with the audience, build trust, confirm purchase orders, etc.

It allows companies to share new products, sales and updates with customers on their contact list. In the long run, an engaging email marketing strategy not only drives sales, but helps build a community around your brand.

Why is E-mail marketing important?

E-mail marketing strategies can provide positive results for your company. In the last few years, it has been an essential communication tool, allowing companies to create everlasting and strong bonds with their clients.

Email marketing campaigns can be personalized to a greater extent than social media campaigns. Next, costs are lower than other channels, especially when you consider the reach and conversion rate associated with email marketing. This is part of what makes email marketing so widely used in recent times in companies’ marketing strategies.

If you don’t know how to implement a good E-mail marketing strategy for your business, this article is for you.

What are its main goals?

E-mail marketing usually has three main goals:

  1. Promote your brand
  2. Position your company as an expert and trustworthy
  3. Sell your products and services

What are its benefits?

1. Converts more than social media

When done right, E-mail marketing campaigns convert better than social media marketing campaigns.  This makes it a very useful and successful tool.

However, you must have a proper content marketing strategy to add value and offer relevant and timely information to your customers.

2. Keeps you in the mind of your customers

Frequent and relevant E-mails helps you to stay present in your customer lives, and makes sure they don’t forget you exist.

It also allows you to create reminders for different steps on the purchase process, so when the customer decides what to buy, your brand is the first option.

3. Communicates almost in real time

E-mails can send information quickly to your customers, and they work almost in real time. You can communicate about news, sales, offers or special events any time you need to.

And, if you customize your E-mails, the conversion rate gets even higher, and the communication is more effective.

7 steps to create a successful E-mail marketing campaign

1. Create a mailing list

The first thing you need to do, is gather information about your customers and, of course, get their E-mail addresses.  You can do that easily with a form on your website to convert visitors into leads or subscribers. You can also ask for their E-mails on your physical stores.

2. Set some goals

Before running any E-mail marketing campaign, you should set some clear goals, like:

  • Attract inactive clients so they become engaged with your brand again
  • Build trust and confidence with new customers
  • Increase engagement with your contents and business
  • Motivate clients to resume purchases if they had an abandoned cart
  • Get to know your clients better

These goals will help you know what type of content you should send, and how to measure your campaign’s success.

3. Identify which E-mail type you’re sending

You must know all the different E-mail types there are, so you know which one to send in the right moment.

  • Promotional E-mails: These E-mails are all about offers, sales, discounts and promote your products and services.
  • Relation E-mails: These E-mails stablish relationships with your customers, or delivers something they were expecting from you like gifts or relevant information.
  • Transactional E-mails: These E-mails are sent when making online purchases, and contain orders, welcome messages, purchase confirmations, invoices, etc.

By sending the right type of E-mail on the right time, you’ll build a better relationship with your customers.

4. Know your audience

If you’re new on E-mail marketing, begin by gathering relevant information about your customers and clients before you prepare and send your first campaign.

You can do so by doing some customer behavior analysis, or some market research. You can check their social media profiles, insights about purchase frequency, or analyze trends with tools as Google Trends.

The more you know your customers, the better.

5. Design a professional and beautiful look and feel

Design goes a long way among customers and clients. If your E-mails (or your website) don’t look good, don’t adapt to mobile devices, and it’s not easy to read, you might risk to never been read by your audience.

E-mails should be designed in a simple yet beautiful way, to invite your customers to open it and read the contents. They also should be adaptable to mobile devices.

6. Customize the E-mails

Customized E-mails increases the opening and reading rates. Personalized E-mails also creates a trust and close relationship with your subscribers or customers.

You can use their first name at the beginning of the E-mail, or some other information if you have it.  Those little details are everything for your clients, and definitely on your clicks, openings and conversion rates.

7. Run Tests and Follow-ups

It’s very important that you test your designs, call to actions, contents and subjects. Also, do some experiments with sending times and market segments.

Don’t forget to review the insights and data you obtain from your E-mail services provider, so you know what’s working and what could be improved for your next campaigns.

Keep in mind that if you try several times to engage inactive subscribers or clients, and you don’t get them to interact with you, it’s best to delete them from your mailing list. This way you won’t be marked as spam, and you can focus your efforts in those clients that interact with your brand and contents.

How to choose an email service provider

The most popular options include Sendinblue, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Convertkit, and HubSpot.

Questions to ask yourself when choosing an email service provider.

  • What is your budget? If it is very limited, then inexpensive services should be your starting point.
  • What type of emails do you plan to send and how often? This will give you an idea of the volume of email required.
  • If you already have an opt-in contact list, how many are there?
  • What is your skill level when it comes to designing emails? If you’re a complete beginner, you’ll want a drag-and-drop email editor. Email templates will also come in handy. On the other hand, if you prefer to code emails from scratch, you’ll be looking for an HTML editor.
  • Planning to set up automated email workflows? See what ESP offers in terms of email marketing automation.
  • If your company communicates with different buyers, what contact list segmentation capabilities are offered?

Conclusion

Gain more sales opportunities and reinforce everlasting bonds with your clients by designing and running an E-mail marketing campaign.

Follow the previous seven steps, and get ready to take your business to the next level!

If you’d like some help to design and execute some E-mail marketing campaigns, contact us! We’ll be more than happy to help!


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