In this post, we’ll try to understand Email Marketing and its benefits. We will also look at the essential components of email marketing and tools that can help you get started. Let’s begin.
First, why should you consider email marketing for your business?
To begin with, there are over 4 billion daily email users worldwide.
There are many benefits of email marketing. Some key benefits are:
1. Return on investment
Email marketing is an affordable and effective marketing strategy. It’s great for businesses of all sizes and has the potential to give good returns. On average email marketing returns 36$ for every dollar spent.
2. Direct marketing tool
Email is also an excellent channel for direct marketing. Emails can be used to send personalized messages, promotions, or newsletters directly into your target audience’s inbox. It is a way of familiarizing potential buyers with your products and services so they can convert into customers in the future.
3. Measurement and analysis
With analytical tools, you can measure the performance of your email campaign. For example, you can track how many email recipients opened your email or how many recipients clicked on a link within your email. Based on this information you can make improvements to your campaign. The average open rate for newsletters is 46-50%.
4. Building relationships
Emails are a great way to nurture relationships. The objective is to keep potential customers and existing customers interested and informed through communication. This can be good for the business in the long run.
Now that you know the benefits of email marketing, the question is: what do you need to get started with it?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting started with email marketing:
1. Define your Goals
Identify what you want to achieve with email marketing. Do you want to increase sales, drive website traffic, or build brand loyalty?
2. Build an Email List
Based on your goals, the next step is to build an email list. So, let’s say you are a fitness coach and are looking for new customers. You would need to start gathering relevant email addresses. For example, you might want to encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter where you give fitness tips every week.
3. Select an Email Marketing Platform
Once the list is in place what you need next is an email marketing platform to execute your email marketing activities. This involves maintaining email addresses, customizing email templates, automating your email, and analyzing them. Some popular email marketing platforms are: Mailchimp, Constant Contact, GetResponse, etc.
4. Create a Content Strategy
Decide on the types of emails you’ll send. For example, as a fitness coach, you may send fitness tips to prospective customers and discount offers to existing customers. It helps to create a content calendar outlining what you’ll send to whom and when.
5. Design and automate
Once your strategy is in place, it’s time to pick a nice template that meets your email’s objective. Craft a catchy subject line and draft your message. After you’ve built your email communication, be sure to automate your emails if needed. This will save you a lot of time and effort going ahead.
6. Measure and optimize
After your emails are sent out, it’s time to look into the analytics section of your email marketing platform. Observe how your emails are performing. Are recipients opening your email and taking the next steps? Test out different templates and subject lines. Optimize. See what works best.
Now that you have an overview of Email Marketing, take some time to think about your business goal or if you are a marketer, your client’s goals. And start your email marketing journey!
If you’d like to learn more about digital marketing, tell us in the comments what you’d like to learn next.