Email Marketing – Short Conceptual Explanation

Email Marketing is the act of promoting products and/or services using emails. It can be used to enhance a company’s relationship with its customers, it can be used to send advertisements to customers and potential customers, and it can be used to communicate purchasing information. It is used in conjunction with other Internet marketing strategies, such as blogs and social media.

Types of email marketing strategies

There are different kinds of email marketing strategies that have different purposes. They fall into one of two categories—engagement emails and transaction emails.

  • Welcome emails
  • Tips and tutorials

Clients and customers who sign up for an email newsletter expect to receive engagement emails. These emails focus on branding and storytelling without pushing for a sale. They are meant to keep subscribers interested and engaged with a brand, even if they don’t contribute to the bottom line after reading the email. They include:

  • Customer and brand stories
  • New blog content announcements
  • Event invitations
  • Reengagement emails

Transaction emails are sent when a subscriber makes a purchase. They can be used to close on a sale or gather more information about an order. They are almost always automatically triggered and include:

  • Cart abandonment reminders
  • Time-sensitive promotions
  • Receipts
  • Sales follow-ups
  • Review requests

Most marketing strategies include more than one email method. For example, a company may create a landing page to get visitors to sign up for free tips and use emails to send receipts for purchases.

Email Marketing
Email Marketing

Advantages of email marketing

Email marketing is very similar to direct marketing where companies send items to current and potential customers and clients through the post. Except instead, email marketing is done completely online. That provides businesses with some advantages.

Email marketing is more affordable than direct mail. Sending thousands of emails costs nothing, while flyers must be printed and postage must be paid. Even if a company hires a digital marketing agency to help with their email marketing efforts, they are still going to save money over the cost of traditional marketing methods.

This form of marketing is also considered targeted marketing. Instead of sending out flyers to hundreds of random people and only having a few follow through, customers and clients usually sign up for an email list. That means they have an interest in what a company has to say. This allows email marketing to be much more successful than other marketing methods.

Emails allow a company to be time-sensitive. They can be sent out as soon as a new deal goes into effect and new blog posts can be shared instantaneously, unlike direct marketing that can take days or weeks.

Disadvantages of email marketing

There are disadvantages of marketing using email. Spam is a common problem in inboxes. If a company isn’t targeting its customers and clients properly, the email will be labeled as spam, leaving that brand with a bad reputation. All emails should comply with privacy and data protection rules and should only be sent to people who would want to receive it. In addition, the email has to stick out so it isn’t accidentally deleted with the rest of the spam in the inbox.

Email providers offer spam protection, which means emails that look and act like spam end up in the junk folder. Even if an email isn’t spam, it can end up inside that folder anyway. Emails have to be designed in a way to keep them out of spam folders.

Although email marketing can be affordable, it can also be time consuming. Emails must be designed to appear organized on a wide range of devices and the content must be engaging. In addition, it is important to go through email lists periodically to make sure emails aren’t sent to addresses that no longer exist.

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How to create an effective email marketing campaign

Many things must be considered in order to create an effective email marketing campaign. The design of the email should be appealing, which includes the layout, images that are used, and color. A good email also includes engaging, relevant information with a purpose. It should either engage the reader with the brand or provide information before, during, or after a transaction.

In order to get people to sign up for an email newsletter, a landing page must be used. Landing pages can occur on any page of a website. They require a visitor to click out of the page before continuing to the site. Clever landing pages can increase email readership numbers without detracting from the experience on the website.

It’s also important to focus on the details. The email header and subject line are especially important. They can ensure the email doesn’t end up in the spam box and they can encourage people to click on the email to read more. Using a reputable email address, date, and time in the email will boost its authority as well.

Who the email is sent to matters as well. Emails should be targeted to people who would find the information useful. That means only sending emails to people who have signed up for the list or who have shown an interest in the relevant products or services in the past.

Email Marketing

How to know if an email marketing campaign is successful

It is a waste of time to send out emails without tracking their success or failure. It is important to track the metrics of emails to determine what needs to change and what should stay the same.

Important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track include:

  • The percentage of recipients who clicked on links within an email that was sent
  • The percentage of recipients who followed a link and completed an action, like filling out a form or purchasing a product
  • The percentage of emails that were unsuccessfully delivered
  • The rate at which the email subscriber list is growing
  • The percentage of recipients who forwarded the email to a friend or shared it on social media

Not all email marketing metrics need to be tracked. It is important for a company to determine which metrics are relevant at a given time. For example, if a company is trying to attract more people to their site, they should focus on growing their email subscriber list. If a company is looking to convert leads into customers, they would track the number of people who completed an action after clicking on a link in an email.