With over 269 billion emails being sent every day, you should never underestimate the value of email marketing. If you’re a business who is looking to attract more custom, regular email marketing campaigns can be a great way for consumers to find out more about your business and what you have to offer.
To increase engagement, attention, sales, and leads, here are some useful tips on how to set up an effective email marketing campaign.
Know Your Goals
Before you get to work on setting up your email marketing campaign, your first step is to determine what your goals are. Whether you’re launching a new product, sending out a promotional offer, or want to draw in new consumers, noting everything down beforehand will help you design an email marketing campaign that’s effective and serves its purpose. All good marketing begins with setting goals, so it’s important that you are realistic with your objectives.
Create an Email Account
Your first port of call should be to create an email account linked to your website that you will use to send messages out to your audience. For consumers to trust your brand and what you say, it’s vital that you include your business name in the email address, which is why setting up a customized email address from your website domain makes sense.
Choose a suitable prefix, for example, offers@yourdomain.com or hello@yourdomain.com. It should be immediately apparent where the email comes from and that it is beneficial for the recipient to open it.
Before you take your plans any further, look at your current hosting package. Whatever the size of your business, VPS hosting offers the most benefits, the main one being privacy. This offers enhanced email security, which is critical if you are emailing a large marketing list. The last thing any brand wants is for their marketing email to be hacked, and their list spammed.
Select an Email Marketing Platform
Once you’ve outlined what your goals are, it’s important that you find an email marketing platform that caters to your needs. MailChimp tends to be the most popular option, but you can check alternatives here. We also recommend Sprout24 as a Mailchimp alternative. The purpose of an email marketing platform is for those who want to use autoresponders and email triggers. Finding a specialist email platform that lets you send automated and targeted emails can help boost your following. The main options are:
- Mailchimp
- SendinBlue
- GetResponse
- ActiveCampaign
Weigh up the features and prices for each of the above and see which one best suits your needs and budget.
Understand Email Types
There are three prominent types of emails that you can send out to your audience. Promotional emails are designed to be self-promotional and keep users in the know about any offers and sales you have, whereas a relational email gives your subscribers what you set out to do, such as a free gift, or a weekly newsletter. A transactional email, however, tends to be triggered by your subscribers’ actions and will relate to an action that they took on your website.
Establish Your Audience
If you have run an email marketing campaign before, you should have a good idea of who your audience is, whereas for those getting started, you need to make educated guesses, so the right people see your content. To help get a better understanding of who your demographic is, you can gather data using tools like Google Analytics, which allows you to see your audience’s location, interests and other metrics to help you create a successful email marketing campaign.
Use A/B testing to fine-tune your emails. Break down your list into different demographics and segment them into groups based on your data analysis. This ensures people only receive emails closely related to their interests and previous purchases. It’s the best way of preventing your emails from being consigned to the spam folder or the recipient unsubscribing.
Use Engaging Content
With many of us receiving dozens of spam emails every day, the last thing you want is for consumers to throw your email in the trash can without looking at it. The content you deliver in your email needs to be informative, actionable, and eye-catching. To begin, you should start with a captivating headline that sets the scene for what is below. Whether you’re launching a new product or want to get feedback from your audience, make sure that your content speaks to the consumer and creates a positive experience. There is a fine line between keeping your customers updated and sending endless spam, so finding the right balance is critical.
Experiment with different marketing email formats. Include images and links to online content. Consider creating a small focus group to see how various templates are received. Asking for feedback from a group of loyal customers can pay dividends when preparing a larger marketing campaign.
Create Effective Opt-ins
Understandably, you will need to get as many people as possible on your email list to run an effective email marketing campaign. To achieve this, you should begin by creating an attractive opt-in form that encourages potential customers to sign up. There are various types of opt-in forms that you can place on your website, such as welcome gates and lightbox popups.
Offer subscribers a small reward for signing up, such as a discount code or free download. The easier you make it, the more email addresses you’ll harvest.
Don’t Spam Your List
Be careful not to send out too many emails. No matter how engaging your content is, receiving daily emails is likely to wear very thin after a while. Only send marketing emails when you have a reason to, such as to notify the recipient of a special deal or new products. Less is more when it comes to email marketing.
A successful email marketing campaign can help to boost traffic to your page, expand your audience base, as well as increase revenue. Putting all the tips above into practice can help build brand awareness and push your business in the right direction.