The first marketing email was sent back in 1978. It was a massive success, making $13M in sales, and it became the foundation for what has become one of the most popular marketing channels today.
Since it has been around for quite a long time, email marketing is not as new or flashy as some more modern channels like social media or even text messages. However, it still boasts the highest ROI of all the marketing channels available, giving marketers a highly effective way to build an audience and get fantastic results.
How Does Email Marketing Software Work?
Before you find the best email marketing platform for your business, the first step involves learning more about email marketing and how it works. Email marketing refers to the process of targeting your audience through email messages. It is an effective way to boost conversions and increase revenue, providing your existing customers and interested subscribers with helpful and valuable information. Email marketing software programs are designed to help you do this successfully, offering a range of features such as drag-and-drop email design tools, email list builders, segmentation features, automation tools, reporting, and much more.
What are the Benefits of Email Campaign Software?
Email marketing or email campaign software to market to your customers comes with many benefits. With more than four million people using email worldwide, this is a great way to find and reach all your customers at once. Statistics show that email marketing still has a very high ROI. In fact, in 2020, data suggested that every dollar spent on email marketing generates a massive $36 back in revenue. Email visitors are the most likely to convert on forms, and almost eighty percent of marketers today say that email marketing ranks in their top three most effective channels. With email marketing, you also own the channel, giving you full control over how, when, or why you get in touch with your subscribers, as long as you comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR.
How to Get Started With Email Software for Marketing
Email marketing has many possibilities, so it is easy to become overwhelmed if you start for the first time. Once you have chosen the right email marketing software program for you, there are a few steps to follow to create an effective and successful strategy, boost customer engagement, and increase brand awareness and revenue by sending out email messages that people will be interested in reading. The main steps involved in getting started with your email marketing strategy include the following:
1 – Define Your Target Audience
Before you decide on your campaign’s main goals and objectives, it is a good idea to define your audience. This will help ensure that you are on the right track to sending out relevant and exciting emails to subscribers. Start with creating buyer personas and spending the time to understand what your subscribers are looking for. Once you have this information, you can start tailoring your email campaign to the needs of your audience.
2 – Establish Objectives
Once you have a clearer idea of who your audience is and what they are looking for when signing up for your email list, it’s time to consider what your main goals are for your email campaign. Before doing this, it’s a good idea to get some context, including the average email statistics for your industry, which you can then use as a benchmark for your objectives.
3 – Build an Email List
The most time-consuming aspect of creating an email campaign is building a mailing list. However, it’s always best to be patient with this as you will get better results from sending marketing emails to a smaller list of people who have permitted you to do so and are interested in hearing from you, compared to rushing things by buying a list or sending emails to just about anybody. To do things properly, you need to develop ways for subscribers to opt-in to receive your emails, for example, through a sign-up form on your website.
4 – Choose a Suitable Campaign
There are various types of email campaigns to choose from, and picking the right one for your business can be tricky. You may send out a weekly or monthly newsletter, a round-up of your most popular blog posts, or new product and service announcements. The truth is that there is no right or wrong answer, as it all depends on what suits your business and your audience best.
5 – Come up With a Schedule
You should determine how often you are planning to contact the subscribers on your list and ensure that they are informed of this so that they know what to expect from you. If you are not upfront with subscribers about how often they can expect to hear from you and then to be true to your word, this can lead to a high unsubscribe rate. You may even want to give subscribers a choice, allowing them to tell you their preferences regarding how often they’d like to receive emails from you and segment them into different lists based on this.
6 – Measure Results
Most good email marketing platforms today will come with a range of analysis, measuring, and reporting tools that you can use to track the effectiveness and success of your campaigns, providing you with valuable information that you can use to improve your results in the future. It is crucial to be meticulous about the key metrics, as this allows you to adjust your email messages over time, ultimately getting you better and more significant results from your efforts.
Sending Marketing Emails With Campaign Email Software: Step by Step
Once you have covered the basics, you should have a solid list of subscribers waiting to hear from you. However, before you start using an email marketing platform to send marketing emails, there are a few main things to consider to ensure that the campaign is successful and that you do not end up damaging your sender’s reputation.
Choosing the Right Email Marketing Program
The first step to email marketing is to choose an email marketing service. An email service provider is an excellent resource if you want support while setting up and improving your email marketing efforts over time. You should look for an email marketing platform that allows you to efficiently put together, personalise, and optimise marketing email messages that look and feel professional. Many will offer drag-and-drop design tools or customisable templates that allow you to do this easily without the help of a designer.
Along with design features, there are many other features to look out for when choosing a platform. Good reporting is a must to ensure that you are always up to date on the success of your campaign and have the latest information to help you make any necessary changes in the future. Make sure that the email platform you use will integrate seamlessly with your CRM; if you do not yet have a CRM, then there are platforms that offer them alongside email marketing services, which is worth considering. Always choose an email marketing provider with a solid reputation and good standing with Internet Service Providers. Finally, ensure that it offers automation features and the ability to conduct A/B or split testing on your emails.
Segmenting Your Email Lists Using an Email Marketing Program
Once you have the main email list built and ready to go, it is best to segment it, which involves breaking up a larger list into smaller lists or segments that are based on various factors such as demographics, the point in the customer journey that the subscriber is at, the products and services that they are interested in and more. Remember that everyone who subscribes to receive your emails is at a different level of readiness to buy from you. This means that you need to carefully consider this before you send emails to them to ensure that the message is relevant.
Most email service providers allow you to segment email lists easily. However, you can start before the email addresses make it onto your mailing list by creating separate opt-in forms and lead magnets for each part of the buyer journey and automatically adding these to separate lists in your email marketing platform.
Personalise Emails With an Email Marketing Solution
Finally, choosing an email marketing platform that allows for easy personalisation is essential, as this is one of the most critical factors for today’s customers. Personalised emails have higher open rates, and over eighty percent of customers are more willing to provide their information for a more personal experience. There are many simple ways to use an email marketing platform to add personalisation, including addressing subscribers by their first name, region-specific information where applicable, and sending content that is highly relevant to your subscribers.
Today, email marketing is still one of the most profitable and successful marketing channels for businesses. Understanding how to choose and use the right email marketing platform will help your business achieve more success.
