Email marketing is one of the most efficient methods for promoting brands and engaging with prospects and customers.Email, campaigns have evolved over the years from mass email blasts to strategic, highly targeted messages. In this article, we’ll dive into what email marketing is, as well as how your brand can use it to build engagement and growth.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy that involves sending emails to prospects and customers. This valuable tactic can be used for a variety of purposes, including driving conversions, promoting products, or generating interest and loyalty in your brand.
While far from being novel, email is a key strategic channel for nearly every industry and is one of the most effective ways to convert people into customers. In fact, research has shown that organizations receive an average ROI of $42 for every dollar spent.
Types of marketing emails
From automated emails to weekly newsletters, different types of messages achieve different goals for your brand. You can use a combination of them to put together a comprehensive email marketing strategy:
Email campaigns are sent with a specific purpose in mind, whether it’s to promote a special offer, encourage users to download a whitepaper or e-book, or sign up for a free trial.
Email newsletters are sent on a consistent basis to provide regular updates to subscribers. A newsletter might share new blog posts or case studies, discuss a product update or recent milestone, or highlight upcoming events. Take a look at this article for inspirational newsletter designs.
Automated marketing emails are automatically sent based on predefined triggers. For example, you might send a welcome email to new subscribers, a celebratory email to subscribers celebrating their birthdays, and a reminder email to customers with abandoned shopping carts. Or, you might send a drip campaign that nurtures leads and convinces them to buy.
Automated transactional emails are another effective form of marketing automation that are automatically sent following a transaction. They include order confirmations, shipping updates and reminders about appointments or events. While these emails are quite simple, they’re important for building customer trust, particularly for eCommerce websites.
How to do email marketing
Now that you have some background on email marketing, it’s time to learn how to create effective marketing emails in 5 simple steps:
Build your mailing list
Choose an email marketing service
Segment your audience
Create great content
Optimize your campaigns