The Internet is what connects the whole world today. It bridges several hundred miles between people living in different parts of the world.
In an era of burgeoning technology, email marketing has become the most powerful tool for business growth.
However, it is not easy for small business owners to collect, curate, and individually send emails to all their prospects.
This is where marketing automation comes in. Using tools like Active Campaign, marketers can actually send personalized emails in bulk and engage potential clients quicker.
Email marketing is all about building a connection with your target audience.
Here are some tips to help you w9th it.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is nothing but a form of direct marketing that communicates commercials or any other messages to the audience using electronic mails.
Simply put, every email that reaches a potential or existing customer is a part of email marketing.
Now, it is impossible for growing ventures to manage their emails manually. You can turn to online marketing tools and platforms to make the job easier!
Email marketing is used for:
- Enhancing relationship of businessmen with their existing customer base to ensure brand loyalty and thus garner repeat business
- Acquiring new customers by spreading brand awareness and making customers aware of products and services that the business offers
- Sending advertisements to customers, educating them about new schemes or promotional offers
Key advantages of email marketing over other more traditional methods of marketing are:
- Email marketing enhances the reach of advertisements or information passed on to customers. This is because the number of subscribers that opt for receiving emails on subjects of interest to them is substantially large.
- More than 50% of Internet users check mail every day and also respond to them.
- Emails enable marketers to connect with the audience in an appropriate manner using relevant and dynamic messages and infographics.
- Transactional emails are provisioned to respond to customers automatically in case of events such as online purchases or payment failure.
Why is email marketing important for Startups?
While there are numerous reasons as to why entrepreneurs and startup owners must take to email marketing, given below is an exhaustive highlighting the same.
Cost-effectiveness
There is no doubt about the fact that email marketing is one of the cheapest forms of marketing.
Whether you advertise by sending emails to customers yourself or hire a marketing agency for the purpose, email marketing will prove to be cost-effective in comparison with all other forms of advertising.
The Return On Investment is way higher in the case of email marketing as the costs involved are extremely less.
Email marketing is known as the second most effective form of online marketing, after search marketing.
Greater success Rate
Emails help you target specific customers that could be ideal prospects for your business.
Keeping this in mind, apart from being extremely cost-effective, email marketing also promises the maximum ROI if done appropriately.
In fact, email marketing is among the most lucrative lead nurturing strategies for small-scale businesses to really flourish!
Greater measurability
You can easily track the responses that you receive to all your emails using several types of analytical tools readily available today.
This also helps you understand which part of your marketing strategy is working the most in your favor.
Once you understand what is clicking on the target audience, you can instantly modify the campaign strategy such that it incorporates the likes and preferences of the target segment.
Less time consumption
Email marketing permits you to send advertisements or any product-related information to several hundred potential users with the click of a button.
This method is, therefore, less cumbersome as compared to traditional methods of marketing such as printing brochures or posting flyers.
Effective lead generation
Since you can reach hundreds of prospects through emails, the chances that your marketing strategy will result in lead generation are also more.
Email marketing effectively promotes the conversion of a potential buyer into a customer.
Getting feedback
Email marketing is also considered as one of the most economical ways to garner feedback about your existing line of products and services so that you can understand what changes are required in new offerings.
Sending surveys to existing customers often solves the purpose.
Follow-up emails are also effective in engaging the customer, making you more credible, approachable, and authentic
In fact, follow-up emails are often used in guest blog outreach campaigns to connect with the editors.
We have a list of some actionable outreach email templates and hacks that you can check out!
How to do email marketing?
We know for a fact now that email marketing has the potential to do wonders for our business strategy.
Let us now look at how to go about it. Dave Chaffey from Marketing Insights explains the success factors of marketing through email with the help of the mnemonic “CRITICAL”:
CRITICAL Email Marketing Pointers:
Creative
Creativity essentially refers to the overall design of the email.
While some customers would prefer text in their emails, others would be keener to look at infographics.
It is your responsibility to draft the mail in accordance with the preferences of your target audience.
Our team of content marketers can help you plan out and strategize your emails for maximum engagement.
Relevance
The email should give its receivers a personalized feel. Thus, try to customize your email as much as possible.
Make sure it is relevant to the receiver.
Incentive
Since customers receive endless emails each day, you must provide them with a reason to not neglect your mail.
What is in your email for your customers?
Equip your proposal with offers and discounts or any other offerings that the customer is likely to be interested in.
Timing
While it is good to be regular with emails, it is even better to not spam customers with more emails than required.
Also, make sure that the timing of receipt of mail is appropriate.
Don’t drop emails in the wee hours of the night. Keep it professional and send emails during working hours.
You can draft emails early on and schedule them to be sent to clients at a later time and date. Install a Content calendar to schedule and manage your emails.
It saves you a lot of time and trouble. Plus, it is easier to track emails, schedule auto-responders, and see if the clients have properly received and opened the emails.
Source:Slideshare.net
Integration
Integrated marketing is often the key to success.
It is advised that more than a single form of marketing be adopted for enhanced reach and better prospect building.
Your emails must be in sync with the overall strategy of your business and must carry the same message forward.
Copy
When working on copyrighting your mail, make sure you pay due attention to all facets of the mail, right from the subject line to your signatures.
In fact, the subject line is the most important thing that can make or break your email. It is the first thing that the user sees.
Also, do not keep all the links to be uploaded towards the end of the body of the email.
Pop some of the useful links at the beginning for impulse buyers.
Attributes
Attributes of the email such as format chosen, subject headline, etc. go a long way in determining whether or not a customer will pay heed to your mail.
Thus, be extra careful with these minute details.
Landing Page
If you aim to generate quality leads through emails, it is important that you provide the recipients of the mail with links where they could contact you or probably directly purchase the product.
Do not simply hyperlink your company’s page to the mail.
Add the link that lands the customer straight to the page where he could make the purchase.
Email marketing, therefore, could be a vital component of your business growth, especially if you are aiming at establishing customer-firm relationships.
Learn to use it to your advantage.
Make sure that your mail does not end up in the Spam folder of one’s mailbox.
And if it does reach people’s inbox, make it worth a read.
Best Tools for Email Marketing
Given below is a list of 5 tools best suited for email marketing-
Mailchimp:
Mailchimp is the most popular email marketing tool with an existing user base of over 7mn.
It is instrumental in letting you understand the past performance of keywords and phrases you intend to add to your subject lines.
Our SEO experts also recommend Semrush and AHREFs tools for keyword analysis and content research. We use the same for all search engine optimsation projects for our clients in Melbourne and focusing on local search keywords which include variations of the targeted suburbs or the word “Melbourne” in the search keywords.
Source: Mailchimp.com
Putsmail:
Putsmail lets you get a preview of marketing campaigns as they will look like in the customers’ inbox.
Source:Emailmarketingweb.com
Reach Mail
Reach Mail helps you compare the performance of up to 5 different email campaigns, thus letting you choose the best for branding and other purposes.
FlashIssue
FlashIssue is extensively used for email newsletters. It is a deadly combination of content curation and email marketing.
Source: http://www.flashissue.com
Constant Contact
With Constant Contact, you could choose from a wide variety of templates or create your own custom design here.
Insert features like documents, images, or videos to create an impact.
Source: https://www.g2crowd.com/