How to Get Started With Email Marketing

Even though technology changes every day, email is going nowhere. The first email that was ever sent was 48 years ago; believe it or not, there are 3.9 billion email users throughout the world. 

Throughout this guide, we’ll explain why email marketing is alive and well, and how to get started with correctly integrating it into your business.

Know The Facts 

Everybody Uses Email. Whom do you know that doesn’t own an email? Exactly! Most people nowadays have two emails; one for personal things and the other for work. Your reach capabilities as a business through email marketing are unlimited!

Build YOUR List. When it comes to email marketing, because there are so many people that publicly use it, it’s very tempting to purchase email lists. We do NOT recommend doing this! When you build your own list, you’re compiling contacts of people who are interested in your product or services. In addition to using your list for email marketing, you can also use the list to target people via another marketing channel, such as social media marketing. 

Conversions. When you build your list the right way, organically, with people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, your chances of converting one of your subscribers are increasingly high. They subscribed because they have an interest in hearing what you have to say and seeing what you have to offer. Now, you have a better chance of getting them to purchase something from you. 

Now that you realize the basics regarding email marketing, let’s look at how to create a successful email campaign. 

How to Devise & Manage a Successful Email Marketing Campaign:

Outline Your Goals: In every form of digital marketing, it’s imperative to outline your goals so that you can see if what you’re doing is working or not. An example of a goal with email marketing would be something like receiving 25 new sign-ups for our FREE SEO GUIDE eBook. 

This is your campaign, so you choose your own goal. However, whatever you come up with, make sure you write it down so you can relay back to it to see if you accomplished your goal or not. 

Email People Who Want to be Emailed: This part is easier said than done because building an email list of people you’ve acquired organically can be challenging. As we mentioned previously, buying email lists is a big NO. Especially at the beginning of your email marketing journey, if you have high bounce rates (failed delivery), and a large amount of unsubscribes, your account will be flagged. 

A great way to build an email list organically is by including a subscription button on your website or to run a lead generation campaign to collect emails of people interested in what you’re selling. 

Get Creative: The great thing about email marketing is that so many people use email, and your potential reach is incredible. The bad part is that you’re not the only that realized that. Most of the time, you’ll find that your competition is doing email marketing as well. So, why is this important? Well, you need to find a way to stand out. Your product might be better in functionality, but your branding has to be spot on too. 

When you’re sending an email as apart of your campaign, your copy and your graphics need to be catchy, creative, and relevant. Be productive and think in the future when devising your email campaigns, so that you could save yourself time and create graphics and copy in advance. 

Make sure that when crafting copy, that it matches your brand voice and doesn’t seem like you’re trying too hard. Easier said than done, but you’ll get the hang of it; it takes practice!

A/B Test: Just like any other form of marketing, whether it be digital or offline, you need to test variations and see what works better! Email marketing platforms, like ActiveCampaign, allow you to do this seamlessly. If you’re not testing variations of copy, graphics, the time you send your email, and who you’re sending it to, you’ll never know what works for your business and what doesn’t. 

Some things you might want to test are: 

Email Subject

Your Intro Copy

GIF’s vs Regular Images

CTA’s (i.e., call now, book with us, reserve today, etc.)

Segment: Chances are, most of your subscribers have different interests and have purchased different things from you. For example, if you are an online marketplace where people can buy meat (steak, pork, etc.), you wouldn’t include the people who made vegan purchases in an email campaign highlighting a new 52-ounce bone-in ribeye. Those people are definitely uninterested in that and would probably unsubscribe from your emails. So yeah, don’t do that. 

If you break down your contacts into buyer personas, having 2-3 different email segments is a great way to diversify your audience and ensure that people see what they are interested in from you. 

Analyze Your Analytics: When you send out email campaigns, you will see that a dashboard full of analytics and metrics that seem like a new language. Don’t panic; it’s really not that difficult. You’ll see that a lot of your contacts will open emails immediately, while others take hours, or even days to open, while some never do. You’ll also see which at which part of the day people like to open your emails, so with that information, you can adjust your send time in future campaigns. 

If you’re struggling with what to analyze, here is an excellent infographic from Campaign Monitor: 

Source: 10 Metrics Every Email Marketer Needs to Track by Campaign Monitor

Are you ready to begin your first email campaign?

We’ve highlighted the majority of what you need to do and what you need to know to start your first email campaign. If you are still confused about how to get started or need help from an experienced email marketing team, contact The Dillon Ross Group and let’s get on it!