by Agency Report
Any businessperson dreams of multimillion-dollar revenue and thousands of customers crowding at the door. Unfortunately, there is no universal formula for success. However, there are components that can increase the profits and awareness of any brand. One of these components is competent and high-quality email marketing. Perhaps, it should be the base of any marketing strategy, as this is a classic, the cornerstone, without which marketing will not be as effective. But why? What is email marketing really, what types does it come in, and what platforms are best suited for it? We will answer all these questions right now!
What is email marketing and benefits
Email marketing is a powerful direct type of marketing channel that allows you to establish direct contact with the customer. If we talk about its meaning in simple terms, then the definition of email marketing is as follows: it means sending emails of a certain subject or direction to provide the impact you need on your potential buyers. Despite the rise in popularity of social networks and spam, which at one time injured the reputation of all email marketing in general, email remains the main communication channel. According to statistics for 2021, about 93% of Internet users have email, and 78 per cent of them use it regularly for personal or business purposes. That is why you cannot overestimate the importance of email marketing: without it, your business’s chances of success are growing lower.
How does email marketing work and why do we need it? A high-quality newsletter allows you to achieve the following goals:
Turning your subscribers and followers into real customers.
Expanding your customer base and increasing their awareness of your company or products.
Raising brand awareness and audience engagement.
Informing customers about new arrivals and promotions.
Stimulating sales for a short time (during a promotion, for example).
Motivating customers to make repeat purchases.
Emails convert best. Customers who regularly receive newsletters from the store spend 138% more in it than the customers who do not receive them.
Email marketing ROI averages 4000 per cent!
Email marketing requires a big investment. Today, there are many low-budget and free email marketing tools, which we will discuss below.
Email marketing is easy to adapt to the needs of your business, customize and change if necessary. Moreover, the customer can unsubscribe from the newsletter on their own, thanks to which your customer base will self-regulate and there will be no inactive subscribers.
High meaningfulness of newsletters due to the easy and fast collection of statistics about all interactions of the newsletter with users.
With the course “A Start in Email Marketing. The Role of Newsletters in Promotion” from the international educational platform Lectera, you will master the art of creating newsletters from scratch and become an excellent specialist. Learn how to make and design your newsletter, define its purpose, build an address database and turn ordinary subscribers into your regular customers. This course is perfect for beginners who want to get the most out of this type of marketing to grow their business as quickly as possible, propel it to the top, and reap the benefits of their work.
Types of email marketing
Email marketing types are different types of email campaigns that you can create and start. The following newsletters are especially popular:
Series of welcome letters
As soon as you get a new subscriber, you need to immediately send them a series of welcome letters, which will include a greeting and an introduction to the company, its specifics, products and offers. Usually, such a series includes from 3 to 5 letters, where you gradually bring the newcomer up to date, letting them discover your brand and learning more about each other.
Advertising campaign
Classic marketing, only implemented by email. For example, you have a new product in stock, which you immediately tell about in the most selling and bright letter to your customers. So, the first rule of such a newsletter is not to overdo it. Companies often make the mistake of sending 10 advertising emails in a row. However, firstly, they must alternate with other types of letters and you should send them no more than two-three times a week. And secondly, such emails should preferably be interconnected and carry useful information for the subscriber. This will increase the effectiveness of your advertising campaign.
You should send these emails in a strictly defined period, for example, during a sale or holidays. So, on Christmas day, your newsletter should not only be designed appropriately (snowflakes, stars, Christmas trees) but also contain relevant information and offers (Christmas products or “How do you spend Christmas so that you can remember it forever?”). According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales account for up to 20 per cent of all retail sales in a year! That is why you shouldn’t disregard this newsletter.
Series of CTA emails
Using a series of emails, you can lead the subscriber to perform a specific targeted action. For example, you can encourage them to join your Facebook community or purchase a specific item you need to sell. The first email in such a newsletter often comes with useful information that identifies the subscriber’s problem and informs them that you have a solution. Then you add a lead magnet, such as a trial version of this solution. After that, the subscriber receives an email with your offer and a CTA stating something like: “Buy it now and forget about the problem forever!”.
Post-sale newsletter
If the user has already bought a product from you, this doesn’t mean you should just let them go! For example, they have purchased a gas burner. After the purchase, try sending this customer the article “10 Best Ways to Use a Gas Burner,” and their engagement with your brand will increase. From an emotional point of view, it also builds trust and helps build a long-term relationship with the customer so that they return to you. Moreover, it boosts cross-selling!
Informative newsletter
An informative newsletter or digest is a key way to keep in touch with your audience, both before and after services are provided. Keep your subscribers up to date with your niche updates and news, educate and even entertain them. This newsletter will perfectly break the monotony of your advertising campaign and, in addition, increase your audience’s trust.
Series of “returning” emails
Usually, these are one or two emails reminding the user that they added a product to the cart but never completed its purchase. Such emails help lead the customer to the transaction in 67% of cases. Just don’t forget that they should contain a lead magnet, for example, “You have not completed your purchase. Here’s a 10% discount for you!”
Reactivation emails
On average, 25-30 per cent of users unsubscribe from company newsletters every year. If some of your subscribers have not read your emails for more than three to four months, you can simply delete them from the database to keep it up-to-date, or you can try to “revive” subscribers with a special mailout. To do this, you need to use a lead magnet (a discount, for example) and useful information with an appropriate subject line like: “We haven’t seen you in a while! How are you doing?”
You can automate any newsletter, thanks to which customers will receive the right letters at the right time without you overseeing everything. This also makes email marketing one of the most user-friendly marketings in the world.
Top three email marketing strategies
There are a lot of email marketing strategies, but we recommend that you first take a closer look at the following three:
Personalisation
Email marketing doesn’t exist today. In an age of space market competition and brand diversity, customers expect a personal approach tailored to their wants, needs, and interests. That is why a personalized email newsletter is ten times more effective than a general one. Divide your audience into 4-6 segments (depending on its size) and allocate specific topics and directions to each segment. For example, if you have a clothing store, and one segment consists of a young audience aged 18 to 25 and preferring a sporty style, then you should offer them appropriate items and not business suits with leopard print dresses.
Interactivity
According to Salesforce research, 68 per cent of customers are more likely to interact with newsletters that contain interactive elements. These elements include:
Animation and dynamic effects in email design.
Gamification (a link to a short online game to get a discount, for example).
Advanced newsletter settings (the user can not only unsubscribe, but also select the categories of interest, etc.).
The more “modern” and more technologically advanced your newsletter looks, and the more opportunities for interaction it has, the more results it will bring. This also applies to its design: it should be bright, trendy and distinctive.
Congratulatory and thank you emails
An Experian study claims that birthday emails can increase profits by 342% compared to the profits a business makes by not wishing customers a happy birthday. Both holiday and thank you emails increase loyalty and engagement, so be sure to send customers:
Congratulatory cards on all significant holidays;
Anniversary emails;
Emails with exclusive offers in honor of holidays and seasons;
Thank you letters for being with you or being actively involved in the life of the brand.
With the Lectera course “Confident Email Marketing. Client Segmentation and Reactivation,” you will master the aforementioned and other email marketing strategies. Moreover, you will discover how to competently build relationships with customers, revive the address database and describe your customers’ avatars for its segmentation. During the training, internationally recognized experts will introduce you to free email marketing services in practice. You will be able to optimize your current newsletters, create sales funnels, and engage potential customers.
The best email marketing tools and platforms
Today, there are so many tools and service providers for automating and working with email newsletters that everyone will find something to their taste. However, if you can’t navigate the wide range of choices and want to choose right, then start with this top email marketing services:
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is perhaps the most popular email marketing platform with versatile and flexible tools that are very easy to learn. The service also integrates easily with WordPress, Magento, and other platforms. There is also a letter constructor, audience segmentation, autoresponder, analytics, and almost real-time statistics. You can set up your newsletters by the time of sending emails and the geolocation of subscribers.
Mailchimp offers both free and paid subscriptions. The free one is ideal for small businesses as it has limitations: it can only send 12,000 emails per month to 2,000 subscribers. Paid subscription plans start at $10.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is famous for its colorful templates, which allow you to create a truly unique newsletter. Each user has access to tracking the effectiveness of the newsletter and reporting. You can also share newsletters on social networks, use images from the Constant Contact library, and store your own files here, just like in the cloud.
Constant Contact is also praised for its support with 24/7 live chat and online training, which can help you learn the basics of email marketing. The first 60 days of subscription are free, but then you need to purchase one of the paid plans. Their cost starts at $20 per month.
ConvertKit
Professional bloggers, authors and marketing consultants most often choose ConvertKit. It has a very simple, but incredibly creative and powerful feature set. Here you will find ready-made outreach forms, autoresponder management, segmentation, and flexible tools for newsletter automation. Moreover, the service provides study materials.
A ConvertKit subscription costs $29 per month, but you can get a refund within 30 days if you’re not satisfied with the platform’s services.
Unisender
Unisender stands out from the competition not only because of its intuitive interface but also because it allows you to work with texts and mailouts on Viber, as well as gather a database through subscription forms and social networks. Additionally, it offers a built-in A/B testing and a free plan with a limit of 100 contacts and 1,500 emails per month. Paid plans start at just $7 per month.
Email marketing is a universal way to increase sales and brand awareness, as well as warm up the audience and involve them in the life of your company. When combined with other forms of marketing, email newsletters can produce incredible results. No wonder all large and well-known companies use them! After all, all you need to do is decide on an email marketing software and be willing to experiment, as you never know which strategy will work best.
