Email Marketing 101: Basics You Should Know

Email marketing remains one of the most effective, measurable, and long-term strategies in a digital world crowded by fast-moving social feeds and an increasingly competitive paid advertisement landscape. 

At Digi Uprise, we have witnessed how businesses of every type leverage email to create stronger connections with customers, improve conversions and sustain communication over time. While other brands may abandon proven channels to pursue new social trends, brands that succeed focus on owning their channels; email is one such owned channel.

What makes email marketing unique is its degree of dependability; you can count on your message to arrive in your subscriber’s inbox—untouched by algorithm changes or other factors affecting most social media platforms—and therefore provide a reliable, repetitive connection to your audience. People typically check their emails multiple times each day, making email an ideal medium for delivering highly customized, relevant, and engaging content that generates action.

Email marketing sends messages to consumers who have opted into receiving information or offers from your business. Such communications might consist of newsletters, deals, updates, education, or notifications about transactions (such as purchase confirmation).

Email is unique compared to other channels, as it requires permission from the recipient before sending, resulting in more interest and commitment from each customer, which is reflected in higher engagement levels and greater trust between your company and the subscriber.

It is particularly effective because you own the list of email addresses within your customer database, whereas social media followers are tied to the social media site. A business cannot control how many viewers receive the message through an algorithm’s filtration. Additionally, through the use of segmentation, automation and personalization options, businesses can deliver highly customized experiences to a larger audience.

Business continues to operate on email, as it is a consistent performer. Below are the advantages of Email Marketing, presented in bullet-point format.

Return on Investment (ROI) 

Email is one of the least expensive forms of marketing you can use with the highest potential for generating a return on investment. Because of this, Email is perfect for StartUps and small businesses that need to operate with low operational costs and maximize conversion potential.

Direct and Personal Communication 

Email allows you to communicate directly with your target audience in their mailbox and to have a personal conversation. This means you can build trust with your audience through custom and relevant messaging.

Improved Customer Retention 

By receiving consistent email updates from you, your customers are reminded of you and your products. This consistently reminds them of you and encourages repeat purchases, thereby creating greater long-term customer loyalty.

Highly Versatile Marketing Tool 

Email can be used for or to promote your products, to tell your stories, to send out surveys, to send out announcements, etc. Email supports the different stages of a customer’s journey.

Easy to Automate and Scale 

Automated workflows enable you to nurture your leads automatically without spending much time on them and still providing consistent value to your audience.

Clear and Measurable Analytics 

You can easily track Email open rates, Email Clicks, Email Conversions, etc. You can easily utilize real metrics from actual users to improve the way you write and optimize your E-mails.

The advantages of Email Marketing demonstrate why Email Continues to be a fundamental building block of a Digital Strategy for the Continued Sustainable Growth of Business.

Different types of emails are essential for creating an overall strong and effective email marketing strategy.

1. Welcome Emails

Welcome Emails announce to your brand audience the new engagement they are gaining by subscribing to your company, as they are usually opened at higher rates, and set the expectation of what will be provided in future email communications.

2. Newsletters

Newsletters help you consistently provide value and establish credibility with consumers by providing valuable content such as educational content, updates about your brand, new resources, or curated content and insights based on trends and statistics within the industry.

3. Promotional Emails

Promotional Emails are a way for businesses to send consumers information about any upcoming product launches or promotions, as well as discount codes that will help increase sales.

4. Transaction Emails

In general, Transaction Emails are those types of emails that send confirmation emails to customers once they make a purchase, such as confirmation of their order, a password reset request, or messages regarding their shipment.

5. Re-Engagement Emails

If at some point in time subscribers have stopped interacting with your brand, a re-engagement email can help re-establish those connections. Re-engagement emails commonly include targeted messages such as “We Miss You,” exclusive promotions you may have for inactive subscribers, or reminders to engage with your brand again.

There is a way to structure your email marketing. A strong email marketing strategy has been created with intent; therefore, the way to create successful email marketing campaigns is outlined as follows:

Create a Compelling Subject Line

• Make them short, clear (and curiosity) focused.
• Personalise with name or specific interest.
• Do not use spam trigger words.

Write Clear and Engaging Content

• Use simple & easy to understand words with short paragraphs.
• Write using bullet points for ease of reading.
• Write with a clear & relevant call to action.

Segment and Personalize Your Audience

• Group your list of subscribers by their interests or behaviours or demographics.
• Send a customised message to each segment.
• Send a customised offer, product recommendation and greeting to each subscriber.

Use Automation to Scale

• Set up Welcome Sequences when a new subscriber signs up.
• Create Drip Email Campaigns to nurture leads.
• Create automated reminders, abandoned shopping cart emails, and follow-up emails.

Optimize for Mobile

• Make all templates responsive.
• Keep layouts simple and easy to read.
• Limit the length of subject lines for mobile format.

Track and Improve Performance

• Track your open rates, click through rates and conversion rates.
• Conduct A/B Testing on your subject lines and content.
• Use results to improve on future campaigns in a continual cycle.

This structure provides businesses a foundation for successful email marketing campaigns.

While email marketing is shown to produce great results, there are a number of mistakes that can negatively influence the outcome of email campaigns. One of the largest mistakes is sending emails to a database of recipients that did not opt-in to receive your emails. 

The frequency at which you send emails is also important; sending too many emails may result in unsubscribes, while sending too few will result in your recipients forgetting your business. Consistent sending is vital.

A poorly optimized mobile experience can also negatively impact engagement rates. The majority of email users view their emails on mobile devices; therefore, an email layout that is poorly designed will yield lower engagement rates.

Finally, the majority of companies neglect to analyze data from their email campaigns. If you do not analyze user engagement, it will be impossible to determine how to improve your campaigns. Collecting and analyzing data is essential to achieving long-term email success

Although trends and technology change regularly, email marketing remains one of the most effective and economical methods of contacting customers today. The ability to provide customers with personalized, trackable and scalable communications make this critical for building brand loyalty, nurturing leads, and providing consistent results.

Digi Uprise recommends using marketing channels that will provide a lasting foundation, e-mail marketing is that type of channel. Start building your subscriber base and develop your first campaign; with time and effort, you will see growth in the audience you serve.

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