Mastering the Email Marketing Basics to Grow Your Business [Video]

If you think email marketing is no longer effective, think again. Email remains one of the most potent and affordable methods of online marketing. Here are some essential insights into improving your email marketing today.

Advantages of Email Marketing

Email marketing is a favorite approach of so many companies because it works! Here's a look at some of the primary benefits. 

Email Marketing Offers Low Cost, High Value

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective online marketing strategies. Several email tools are virtually free to start. 

Email service cost structures are typically based on the number of subscribers in your database. You maintain ownership of the subscriber database in most cases. So, your investment in growing your list is not lost if you cancel the service. 

Conversion Funnels Improve Email Marketing Outcomes

What is a conversion funnel? Central to inbound marketing, a conversion funnel is a path your customers and prospects take as they transition from a website visitor to a prospect or lead to a customer. A conversion funnel includes email marketing to engage your contacts and prospects and nudge them to the next step in their customer journey. 

When you understand the "customer journey," you can optimize your marketing strategy to increase conversions. Many businesses use conversion funnels in tandem with email campaigns with great success.

 Use Email Workflows to Automate Sales

As a consumer, you have likely received an email from an online vendor with a message saying, "Did you forget something?" with a product you recently searched for - and did not purchase from that vendor. That kind of customized email can effectively convert browsers to buyers. 

Customer management tools like Hubspot offer a robust platform for creating and optimizing email workflows and automatically generating conversions. So, with a relatively small investment of time, you can create automated processes that pay off richly over time. 

Best Practices: Use an Email Service

There is a long list of particulars that you'll want to follow when starting a new email campaign. But you don't have to be a technical wizard to get it right. 

Email tools like MailChimp will help you stay current on most of the technical side of email best practices, so you don't have to. 

For example, MailChimp has simple plugins to help keep your emails compliant with SPAM laws (like unsubscribe protocols). It also warns you about subject lines that might catch a spam filter, too long or too short subject lengths, among other tips. MailChimp also lets you preview your emails in multiple environments (browsers, email programs, etc.) to see how your emails look in your customer's email boxes. A paid plan will even recommend the best time of day to send your email for the highest engagement. 

For all the reasons above, a tool like MailChimp or a similar service is highly recommended for an email beginner. 

That all probably sounded like an advertisement for MailChimp, but we understand if you want to do this yourself! One alternative is to hire an agency that can handle the technical elements, the blast scheduling, and the design on your behalf. 

If you want to handle it all from your mail server and you have some technical savvy, here are a few best practices for email blasts to follow. 

Great Content for Email Marketing

With few exceptions, the best emails are short and to the point. Your email should always include a call to action that encourages engagement with your brand. If you are trying to sell a product, add a new follower or subscriber, or offer information that establishes you as an industry leader - make it clear to the reader with your call to action.  

• Email text should be short (under 200 words)
• Test subject lines and reuse those with the highest engagement
• Include a Call to Action (product link, phone number, download link, contact form)
• Use branded graphics over generic stock photography
• Use a template or design, each with a branded look and feel 
• Offer a value add (a download, link for more information)

Here are some more tips on developing enticing content.

To Personalize or Not to Personalize?

Personalization can be a powerful tool for improving conversion rates from an email campaign. There is an art to using personalization effectively. The critical component to using it well is to have data and to test and optimize your strategy.

If you have good customer data, you should take advantage of it when you can. If your data is not reliable, using personalization can lower conversion rates. 

More about email personalization and conversions here.

Metrics to Track

You can track several metrics to measure your email campaigns' success. The most commonly tracked metrics are the following:

• Opens
• Clicks
• Forwards
• Bounce Rate
• New Subscribers
• Unsubscribes

Your email blast tool or CRM (for example, Hubspot) will provide you with metrics that will help gauge whether your message was on target for your list. Good signs that your message works are if your email was opened, clicked, or forwarded.

Unsubscribes signify that your messaging needs tweaking - or you may be blasting too frequently. Most of this is just common sense, but tools like Mailchimp can offer typical open rates by some broad industries - and you can find additional information in niche markets in many reliable places online. 

Some CMS tools will also allow you to track specific engagements on your website, like completing an online form, cart addition, or converted sale. This advanced tracking is undoubtedly more valuable information, but some programming is required to do it correctly. 

Verified subscribers should improve your engagement numbers - simply because we know they are actual people. You may have an email list with some old or potentially 'fake' email addresses - say, from a form on your website that does not require validation. You can use validation tools like NeverBounce to get your list in line before sending your email blast. 

Helpful Tools for Email Marketing

• Hubspot Marketing (ROBUST funnel tracking and customer management)

• MailChimp (templates, distribution, conversion funnels)

• Constant Contact (templates, distribution, conversion funnels)

• NeverBounce (validates email addresses)

• Kickbox (validates email addresses)

Now, you've got the tools you need to get started putting together an email campaign! Get our email marketing checklist if you need more help growing your email strategy.