The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing! Definition and Strategies

With over 4.89 Billion social media users worldwide. Huge platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok have the potential to skyrocket your marketing efforts.

Does this mean email marketing is dead?

NO! Email marketing is still relevant in 2023 and in this article, you'll discover why this is. In addition, you'll get access to a complete step-by-step process to supercharge your email marketing efforts.

So, if you want to get started with email marketing with proven and tested processes and systems.

Or...

If you run into problems such as low conversion and open rates, lead generation, and list building. No problem, because we're going to discuss every detail.

This post is quite beefy, but it’s worth the read.

So, let's go on a journey together through proven and tested tips and strategies to help you create your next fail-proof email marketing campaign.

What is Email Marketing?

Did you know that email is one of the oldest forms of digital communication (it was 1971 when Ray Tomlinson invented and developed electronic mail). More than 50 years later, there are more than 4.371 billion email users worldwide. That's why email marketing is still considered one of the most effective digital marketing strategies.

"Email marketing?is a powerful marketing channel, a form of direct marketing as well as digital marketing, that uses email to promote your business’s products or services." - Source: MailChimp

The best way to use email marketing is like sending a love letter to your favorite customer. But instead of sending the email to just one recipient, you send it to thousands!

Imagine that every email you send is a little gift, packed with fun, useful information, and a taste of what's new and exciting in your business world.

For example, you could create a playful newsletter filled with witty one-liners and visually appealing graphics (see example).

Ultimately, email marketing is the toolbox that helps you connect with your audience, build brand awareness, and ultimately drive sales.

But whatever your goal is, the most important thing to do is keep your subscribers engaged and coming back for more (every time).

"Who doesn't love a good surprise in their inbox?"

Why Email Marketing is Important

Despite the enormous power of social media and unsolicited spam e-mail. If you have a business that includes any kind of online presence, you can't underestimate the importance of email marketing.

There are many reasons to make email marketing one of your top priorities. But if I had to paint the top 3 benefits then I would say email marketing is important because:

• Skyrockets your ROI
• Gives you the Freedom in Creation you deserve
• Boosts Brand Awareness

Let's take a closer look at these 3 aspects…

Email skyrockets your ROI

And here's why...

First, people who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than those who do not receive email offers. Did you know that email marketing has an ROI of?$36 for every dollar spent ?

That’s a Big Deal!

Second, email marketing is inexpensive, yet extremely effective. If you do it right, you can reach a large audience for less than a dollar. ?

So with good email list maintenance, create valuable content to build trust and build meaningful relationships with your audience. Then your average order value will skyrocket to at least three times that of social media.

Freedom in Creation

Don't get me wrong, social media is without a doubt a great way to connect and interact with your potential customers.

But on these platforms, there is a high risk that your account (along with all your fans and posts) can be suspended or deleted at any time, for any reason, without prior notice.

With email marketing, you don't have to worry about this. In addition, you can talk directly to your audience with extremely specific and customized messages.

The freedom in creation helps you create more thoughtful, friendly, and personalized content that can help you build rapport with your audience faster. In return, your brand will benefit as more leads convert into paying customers.

Increases brand awareness

A person who has subscribed to your email list is probably already interested in your service or business. Email marketing helps you to stay on their mind.?

However, this doesn’t mean sending numerous emails to your customers every day.?

Building brand awareness takes some thought - while emails detailing your offers are a must, try also to promote your company by keeping customers updated on activities and happenings concerning your brand.

Types of Email Marketing - 5 emails you should be sending:

Here are 5 types of email marketing your organization should be implementing, but don’t consider this a definitive list – every brand is different so tailor your strategy accordingly.

Welcome Emails:

Do you send new subscribers a welcome email? If not, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Sending welcome emails immediately when someone subscribes is a great strategy for building instant trust and loyalty with potential customers.

In fact, 78% of consumers say they are more likely to make repeat purchases with personalized marketing. In addition, welcome emails have proved themselves with an average opening rate of 52.9% .

A welcome email is an email your audience expects after they hit the subscribe button. Here's an example of how Tinder uses a welcome email to ask to confirm the email address.

If you take a quick look at the image below, the copywriters and graphic designers make use of a sleek background and clear CTA to lure a potential customer to sign in. The entire email looks stunning and easy to read.

Newsletters:

Did you know that email newsletters are considered the most common type of email in email marketing? In fact, 81% of B2B marketers confirm email newsletters are the most used form of content marketing in their strategy.

Typically, brands and companies send email newsletters to inform their subscribers about recent news and updates. These emails have nothing to do with sales, their sole purpose is to build a strong relationship using useful and relevant content.

You use this method to gradually get your audience ready to make a purchase. And when you decide to promote a product or service, your subscribers will make a purchase without a fight.

So the next time you are writing or optimizing your email newsletter, keep the following aspects in mind:

• Ensure the format, design, and CTA placement are optimized (later more about how you can utilize the power of testing)
• Deliver timely and be consistent.
• Create audience-focused content, every single newsletter or email should bring some sort of value to your customers.

For example Phrasee’s weekly newsletter is as informative as it is delightful. They deliver curated articles accompanied by fun graphics, GIFs, and memes.

Their tone is personable and lively, almost like the newsletter could fit in on social media. With their unique and daring tone, they know how to stand out from the crowd.

Re-Engagement Emails:

If some of your subscribers haven't opened or clicked on your emails for weeks or months, then sending a re-engagement email is a strategy you should consider. For instance, you could send relevant updates or ask them for feedback to transform them back into active subscribers.

The approach of Duolingo’s re-engagement email is simple but bold. This is an email I know I’ve received several times after not using the language learning app for a few days and I’m sure many users have as well.?

It grabs you with a striking image of its green mascot upset that it hasn’t seen you in a while and emphasizes that a lesson will only take five minutes of your time.?

Following up with a bold orange button reading 'get back on track', they almost make you feel guilty for not clicking through.

Lead Nurturing Emails

Let's pretend you follow FrameBridge on Instagram. Because almost every day of the week they post an interesting frame on their social media.

One of their posts captures your attention, so you read the description. "For more information about this frame, click the link in bio" So what's the first thing you do?

At this point, you are on the Framebridge website, but not in the mood to buy anything, so you decide to leave the website. Just before you leave the website, a pop-up will appear on your screen inviting you to:

"Get inspiration in your inbox"

You decide to give your name and email address, and now you are officially a lead.

Leads are only the first tickle in the conversion funnel. Collecting leads is one thing, but nurturing those leads is another.

You may be wondering, what are lead nurturing emails?

A lead nurturing email is?a message sent to potential customers as they move along the sales funnel, encouraging them to convert.

This types of emails can help your subscribers in many ways. For example, good lead nurturing emails engage, entice, and encourage your lead to continue interacting with your business.

If you look at this beautiful lead-nurturing email example from Framebridge. Then you'll discover how this customer framing company utilizes education to engage and add value to their subscribers.

In this step by step tutorial email, they help subscribers to learn how to hang their art in the house.

At first they pitch the precise idea of framing. Then with an interactive image, they show you a guide. Therefore, they?include a CTA?so that you can learn in detail from their blog.?

Amazing, isn't it?!

Co-Marketing Emails

Co-marketing means partnering with another company for a joint event or product launch. The goal is to expand your customer base by leveraging the partner company's audience.

To maximize the impact of these emails, it's crucial to clearly emphasize the details of the collaboration, especially if the partner is more popular or well-known than your brand.

An example of successful co-marketing is the collaboration between Red Bull and GoPro in 2012 during Felix Baumgartner's high-altitude jump. The brands supported the event together to increase their awareness.

8 Email Marketing Strategies to skyrocket your results

What can you do from now on to skyrocket your email marketing efforts? Here are 8 email marketing strategies to boost your next campaign:

1. Segment Your Mailing List

List segmentation is the foundation of most, if not all, successful email marketing strategies. In fact, HubSpot Blog Research shares that subscriber segmentation is the most effective strategy for email marketing campaigns (78%).

List segmentation is the process of dividing your entire subscriber list into smaller groups that have a number of things in common. The criteria you use to segment your list will depend on the type of industry you're in and your goals for the campaign. To get you started, here are a few examples:

• Location
• Gender
• Role in an organization

Breaking up your subscriber list into smaller groups is beneficial for several reasons, such as sending more relevant and targeted emails. In fact, some studies show that this strategy results in an 8% higher click-through rate and generates 18 times more revenue than regular emails.

How to start out with list segmentation?

Now that you understand the basics of email list segmentation, there are two things you need to know first to get started:

Customer or prospect data:

Did you know that data collection is one of the most valuable assets in a business? That is why almost every company collects customer and prospect data.

Collecting data is essential to gain insight into your customer base. Once you have access to this data, analyze it as you would to create buyer personas. The goal is to identify the most important trends and differentiators among your buyers, so that you can use them to target your target audience in a more targeted way.

For example, after analyzing your data, you notice that your customers mainly come from two different industries: publishing and telecommunications. This would be a good way to segment your email list.

A Marketing Automation Platform:

While it is possible to manage list segmentation manually, I don't recommend it. Instead, work with a marketing automation platform to quickly segment your lists and send emails.

By collecting information from subscribers during the registration process, such as a form or survey, you can make it easier for yourself to better understand your target audience.

In addition, something much more important, you can segment your subscriber list more easily and quickly. Various segmentation criteria include purchase history, buyer journey, user information (job title, age, industry), etc.

By using the steps outlined above, even a little bit of data in an email will make your subscriber feel like you know them personally. This will lead them to connect to your email, interact with it, and hopefully complete the action you want them to take.

2. Personalization

Personalization in email marketing involves using subscriber data to make the user experience within the email content much more personalized. If you're not using this strategy yet, this is your wake-up call.

This simple strategy can increase your email open rate by 26% and help you generate up to 760% more revenue.

Examples of email personalization range from using the subscriber's first name in email copy and subject line to segmenting subscribers into smaller lists.

Here are my top 3 types of personalization you can implement today with instant results:

Disclaimer: List Segmentation is my favorite personalization strategy. But we've discussed that one already, that's why I've excluded him from the following 3 strategies - Thank me later :)

Content Personalization

The days of one-size-fits-all messaging are long gone. Instead, modern marketing focuses on using personalization to create emails that feel like they're tailored to the individual.

People have a need to be seen as an individual, even in the mailbox. But how can you apply that when you market hundreds of different people at the same time?

Therefore, when it comes to emails, your content is the vehicle to handle this perfectly. Doing this correctly will ensure that you:

• Stand out within the inbox as highly relevant, tailor-made material.
• Make an email more likely to be opened and clicked on.
• Strengthen customer experiences by sending the right content to the right people at the right time.

P.S. In 4. Optimize Email Content you get your hands on the exact step-by-step process on how to create cutting-edge email content.

Don't underestimate to power of the "From" Name, here's why...

Another great strategy for personalizing your emails is to send your emails from a person, not a company...

In fact, research shows that people are more likely to trust and interact with an email that comes from another person than an email from a company. In fact, a whopping 68% of Americans say the name "From" plays a big part in their decision to open an email.

The way to implement this is to simply use a real name in the "From" field and (optionally) a real person's face instead of a logo or an avatar.

To taste the enormous effect of the small adjustment, Hubspot has done a test. They discovered the following:

When they sent an email from "Hubspot", their click-through rate was 0.73%. When they switched to sending their emails to a member of their marketing team (a real person), it resulted in a click-through rate of 0.96%...

This may seem like a small leap, but when you consider that it's made 292 clicks, it's well worth it.

Basically, by sending your business emails from a real person. You give your business a human touch, one that you can use to increase the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy.

Don't make the subject line about you, make it about "them"...

After the “from” name, the subject line is the second most prominent element in the inbox.

On most devices, the subject line has darker, heavier text in an effort to make it stand out from the other details of the email.

Given its prominence in the inbox, it's inevitable that your chosen subject line will have a significant effect on open rates, and our?research? shows that using the recipient’s first name in the subject line can increase open rates by 26%.

Converse does this well in their email campaigns by adding the subscriber's first name to the subject line to make the campaign stand out in the inbox and get people to open it.

Email Settings Optimization

To create successful email marketing campaigns, it's extremely important to optimize your emails for long-term engagement with your subscribers. Use these three simple and most effective steps you can take to take your email marketing to the next level:

Create eye-catching Subject Lines

Subject lines play a crucial role in the success of your email campaigns. In fact, 47% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line.

Here's what to keep in mind when writing your next subject line:

• Keep it short, around 50 characters (6-10 words).
• Make it personal, boosting open rates by 22%.
• Tap into emotions and ambitions.
• Ask questions to engage the audience.

Personalize your "From" Name

42% of people check the sender's name before opening an email. To earn trust and recognition, follow these guidelines:

• Use a company name or the title of a series or newsletter.
• Avoid using "no-reply."

Use the Preheader/Preview Text

The preheader or preview text, located to the right of the subject line, offers a quick preview of the email. A well-written preheader can draw attention and boost open rates, so consider these best practices:

• Offer a call to action.
• Incentivize the audience.
• Personalize the text.
• Keep it short, between 40 and 130 characters.
• Ask questions to engage the audience.

4. Optimize Email Content

Personalization is essential to marketing practices because people like to be seen as individuals. That's why your email content can make the difference between your most successful and destructive campaign.

That said, here are my top 4 tips for creating engaging and compelling copy:

• Make your email copy less formal. Whatever industry you're in, make sure your email is friendly and personal. Avoid jargon at all costs.
• Use humor. Humor is a great way to break the ice in any situation, including your emails. Because it makes the recipient feel like they're coming from a friend, not a company.
• Be relevant. Use the data you collect about your customers to create content they don't know they need. Even send them relevant information that a caring friend would provide.
• Keep content concise, clear, and relevant, use bullet points for long texts. Then add images to improve opacity and CTR. Finally, test out different variations (text only, image only, combination) to see what resonates with your audience.

By creating personalized content, you ensure that your customer looks forward to interacting with your emails. You become a friend they can turn to when they need a product or service that you offer.

Don't forget to optimize CTAs:

A call-to-action (CTA) is a prompt on a website that tells the user to take a certain action. The action button is usually written as a command or action phrase, such as "Sign Up" or "Buy Now" and usually takes the form of a button or hyperlink.

In email campaigns, the CTA aims to drive traffic to a specific page. So they can take further action from that page.

In general, a call to action takes two forms. Think of a button or you use a web link that you weave into your text.

So when optimizing your CTAs, make sure you use call-to-action words, use button designs (28% higher CTR), use lots of white space, run placement tests, and run regular A/B tests.

5. Optimize Email Deliverability:

For your strategy to succeed, people must receive your emails. Monitor deliverability regularly, avoid spammy or promotional emails, keep your subscriber database updated, use double opt-in, and provide an unsubscribe link (as required by GDPR).

6. Optimize for Mobile:

Did you know 55% of emails received are opened on mobile devices? The question is not if, but when you will optimize your email marketing strategy for mobile.

In fact, 42.3% of users have already reported that poorly optimized emails are deleted before they are opened.

And as the number of desktops opened will continue to drop steadily, it's essential to run marketing campaigns that display and work effectively on mobile devices.

Therefore, the overall goal of any email marketer should be to improve mobile friendliness. As a result, customer acquisition and engagement will accelerate.?

Here are some tips that will boost your mobile optimization without much effort:

• Optimize with short and concise copy, subject lines, and preheaders.
• Use mobile-friendly responsive designs for an easy readability
• Use precise and concise CTA - Use buttons for a better conversion.
• A/B testing

7. Remove and Re-engage with your Inactive Subscribers:

To reduce inactive subscribers, you need to reconnect with your audience and clean up your email list. This will improve email deliverability, significantly reduce costs, and provide valuable insight into engagement levels.

First, define inactive subscribers, these are the subscribers who have been inactive for at least 3, 6, or 9 months. Then try to re-engage them by getting them back to receiving emails, such as letting them know they are missed.

Finally, put the group that responds on the active list and remove those that still don't respond after a certain amount of time.

8. Utilize email marketing automatization software

Did you know you can use email marketing automation software to scale and streamline efforts? The right software helps you work more efficiently and significantly increase your conversions.

Not only does this result in higher ROI, but autoresponders can improve user experience and personalize email marketing strategies such as welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, and newsletters.

If you are considering measuring metrics, but don't know where to start. Start to track important email marketing metrics like list growth, open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and bounce rate...

Then to measure success and improve your strategies, compare these metrics to industry benchmarks and your objectives.

Final thoughts on email marketing:

Anyone who says email marketing is dead is wrong. Email is here to stay and it is one of the best ways to grow your business for years to come. Now it is your choice to determine whether to exploit this potential or let your competitors win.

Even though the competition can be fierce, you have to take action to stand out from the crowd. This article is specially made so that you have all the information you need to succeed in email marketing.

Good luck!