Email is one of the cheapest and the easiest tools you have in your marketing arsenal.
Taking advantage of it can help you raise brand awareness and put you on the right track to boosting your profits.
This step-by-step guide gives you all the information you need to start a successful email marketing campaign today (and yes we have a podcast on more tips and tricks).
Read on…
Step 1: Outline Your Goals
Before spending your time and money on the campaign, you have to jot down the goals you want email marketing to achieve for your business. The obvious “get more conversion” goal is often just the first step.
The goals of your campaign depend on the size and the nature of your business. Here are the examples:
- Let your potential customers know that your company exists.
- Send dedicated clients special promotions/rewards.
- Remind your existing customers about your business.
- Encourage referrals.
- Communicate with your existing/potential customers to raise brand awareness.
- Nurture the relationship with your clients.
- Increase the number of visitors to your website.
- Create a desire to explore your business further even after a client has made a purchase.
Choose one main and several secondary goals for your campaign and use it to proceed with the rest of the steps. Keeping the goal in mind can help you stay on the right track.
Step 2: Find a Good Email Marketing Service
A proper email marketing service can make a difference between a fast and easy campaign and long nights in front of the computer display. Here are a few to choose from:
- Constant Contact – Largest email marketing service available. Good choice for beginners.
- AWeber – One of the most popular email marketing services for small and mid-size businesses.
- GetResponse – A great choice for beginner’s email marketing campaign if you have a small business.
- MailChimp – A service with a simple interface and a great online support. The cost is rather low too.
- Mad Mimi – A simple approach to email marketing. Can be a great choice for beginners, who never have time for anything.
- SendinBlue – A great choice for newbies, who have no designing experience. Offers an impressive template gallery.
Step 3: Build Your Email List
Building an email list is one of the toughest and most important steps in your email marketing campaign. In order to reduce the bounce and spam rate, you need to find the right target audience.
- List Existing Contacts
Make a list of the existing emails and see which one of these people can help you with email marketing. You can pump this list up by networking.
- Use Your Website
Your website can generate contacts for your email list if you manage to post the right content. In order to get people on your mailing list, encourage them to fill out a subscription form.
The subscription form should be readily available on your website.
- Take Advantage of Forwarding
Forwarding is similar to word of mouth. The best help you can get during your email marketing campaign is from people, who already use your services.
Encourage your existing clients to forward your messages by creating catchy titles and informative content.
- Don’t Forget Social Media
Social media is a perfect email list-building tool. Become active on all the popular platforms and attract good contacts. In short, socialize.
- Don’t Buy Ready-to-Use Lists
The temptation to purchase a perfect email list may be high. However, you must remember that no successful business owner is ready to share such a priceless possession as a good mailing list.
By using this shortcut, you may end up getting a low-quality product that can lead to unfortunate consequences, such as a high spam rate.
Step 4: Spend Time on Subject Lines
The subject lines are the front man of your email marketing campaign. More than half of your audience won’t get past reading the subject line and send the email to the trash.
A compelling subject line is a key to your campaign. It makes sense to spend more time on them than on anything else in this guide.
Creating an attention-grabbing subject line is a tough job. It may be smart to hire a professional writer to deal with them.
Step 5: Write Amazing Content
The right content is another key to a high conversion rate. There are a few rules you should be following when writing an email.
- Keep the email short. Wandering attention of average internet users won’t allow them to start reading a long email.
- Be personal. Ask your audience questions. Try to interact inside the email. Always use “you”. Forget about passive voice.
- Don’t use standard greetings such as “dear ma’am” or “good day”. Come up with something catchy like “happy sunny afternoon from Greenland”.
Be passionate about writing an email. If there is no passion in your words, the conversion rate is likely to be low.
Step 6: Edit and Preview
Editing your email a thousand times is the key to success. The best way to check if it truly rocks is to give it to some of your friends to read.
Always send the email to yourself first to check the format, typos, and other problems. Check the way it looks from mobile gadgets as well.
Step 7: Analyze Your Efforts
Most email services offer an analytics option that you should take advantage of in order to see if the campaign is working.
- Low open rate – emails are deleted upon receipt.
- Low click through rate – messages are not catching the attention.
- High unsubscribe rate – the campaign needs an overhaul.
These three indicators can give you an idea of how you can improve your campaign.
Final Thoughts
When you have the right tools at hand, you can create a solid email marketing campaign that can bring impressive results.
If you learn how to build the right email list, the rest of the steps become much easier. Hiring help to help you with the campaign is a good idea if you are running out of time.
Analyzing your campaign in full or each email individually can help you avoid most of the mistakes that newbies make.