Email Marketing

Email marketing is still a highly effective strategy and one of the oldest forms of digital communication. Despite the emergence of newer communication channels such as social media, email remains the most popular with a user base of over 4.5 billion. With a return on investment of $36 for every dollar spent, email marketing is an essential tool for marketers. It consistently outperforms other marketing channels such as social media, SEO, and affiliate marketing.

Email usage continues to outstrip other platforms, as it remains the preferred method of communication for most people. In addition, the number of email users continues to grow each year, making it a reliable platform for reaching your target audience.

One of the most significant advantages of email marketing is that you have control over your connections, eliminating the risk of reduced reach due to algorithm changes.

For these reasons, developing a successful email marketing campaign is more important than ever. But unfortunately, many people need help with creating effective campaigns. This is where tips and strategies come in handy.

In this guide, you’ll learn about building an email list, creating engaging emails, designing automated campaigns, and tracking your efforts for optimal results.

Email marketing is a strategy that involves sending promotional messages in bulk to target audiences to increase sales. This can include promotional offers, lead nurturing, or supporting content marketing. If you check your email inbox, you’ll likely see many examples of email marketing messages.

Let’s start with the basics of email marketing before diving into strategies to make it effective. To maximise your email marketing campaign, consider these tips:

1. Maintain a Personal Touch: As email marketing is highly competitive, it is essential to communicate directly with your audience and show the human side of your brand.
2. Use Attractive Headlines: Catchy subject lines are critical to increasing open rates, but be careful not to mislead or trick your subscribers.
3. Keep It Short: As emails are often read on mobile devices, keep your content brief and focused if you need to share more information or direct users to a blog post or landing page.
4. Place CTAs in Key Positions: Like landing pages, including strong calls to action at the beginning and end of your email can increase engagement.
5. Obtain Consent and Fulfill Your Promises: Never purchase email lists, as it is often illegal and won’t result in desired outcomes. Instead, if you offer a deal or valuable content, ensure you deliver on your promises.

Email marketing is a highly effective marketing strategy that is often automated and easy to use.
It can support various marketing initiatives, such as lead generation, sales, and content marketing.
To ensure success, an email marketing campaign must have three key components:

1. Email List – A collection of individuals who have given their consent to receive emails from you is referred to as an email list. To launch successful email marketing campaigns, it is essential to have an active and engaged email list. Building an email list can be done through various means, one of the simplest methods being to offer your target audience something of value, such as a coupon, in exchange for their email addresses.
2. Email Service Provider – An email service provider (ESP), also known as an email marketing platform, is software that helps manage your email list and design automated email campaigns. For example, using an ESP allows you to set up automated triggers, such as sending a reminder to complete a purchase, based on subscriber actions. This personalises the interaction and enhances engagement and open rates.
3. Clearly Defined Goals – Email marketing can help achieve a range of business objectives, including driving sales, increasing brand awareness, generating and nurturing leads, keeping customers engaged, and enhancing customer loyalty and lifetime value. To execute a successful email marketing campaign, aligning your email list, ESP, and goals is important. The process starts with segmenting your email list according to subscriber demographics or actions, creating an email or series of emails with a clear objective, and using your ESP to send the emails and monitor the campaign automatically.

Email marketing can bring numerous benefits to your business and directly impact your financial performance. Here are six of the top benefits:

1. Raise brand recognition – By sharing valuable information, educational content, news, updates, etc., email can help raise awareness of your brand, products and services. Ensure that the content and design of your email align with your brand identity to enhance brand recognition.
2. Drive more website traffic – Email is an effective way to drive more visitors to your website. For example, you can share summaries of recent articles and encourage subscribers to read the full versions of your blog. Or, include calls-to-action in your promotional emails that direct subscribers to your landing and sales pages.
3. Increase sales and profits – Email can present your products and services to customers and enable you to test different promotional techniques to boost sales and revenue. For example, offer discounts and free shipping, share roundups and collections of products, or use upselling and cross-selling techniques.
4. Strengthen other marketing channels – Email lets you integrate your marketing channels and drive traffic to different touchpoints with your customers, such as social media, landing pages, blogs, and in-person events. For example, ask new customers to review your business on Facebook or start an Instagram challenge and invite subscribers to participate.
5. Keep customers involved – With email, you can vary your messages and keep customers interested in your brand. Experiment with different email campaigns to maintain customer engagement and ensure your brand stays top-of-mind.
6. Acquire valuable business data – Email enables you to gather customer data and gain insights into their behaviour. Track analytics or send surveys and feedback forms to learn more. Use this information to improve your emails, business, products, and services. Automated workflows can be set up with email marketing tools to trigger emails based on customer actions, saving time and minimising human error. For instance, send a welcome email automatically once a contact subscribes to your newsletter.

Email marketing requires a well-planned strategy because various types of emails can be sent to your audience. Each type serves a different purpose and engages your audience in different ways. In this article, we will discuss some of the common types of email marketing so that you can create the best campaign for your company.

Welcome emails: These emails greet new customers and encourage them to learn more about your products or services. They often offer a trial or bonus and serve as an introduction to the business. Welcome emails have an average open rate of 50% and are an effective way to introduce your brand, products and services to new contacts. The best welcome emails are brief and action-oriented, with the main focus being to guide subscribers to the next step.

Welcome email

Newsletter emails: These are popular email campaigns, typically highlighting new products and services and including articles, blogs, and customer reviews. They include a call-to-action, encouraging the reader to take a specific action, such as reading a blog post or checking out a product. Newsletters are usually non-promotional and can be used to share industry updates, tips, blog roundups, and more. They are often sent regularly, building trust and long-term relationships with customers.

Newsletter email

Lead Nurturing Emails: These emails target a specific audience through a series of emails to eventually convert them. They focus on a group interested in a product or service and build interest through additional emails with information or relevant promotions. The aim is to move users from the consideration stage to the purchasing stage.

Confirmation Emails: These emails are sent to those who have recently signed up for emails or newsletters or made a purchase online for the first time. They confirm receipt of information and let the recipient know they are on the list to receive additional information. Confirmation emails may also include further actions for the recipient to take.

Dedicated Emails: These emails are sent to a specific portion of your email list based on criteria such as recent purchases, inactive clients, new members, and others.

Invite Emails: These emails announce upcoming events, new product launches, and seminars. Companies use these emails to generate attention and increase awareness about special events.

Promotional Emails: These marketing emails are very common and are typically generic and sent to a large audience. They are used to maintain awareness and may tease new products and services. Promotional emails can take various forms and are designed to promote a specific product, service or ongoing sale.

Promotional Email

Survey Emails: Feedback from customers is valuable for a business. Sending survey emails lets your customers know you value their opinions and want to create a product or experience they will enjoy. In addition, the feedback from these surveys can be used to improve your offerings.

Seasonal Marketing Emails: Many companies take advantage of holidays and special occasions to reach out to customers with information on sales and promotions. These emails are tied to holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day and are sent around specific times of the year, promoting products and services relevant to the season.For example, here’s a great marketing email from Lush promoting their Halloween-related products:

Seasonal Marketing Emails

By understanding the different types of email marketing, you can create the best marketing campaign for your company and engage with your audience effectively.

Cart abandonment emails: Campaigns for abandoned carts are emails sent to customers who have added items to their cart while shopping at your store but still need to finalise the transaction.

Cart abandonment emails are an effective tool in bringing back customers who have shown interest in your store by placing items in their cart but still need to complete their purchase. Research has shown that these emails can generate an average of $5.81 in revenue per recipient. To encourage these customers to return and complete their purchases, you can send reminders, create a sense of urgency, and provide incentives like discounts or free shipping.

Here’s an example of a cart abandonment email from Public Rec:

Cart abandonment emails

You should follow several important steps when automating your email marketing process to ensure its success. The exact process may vary depending on the email service provider (ESP) you use, but there are several universal steps you should take.

Step 1: Define Your Email Segments

The first step in automating your email process is to segment your email list. Segmentation is grouping your subscribers based on their data and behaviour. This information can include:

• Behavioural data from your website, such as pages viewed or products added to the cart.
• Demographic information, such as location, age, or gender.
• Topics important to them, such as the products they are interested in or the content they have engaged with.

You can create more personalised and targeted campaigns by segmenting your email list, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.

Step 2: Design an Efficient Email Series

After segmenting your email list, it’s time to design an email series. An email series is a series of automated emails that work together to achieve a specific goal. The goal can be anything from nurturing leads, promoting a product or service, or driving traffic to your website. When designing your email series, think about what messages you want to convey, what actions you want your subscribers to take, and how each email will work together to achieve your ultimate goal.

Step 3: Determine the Right Triggers

Once you’ve designed your email series, it’s time to determine what actions will trigger the following email. These triggers are the events that cause the following email to be sent. Some common triggers include:

• A subscriber signs up for your email list → Send a welcome email with a coupon and popular products.
• After one week → Send an email promoting new arrivals.
• A subscriber visits your women’s clothing section → Send an email showcasing a new collection.
• A subscriber adds an item to their cart but does not complete the purchase → Send a reminder email with a 10% discount coupon. You can create similar series for other objectives such as lead nurturing, promoting a course, or driving traffic to your blog.

The triggers you choose will depend on your specific goals and the type of email series you are creating. For example, if you create an email series to nurture leads, you may use a trigger that sends an email after a lead visits your website and views specific pages. On the other hand, if you are creating an email series to promote a new product, you may use a trigger that sends an email after a subscriber signs up for your email list.

Following these steps, you can automate your email marketing process and create targeted, personalised campaigns to help you achieve your marketing goals.

• Understanding Your Audience: The foundation of a successful email marketing campaign is understanding your target audience. This information enables you to segment your email list and craft highly targeted copy.
• Attention-Grabbing Subject Line: The subject line is a crucial element of email copy, as it determines whether or not your email is opened. To create a subject line that demands attention, consider these tips:
  • Incorporate keywords
  • Focus on benefits
  • Use active voice
  • Personalize as much as possible
  Additionally, depending on your audience, including emojis may increase open rates.
  Avoid terms that may trigger spam filters, such as “clearance,” “free,” “bargain,” and “cash bonus.”
• Compelling Preview Text: Preview text is displayed immediately beneath or next to the subject line, offering a brief glimpse of what the email contains. As it is limited to 140 characters (varies by email client), it serves as a mini pitch to convince recipients to open the email. To make the most of preview text, ensure it aligns with the subject line and provides a clear value proposition to the reader.
• Readable Content: With limited time and attention, your readers will only spend a little effort trying to decipher your message. Make your email copy easy to read:
  • Short sentences and paragraphs
  • Plain language
  • Bullet points.
• Storytelling: Stories are a compelling way to grab attention and convey a message, making storytelling a valuable tool for an email copy. Consider using the Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) concept to build interest and guide recipients towards your desired outcome.

• Psychological Triggers: Human behaviour is influenced by psychological triggers, and incorporating them into your email copy can drive desired actions from your audience. Examples of these triggers include
  • Fear of missing out (FOMO)
  • Color psychology
  • Social proof.
  By leveraging these psychological triggers, you can create highly effective email copy.

To create a successful email marketing campaign, you must follow a clear plan broken down into several key steps. The following steps provide a framework for your email strategy:

1. Define your target audience: A relevant email is key to a successful email campaign. Start by understanding your buyer persona and what they want. Then, tailor your email campaign to the needs of your audience.
2. Set your goals: Before establishing your campaign goals, gather some context. This includes understanding the average email stats for your industry to set realistic goals.
3. Build your email list: You need a list of people to send emails to. An email list is a group of users who have permitted you to send them relevant content. To build this list, you need to provide several opt-in opportunities for prospects.
4. Choose your email campaign type: There are several email campaigns, such as weekly newsletters, product announcements, and blog post shares. Choose the type that is best for your audience, and set up different lists for different types of emails.
5. Set a schedule: Decide how often you plan to contact your list and inform your audience in advance. This helps build trust and ensures your emails are expected rather than becoming spam.
6. Measure your results: As marketers, it is important to measure everything. Monitoring key metrics will help you make small email changes that yield significant results.

With these steps in mind, you can create an effective email marketing strategy and send emails people to want to read.

To build your email list, add a banner or form to your website and ask people to subscribe. Here are some tips to follow:

1. Offer an Incentive: Consider email addresses a valuable resource and entice people to provide them by offering an incentive. This could be a newsletter, product updates, a downloadable asset, a coupon, or anything that gives value to the subscriber. A strong call to action and effective copywriting can attract more subscribers.

For example, the business newsletter Morning Brew offers readers a simple benefit: fun, exciting updates every morning.

Search Engine Journal uses a small form in their right sidebar offering daily news—they also ask which topics the user is interested in, which helps them send more valuable content.

Follow Email Marketing Regulations: Ensure your emails abide by local laws and regulations, including CAN-SPAM and GDPR. You can never buy email lists, and it’s advisable to use double opt-in options and provide an easy way for people to unsubscribe.

Start building an email list of engaged, opt-in subscribers. Ensure they have given express permission to receive emails from you by having them enter their email address on a signup form on your website, blog, social media, or other channels. This is known as an “opt-in” and is necessary for compliant email marketing and protecting the credibility of your brand. In addition, most email service providers offer tools to create signup forms for organic list growth.

Here are some tried-and-tested ways to organically grow your email list:

Add signup forms to your website and other places

Create an obvious email subscription form that converts visitors into subscribers. The key to an effective setup is a clear and concise presentation of the lead magnet’s benefits, along with these components:

1. Enticing headline: Highlight the lead magnet’s value
2. Brief and informative description: Use bullet points to outline the benefits
3. Eye-catching visuals: Show a mockup of the lead magnet or use an image of someone looking towards the form
4. Simple form: Limit form fields to only first name and email address
5. Compelling subscribe button: Use a contrasting colour and action-oriented language (e.g. “Send me the 7 steps!”)

Once your form is ready, install it in high-converting locations, such as: • Splash page • Welcome gate • Floating bar • Header • Blog archive page • Within blog posts • Sidebar • Timed lightbox popup • Scroll box • Footer • About page • Resource pages • Dedicated sign-up page • Exit-intent popup.

The exit-intent popup is a must-have for maximising subscribers, as it appears just as the user is about to leave the site, ensuring they have read and appreciated your content. This method has proven successful for many customers, with results like a 125% increase in conversions. To learn more about exit-intent popups.

Use lead magnets

Free premium content is the key to rapid list growth.

A lead magnet is a valuable item offered for free in exchange for an email address. This item does not need to be expensive to produce, often digital materials like PDFs, audio files, or videos that can be easily created at low or no cost.

Anything that provides free value to your visitors can serve as a lead magnet, with popular options including • e-books • cheat sheets or resource lists • white papers or case studies • webinars • free trials or samples • complimentary quotes or consultations • quizzes or self-assessments • coupons The options are limitless!

Email marketing success depends on setting proper expectations. A strong call to action and consistent follow-up will result in a successful campaign. However, over-promising and delivering too frequently, or under-delivering on expectations, can lead to failure and frustrated subscribers. Therefore, the initial follow-up email plays a crucial role in determining the success of your email marketing efforts.

An introductory email, like the one Airbnb sends to new customers, is a great example. This welcome email outlines the steps involved, such as completing the profile, verifying information, and booking the first stay.

A similar email confirming the subscription and letting them know what they can expect.

Utilise the feature offered by most email service providers to set up an automated welcome sequence. The first follow-up email should be sent promptly to introduce yourself and clarify the expectations for new subscribers. This email should aim for thoroughness rather than brevity, but if you can be concise and informative, that’s even better. After this, it’s essential to fulfil those expectations consistently.

Once you’ve started growing your email list, the next step is to develop a strong email marketing strategy and create relevant content.

Defining Your Email Marketing Strategy

Consider what you hope to accomplish with your first campaign to establish your email marketing approach. Here are some common goals for beginner email marketers:

• Introducing a new product
• Offering discounts to loyal customers
• Boosting downloads for your latest eBook
• Keeping subscribers updated on company news

Your goals can be specific or broad, as long as they align with your business and target audience. A well-defined, measurable goal will make it easier to craft your email content.

Designing Your Marketing Emails

Designing your marketing emails can be straightforward. You can easily create eye-catching and professional campaigns using a drag-and-drop editor.

The focus should be on creating an email that represents your brand, even if it means keeping it simple. Of course, you can always add more elements as your skills improve.

Streamline with Pre-made Email Templates

Both new and experienced email marketers can save time and effort with pre-made email templates.

Choose a template you like, customise it to match your brand’s colours and font, and reuse it for future newsletters. Then, all you need to do is update the content. It’s quick and easy!

How to write your email copy

For compelling email copy, aim to provide value, feature topics that interest your audience, and reflect your brand’s tone of voice.

When crafting your email, consider these tips to make it persuasive and engaging: • Consider what your audience needs from you and how you can help.

• Address the email as if you are writing to one person.
• Include your brand’s unique personality.
• Incorporate a story into the email.
• Create curiosity by starting with a captivating subject line.
• Use a conversational tone and write in a way that feels natural to you.
• Structure the copy with short paragraphs and bullet points.
• Include a real person’s name instead of just a brand logo in the signature.

Now that you understand the basics of email campaigns, it’s time to take them to the next level. Using segmentation and analytics can refine your broadcasts and lead to better results.

Analytics is essential to email marketing, and every email service provider offers complimentary analytics.

The three most crucial metrics to track are open rate, click-through rate (CTR), and unsubscribe rate.

• Email Open Rate: This metric reflects how many people open your emails and indicates the strength of your relationship with subscribers. High open rates mean that subscribers are interested in your emails. Low open rates suggest that you have unengaged subscribers and need to focus on providing value and managing their expectations.
• Click-Through Rate: CTR shows the number of clicks on a link in your email. If the CTR is low, your message may need to be targeted more or be resonating with subscribers. In this case, work on improving your email copy.
• Unsubscribe Rate: The unsubscribe rate reflects the number of people who clicked the “unsubscribe” button in your email. If the unsubscribe rate is high, you’ve got a severe issue.

You need to re-examine why people are leaving and take action to fix it. For example, if people are leaving after a certain automated email, re-work it.

If they’re leaving after marketing messages, revise your offer presentation.

If they’re leaving early in your email funnel, fix your initial call to action to align with your other messages.

Analytics are crucial in email marketing as they give you specific insights into what’s going wrong. You need to pay attention to these metrics to get the most out of them.

How To Segment Your Email Marketing List

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, email segmentation is the practice of splitting up your email list into more targeted groups. Here are a few ways to segment your list:

• Customer list (in comparison to leads who haven’t bought)
• Newsletter subscribers
• Daily email list (in comparison to weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc)
• Demographics, such as age, location, or job title
• Interests, such as marketing or sales topics

Just like targeting in paid ads, dividing your list gives you the ability to send more targeted communications.

For example, some customers want both product and sales updates, while others might only want to hear about new product updates. Sales team leads might want to hear about a new sales feature but not a new marketing tool.

By segmenting your list, you can send targeted messages to specific groups, such as reaching out to those who didn’t open your last email or making a second pitch to those who showed interest.

Additionally, you can also use segmentation to A/B test different aspects of your email, such as the title, content, or best practices. While it takes effort to effectively implement email segmentation, the results are worth it.

You will stand out from the crowd and deliver more meaningful communications to your subscribers.

• Don’t Buy Email Lists
  Building an email list can be slow, but buying a list is not the solution. Not only is sending unsolicited emails illegal per GDPR and CAN-SPAM, but people are likely to mark them as spam, damaging your email sender reputation, and potentially putting you on an email blocklist. Additionally, most email marketing services won’t work with you because purchased lists can hurt the deliverability of other users on shared IP addresses. Instead, build your list organically, even if it takes time, and you’ll reap the benefits in the end.
• Implement Double Opt-In
  Double opt-in is when a confirmation email with a link is sent to each new subscriber, and they must click the link to complete their subscription. This added step is crucial for email deliverability and eliminates any misspelled email addresses, spam traps, and acts as proof of subscriber consent (a requirement of GDPR).

• Segment Your Mailing List
  As your email list grows, it’s likely to contain various buyer profiles. Segmentation is the process of dividing your list into smaller sub-lists with common traits, allowing you to send targeted and relevant emails. Segment your list by demographic and customer information, such as age, location, lead score, and purchase history. You can get a head start by asking subscribers about their email preferences during signup.
• Personalize Your Emails
  Personalizing emails helps build relationships with prospects and customers, making them feel valued and understood. Use subscribers’ first names, consider time zones, segment contacts, and use behavior-triggered emails based on customer interactions with your product/service.

• Optimize your email subject line, sender name, and preview text.
  Email Subject Line: The subject line is crucial for determining whether your email will be opened or not. Keep it short (50 characters or less), highlight the most interesting offer, and appeal to subscribers’ emotions and goals. Check out resources for writing fantastic subject lines and inspiring examples.
  Sender Name: The sender name is often the first thing people look at in an email, determining if it’s genuine or spam. To reinforce trust and brand recognition, use your brand name, a combination of your name and brand, or a distinct name for specific types of email content. Use the same sender name and address for all campaigns and avoid “no-reply” addresses.
  Preview Text/Preheader: The preview text is a snippet that appears after the subject line on some email clients, especially on mobile. It adds context to the subject line and can increase open rates. Make sure the subject line and preview text work together to spark reader curiosity and encourage them to open the email. If you don’t set a preview text, the email client will use the first line of text, which may not be appealing.
• Discover the Best Email Content with A/B Testing.
  Confused between two subject lines? Want to know which content resonates best with your audience? A/B testing can help you determine the most effective approach and optimize your email marketing campaign’s open and click-through rates. Experiment with different subject line formulas, content styles, and calls-to-action. Track the results and adjust your strategy accordingly for optimal engagement.
• Ensure Email Deliverability
  Email deliverability, or the ability of your email to reach its recipient’s inbox, is crucial to the success of your email marketing efforts.
  A compromised deliverability rate can lead to emails landing in the spam folder or, even worse, being blocklisted by the internet service provider (ISP). To improve your email deliverability, follow these best practices:
  • Avoid using spammy or overly promotional subject lines.
  • Maintain an updated subscriber list by removing unengaged contacts and inactive addresses.
  • Only send emails to those who have opted in to receive them.
  • Include an unsubscribe link as required by GDPR regulations and to give recipients control over their data.
• Maintain a Clean Email List for Improved Deliverability and Engagement
  Regularly clean your email list to ensure accurate data and better email deliverability. If a subscriber hasn’t engaged with your emails in 6 months, send a reactivation campaign or request a second opt-in. If still no engagement, remove them from your list. To prevent marking as spam, include a clear unsubscribe button and aim for an unsubscribe rate of 0.5 or lower.
• Keep track of email marketing metrics
  Keep track of key email marketing metrics to gain insights into how to improve future campaigns. Your ESP’s analytics dashboard will typically show real-time metrics such as
  • open rate (ratio of opened emails to total recipients)
  • click-through rate (ratio of clicks to total recipients)
  • unsubscribe rate (number of unsubscribes divided by total recipients)
  • bounce rate (number of failed deliveries divided by total emails sent).

  Soft bounces are caused by temporary issues while hard bounces indicate permanent problems, such as inactive email addresses. A high unsubscribe rate suggests the need to review email frequency and segmentation.

• Scale with autoresponders and email automation
  Take your email marketing strategy to the next level by automating it. Start with autoresponders, which send personalized emails (or email series) automatically at different stages of the customer journey, freeing you from having to send each email manually. The most common autoresponder is the welcome email, which is widely supported by email marketing services. With advanced email automation software, you can create complex email sequences using if/then/else logic for efficient lead nurturing and scoring.

Before sending emails to anyone, it’s crucial to have two things in place:

1. Obtain their permission
2. Establish a business email account If you have an opt-in form, then you already have the necessary permission. But, if you haven’t used one, it’s not recommended to send marketing emails without obtaining permission. This could result in the emails being flagged as spam and harm your reputation. Instead, you can use tools like OptinMonster to create effective opt-in forms that allow you to collect leads and subscribers who are interested in receiving your marketing emails. Then, you need to choose an email service provider that provides the infrastructure to send business emails effectively. Without this, bulk emails will likely be flagged as spam, causing your emails to go unread and potentially affecting your other emails as well.

Here are the best email marketing services that I recommend:

1. Constant Contact – A well-established email marketing platform with professional email designs and drag-and-drop editing tools. They also provide a 60-day free trial, with plans starting at $20/month.
2. Sendinblue – An all-in-one marketing platform with email and SMS capabilities, and an easy-to-use interface. Free plans include 300 emails per day with Sendinblue branding. Paid plans start at $25/month.
3. HubSpot – Offers a robust email marketing software for small businesses, with personalization features, A/B testing, and more. Free plans allow up to 2,000 emails per month, with premium plans starting at $45/month.
4. Drip – A marketing automation tool with complex email automation workflows and triggers, starting at $49/month for up to 2,500 subscribers.
5. ConvertKit – An advanced email marketing tool for bloggers, authors, and speakers, with complex autoresponders. Plans start at $29/month for up to 1,000 subscribers.
6. Mailchimp – A popular and easy-to-use email marketing software with a free plan for up to 2,000 subscribers. Paid plans start at $10/month.
7. MailerLite – An email marketing service with responsive emails, autoresponders, and A/B testing, starting at $10/month for up to 1,000 subscribers.

Email list segmentation is the process of dividing your email subscribers into smaller groups based on specific criteria, such as preferences, interests, location, open rate, and more. This allows you to send more personalized and relevant emails to each group, increasing the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

The benefits of email list segmentation include:

• Higher open rates
• Increased click-through rates
• Lower unsubscribe rates
• Improved personalization and relevance of emails
• Ability to send powerful autoresponders (a series of automated emails based on specific conditions)
• Better understanding of subject lines and messages that resonate with your audience

To get started with email list segmentation, consider the following criteria:

• New subscribers: send a welcome email or series
• Preferences: blog posts vs. sale notifications
• Interests: classical music vs. pop
• Location: local events notifications
• Open rate: special offer for more engaged subscribers
• Inactivity: reminder for subscribers who haven’t engaged for a while
• Lead magnet: targeted emails based on lead magnet topic
• Shopping Cart Abandonment: reminder for abandoned cart items

Additionally, using contact forms can help collect information from leads that can be used for more targeted messaging.

By implementing email list segmentation, you can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and drive higher conversions.

The success of your email list depends on if your emails are opened. This section explains why. Several reasons affect if emails are opened or not, and we will discuss them.

Avoid Spam Filters

Your emails may end up in the spam folder, but you can prevent it by following these steps: • Make sure subscribers agreed to receive your emails

• Use a good IP address that hasn’t been used for spamming

• Send emails through verified domains • Keep your email template clean

• Personalize the recipient’s name in the “To” field

• Ask subscribers to add you to their address book and whitelist your emails

• Avoid using words that trigger spam filters such as “buy,” “discount,” etc.

• Don’t mislead with deceptive subject lines

• Include your location

• Provide an easy way for subscribers to unsubscribe.

Remove Inactive Subscribers to Keep Your List Fresh

It is important to consistently email your subscribers to maintain their engagement. However, over time, even active subscribers can become inactive due to changes in email addresses or disinterest. To keep your list fresh with engaged subscribers, you should periodically remove those who have not engaged with your emails in the past 6 months or more. Before removing them, try sending a final email to re-engage them. You can also check in with subscribers periodically and ask them to update their information and preferences, reminding them they have control over their engagement with your brand.

• Top of Form
• Bottom of Form

Perfect Your Timing

The timing of your email can significantly affect its success. To find the optimal time to send emails to your audience, conduct A/B tests and consider the results of previous studies such as high open and click-through rates on Tuesdays and high conversion rates on Saturdays. However, the best time to send your emails depends on the habits and routines of your specific audience. Take into account their daily activities, work schedule, and sleep patterns to determine the best time to send emails.

Make Your Subject Line Stand Out

Your subject line is key to the success of your email marketing campaign, as it determines whether or not your emails are opened and read. Here are some tips to create effective subject lines:

• Be intriguing, but not too cryptic. Your goal is to spark curiosity and encourage the reader to open the email, not to confuse them.
• Include numbers. Numbers tend to grab attention and make subject lines stand out.
• Use a friendly and casual tone that aligns with your subscribers’ language and communication style.

Write to Just One Person

Crafting effective emails requires a personalized approach. Instead of thinking of your email as going to thousands of people, write as if you’re speaking to a single individual. To achieve this, it’s essential to know your target audience and their needs, desires, and preferences. Consider conducting a brief survey or having a one-on-one conversation to gather this information. The time you spend understanding your subscribers will pay off in your messaging and can also inform the development or improvement of your products and services.

Write Like a Friend

To effectively engage your subscribers, it’s crucial to write emails with a personal touch. Instead of taking a formal, corporate approach, write as if you were communicating with a friend. For instance, using a phrase like “We’re offering savings to our customers” comes across as cold and stiff. On the other hand, using a more friendly expression such as “check out this amazing deal” makes the email feel more personal and less likely to be ignored. In the era of information overload, people are looking for any excuse to delete your emails. To stand out, appeal to your subscribers on a personal level and grab their attention.

Write Amazing Content, Every Time

Having an email opened is just the first step in engaging your subscribers. The content of the email also plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of your email marketing. A great email content will make your subscribers happy and encourage them to look forward to your future emails. On the other hand, if the email content fails to meet their expectations, they may unsubscribe or stop opening your emails. To ensure that your subscribers are satisfied with the email content, aim to provide valuable resources such as free eBooks, informative blog posts, or webinars. It’s important to remember that sending emails for the sake of sending them is not enough. Every email should offer something of significance to your subscribers. The higher the value you provide in each email, the more loyal your subscribers will become and the higher your open rates will be.

Add Some Humor

To create a strong, immediate connection with your subscribers, incorporate humor into your emails. Humor is personal, engaging, and memorable. However, it can be challenging to come up with a funny email, especially when limited by the constraints of a subject line. To make it easier, get to know your subscribers and their sense of humor. If you understand their likes and dislikes, adding humor to your emails becomes a breeze. For instance, send a playful email to inactive subscribers like this: Hi [first name], I wanted to reach out regarding [value proposition] and haven’t heard back from you. Could you let me know if:

You’re all set and I should stop bothering you.

You’re interested but just haven’t responded yet.

I should follow up in three months.

Use animated GIFs or videos. You don’t have to be a comedian to add humor and personality to your emails, just think creatively.

Optimize for Mobile

Almost two-thirds of all email opens occur on mobile devices, so optimizing your emails for mobile is essential. To appeal to your mobile audience, follow these best practices:

• Use a simple, single-column format with a width of 600px or less.
• Make sure your font is large enough to be easily readable on a small screen.
• Ensure that your email looks good even if images are turned off (as they are by default on Android).
• Use smaller images to minimize load time.
• Include a large call-to-action button that’s easy to tap with a thumb.
• Avoid placing links close together or on top of one another to prevent accidental taps.

Keep in mind that email marketing is both an art and a science, and it may take some time to find what works best for your business and subscribers. For more tips on improving your email open rates, check out our guide to writing better emails.

If you’ve been following along, you know how to grow your email list, segment it to make emails more relevant, and send effective emails with high open rates.

It’s time to take the next step and automate your campaigns to make them even more effective. An autoresponder series is a crucial tool for marketers to drive sales.

It allows you to engage with your email list, build relationships, and turn prospects into customers. The great thing about autoresponders is that you can focus on other aspects of your business once you set them up.

An autoresponder is a sequence of emails that are automatically sent to specific segments of your email list in response to a trigger event, such as joining your list, specific website behaviour, or purchasing a product.

The content for an autoresponder series is created in advance and sent out at the right time using email marketing software.

Every business can benefit from an autoresponder series for two main reasons:

1. It provides valuable information and insights to nurture leads and help them make better decisions through an automated onboarding process.
2. It builds trust and rapport with prospects, making it easier to pitch to them at the right moment without being pushy or salesy. To create a highly effective autoresponder series, follow these 4 steps:

Step 1: Determine Your Autoresponder’s Objective

When creating an autoresponder, it’s essential to have a clear goal in mind. Here are four common goals to choose from:

• Welcome Sequence for New Subscribers: This is the first email you send to people who sign up for your email list. It can include a link to your lead magnet, a thank you message, or a call-to-action to check out your popular blog posts. A well-crafted welcome email series is crucial for building loyalty and engagement with your new subscribers.
• Lead Magnet/Mini-Course: An autoresponder can also function as a lead magnet, attracting new subscribers to your email list. This is often done in the form of a free mini-course or challenge, where you deliver a series of valuable emails over a set number of days or weeks.
• Automated Sales Funnel: This is a widely used strategy by information marketers, but can also be applied to software companies, eCommerce businesses, and service providers. It could consist of educational videos, a sales video, and follow-up emails to sell information products. Or, you could create a sequence of free educational emails and then invite leads to a live or recorded webinar where you make an offer. For an online store, your sales sequence could include promotional offers for recently viewed products.
• Upsell/Cross-Sell: Autoresponders can also be used to promote upsells or cross-sells to repeat customers. For example, after someone purchases a product, you could offer related items, like a lens for a camera or additional items for frequently purchased items like food or disposable items.

Step 2: Map Out Your Entire Email Sequence

To create an effective email sequence, it’s important to determine the length of your sequence and the frequency at which emails will be sent. The number of emails in a sequence depends on your goals and the preferences of your subscribers. It’s important to find a balance between value-providing emails and promotional (sales) emails to prevent your subscribers from feeling overwhelmed. A good rule of thumb is to follow the 80/20 principle, where 80% of your emails should aim to provide value and only 20% should focus on promoting your products or services.

Once you have determined the length and frequency of your sequence, you can create an outline that covers the topics each email will address and the call-to-action (CTA) for each email. The CTA could be anything from clicking a link, sharing your content on social media, replying to the email, or making a purchase.

As an example, let’s consider an email sequence for launching an information product.

Email 1: Welcome and thank you for subscribing

Email 2: Explanation of the importance of the topic and how it relates to your product

Email 3: Overview of steps to solve the problem and build credibility

Email 4: Detailed instructions for solving the problem and transition to promoting your product launch

Email 5: Product launch announcement

Email 6: Follow-up on the product launch and update on sales and feedback

Email 7: First reminder before closing the cart, highlighting the benefits of your product

Email 8: Second reminder before closing, focusing on the scarcity of the opportunity

Email 9: Final scarcity push, emphasizing the potential change the product can bring

Email 10: Cart closure, sharing the results of the launch and thanking subscribers for their support.

Step 3: Write an Autoresponder Series that Converts

Crafting the content of your email autoresponder sequence can be challenging, and it may be wise to consider hiring a professional copywriter. However, if you choose to do it yourself, keep these points in mind:

• Put the reader first: The focus of your emails should always be on meeting the needs of your subscribers, not just promoting your products. Address their pain points and provide solutions to their problems, rather than just talking about your products.
• Personalize your content: Personalization makes your emails more relevant and valuable to your subscribers. It goes beyond just including their first name in the email, and instead involves tailoring the content to address their specific needs. For example, a subject line like “How to Build Backlinks to Your eCommerce Store” will be more appealing to an online retailer than a generic subject line like “How to Build Backlinks.”
• Write compelling subject lines: The subject line of your email is just as important as the rest of the content. It should grab your subscribers’ attention and entice them to open the email. David Ogilvy once said that 80 cents of every dollar should be spent on writing headlines, and the same is true for email subject lines. Invest most of your time in writing and refining your subject line so that it is personal, relevant, and enticing to the reader.

Step 4: Monitor and Improve

While an email autoresponder series is mostly hands-off, it’s important to regularly monitor its performance and make adjustments as needed.

Here’s what you should focus on:

Open rates: If your open rates are low, ask yourself if the autoresponder is relevant, if your subject lines are engaging, and if you’re sending emails at the optimal times.

Click-through rates: After subscribers open your emails, you want them to take a specific action. If the click-through rates are low, consider if the body copy is relevant, if you’ve offered real value, if the call-to-action is clear and easy to find, etc.

Unsubscribe rate: Unsubscribes are normal, but a high rate may indicate that you’re losing potential customers. Ask yourself if you’re delivering on the promise of why they subscribed, if the content is relevant, and if you’re striking the right balance between sales and value-based emails.

Regularly analyzing these metrics and making improvements will ensure that your email autoresponder series is effective.

Maximize your email marketing results by analyzing your campaigns. Here are the best ways to do so:

1. A/B Testing – compare two versions of the same email to determine which one performs better. This will help you understand the preferences of your email list. A/B testing should focus on one variable at a time, such as subject line, CTA, or images.
2. Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – monitor your email’s deliverability, open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribe rate to evaluate your campaign’s effectiveness.
3. Make Adjustments – try different elements to improve your KPIs. For instance, you can improve deliverability by avoiding spam filters and removing inactive subscribers, improve open rate by changing subject lines and sending times, improve CTR by re-writing copy and experimenting with different CTAs, and reduce unsubscribes by ensuring emails align with your brand and provide value to your audience.
4. Use a Report Template – use a spreadsheet to record and organize your results, including metrics such as total emails sent, deliverability rate, open rate, and unsubscribe rate. Ask yourself questions to draw insights and make improvements, such as how your CTR compares to your open rate or if a certain subject line performed better than others.

Target the Right Audience

To ensure the best results from your email campaigns, it’s important to send them to the right people. For example, if your brand is offering a regional deal or event, only target the relevant regional audience. Another way to achieve a highly relevant audience is through demographic segmentation such as age group or gender. Avoid unethical methods of collecting emails, such as purchasing email lists, as they not only hurt your engagement and conversion rates, but can also result in your emails being marked as spam or blocked by email service providers.

Design Your Email

A well-designed email can significantly enhance the impact of your content. Here are some tips to help you create an eye-catching email design: • Incorporate Branding: Incorporate your logo, use brand colors, and maintain design consistency with your visual brand identity. • Use White Space: Incorporate white space in your design to make it look clean, professional, and easier to read. • Add Images: Adding images and GIFs to your email can make it more visually appealing than just text. Use a header image to grab attention. • Make it Responsive: Ensure your email looks great on both desktop and mobile devices by avoiding large images that don’t load properly on smaller screens or slow internet. • Implement Visual Hierarchy: Use alignment, font size variations, and other visual hierarchy elements to organize your email design.

Customize your email subject line and content

To connect with your subscribers on a personal level, use email personalization techniques. This means using subscriber information to tailor your subject line, content, and design to each individual recipient, making your emails more relevant and personal. Here are a few ways to personalize your emails:

• Include the subscriber’s name in the subject line to grab their attention
• Personalize emails based on the subscriber’s location, promoting local events or sales
• Send personalized product recommendations based on their past purchases

Adopt a Casual Tone

Consumers are inundated with marketing emails daily, and they’re tired of being bombarded with overly aggressive sales pitches from brands and automated systems. To truly connect with your subscribers and establish a relationship with them, you need to communicate in a more personal and human way. Make your emails warm, approachable, and conversational. By speaking to your subscribers as if they were friends, your emails will come across as more personal and relatable. This will ultimately lead to increased engagement and conversions for you.

Implement Follow-Ups

A single email may not always be enough to achieve your desired results. Consider using follow-up emails to nurture your subscribers and increase conversions. This strategy can be applied to a variety of email campaigns, from abandoned cart reminders to retargeting campaigns to welcome email series.

Take the following abandoned cart series as an example:

• Remind subscribers about items left in their cart.
• Offer a discount coupon to incentivize purchase.
• Create a sense of urgency by informing subscribers their cart will soon expire.

By utilizing email marketing automation, you can easily set up these workflows and let the technology do the hard work. However, be mindful not to overdo it and avoid sending too many follow-up emails, as this may lead to unsubscribes or a spam flag. Space out your follow-ups and keep the number of emails limited.

Send emails from a real person

Imagine receiving an email from “no-reply@yourbusiness.com.”

The wrong type of email alias can sound like a business that just sent out a generic, automated email to their entire list.

Don’t be that business.

Use a recognizable sender name to a) actually land in your subscribers’ inboxes and b) sound less like a brand and more like a human.

A good idea is to use the name of someone from your business, such as the founder or marketing manager, e.g. Justyn from Sprout.

A/B test your emails

There’s no such thing as the “perfect” email. But you can get pretty close to creating one if you test your emails before sending them out.

A/B testing lets you test two different versions of your email by sending each one to a small percentage of your audience. By analyzing the results, you can see which version performed better and send it out to the rest of your email list.

Testing your emails not only allows you to improve your campaigns, but also helps you learn more about your audience — what they like or dislike, and how they interact with your email. This eventually helps you improve your business in the long run.

Follow email or spam regulations

Ignoring spam regulations is a great way to get your emails banned or even land a massive fine. The CAN-SPAM Act is a guide to email compliance that businesses ignoring can get into big trouble for. The GDPR is another more recent protection act that’s essential to follow for brands operating in the EU.

Essentially:

• Don’t buy email lists
• Don’t add people to your email list who have not explicitly opted in
• Provide privacy policy information upfront
• Ensure unsubscribe buttons are easy to find in your emails—and honor opt-outs
• Don’t use deceptive language in your emails
• Provide mailing address information in your emails

Track the success of your email campaigns

One of the best things about email marketing is that you can continuously track and improve the performance of your email campaigns.

Most email marketing tools offer in-depth analytics and dashboards to help you understand whether your emails are having the desired effect or not.

Below are some key metrics you should be tracking for all your email campaigns:

• Open rate: This shows you the average number of opens your emails get. Open rates can help you analyze the effectiveness of your email subject lines, sender name, and pre-header text (the snippet viewable right after the subject line in many email clients).
• Click-through rate: This shows you the average number of times subscribers clicked on the links or CTAs inside your emails. The click-through rate is an important metric for understanding email engagement.
• Bounce rate: This shows you the percentage of your contacts who didn’t receive your email. A high bounce rate can indicate that your email list is full of inactive, fake or outdated contacts, or that you need to change your email service provider.
• Unsubscribes: This shows you the number of people who unsubscribed from your email list. High unsubscribes could either indicate that your email content is not relevant to your subscribers, or that your emails aren’t being sent to the right audience.
• Spam complaints: This shows you the number of times your emails have been marked as spam. This could be due to spammy subject lines, irrelevant email content, unsolicited emails, or issues with your email marketing software.

Other email metrics include conversion rates, most visited pages, best-performing links, mobile open rates, revenue per email, and more. There are dozens of metrics you can track depending on the email marketing software you’re using.

Align your metrics with your email marketing goals to hone in on the most important ones that illustrate what’s working and what’s not, and avoid analysis paralysis.

Email marketing is a powerful digital marketing strategy that involves sending targeted messages and promotional content to a group of individuals via email. It serves as a direct and personalized communication channel between businesses and their audience, allowing them to reach customers, prospects, or subscribers directly in their inbox.

One of the main advantages of email marketing is its ability to deliver highly targeted and personalized messages. By segmenting the email list based on various factors like demographics, interests, or purchase history, businesses can tailor their messages to specific groups, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.

Email marketing offers several benefits to businesses. It is a cost-effective method compared to traditional marketing channels, as there are no printing or postage costs involved. It also provides measurable results through various metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate, allowing businesses to track and analyze the performance of their campaigns.

Moreover, email marketing enables businesses to build and nurture relationships with their audience over time. By providing valuable and relevant content, businesses can establish trust, credibility, and brand loyalty among their subscribers. It can also be used to deliver targeted offers, discounts, or exclusive content to encourage customer retention and repeat purchases.

However, successful email marketing requires careful planning and execution. It is important to obtain permission from recipients to comply with anti-spam regulations and maintain a good sender reputation. Crafting compelling subject lines, creating engaging content, optimizing email design for different devices, and testing different elements of the campaign are crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of email marketing.

In conclusion, email marketing remains an essential and effective tool for businesses to engage with their audience, drive conversions, and build long-term relationships. When executed strategically and with a focus on delivering value, email marketing can be a highly successful component of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.