As the name suggests, email marketing uses email to promote your business. Emails can advertise your goods or services and alert customers to special offers. But an email marketing campaign is also a way to stay in touch with customers and help them remember your brand.
The benefits of email marketing
In the age of social media, it's tempting to dismiss email as old-fashioned. But in many ways, email marketing works better than other marketing channels, including social media. Here are some of the benefits:
- Email has many more users than even the most popular social media networks.
- Email reaches people who are already interested in your products or services, going directly to their inboxes without being filtered by a social media algorithm. This means people are more likely to read and respond to emails than to social media posts.
- Email marketing is customizable, allowing you to send different messages to different people on your subscriber list.
- Email typically costs less than direct mail or paid online advertising.
- You own your email list. With email, you can continue reaching out to customers even if your favorite social media platform vanishes and takes all your followers with it.
An email campaign is designed to reach a particular audience and achieve a specific goal, and it's far more effective than just sending emails at random. Here are five tips for your next email marketing campaign:
1. Set goals
Every email campaign should have a goal that is consistent with your brand and overall marketing plan.
Your goal helps you determine what kind of email to send and which subscribers to send it to. Your email marketing goal will also help you decide what tone to use for your emails.
For example, newsletters are good for building relationships and keeping in touch with your existing customers. A marketing offer may drive sales of a particular product or service, while an announcement can keep customers up to date and send them to your website to make a purchase.
2. Make it personal
Personalization means much more than simply including your subscriber's name in an email. Personalized campaigns increase the chance that every email you send is relevant to the person who receives it.
To personalize a campaign, segment your subscriber lists to target different groups of people, such as by gender, geographic location, or browsing and purchase history. You can also send targeted emails to people at different stages in their buying journey. For example, you can send welcome emails to new subscribers and reminders to people who have abandoned their shopping carts.
3. Follow CAN-SPAM Act guidelines
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes rules for sending commercial emails. Some of the most important ones include:
- Not using deceptive subject lines
- Making it clear that your email is an ad
- Including your company's physical or post office box address
- Giving recipients a way to opt-out of future emails and honoring those requests promptly
Violations of the CAN-SPAM Act carry penalties of up to $42,530. If you have questions about CAN-SPAM compliance, seek legal advice.
4. Respect subscriber privacy
In 2018, a new internet privacy law known as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) took effect in Europe. Among other topics, the law says that companies can only send marketing emails to people who have specifically opted in to email marketing contact lists. This means you can't add people to your email list without their permission.
You also must clearly explain how you will use subscribers' private information. Although GDPR technically only applies to emails sent to people in the European Union, the best way to avoid violations is to use GDPR-compliant practices for all your emails.
5. Track your results
The ultimate goal of an email marketing campaign is to increase sales and grow your business. To do this, you need to know which emails resonate with your customers and which ones don't.
Email analytics can show you which emails are opened and read, which ones lead your customer to click through to your website, which customers are clicking, and which links they respond to. Pay attention to these numbers and adjust your messages and their timing to get the maximum impact.
Email marketing is effective for increasing sales and building lasting relationships with customers. To get the most out of your email marketing campaigns, send a variety of messages, follow current laws, and use an email service to make the process easier for you.
