You have set up your business online. Your website looks great, and you aim to deliver the best. But, your competitors have already established themselves.

What’s required now to get your business noticed?

It’s time for digital marketing. It includes paid and organic promotion through social media, search engines, and emails.

Among these, email marketing is a proven and effective method to get your business noticed.

What is email marketing?

It is a type of digital marketing in which we use email to spread our message and communicate with the existing and potential customers.

Effective email marketing can do wonders for you. It converts a prospect into a customer and first-time buyer into a recurring buyer. Furthermore, you can also automate the process. This is the reason why digital marketers prefer email marketing.

You would have heard people saying that email marketing is dead.

But it’s not a true statement.

The data shows that email marketing is way ahead of SEO, social media, and affiliate marketing.

Here are some stats from the Oberlo as a proof:

  • About 9/10 marketers use email for the distribution of their content.
  • 81% of small businesses prefer email as the primary source of communication.
  • 82% of the people open the welcome email from a business

Following are some of the basics of email marketing:

The consent of the recipient is the first and foremost principle of email marketing. Remember that you’re a guest. Many people are already fed up with unwanted guests. Email users daily receive emails from businesses, advertisers, spammers, and scammers.

You’ve to make sure you don’t look like a spammer or scammer.

That’s why the permission of the recipient plays an important role. The email list building process starts with the consent.

There are different methods to it. Many people offer a free download, email series, free e-book, whitepaper, or product update in exchange for an email subscription.

The method depends upon personal preferences. However, you must present a clear purpose while asking for the address.

This is where the call to action and copywriting skills come into play.

A boring statement like “enter your email here” isn’t going to work.

If your call to action sounds exciting, you will see more people getting into your email list.

Be consistent in follow-through

The second most important thing after a call to action is consistency. A consistent follow-up results in a positive campaign.

However, if you promise one thing and deliver the other, you should be ready to face failure. For example, you promised to interact once time in a week and started to send emails daily. You are getting yourself into trouble.

That’s why you should curate the follow-up email carefully.

The best way to introduce yourself is a follow-up email. It should be sent immediately. Try to be as detailed as much as possible. Make the audience to set up expectations from you.

Now it’s time to live up to their expectations. You have to utilize this opportunity to make them engage and buy the product.

But, it isn’t as simple as it sounds.

The transition from an email offering great value to making them buy a product can be difficult. This transition shouldn’t be a sudden one because you won’t want to surprise your audience.

Think like a buyer.

You don’t have to force them. You can make your audience realize the importance of having your product. But again, don’t emphasize it. Offer a solution to a problem; it usually works.

Remember that a subscriber is a goldmine. A little error from your side will result in your loss.

A great email newsletter results in better relations, while a lousy newsletter means you won’t be getting a reward for your hard work.

Once your list is big enough, it will become difficult for you to follow through.

Did you know that you can use an email list verification service to keep your list fresh and verified?

You can use autoresponders to reply or schedule your responses. You can also set up a series of emails through these autoresponders. It will make your audience feel special. But again, don’t overdo it.

The following are some of the best autoresponders:

  • Hubspot
  • Mailchimp
  • Aweber
  • GetResponse
  • Moosend

Among these, mostly Mailchimp is preferred because it only charges once your list grows big enough.

Understand analytics

We have covered the basics of email marketing. It’s time to understand the analytics and action accordingly.

There are three most important parameters in an email campaign; open rate, click-through rate, and un-subscription rate.

The open rate tells us the percentage of the audience who clicked to open the email. If your email’s open rate is low, it means your subscribers don’t want to engage. In this case, you need to revise your strategy.

Click-through rate (CTR) shows the percentage of people who clicked the link in the email. If the click-through rate is low, it means your message wasn’t delivered perfectly. It indicates poor copywriting. You should improve your copy for a high click-through rate.

Lastly, the unsubscribe rate indicates the percentage of subscribers who clicked the unsubscribe button. If the un-subscription rate is higher than the subscription rate, it means you’ve got a load of work to do. Improving the copywriting or opt-in method won’t be helpful anymore. You might have to introduce a new strategy.

Segment your list

Segmenting a list means dividing it into different targeted groups. You can segment your list depending on various factors like

  • The location of the audience
  • Subscribers and un-subscribers
  • First-time buyers and recurring buyers
  • Buyers and potential buyers

The segmentation helps us deliver our message to a group of targeted people. It not only strengthens the relationship, but also helps us identify potential buyers quickly. The email checker allows you to download the specific segmented results easily.