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How to Do Email Marketing

Businesses use what’s known as email service providers (ESP) to send marketing emails.

An email service provider is a software that sends and manages email marketing campaigns.

It’s also referred to as an email marketing platform, email marketing tool, email marketing service, or email marketing software.

Technically, it’s possible. (We even explain how in our guide to sending a mass email with Gmail.) Beware, though. You’re likely to run into problems with limited email bandwidth, design, and more importantly, email deliverability. Here’s why:

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. are designed for personal use — not for email blasts. Although they’re free to use, they’re not free bulk email senders. So when a mass email is sent from an ISP, it’s easily flagged by spam filters and your account can be disabled for suspicious activity.

Email service providers (ESPs), on the other hand, have the necessary infrastructure in place to ensure good email deliverability rates — i.e., the ability to land emails in your subscribers’ inboxes. If you want to set yourself up for email marketing success from day one, get yourself a dedicated email marketing service.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a direct marketing channel that lets businesses share new products, sales, and updates with customers on their contact lists. Its high return on investment (ROI) makes it crucial to most businesses’ overall inbound strategy.

Modern email marketing has moved away from one-size-fits-all mass mailings and instead focuses on consent, segmentation, and personalization. This may sound time-consuming, but marketing automation handles most of the heavy lifting for you. In the long run, a well-designed email marketing strategy not only drives sales but helps build a community around your brand.

Why Email Marketing Is Important

Email isn’t a new technology. In fact, it was one of the very first means of digital communication to arrive back in 1971. But at 50 years old, email marketing is used today more than ever before.

You may be thinking, “Do people really still use email? Isn’t social media where it’s at for marketing today?” While it’s true that social media is an important channel for any digital marketing strategy, email has several advantages.

First, email marketing campaigns can be personalized to a greater extent than those on social media. Next, costs are considerably lower than for other channels, especially considering the reach and conversion rate associated with email marketing. This is part of what makes email marketing so ideal for small businesses.

Email Marketing Benefits

The most important benefits of email marketing to any kind of online business are:

It’s a great way to build a community around your brand
It can help you get more leads and make more sales
It’s one of the best ways to get more recurring traffic
It’s a way to minimize some of the risks associated with SEO algorithmic changes. This is particularly important because once you get to a point where you have a big list of active email subscribers; you can worry less about SEO changes that can have a negative impact on your traffic.

How to Do Email Marketing

Email marketing is a powerful way to reach your target audience and promote your products or services. In this guide, we will take you through the steps involved in creating a successful email marketing campaign.

1. Define Your Goals

Before you start creating your email marketing campaign, it is important to define your goals. Ask yourself what you hope to achieve with your email campaign. Your goals could include:

Increase sales of a specific product or service
Drive traffic to your website
Build brand awareness
Generate leads or sign-ups for a newsletter or webinar
Engage with your audience and build relationships

Once you have a clear idea of your goals, you can start planning your campaign.

2. Build Your Email

List Your email list is the foundation of your email marketing campaign. Building a high-quality email list takes time and effort, but it is worth it in the long run. There are several ways to build your email list:

Add a sign-up form to your website
Offer an incentive such as a free e-book or discount code in exchange for sign-ups
Collect email addresses at events or through social media campaigns
Import existing contacts from your CRM or other sources

When building your email list, make sure to get explicit permission from your subscribers to send them emails. This is known as permission marketing and is a best practice in email marketing.

3. Choose an Email ServiceProvider (ESP)

An email service provider is a platform that allows you to send and manage your email campaigns. There are many ESPs to choose from, including:

Mailchimp
Constant Contact
Campaign Monitor
Aweber
GetResponse

When choosing an ESP, consider factors such as cost, features, ease of use, and integrations with other tools you use.

4. Create a campaign strategy

Develop a strategy for your email campaigns, including goals, messaging, frequency, and metrics to track success.

5. Craft compelling content

Write engaging email content that resonates with your target audience. Use eye-catching subject lines, personalized greetings, and relevant images to increase open rates.

6. Design your email templates

Use a visually appealing design that aligns with your brand and message. Use responsive design to ensure your emails look good on any device.

7. Test and optimize

Test different elements of your email campaigns, such as subject lines, send times, and content, to see what works best. Use analytics to track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, and make adjustments to optimize your campaigns.

8. Follow email marketing best practices

Follow best practices like avoiding spammy tactics, segmenting your email list, and respecting subscribers’ preferences to ensure your email campaigns are effective and comply with email marketing regulations.