We’re all familiar with our favourite websites and companies asking us to subscribe to their email newsletter. It seems like almost every website we visit wants our email address, but why?

In this article, we will take a look at why your business should be using email marketing and how to do it.

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is part of the digital marketing ecosystem. It is a way for businesses to communicate directly with their customers via email. Customers subscribe to newsletters to stay up to date with the latest info from your company.

Why Do People Use It?

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools for businesses and digital marketers. A quick look at some email marketing statistics shows why lots of businesses are using it.

• 87% of marketers say that email marketing boosts their performance according to this survey

• According to Wordstream, 73% of millennials identify email as their preferred means of business communication.

• For every $1 spent on email marketing $44 is made in return, according to a study by Campaign Monitor.

Let’s look at an e-commerce site as an example. This website sells high-end winter coats. Their subscriber list is currently at 1,000. Coming into this winter season then sent a newsletter to their subscribers, informing them of this season's new coats. Of the 1,000 subscribers, 10 of them bought coats totalling $6,000 in sales. This averages out to each subscriber spending $60, which is very pleasing to the company and they decide to try and grow their subscriber list substantially for next winter.

How To Build A Subscriber List?

If you want a customer to subscribe to your mailing list it is a good idea to offer something in return. Some e-commerce sites may offer a discount or free shipping, while others might offer an e-book or early access to a product.

Prompting your site visitors to subscribe can be done in a number of ways. Some choose to go for a pop-up. This “pops up” as soon as someone visits your site and asks them to subscribe to your newsletter. Others sites choose to ask the visitor to subscribe as they are completing a purchase or signing up to a service.

Email marketing tools like Mailchimp (our email marketing application, of choice) can help automate your email marketing campaigns. It stores the addresses of your subscribers and allows you to email them at specific times.

How To Run An Email Marketing Campaign

The First Email

Often subscribers are sent a welcoming email when they first subscribe. In this email, it is a good idea to thank them and let them know exactly what the email subscription will bring and how you plan to use their information. 

What To Email Your Subscribers

Firstly you need to decide on what your purpose is and how success will be measured. Let’s use an online clothing retailer as an example. They may want to email all their subscribers to let them know of the upcoming release of their new lines for next season. They can measure success by the amount of product sold to their subscribers. Other businesses may offer daily deals or aim to heighten awareness around an issue.

While the aims and success of email marketing may vary, you’ll find that good email marketing will follow some similar rules.

• Email marketing should be consistent. If you are offering a weekly newsletter, then you should be emailing your subscribers weekly.

• Make it personal. Subject fields with the subscriber's name in it are 22% more likely to be opened.

• You should also ensure that your email adheres to your ‘Tone of Voice’ guidelines. These guidelines will allow you to speak with your customers in a language that they can easily relate to.

• A study of 1 billion emails revealed that video emails see CTRs 96% higher than non-video emails, according to Wordstream.Every email should have a call to action (CTA). A CTA should encourage the reader to act further. This may be getting them to buy a product, watch a new video on your YouTube channel or check out a new blog post.

How To Measure Success?

As with most things in digital marketing, it is very important to track the analytics of your email marketing campaigns. This data can help influence future campaigns and assist with decision making. 

Main KPIs of Email Marketing

Open rates

This indicator tells you how many subscribers on your list opened your email. If people aren’t opening your emails you may want to focus on writing more captivating and personal subject lines.

Click-through rates

This rate tells you how many people have clicked on a link within your email. If your click-through rates are low, or if you have lots of people unsubscribing, then you should look at the content of your email.

Revenue generated

This metric shows how much sales the email has generated. This only applies to emails that are selling goods or a service, like the ecommerce store mentioned in our examples.

Email marketing is a powerful tool that every business should be using. If you need expert help with your next email marketing campaign, get in touch with us and let us grow your subscriber list!

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Filed in // Email Marketing, Web Analytics, Strategy, Email