5 Steps for Effective Email Marketing

In February, we wrote an article about how awesome using email for your business is.

Kind of literally. That’s all that it was about.

So in this article we’re going to expand on why email marketing is awesome, and what methods you should include in your email marketing campaigns to make them worthwhile for both you and the recipients of your emails.

Email Marketing: It’s awesome.

Enough said!

Just kidding. There are many reasons why we at ROI Media Works think emails should be included as an integral part of your marketing structure. If you didn’t click on the link above to our other email article, we recommend having that a read first. We gathered some insightful statistics about email marketing for you there.

Here’s an insightful infographic from Mailigen about email marketing:

As you can see, a lot of marketers consider emailing to be essential for prospecting leads and converting sales.

While all of that is fine and dandy, you may be wondering just how to effectively use email marketing for your company.

Don’t worry, we have you covered. 

Here are three email marketing software companies you can use to get started:

MailChimp:

MailChimp offers excellent email marketing assistance and can automate your campaigns. You can start out with a free account when you have under 2000 subscribers and then pricing varies when you go above that. MailChimp provides basic, user-friendly reporting for its users. They provide adaptable templates to send out and add a touch of humour to their content, which we love.

Campaign Monitor:

Campaign Monitor is for those who are serious about their email marketing. They don’t mess around. You can view your reports in real time and see who opens your emails and where they are in the world. The customizability of their templates is pixel based, so you can design them to your own liking down to, well, a pixel.

GetResponse:

GetResponse is similar to Campaign Monitor in that it provides real-time world map analytical viewing features and provide templates for ample creativity. They provide a simplistic approach to email marketing. But, like Campaign Monitor, they don’t offer any free plans and get quite pricey very quickly, which may not be sustainable, especially for small business owners. Nevertheless, it’s still a great tool for email marketing.

So you’ve chosen a tool to help you with your automation, and it may have been one of the three we provided, or it may not have been (don’t worry, we won’t judge). How do you use your shiny new tool?

Steps to creating your first email campaign:

Step 1) Set up your account.

• You need to choose a software tool that is built to cater to your specific company needs. Do you need something with the most customized

Step 2) Import your contacts.

• If you’ve been gathering up an email list of clients for years then there’s no need to worry. Any good email marketing software tool will allow you to import your contact either through a .CSV file or through  CRM (we use Zoho).

Step 3) Create a campaign.

• Decide what you’re trying to achieve through this email campaign. Set a goal. Are you promoting a new product? Are you trying to raise awareness? Think about what you’re trying to get your recipients to do.
• Create a compelling subject line that wouldn’t be considered spammy or annoying.
• Once you’ve gathered all of your content, design your email template with simplicity in mind. The easy your email is to read and look at. You want to have a visually compelling email will make people want to read what you have to say.
• Once you’ve got the content and design down, there’s no stopping you!

Step 4) Reports

• As we mentioned above with email marketing service examples, they will often provide in-depth reports that will help you to make decisions for future campaigns. We have to stress that these reports are extremely important to view and consider! If you don’t take analytics seriously, you’re basically shooting in the dark.

Step 5) Remarketing.

• We’ve talked about remarketing your business before, and emailing is one of the most effective ways you can remarket your business.  
• You can use email remarketing in almost an unlimited amount of ways.
• You can send specific remarketing emails to people who may have visited your website previously, or someone who has recently purchased your product.

Email marketing is as important as any other marketing strategy, if not more. It’s viewed as reliable, straight-forward, and personable. A post on your business Facebook wall is great, but how else can you personalize a message for specific consumers? Through email! Automation will help you down the road once you become more comfortable with your email campaigns, so make sure you’re using it!

Hopefully, these few steps were able to get you on the right track with email marketing. As always, if you have any questions about the topic we would absolutely love to lend a hand! Give us a shout on Facebook or Twitter, or feel free to drop by if you’re in the area 🙂