The Ultimate Email Marketing Guide for Beginners

But while email marketing may seem like a simple channel to use, there’s an art to using it successfully. Plus many email providers like Google and Yahoo have made changes for bulk senders of email to comply with data regulations.

There are also many artificial intelligence integrations and apps that can help you write emails, extract data, and segment lists to get a handle on.

In this blog, we’ll look at the nuts and bolts of email marketing and give you some great examples to gain inspiration for kickstarting your campaigns.

• What is email marketing?
• Why is email marketing important?
• How do you build and grow your email marketing lists?
• How to do email marketing: A step-by-step guide
• 6 beginner-friendly email marketing campaign examples
• Email marketing FAQs

The definition of email marketing is a form of digital marketing that uses email to promote products or services to potential or existing customers.

The DMA’s Consumer Email Tracker 2023 report found that subscriber value is increasing. In 2021, just 15% of consumers said their emails were useful, a number which has doubled to 32% in 2023. Dwell time is also high for email at 11 seconds compared to just 1.7 seconds for digital ad impressions, and 7.5 seconds for a TV ad.

Email marketing is an essential channel middle east mobile number list leveraged by B2C and B2B companies to build brand awareness, grow customer loyalty, and drive conversions.

Email marketing is one of the most profitable direct marketing channels, with Statista projecting global revenue from email to reach $17.9 billion by 2027.

The reason for this growth is that email marketing email marketing: designing a lasting correspondence offers a direct and personalized way for brands to engage with customers. This helps build meaningful relationships, and drives conversions.

Email also allows for targeted messaging so businesses can send segment audiences to send relevant messages. It’s also a cost-effective and measurable channel that can nurture leads over time to boost brand loyalty.

“Email is one of those channels where there are so many nuances,” said email marketing consultant, Karen Talavera in a DMI podcast. “There’s an art and a science to it, and people are often so busy in the trenches that they don’t have time to come up for air, figure out what they should be doing, how they can do it better, and really put some true bwb directory  strategy to this channel.”

Let’s look at three of the most important features of email marketing for your business.

One of the key reasons companies leverage email is for data collection.

As the reliance on third-party cookies as a tracking method reduces, getting email subscribers is a great way to collect personal data from people who are interested in your business with consent.

With consumers wanting to protect their information, businesses need to adhere to data privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA. Email uses first-party data to collect information in a way that builds brand loyalty and awareness.

Email can also help you to attract prospects and leads by using relevant content. So, how can email marketing fuel your overall inbound marketing strategy?

Email is a great way to engage with prospects who have already shown an interest in your company, product, or service. They do this by opting in or signing up as a subscriber to a newsletter.

The nature of using email for inbound marketing means that your leads are warmer as they have greater intent and interest in your business.

It also means the return on investment (ROI) is higher and costs can be lower as inbound email lists tend to have lower subscribers.

As you know who you are making contact with, content and messaging can be segmented and personalized using email. This means you can group lists in a variety of ways by people who:

• Show an interest in a particular product or service
• Have specific preferences e.g. a hobby or particular interest
• Are based in the same location
• Are a specific age and gender

The more you know about your customers or prospects the easier it will be to write a prospecting email that gets replies.

Don’t bombard your lists though, be clever about the frequency and make sure you A/B test subject lines and content to see what resonates.

With so many benefits to email, it’s no wonder that companies are looking to start or build and grow their lists.

There are several ways to do this.

• Use CTAs – Use clear and directed calls to action (CTAs) on your website or landing pages to urge people to sign up for email updates
• Use social media – If you use any social media channels, let your users know that you have an email list for special offers or exclusives
• Offer free downloads – People love freebies, so think about offering a free downloadable ebook or whitepaper. Read more about how to create data capture content.
• Use pop-ups or forms – Pop-ups or forms are common across websites and urge people to give their email addresses to find out more
• Run a competition – Competitions are a great way to get people to provide personal information, just make sure the offer is enticing enough!

Now that you know the value of email and how to start and bolster your email lists, how do you create and implement an email marketing campaign?

When you create an email campaign, the key metrics for success are the growth and quality of the subscriber list.

You should look at creating lists that are segmented by type. That can be by audience, preference, or category but avoid putting every contact into one pot and hoping it will work.

Look at what prospects or customers you want to engage and why. Then collate an email list using Excel, your email marketing management system or use an AI platform like Drift or Mailmodo. Be sure to label each list clearly so you can find them again easily and also track performance.

There are a lot of email marketing tools out there. So you need to do your research and choose the best one for your business.

Some tools are free to start using and then charge by the number of contacts in your database. This is why keeping on top of your lists is important as you’ll be paying for each one, so be prepared to audit your lists regularly.

A few tools to look into are:

• MailChimp
• HubSpot
• Marketo
• GetResponse
• MailerLite

There are also lots of platforms and tools that use AI to help improve your email marketing activities. Some of the most effective include:

• Segmentation – Tools like Optimove and Hubspot use algorithms to analyze customer data, including demographic, behavioral, and transactional information, to uncover valuable insights and segment your list.
• Customer journey mapping – You can use ActiveCampaign for lead scoring and customer journey mapping.
• Optimize send times – Seventh Sense is an email delivery optimization system that uses AI to optimize send times by analyzing subscriber behavior.
• Content optimization – A tool like Jacquard uses natural language generation to analyze messaging history and brand voice to create compelling subject lines, email content, and CTAs. You can also use an email assistant like Lavender to write better emails.
• Personalization – Zoho Campaign can link to Shopify to target customers based on purchase history including abandoned cart emails.
• Tag and note – The email extension Mailbutler allows you to use tags and notes to keep your inbox organized and find information quickly. You can also create reusable templates for common messages that can be customized.

A workflow is a series of automated emails that are put in a certain order to nurture a prospect or guide a customer to take a certain action.

There are a few steps required to set one up:

• Set a goal for your workflow – For example, it could be to convert prospects to enter a free trial
• Create enrollment criteria – This decides who enters the workflow by the settings you choose e.g. group people who downloaded a specific ebook
• Decide on your email assets – This could be a CTA to drive someone to a blog or a custom landing page for a free trial sign-up
• Create your emails – Once you know your goal and have the assets in place, think about each step in the journey and the touchpoints
• Include a time delay –  i.e. space the first and second email with a day in-between
• Run a test – Always send  a test email before activating any workflow to make sure everything is correct

Make your workflow live and keep an eye on it. Check in daily to see that your flows are working and the right people are being added to it. Make any changes or tweaks as soon as possible.

An email calendar is like an editorial or social media calendar. It’s about planning the frequency and audience regularly to target prospects and customers.

Decide on how often you want to communicate with certain segments or groups and set goals for each campaign. Tracking your email marketing activities by date will help you to see who you are targeting and when.

You also need to keep times and days in mind when sending. Some will work better than others depending on your audience e.g on a commute or first thing in the morning. Test these out to see what works for your lists.

Now to the most important bit – the content of the email. As a marketer, you should know your buyer personas or ideal customer/s and understand their pain points. If so, then you’ll be able to target messaging in a way that prompts a click on an email.

With an email, the subject line is super important as it’s the first thing a person sees in their inbox. Think about A/B testing subject lines with certain groups to compare performance and see if it can guide your copy.

It’s also key to keep your messaging clear and succinct and use CTAs to direct people to take an action. Use a content and copywriting checklist to keep your messaging clear and focused when writing every single marketing email.