Newer online platforms have emerged, but few channels beat good old email in getting results, which is why you can still do an email marketing strategy. Email has become even more essential and is now used to access services such as digital banking and shopping. And given that 51 percent of consumers prefer to be contacted by brands through this medium.
Businesses cannot ignore the power and potential of email in 2022. If you haven't already, it's high time you developed a holistic email marketing strategy plan.
Email marketing is a digital marketing channel that allows you to directly connect with prospects and customers through email. Different types of email marketing campaigns can be employed to help you achieve your business goals, the main of which are sales and conversions.
Why use email marketing?
In fact, why use email marketing when you can focus on growing your Facebook and Instagram followers? While social media marketing (SMM) provides brands with effective targeting, marketing emails accomplish several things at once.
Here are some of the reasons why email marketing plays a huge role in your overall marketing strategy:
• Produces the highest return on investment (ROI): The average ROI of email marketing is around 4400%, generating $44 for every dollar spent (OptinMonster, 2019). Our comprehensive blog on email marketing statistics 2021 showed that email marketing campaigns are six times more effective at generating ROI than tweets.
• It's direct and personal – By employing an email marketing template to raise awareness or engage existing customers, wherever your consumers are in the sales funnel, you are sending your message into their intimate space. And so, leveraging email drip campaigns allows you to forge close connections with your audience.
• Adheres to the principles of permission marketing: This type of marketing relies on people allowing you to send them newsletters, offers, promotions and the like. In essence, your email marketing campaign reaches your customers or prospects' inboxes because they allow it.
• It is measurable: in Across industries, the average email open rate is 22,33 percent (Mailchimp). This data, along with others such as click-through rate (CTR) and email marketing conversion rate, is accessible in the analytics built into email marketing automation tools.
• Relates to lead generation, sales, and customer retention: A key reason why email marketing is important is that it complements other channels. Nurture and retain customers and convert leads driven by Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and SMM to your website.
Email Marketing Basics 2021
Crafting an email marketing campaign strategy is a tedious task if you are inexperienced or haven't caught up with email marketing trends. Although it is just one channel, it has several components that fit together like a puzzle. You can mess up marketing emails if you have no idea how they work.
How does email marketing work?
Simply put, email campaign marketing needs three things to get off the ground: a means to get subscribers, a list of subscribers, and an email service provider (ESP). You should also develop solid content, but that's a subtopic we can explore in the section Creating email marketing campaign strategies.
Here's a quick definition of email marketing plan terms:
• Subscription methods: any process you adopt to grab people's attention and compel them to subscribe to your newsletter or email marketing campaign. Examples include inbound marketing materials and registration forms.
• List of email: your subscriber list, also known as the people who allowed you to send them emails for marketing purposes.
• ESP: These are the tools or software used for email blasts, with supporting functions and features such as site registration form embeds, email list segmentation, email blast scheduling and analytics. You can consult an email marketing agency for a list of their reference solutions and software.
Benefits of an email marketing plan
These 5 points will help you with email marketing:
• Improve brand recognition: Your captive audience learns about your brand through engaging content, building goodwill and brand equity over time. You are the most important thing once prospects are ready to buy your product or hire your service.
• Strengthen customer relationships: In the past, exchanging emails brought people closer together. The personalized approach to marketing emails allows subscribers to learn more about your brand. At the same time, you also gain valuable insights into customer behavior.
• Save time and money: Producing emails and email marketing landing page designs, implementing, tracking and monitoring them is not as expensive or time-consuming as creating a TV ad or distributing direct mail.
• Give you a list that you can own: Your email list is made up of people who signed up to receive your email marketing campaigns. That list is specific to your business, unlike other digital marketing channels that are based on consumer profiles (that work for certain goals).
• Help get the desired results: It's now easy to link user actions to business results, so you can link email marketing ROI to your email marketing open rate or email marketing conversion rate.
How to Build an Email Campaign Marketing List
Before or while designing an email marketing template, you should create a list of email subscribers who will receive direct communication from you.
Here are the key steps to successfully collect email addresses:
1. Optimize your important pages
The first of our email marketing tips involves collaborating with your website development team – maximize your home page and About page. Place a signup box with a strong call to action (CTA) below the fold so as not to interrupt the flow of each page (show your visitors what's in it for them first).
Then, email marketing company experts suggest using the two-step opt-in method. That is, you provide a link for people to click, which leads to a pop-up form they can fill out. LeadPages reported that their newsletter signups increased by 60 percent using this email marketing automation tactic.
2. Create engaging lead magnets
When you're building trust with prospects in the awareness and interest phase, start by offering a lead magnet that they can't refuse to click on.
Lead magnets are automated email marketing resources that are delivered for free to potential prospects in exchange for their email address. Think of it as an incentive to participate. They can range from free services and discounts to pieces of digital content.
Why Use Email Marketing Lead Magnets?
• They add value to your target audience, such as solving their problem and therefore setting the stage for optimizing your email marketing conversion rate.
• When produced well to engage consumers and fit your goals, lead magnets convince them to subscribe and wait for your marketing emails.
• They help you make it easier for people to purchase a high-priced product or service.
Most popular lead magnet examples:
• Practical cases • Complete training videos
• Discount codes • E-books • Free software/software trial • PDF Checklist • White book
3. Create a form that converts
Calculate the ideal number of fields to get the best conversion results. You can also try the two-step opt-in technique mentioned above. Once people have filled out the form, direct them to your email marketing landing page, which should be nice and easy to use. This allows them to do what they came for, like download the free content.
How to Run an Automated Email Marketing Strategy
After building an email list, it's time to move forward with your email marketing campaign strategy. In this section, we discuss the trends and techniques you can incorporate into your strategy.
Follow our email marketing tips for 2022:
1. Determine the correct drip marketing sequence
Chances are, you've come across email drip marketing even without knowing what it means. The queen of email marketing services, drip marketing or email marketing automation refers to a series of automated emails sent based on an action taken by a prospect or customer.
User actions, such as subscribing to a newsletter, trigger the distribution of various emails designed to take your targets into a deeper experience. Following the newsletter example, you can send an email welcome o gratitude after a person signs up, along with access to a lead magnet, if any. If the data tells you that they opened your email and downloaded the lead magnet, you can send them a content link or a summary of how they can apply the information shared in the lead magnet.
Some essential features of email drip campaigns to remember:
• These are targeted emails, and this type generates 18 times more revenue than generic messaging.
• They educate and engage based on the stages of the sales funnel: top of the funnel , middle of the funnel y bottom of funnel . Lead nurturing, onboarding, referrals, and cart abandonment are just a few examples of drip email marketing campaigns you can try.
• They are pre-built to allow automated distribution. Email Marketing Companies' Favorite ESPs, Like Mailchimp y Autopilot , make it much easier to set up email marketing plan sequences.
2. Segment your objectives
Related to the above, and an important factor in improving your email marketing open rate, is email list segmentation. If you're in the business-to-business (B2B) industry, you can segment your list based on company size, position, and email open rate data above. Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies may use age, location, gender, or income as a basis.
It's usually up to a reputable email marketing company to drill down, segment lists based on purchasing behavior, customer reviews, and other user-related activities.
3. Produce engaging content
Copy for email marketing campaigns, and even your email marketing landing page, look and sound different from a blog post or social media caption. It also aligns with the email marketing template you are using. And you should tailor the content to individual target segments.
Whether this is something you can do yourself or with the help of an email marketing agency, don't forget to apply split testing or A/B testing to increase your email marketing open rate.
4. Apply email marketing trends
An email marketing strategy plan is incomplete without including email marketing trends. They bring your emails to life and allow you to achieve your goals. Of course, a highly responsible email marketing company wouldn't just throw out a hodgepodge of trends and call it a strategy. So you should also consider taking advantage of those that integrate well with your approach.
Here are some trends for email marketing campaign examples:
• Animation
• Brand storytelling
• Bright colors
• Hyperpersonalization
• mobile optimization
• Reviews and testimonials
• Text-only emails (people may appreciate the change)
5. Refine sending frequency
Knowing the right cadence for your drip marketing is the key to improving your email open rate or email marketing ROI. It is one of the things that a savvy email marketing company would pay attention to, especially that you must comply with guidelines such as the CAN-SPAM Act when sending commercial emails.
Email Marketing Design Tips
The best email marketing campaign examples share a common thread. They combine email marketing and design principles to pack a punch. Here are some quick tips for good email design:
• Simple, both aesthetically and functionally
• Easy to scan, where the most important message is placed at the top
• Contains text that is evenly spaced to avoid overwhelming readers
• Use mobile-friendly fonts
• End with a relevant and compelling call to action
The path to tangible results
After learning why email marketing is important to your overall digital marketing strategy, we hope you'll start making it a top priority for your business in 2022. However, it's also vital to know that crafting a marketing strategy via email can be intense. Having an email marketing agency guide you through the nitty-gritty of it all is an investment worth making. The expected email marketing ROI should cover the cost of hiring one.
If you have questions about building an email marketing strategy in 2022, you can consult our Website
