Email marketing strategy is an essential part of every online business. In the all-connected world we live in, one mustn’t underestimate the importance of being able to reach your target customers at any time.
In this article we prepared for you, we are going to explain everything you need to know about email marketing strategy – starting from what it is to how to implement your own email marketing strategy. Let’s begin!
So, why is email marketing strategy important and is it still relevant in 2021?
What is an Email Marketing Strategy?
Simply speaking, email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves sending emails to your target customers. It’s a potent way of reaching people and turning them into your loyal fans.
As you probably already know, there is hardly a person who doesn’t use emails. Some statistics show that 35% of the world population uses emails on a daily basis. That means that there are over 190 billion emails sent every day! That further implies that there is almost no way to have a successful online business without using an email marketing strategy.
Basically, any type of email sent to your potential customer is a part of email marketing. Email marketing is used to inform potential customers about your latest products or discounts and build a stronger bond between you and them.
Why Do You Need an Email Marketing Strategy?
Many business people have some doubts about whether email marketing strategy is still that important. Our answer to this is – if you want to increase sales and create a more personalized relationship with your customers, then – yes, email marketing is extremely important. Why is that? Well, there are several reasons.
Contact with your audience in real-time
Nowadays, the majority of people use their cellphones as a way of accessing all sorts of media, including their mails. It makes it easier for them to check their emails at any time that is convenient for them. Also, it creates a lot more natural and personal connection. It boosts their engagement and makes them feel valuable and respected as customers.
You can easily measure their engagement
With email marketing tools, you can easily see what happens after you sent your emails. They show both delivery and bounce rates, how many people unsubscribed, how many people opened emails, etc. With these pieces of information, you can evaluate how successful your email campaign is, what are the possible weak parts that you should change. For instance, they can give you a better understanding of your customers and guidance on what kind of emails and how many of them should you send them in the future.
Key Features of an Email Marketing Strategy
These are some of the key features of email service providers (ESP) offer.
Message Automation
One of the greatest features that ESP offers is message automation. Message automation means that when your customer subscribes to your email newsletter, he/she will automatically receive a welcome message, 'thank your subscribing' message, etc.
Responsive Layouts
Apart from basic message formats, many ESP now offers responsive layouts that are adapted to the device a recipient uses. Employing these responsive features will demand at least some HTML & CSS knowledge, but, it will, in return, enable marketers to be creative with the design they use.
Better List Maintenance
Apart from automatically adding and removing email subscribers, ESP will also provide you with features, such as automatically removing invalid email addresses, tracking subscription changes, etc. It will help you in keeping everything in perfect order.
IP Address
This feature is especially useful for businesses that send a large number of emails. Your own IP address will help you in delivering emails much faster.
How to Create an Email Marketing Strategy?
You really need to consider your email marketing strategy as part of your complete digital marketing strategy.
Know Your Target Audience
Your target audience consists of people who are expected to be keen on buying your product in the future. That means that your product serves their needs or offers a solution to some of their problems. Your marketing strategy should be employed in such a way to attract those people and convince them that they should buy it. That's why you need to know your target audience. Who are they? How old are they? What are their jobs and interests? What is their gender? Income? Marital status? Answers to these questions will help you in deciding on the right kind of email marketing strategy.
Make a List of Subscribers
An essential part of making a list of subscribers is gathering their email addresses. In order to give you the email addresses, they first need to trust you enough. They also need to be interested in hearing more from you, so your content needs to be interesting, educational, and inspiring. Once you gained both their trust and their attention, ask them to sign up using their mail addresses.
How To Implement Your Email Marketing Strategy Campaign?
After you defined your target audience and built your mailing list, what is the next step?
Define Your Goals
To achieve anything in life, you first need to set your goals. What exactly is the aim of your email marketing strategy? Once you have the aim, make sure to have enough money, time, and knowledge to achieve it. Be as clear as possible. Know the people you are aiming at and what you can offer them.
Personalize Your Subject Lines
Customers' attention span is very short, so you don't have much time to make them engage with your content. Open rates rise drastically when the emails they received speak directly to them. To make your subject lines even better base them on all the information you can, such as recipients gender, location, age, etc.
Make Your Emails Mobile-Optimized
Mobiles are gradually becoming a favourite platform for communication. The vast majority of people open their emails on their mobile devices. That implies that your emails need to be mobile optimized. How can you do it? Make the subscription process as easy as possible and use responsive email templates.
