What is email marketing? Your 101 guide to email campaigns
If you have just started your business, then you can use different channels to share your communications – SMS, WhatsApp, cold-calling, and email. But, which one is, a: cost-effective, b: easy to use, c: delivers great results, and d: gives you a detailed analysis? The answer is email marketing. To understand it better, we'll divide this article into 4 parts: data, design and communication, execution, and analysis.
Data Tracking Mode: On
One of the most important aspects of email marketing is data. Remember, whatever you do on the internet, you leave a trail behind. Be it visiting a website, scrolling endlessly on Facebook, or buying anything on e-commerce websites. The footprints you leave behind (name, address, email ID, phone number, location, personal details, etc) are then used to tailor a specific communication for you.
With the data segregated as per different customer actions, each one is added to a set of ‘segments'. This data is then used for targeted communication campaigns, just like how you might have received mail regarding how you left your cart empty or how you missed out on a festive sale.
The use of such data can have endless possibilities. You can create a customer journey, a retargeting campaign, engagement campaigns, lead generation and so on. Differentiated segments mean you can cater to a wide range of audiences that can fulfil the required action on your campaign. These personalised campaigns have a higher rate of delivering results compared to other campaigns.
Design And Communication: Simplicity Wins
Emails are meant to be simple, clear, and the communication should be to the point. What content and design you opt for will directly affect your open rate and click rate. If you’re using lengthy paragraphs or a design which takes more than 2-3 seconds to load then, the chances of your customer rejecting your email are high. The visual elements that you add to your email communication should be responsive and should stick to your brand guidelines – your brand logo, colours, social links, and contacts.
Creating a responsive, fast-to-load and attractive email is just as important as creating great content. The subject line is the first thing that a customer sees when they receive mail. Make sure you aren’t using any spam words, long sentences, irregular sentence structures or too many emojis. As per Google, your subject line should be below 60 characters, and shouldn't contain words such as “free”, “best price”, or “money back guarantee”. Even the CTAs that you’re using shouldn’t contain spam words. If it’s an informational mailer, then either it should be ‘Learn More’ or ‘Know More’. The list of spam words is ever-increasing, so to make your life easier there are websites and tools that can help you filter out spam words or make your subject lines click-worthy.
Execution: Timing Matters
Choose any automation tool that suits your needs and budget. Automation tools not only make your campaign execution easier but they also provide you with valuable metrics. Once your email structure, content and journeys are ready, then all you need to do is execute it smartly. You need the best results for your campaigns. So, don’t spam your customers by mailing them every day; execute it at times when you think will be highly beneficial. For instance, if you are running a restaurant and you want to send out a communication which highlights dinner discounts. You can’t send the communication at 9 AM, because it will get lost in the plethora of messages and notifications that customers receive after that. Instead, send it in a phased manner in the evening between 6-10:30 PM.
The next step in this process is to understand A/B testing. Once you get the idea of sending out email campaigns, you can test different variants and combinations to check the results. You can share two sets of emails with either slightly different design or content to see which one gets the most engagement. From completely changing the designs to tweaking the subject lines, you can test your campaigns to iron out all the issues.
Analysis: Data Digging
The basic data you need to follow while running an email marketing campaign are – open rate, click rate, Clickthrough Rate (CTR), spam rate, unsubscribe and delivery count. If you see that the open rate is not as per your expectations, then you can A/B test it with a revised subject line. You can move the Call To Action (CTA) position or change its size/ colour/ text. If you’re getting a high spam rate or unsubscribe rate, then you can check the audience list – whether the email IDs are valid or if the segment you have chosen is right for this campaign or not.
There are tools that can help you with writing creative subject lines, email copies and even help you design creative and responsive email templates. So, by leveraging data insights, adhering to design simplicity, strategic execution timing, and meticulous analysis, you can optimise your campaigns for maximum impact.