6 Ideas to Begin With Your Email Marketing Campaign

1. 6 Ideas to Begin With Your Email Marketing Campaign In an overcrowded marketplace, getting customers' attention is the biggest challenge. And if there is anything more challenging than that, it is retaining that attention. For an established business with deep pockets for advertising and a known brand name to go with it, it may become slightly easy. But what if your business is new or you are just starting to gain pace? You don't have a brand name. Yet. And there is only a limited amount that you can afford to spend on marketing. You need something substantial that will make every penny count. If that is the case, email marketing is what you should focus on. Of course there are other ways. Social media, affiliate marketing, SEO but email marketing beats them all in terms of engagement and return on investment. According to a study by Mckinsey, email is 40 times more effective in getting new customers as compared to facebook or twitter. On an average, the order value is 3 times more from email than from any other digital medium. Another study by Campaign Monitor showed than almost 72 per cent of the customers prefer email to receive promotional

2. offers as opposed to 17 per cent who want social media. Additionally, for every $1 spent on email marketing, you get $44 in return which is way too high than social media ROI. The statistics are staggering. And so are the advantages of email marketing. Here is a list of few reasons why email marketing is the best option: Cost efficient - Using basic plans of easily available software such as GetResponse, you can start your campaign for as low as $15 a month. SendInBlue offers you 40,000 emails for $25 per month along with other tools to improve your campaign. Scalable - Most of the software available in the market are designed to expand with your growing needs. As your business scales to larger volumes, just shift to a higher package. Easy to use - Email marketing services like Constant Contact, SpiceSend or Mailchimp are designed on a very user friendly platform making it extremely convenient for marketers. Customizable - Right from segmenting your audience as per their tastes to designing beautiful emails, email marketing services provide high end customization Data analysis - Email marketing software can collect essential data and analyse it, giving you insightful results about customer behaviour.

3. How to get started? So you have decided to start your email marketing campaign. That's half the battle won. But the other half can be daunting. Especially because you don't want your email to get lost in the 124 billion emails sent every day. A DMR reports says that a user gets 121 emails per day. How do you make sure that the user opens your mail and engages with it is the desired way? Here are a few pointers to start an email marketing campaign. Read on for email marketing campaign steps. 1. Create an emailing list You need an emailing list, to begin with. Easier said than done. You can use an existing list by importing them to your software but make sure that you have subscribers' consent to do so. You can build a new list by getting your website visitors to sign up for subscription. You can also run online promotional campaigns with extra incentives for users who sign up for the list. 2. Select a campaign You have email subscribers but what do you want to send them. A newsletter to keep them informed about new trends in the industry, a promotional offer or discounts for the subscribers with product updates or

4. new launches, an announcement or an invitation- Select any of these campaigns based on the objective behind your marketing campaign. Your campaign should achieve the purpose whether it is getting traffic to your websites, product purchases, getting donations or getting audience for your event. 3. Get an email marketing software There are many options available in the marketing. Select the one that suits your objective, budget, mailing list and is compatible with your website. SpiceSend Campaign Monitor, ConvertKit are some of the best options that are suitable for businesses of all sizes. 4. Design an attractive email Using the templates, themes and designs available in your software, design an email that is beautiful and informative. An effective email starts with a catchy subject line that generates curiosity of the user. Customize the content of the email according to customers' preferences. The content should be trustworthy and not too pushy. Include a call-for-action smartly in the email. Here are a few email marketing campaign steps to design an attractive email. You can use an inverted pyramid to draw the attention of the audience. Use a prominent headline, a captivating body, and closing CTA. This offers upside-down attention to your email. Make a prominent CTA to grab users' attention. It should be clear and understanding. The simplicity makes your CTA attractive. Use white space. An array of people read your emails from their mobile phones. This allows your mobile audience to easily traverse and read the email. Use one column in your email to avoid dividing the focus of the audience. Even when your email requires more content, ensure that it is easily traceable. For this, use pointers, graphics, and other visual elements.

5. 5. Select the frequency How often do you want to send the emails? Too often and you may irritate the customer and push him away. Too long gaps and the customer may not be able to recall what he had signed up for. Select the frequency carefully. Just right to maintain that top of the mind recall. 6. Use metrics to track, review and redesign Email marketing solutions give you in-depth information about the performance of your emails. Was the email opened, when was it opened, did the user click on the links in the emails etc. can be traced easily using the automated software. Use this data to review whether your emails are having the desired effect or not. If no, they rethink about how you can fine tune the campaign. Here are a few metrics to measure your efforts when you start an email marketing campaign. Low open rates depict that you can improve your subject lines and send times. Poor click-through rate depicts that you need to make your CTAs better and segmentation proper. A/B testing can help you know what your audience wants. These are just a few metrics that can tell you a lot about your email campaigns. For instance, using A/B testing, you can see what percentage of your audience would still buy from you without a discount. Go Get Them...... Email marketing is undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to get in touch with the customers and stay connected with them. If it is not a part of your digital marketing plan, you are missing out immensely. Market dynamics are changing rapidly and you need keep yourself updated to stay on the top of the game. What better way to engage with the customers through an email. After all, email is still the most preferred way to communicate than phone calls.

6. You do need some preparation before you take the first step towards an email marketing campaign. But if you do proper homework, it becomes easy to reap the benefits of email marketing.