Email communication sometimes may feel like a little outdated or too formal approach, especially when it comes to promoting products or services. At the same time, Statista projects that there will be 4.4 billion email users (more than half the global population) by 2024, while 74% of email marketers say that email is their most effective communication channel - with both prospective leads and loyal customers.
So, getting started with email marketing makes sense, and the first thing you have to do is to develop an effective email marketing strategy custom-tailored to your business needs. Let's find out how to create an email marketing strategy that drives results in the long run and isn't much challenging to implement.
What Is an Email Marketing Strategy and Why Does Your Business Need It?
Before starting to create an effective email marketing strategy, let's find out what it is and what's the business necessity of email marketing strategy development. An email marketing strategy is the foundation of your email marketing efforts. It's the framework you'll use to create campaigns, and it will help you determine which types of emails to send and when. In addition to adding more clarity to your email marketing efforts, having an email marketing strategy in place promises the next advantages for your business.
The Benefits of Having an Email Marketing Strategy
- Personalization and engagement. Email marketing lets you personalize your message based on who your customer is and their interest. You can also tailor your emails to individuals so they feel they're getting something just for them.
- Convenient communication at a time your customers are ready for it. One of the best things about email marketing is that you allow your customers to interact with the brand at a time that's convenient for them. They can browse their inbox when they have free time and are focused on the incoming letters. Thus, instead of being bothered by annoying ads, they can get marketing messages from only those brands they want to stay in touch with.
- Targeted messaging that drives ROI. We bet you've heard about email marketing automation strategy — an approach that allows sending personalized letters depending on the user's action. For example, you can send a custom letter after the user has abandoned a shopping cart or offer them more similar products after browsing a certain category on the website. The trick is that such letters work wonders for customer retention and conversion, so you are welcome to try this tactic too!
- Measurable results. With metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and unsubscribe rate available through email marketing software, there's never been a better way for marketers to track their success over time. These data-driven insights create opportunities for further improvement in email content, sending frequency, and marketing messaging of your letters.
Creating an Email Marketing Strategy From A to Z
So, here is how to create an email marketing strategy that will work regardless of your business niche.
Define your goals
The first thing you need to do is figure out what you're trying to achieve with your email marketing strategy. Are you looking to grow your revenue? Increase customer loyalty? Trigger the first purchase in your store? Depending on the answer, you must target your email messaging to different user groups, create different types of content and put different marketing messages into your letters.
Build your email list
Next, start building up an email list of people interested in your product or service. If you already have an email list of your customers and leads, you are lucky. If not, you will have to build it from scratch.
As an option, you can create a landing page with a lead capture form and run PPC ads to gather the emails of already interested users. Either way, you can consider exchanging an email list with the company from a semi-niche. For example, if you sell pet accessories, you can exchange the email base with a pet grooming service, and it will be a win-win for both of you.
Important! Use the email address validation tool. Before you start sending marketing letters, make sure the addresses you have in your database are valid. There are specialized email validation tools that will help you weed out those email addresses that aren't registered or are written with mistakes.
Segment your list
Segmentation helps you send better emails because it allows you to target specific groups of people with messaging that's tailored just for them. For instance, let's get back to the example of a pet accessories shop. Logically, you will have to segment the users depending on the pets they have and offer them specific products accordingly. However, if you, for example, have a beauty store, segmenting your customers by age makes the most sense.
You should also divide them into new and already loyal customers. The first group needs more nurturing efforts, so it would be right to send them some letters of educational and entertaining nature. Loyal customers, in turn, would be happy to hear about your sales and get personalized discounts.
Create email marketing content
Depending on your email marketing strategy goal and the users' group, you must prepare and send different types of content in your letters. Let's review the most common email marketing letters content so that you can get an idea of what you are about to face:
- Welcome letters. Welcome letters are a great way to introduce your brand to new customers. They should be short, informative, and engaging.
- Product letters. Product emails are used to advertise a specific product or service that's available on your website. You can send these types of emails to new and existing customers alike but don't forget to customize your offers depending on the previous purchase history and specific customer's interest.
- Educational emails. These emails provide helpful information related to your business or industry, such as tips and tricks for using your products/services. Sending them occasionally is a great way to build trust and loyalty.
- Thank you letters. Thank-you letters are essential for keeping up relationships with current customers who purchase from you frequently and consistently! These should be sent after each purchase, so you are better to include them in your email marketing automation strategy.
- Newsletters.Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your customers and remind them that you're still around. Use them to announce new products or services or other major events happening at your company.
- Sales and promo letters. Sales and promo letters are designed to promote a specific product or service. They are usually tailored to a specific event, for example, Black Friday. You can also come up with personalized promo campaigns for a specific user group (or just to sell the items that have occupied a place in your warehouse for too long).
- Abandoned cart emails. An abandoned cart email is one of the best ways to finalize the sale. Consider adding a personalized discount to this letter, and be sure that your conversion rate will be noticeably higher.
Choose your email frequency
If you want to create an email marketing automation strategy that will drive ROI instead of annoying your customers, you have to send the right email frequency depending on the type of letter. For example, you should send a welcome letter only once — after the customer gets registered on the website.
Most of the other letters are usually behavior-triggered. Thus, you must send an abandoned cart email after the purchase isn't finalized and a "Thank you" note after the purchase. As for promo emails and educational letters, send them once a week.
Choose an email marketing tool
Fortunately, preparing an email marketing automation strategy and crafting email letter content are the only things that you have to do manually. Sending emails at the necessary time and date, measuring the results, and gathering data are the basic functions of automated email marketing software. Below are some of the solutions to consider:
- SendGrid is a powerful, flexible email marketing and transactional messaging platform. SendGrid provides the tools you need to send and track emails, as well as engage your customers with transactional messages.
- MailChimp is an email marketing platform that lets you manage campaigns, create newsletters, and track your results — all from one place. The interface is super intuitive, which makes it perfect for beginners who don't know much about email marketing but want to get started quickly.
- Kwiga is an email marketing solution that helps you grow your business by sending personalized emails to your contacts. It allows you to create groups of contacts based on demographics or behavior and send them targeted messages based on what they've done in the past. Compared to other apps, this solution comes at the most competitive pricing and can be the best-ever fit for startups and individual entrepreneurs.
Important! Warm up your email address. Before you start using any email marketing tool listed above, make sure to warm up your email address using Lemlist. In this way, you will get higher chances of avoiding spam filters.
Test and optimize your email marketing automation strategy
When you're starting out with email marketing automation, the best thing you can do is set up a test. Your test aims to determine what's working and what isn't. So, divide the user groups into smaller segments and change some parameters in your letters. For instance, you may experiment with headings and subheadings, calls-to-action inside the letter's content, colors, and fonts to discover the approach that converts your audience best.
Get Started with KWIGA to Create an Effective Email Marketing Strategy That Works!
An effective email marketing strategy can work wonders for your conversion rate and customer loyalty. Now, you know how to create it, so the only remaining thing is choosing an efficient software solution to automate your email campaigns. Kwiga is a user-friendly email marketing platform that helps email marketers, business owners, and individual entrepreneurs easily segment their audience, create personalized messages, and track their campaigns' success.
Sign up for KWIGA email marketing platform today and start reaching your audience with engaging and effective email campaigns!