Tag Archives: #email marketing

Common Types of Email Marketing Campaigns

Terms Every Email Marketing Expert Should Know

1. Email Service Provider (ESP)

An email service provider, or ESP, is the software service that individuals use to create and send out email marketing campaigns. Examples of credible ESPs are Mailchimp and HubSpot.

When searching for an email service provider, it’s important that one considers each person’s individual marketing needs. For example, a start-up that’s new to email marketing may want to choose an ESP that caters to smaller businesses, is simple, and beginner-friendly.

Email service providers such as AWeber, MailerLite, and Constant Contact are all great ESPs that fit these criteria. This is partly due to the fact that they are all easy to navigate. Plus, these email service providers are highly effective when one uses them to send emails to small contact lists. If your goal is to quickly grow your email marketing list, ESPs like Sendinblue would be of great benefit.

Choosing an email service provider is arguably one of the most important decisions that an email marketer will make. Therefore, it’s important to do your research and pick the one that best suits your needs. Now that you understand what the terms email service provider and ESP mean, it’s time to learn some other email marketing terms.

2. Segmentation

Segmentation is dividing one’s email contact list into smaller segments based on certain criteria. For example, an individual can separate an email contact list into smaller lists based on age or gender. By segmenting email contact lists, individuals make it easier for them to tailor their emails to the needs and wants of their subscribers.

3. Email Automation

Email automation is when people automatically send out email marketing campaigns to others in their email marketing lists based on specific triggers. For example, individuals can automate their email marketing campaigns so that emails about certain deals on products are only sent to people that are in the consideration or decision-making stage in the buyer’s journey.

Individuals can also automate email marketing campaigns so that special product deal emails are only sent to segments of their contact list that have previously spent a certain amount of money. People can even automate email marketing campaigns so that certain email content only gets sent to individuals on their birthdays.

Essentially, a person can set triggers for email automation based on everything from scheduled times and events to customer behaviors, and more. Regardless of the method though, automating emails will help individuals trigger a response from their subscribers. This, in turn, will also increase customer engagement.

4. Open Rate

Open rate is exactly what it sounds like, the percentage of email subscribers that open certain emails. It’s important to track the open rate when sending out emails. This is because doing so will give people an insight into how successful one’s email marketing campaigns are.

Open rates will also help individuals decide what content to send to certain segmented contacts. Email open-rates can even help individuals decide what tests they need to run on their email marketing campaigns. For example, if you notice that your email open rates are suddenly down after changing the look of your emails, you can perform a test to see which email look your subscribers prefer.

5. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Another important email marketing term and metric that all email marketers should know about is CTR, or click-through rate. Click-through rates measure how many people clicked on an email.

Click-through rates are another metric that individuals can use to determine how successful their email marketing campaigns are. Every email marketer should aim to have a click-through rate of at least 20%-30%.

There are two main ways to track email click-through rates. One is through unique link clicks and the other is through all link clicks. When tracking unique link click-through rates, you’re tracking one click per subscriber. All link click-through rates, on the other hand, measure the total number of clicks on an email, including repeat clicks from each subscriber.

6. A/B Testing

A/B testing is an important part of email marketing that every email marketing expert should know about. This form of email testing occurs when a person tests two different versions of a single email and compares the results.

An example of A/B email testing would be sending out the same email, but with different worded subject lines, to two different randomized segments of one email contact list. The purpose of this A/B test would be to see how the email’s subscribers prefer to have the subject lines of their emails worded.

When performing A/B email testing, you should only change one, specific aspect of an email marketing campaign. The aspect of an email marketing campaign that a person changes and tests things by is the variable.

7. Multivariate Testing

When a person tests multiple variables within an email marketing campaign, that person is performing multivariate testing. The number of variables within an email marketing test is the distinction between A/B testing and multivariate testing. Regardless of if a person performs A/B email testing or multivariate email testing though, metrics such as email open rates, click-through rates, and total revenue all help decide what parts of the emails are successful or not.

8. Personalization

Personalization occurs when email marketers customize emails based on the personalities and needs of their subscribers. For example, if you send out a welcome email to only new subscribers, that email is personalized.

A great way to personalize your emails is through segmentation. This is because segmenting contacts into different email marketing lists based on customer behavior, age, gender, etc. allows email marketers to send out emails that are tailored to each subscriber’s wants and needs.

For example, let’s say that you created a segmented list made out of your email contacts who are under the age of 18. Due to you having this segmented contact list, you can send emails about deals on kid-friendly toys and items just to the contacts on that list. In doing this, you’re personalizing your emails to the ages and interests of your subscribers. Overall, personalization is a great way to increase customer interest and engagement.

9. Hard Bounces

Hard bounces occur when an email returns to the sender for permanent reasons. Email marketers can receive hard bounces for numerous different reasons. One common reason why an email marketer may receive a hard bounce is that he or she delivered the email to an invalid email address.

It’s important to figure out why you’re receiving hard bounces and rectify the situation. This is because too many hard bounces can affect a person’s deliverability rates. Deliverability rates are the percentage rates that one’s emails are successfully sent and received by the recipient. 95% is considered a good deliverability rate.

Having too many hard bounce emails can also trigger spam filters. This, in turn, will make emails appear less credible.

10. Soft Bounces

Soft bounces occur when an email returns to the sender for temporary reasons. Some reasons why email marketers may receive soft bounces include the email’s file being too big or the recipient’s email inbox being too full.

Email service providers will often try to resend emails after soft bounces. This is because ESPs know that soft bounces are temporary.

Like hard bounces, soft bounces are also harmful to an email marketer’s deliverability rate. Therefore, if you continuously experience soft bounces, it’s important to figure out why as soon as possible and rectify the situation.

Continue Learning About Email Marketing With The Digital Intellect

The Digital Intellect (TDI) is a start-up marketing agency that’s based in South Florida. As a start-up marketing agency, we here at The Digital Intellect strive every day to grow as marketing experts. Therefore, each TDI staff member takes it upon him or herself to learn and practice new marketing skills each and every day.

As time continues on, it’s evident that email marketing isn’t going away. If anything, email marketing is taking the world by storm. This is evident by the fact that there are currently over 3.9 billion email users and that number is only expected to grow to 4.3 billion by 2023.

Due to the growing email marketing industry, we here at The Digital Intellect are making it a priority to grow as email marketers. We advise that all other marketing professionals do so as well. That’s why we’ve started writing a series of blogs on email marketing.

If you want to continue to learn more about email marketing and other aspects of the marketing industry, stay tuned to The Digital Intellect blog. To learn more about The Digital Intellect and the work that we do, contact us during regular business hours.

Beginner’s Guide to Creating an Email Marketing Campaign

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the use of email to promote a business’s products, services, or brand. The more exciting and engaging a marketing email, the better. In fact, there are many different looks that an email marketing campaign can take on. For example, a simple welcome email marketing campaign may look more like a traditional email than a holiday email newsletter.

Regardless of the type and style of your email marketing campaign, it can produce great marketing results. As long as it’s done correctly.

Reasons Why Email Marketing Is an Effective Form of Promotion and Branding

Email marketing is an effective form of promotion and branding for numerous reasons. Some of these reasons are described below.

It’s a Highly Used Form of Communication

For one, email is still one of the top forms of communication. In fact, according to Statista, there are approximately 3.9 billion daily email users. That number is expected to grow to 4.3 billion by 2023. Plus, according to Not Another State of Marketing, 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement throughout 2020.

The world is becoming more and more digital every day. Therefore, the use of online forms of communication such as email is only going to continue to grow. This is especially the case for businesses and digital marketers that want to expand their reach and increase their clientele. In fact, 73% of millennials currently state that they prefer businesses to communicate with them through email.

It Establishes Customer Actions

Emails are also effective because they force their users to take action to address the content in some way. This is due to the fact that emails will remain in people’s inboxes until they actively read or delete them.

In the best case scenario, the email users will reply to emails. The fact that emails force customer actions are great for email marketing agencies. This is because it makes it more likely that these agencies’ content will receive traffic.

It’s Cost-Effective

Emails themselves are also very cost-effective. In fact, according to a 2015 U.K. study done by Direct Marketing Association (DMA), for every $1 that’s spent on email, the average return on investment (ROI) is $38.

It Can Build Deeper Client Relationships

Another reason why email marketing is an effective form of promotion is that it helps email marketing agencies to build closer relationships with their audiences. It does this by sending digital marketing content directly into the personal email boxes of each audience member. Oftentimes, the same personal email boxes include emails from family members and friends.

Email marketing agencies can even increase the chances of building a relationship with clients by personalizing and automating emails. Individuals can personalize emails by inserting the name of each recipient into the beginning of each email blast. That way, it appears to the reader the email was created just for him or her.

Email automation occurs when emails are sent out at a set time to subscribers. Companies can use email automation to further build relationships with their email subscribers by segmenting contacts by their interests, identities, and buyer personas.

For example, you can send a special automated email blast offering special deals on products and services to long-term subscribers in the consideration buyer persona stage. Sending such an automated email would not only show your appreciation and further your bond with your customers/subscribers, but it would also help increase your company’s sales.

Steps to Creating an Email Marketing Campaign

For an email marketing campaign to be effective, it must be done properly. This means taking the right actions in the right order. Below is a basic outline of steps email marketing agencies take to create an effective email marketing campaign.

1. Choose an Email Marketing Provider

Before sending out an email blast, you must choose an email marketing provider. Email marketing providers are digital platforms that people create email marketing campaigns. You can also look to email marketing providers for current information on all things email marketing. In a way, an email marketing provider is an email marketing expert. Examples of popular email marketing providers include HubSpot and MailChimp.

It’s important to choose an email marketing provider based on your individual needs. For example, if you’re a startup company, you may want to choose an email marketing expert and provider that offers free services. You may also want to choose an email marketing provider that increases company growth and engagement. Companies that sell products, on the other hand, should focus on choosing an email marketing provider that’s best for e-commerce.

While some email marketing providers will allow you to send out effective email marketing campaigns for free, if you’re looking to make the most out of email marketing, you’ll eventually need to pay for the services that these email marketing providers give you. As a beginner to email marketing though, you may want to start out paying as little as possible for your email marketing provider.

2. Set Measurable Goals

Once you’ve decided what email marketing provider you’re going to use, you must set measurable goals. All email marketing agencies set measurable goals. This is because measurable goals will drive every action that you take with your email marketing campaigns. Essentially, your measurable goals are your “why” for creating email marketing campaigns, to begin with.

Another reason why it’s important to set measurable goals for your email marketing campaigns is that they will make it easier to track your progress. This is because all measurable goals must contain specific analytical information within them that you can track.

An example of a measurable email marketing goal is to increase your email click-through rates by 25% within the next six months. This is an email marketing goal because it’s analytically measurable and specific while still remaining simple.

3. Get Permission to Contact People

The most unprofessional thing that email marketing agencies can do is send an email blast to individuals that didn’t give permission for you to contact them. In fact, it is technically illegal to send out email marketing campaigns to individuals without their permission. Therefore, it’s vital that everyone on email marketing lists gave permission for your company to contact them prior to doing so.

There are many ways to get permission to send a marketing email blast to someone. For example, you can get someone to physically agree to receive your emails online before or after reading one of your email marketing blogs or ebooks.

4. Choose an Email Marketing Template or Create Your Own Email from Scratch

The next step to creating an email marketing campaign is to choose a template from your email marketing provider. Email marketing templates are premade backgrounds for email marketing campaigns.

Email marketing templates are great for beginners in email marketing to use. Once you’re more experienced and are more familiar with the best tools that your email marketing provider offers, you can start creating everything for your campaigns from scratch.

5. Create Great Email Marketing Content

This is arguably the most important step to creating an email marketing campaign. As people always say in marketing, content is king. Thus, making sure that the content in every email blast is free of incorrect grammar and engaging is key to good email marketing. It’s also important that email marketing content is concise.

6. Create Email Contact Lists

Once you’ve created your email, you must create a contact list with the names of people that you’ve already received permission to contact. Just make sure that your email marketing lists are segmented to only include the people that you want to receive the particular email that you’re sending out. For example, if you’re sending out a welcome email, make sure that the names on the email contact list that you’re using for that email only include new subscribers.

7. Segment Your Marketing Lists

We just briefly touched upon this email marketing campaign step in step #5. Essentially, segmenting your email marketing lists means to separate your full list of contacts into smaller lists based on factors like identity, interests, buyer persona stage. For example, when we mentioned only sending a welcome email blast to contacts of new subscribers, the separate list of only new subscribers would be considered a segmented contact list.

8. Test Your Email Marketing Content

Prior to sending out an email blast, it’s important to send an email marketing test out. Email marketing tests help email marketing agencies see what their content looks like before their subscribers do. That way, if something is off with the email marketing content, you can change it before your clients see it.

9. Send Out Targeted Emails

Once creating the content, creating and segmenting the email marketing lists, and testing the email, all that’s left is to send it out. Once the email is sent, wait, and see the results.

10. Use Analytics Data and A/B Testing on Your Email Campaigns To Determine Your Next Steps

Soon after sending out an email marketing campaign, there will be data on how well the campaign did. Make sure to go back through your account on your email marketing provider’s site and find this data. This data should include measurable information on how many people opened the email, who opened the email, how many people clicked on the email, how many emails bounced to spam folders or somewhere else, how many people performed the call-to-action in your email, etc.

To grow your email marketing lists, use this data to perform A/B testing. A/B testing is the testing of different versions of a single email to see which version performs better.

When doing A/B testing on an email marketing campaign, only change one variable in the email. For example, one could just change the send time or title of an email blast. Then create different versions of that one email to different random sets of recipients with only changes made to the variable you chose.

Then track and measure how each set of recipients respond to the test email. Use this data to help with your future email marketing planning.

Continue Learning About Email Marketing Here on The Digital Intellect Blog

While the email marketing services that The Digital Intellect currently provides are minimal, many of the company’s current employees are learning more about this growing form of digital marketing. TDI hopes that as more people within the company learn more about email marketing, it could be a major service that TDI provides in the near future.

To continue to learn more about email marketing along with TDI, keep up with the content here on The Digital Intellect blog!