EMAIL MARKETING – GETTING IT RIGHT

Email marketing is the highly effective digital marketing strategy of sending emails (commercial message) to prospects and customers, typically to a group of people, using email. Effective marketing emails convert prospects into customers, and turn one-time buyers into loyal and fans.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing.

The first email, sent by Ray Tomlinson in  1971 or 1978 according to (center for computing History), marked the beginning of the modern communication era. The message was nothing special, a series of numbers and letters that looked more like a password than a message, but its significance was profound.

The email was sent from one computer to another, traveling through a network of machines not unlike the internet we know today. Tomlinson also introduced the “@” symbol in email addresses to the world.

Why Email Marketing?

Today, we are inundated with email marketing. Yes some of it still feels like a spam, but there’s no denying the impact a well-crafted message can have CRM and lead nurturing.https://www.learnafrica.co.ke/management-consultants-kenya/#1530197661868-3e898d09-acc4

Email marketing helps you connect with your audience to promote your brand and increase sales. You can do a lot of things with emails, like sell products, share some news, or tell a story.

Aim of sending email;

• Enhance relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
• Acquire new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately.
• Add advertisements to emails sent by other companies to their customers.

Advantages of Email marketing has several key  over traditional mail marketing:

• Cost – Email marketing is cheap. Whether you do it yourself, or through an email marketing agency. marketing to hundreds of consumers via email is going to cost you less compared to other channels of advertising.
• Success – Emails can be targeting specifically to the ideal consumer. Along with email cost-effectiveness, email marketing’s ROI often blows other direct marketing strategies. but you must get it right.
• Measureability – With the analytics available today it’s easy to track responses to your emails. In order to work out what parts of your campaign are working and what parts aren’t. With this knowledge, you can then react instantly to modify your campaign strategy if need be.

• Wide range – Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them.
• Flexibility  – Over half of all Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
• Tailor made- Email allows marketers to reach out to consumers with personalized, relevant, dynamic messages.
• Fast response – Transactional emails allow businesses to respond automatically to important consumer events like purchases or shop-cart abandonment.

Email Marketing Strategy Template

While hitting your goals is never guaranteed, developing a sound strategy is an essential starting point. Without a strategy, you’re just trying to fly it, and hoping for the best. Documenting your strategy can dramatically improve your results.

Any type of marketing strategy effectively revolves around four ideas:

• Who are you trying to reach?
• How will you try to reach them?
• What do you want them to do?
• How will you measure results?

Does Email Marketing Work?

Still, people receive more and more email all the time, and it can be challenging to stand out in full inboxes. there are various templates in the market designed for email marketing but you need to choose  the best template that will give you the right tools you need to shine i n your business.

They include:https://www.learnafrica.co.ke/management-consultants-kenya/#1529481997949-9a23dd1e-4688

• MailChimp
• Zoho Campaigns
• Mailjet
• Benchmark
• Email Octopus
• EmailOut
• Aweber
• Convertkit
• ActiveCampaign 
• GetResponse  – among others

Email Marketing Template

A good template must have the following features:

• Header: This is the part that holds your brand name. Ensure it is clear and matches the color scheme of your site. It’s the first thing subscribers see when they open your email, so make it count.
• Main body: Where the main content goes. Consider the message and the tone you want to set. Should it include images or will it be plain text?. There are templates that can structure the email content for you with boxes. Others have a blank canvas so you can be creative.
• Footer: All marketing emails need to include a physical address and an unsubscribe link. It’s a legal requirement in many countries. The footer is a good place to include them. It’s also handy for other contact details.
• Social media icons: An increasing number of emails now have icons to allow subscribers to share the email through social media. This is a powerful way to increase its reach.
• Be responsive: Emails need to look good across multiple devices. With over 50% being opened on mobile, this is more important than ever. Look out for single column templates and test to see if it looks good on desktops, tablets, and phones.

How do I get an email list?

Although building a clean list can take more work at the outset of your email marketing strategy, most template lists have built-in tools to help you along the way. There are lots of ways to find people who’ll look forward to getting your emails, but we’ve rounded up a few that work best.

To create an email list:

• Create a signup form on your website.When people come to your website for the first time and like what they see, they’ll want a way to stay in-the-know about your brand. Create a form for newsletter signups and install a pop-up for first time visitors.
• Use a good old-fashioned signup sheet.Whether it’s at your brick and mortar store, or an event that you’re hosting or attending, when you’re surrounded by people who are into what you do, provide a place for them to sign up and learn more.
• Drive signups through social media. If you don’t have a substantial email list but you’ve got an engaged social media following, tap into that resource. Share your signup form on your social channels.

To add more subscribers to an existing list:

• Host a contest or offer a discount.We’re big fans of giving people an incentive to sign up for your email list—and we know that contests work. Try offering a prize for some lucky new subscriber or a discount code for a first purchase.
• Make your emails easy to share.When you create beautiful, compelling emails, people will want to share them.
• Build a landing page which offer one more way to grow your email list. Using your best imagery and content, landing pages give people a clear call to action and drive email signups way, way up.

Automating Your Email Marketing with Auto-res-ponders 

An auto-res-ponder is a sequence of emails that are automatically sent to a specific segment of people on your email list. They triggered by a specific event, such as joining your list, browsing behavior, cart abandonment, downloading a PDF, or buying a product.

The content of these email auto-res-ponder series is created in advance and set up to send at the appropriate time with the help of your email marketing software.

Every online business needs an auto-res-ponder series for two main reasons:

1. They nurture your leads by providing valuable information, insights and teaching them how to make better decisions via an automated on-boarding process.

2. They turn prospect into customers by helping you to build “know, like and trust” before you ask for the sale. Then you can make your pitch at the best possible moment, and you can do it without being overly or pushy.

Choosing a Goal for Your Auto-res-ponder

There are the main four goals you could have for your auto-res-ponder before you create it.

• Use it to send new subscribers a “welcome” sequence. is the message that you send to people right after they subscribe to your email list. It could contain a link to your lead magnet for an easy download, a thank you for subscribing, and maybe a call-to-action.
• Use it as a lead magnet/free mini course. You can also use an auto-res-ponder as a lead magnet to attract new subscribers to your email list.
• Use it to make sales on autopilot. a widely adopted strategy used by information marketers, but it can also be used by software companies, eCommerce businesses and service providers. For example, it could consist of a series of educational videos, a sales video and follow-ups to sell your information products. Or, you could create a sequence of free educational emails, and then invite them to a live or recorded webinar where you make an offer. For eCommerce businesses, your sales sequence could include promo offers for products your subscriber has just viewed on your website.
• Use it to promote up-sells/cross-sells. You can even set up an auto-res-ponder sequence for someone after they purchase and get repeat customers. Depending on the products you sell, you could offer an up-sell, or cross sell related products. For example, if someone buys a digital camera, you can offer to add a lens, a tripod, and other accessories to their order before it ships.