- Disclaimer, this blog post contains my affiliate links, if you sign up it doesn't cost you anymore but I get a small bonus for telling you about it!'
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your business. It's also one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get started with digital marketing. The key is finding a system that works for you, whether that means hiring someone to manage it or doing it yourself. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools out there that make DIY email marketing possible—and easy!
Why Email Marketing
Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. When done correctly, email marketing can be an incredibly effective way to convert leads into customers.
The average person receives over 100 emails per day, so it’s more important than ever that you stand out from the crowd and give people a good reason to open your message.
Get Started on DIY Email Marketing
You've decided that you're ready to take control of your email marketing. Excellent! There are a ton of tools out there, but here are three key things to consider when getting started:
Choose a tool that helps you build your email list. You'll want one that allows you to import contacts from other channels (like Facebook and Twitter), so that if someone enters their information on one of those websites, they'll be added to your database automatically. The tool also needs to provide segmentation options so that you can target specific audiences with customized emails at scale. This can either be done manually or through automation rules based on data collected from users' interactions with previous emails sent by the company.
Choose a tool for managing and sending out individualized campaigns through email marketing software tools like MailChimp or ConstantContact would be best for small businesses who don't have much expertise in coding yet but want something more advanced than just using Gmail's "send" button every time without any tracking capabilities back into Google Analytics etc...
Decide on an End Goal
Before you can begin email marketing, it is important to decide on an end goal. What is the purpose of your campaign? What do you want your subscribers to do? How will you know if it was successful? These are all questions that need to be answered as part of your planning phase.
It's also good practice to keep track of how many subscribers opt-in and out of each marketing campaign. This information can be used later on in order to improve future campaigns and help hone in on what works best with the audience at hand.
Plan out what you want your subscribers to get.
Now that you've got a list of email addresses, it's time to plan out what you want your subscribers to get. First, think about who your audience is and who they aren’t. If this is an email course or product launch, you'll want to know who specifically should be receiving that information. Make sure your emails are serving their purpose by knowing what people expect from them—and how they plan on using the content in those emails.
Beyond just knowing who your customers are and what they want from this email (or series of emails), be sure to consider how these emails fit into a larger marketing strategy. For example, if I'm launching an online course in 2016 but I don't want it advertised until 2017 because I’m still working on the material, then my strategy would dictate that I should send out drip campaigns throughout 2017 with teaser content leading up to the official launch date in 2018. Know why someone would open up an email from you before sending one!
Make a Plan
The first step is to make a plan. You need to decide what you want to achieve, how you want to achieve it and who your target audience is.
What do you want your email marketing efforts to achieve?
How are you going to reach those goals? Are there any specific metrics or reports that will help you measure success and continue building on that success in the future? For example, is improving sales conversion rate more important than generating leads or adding subscribers? Is an increase in open rates more important than click-through rates (CTRs)? These questions should be answered before starting any campaign because they can determine which type of content works best for each campaign and where the focus should lie when preparing content for each campaign.
Who are your potential customers/clients/members/subscribers? This is an important question because knowing this will allow us as marketers tailor each message according to their needs, interests and expectations so that they feel like we really understand them personally which has been shown time again as being one key factor behind whether someone buys something from us or not
Make a Schedule.
You need to make a schedule that works for you and stick to it. You should send your emails at different times of day, weekdays or weekends and even set aside specific days of the week for sending out emails. If possible, try not to send them during peak email traffic hours (which are usually mid-morning until mid-afternoon) as this will decrease your open rates due to high traffic on their servers.
When crafting your schedule remember:
Make sure there’s a balance between the types of emails being sent out so that they don’t seem like one large blast from you. If a customer receives multiple promotional messages in one day then they might think it’s spam and mark your email as spam or unsubscribe from future messages.
Send reminders about sales events/promotions at least two weeks beforehand so that customers have time to plan ahead but still be aware of what is coming up soon enough not miss out on special deals etcetera!
Create an Email Marketing Strategy
An effective email marketing strategy is the most important part of creating a successful email campaign. It's more than just sending out a random newsletter, it's about understanding your audience and how you can provide them with content that will keep them engaged.
The first thing you need to do when creating your strategy is think about who your target audience is and what type of information they would find useful. You'll also want to consider how frequently you should be sending out emails, as well as how many emails per day or week works best for you (and your subscribers).
Figure out what type of content you'll be sending.
The first step in crafting an email marketing campaign is figuring out what type of content you'll be sending. To do this, you need to determine who your target audience is and what type of information they're looking for. If all you're doing is sending standard, boring emails that offer nothing more than a list of product updates and promotions, chances are no one will care very much about what you have to say. Instead, think about how your audience could benefit from the information that’s sent out via email. Make sure it's relevant, interesting, entertaining or educational (or all four!). If possible make sure it's also useful - if someone finds an article or video on YouTube helpful then they'll probably appreciate having access to the same thing directly through their inbox as well!
Finally but not least: consistency! It should go without saying that consistency is important but it can be surprising how often companies forget this simple fact when they start sending emails on behalf of their brand; after all once a customer has unsubscribed from receiving any future messages there’s no point continuing with them so why even bother?
Figure out how often you'll be sending emails.
Once you've got your email list set up, it's time to figure out how often you'll be sending emails. You don't want to send too many emails—that will overwhelm your subscribers and make them feel like they're getting spammed. But at the same time, you also don't want to send so few that they forget who you are or what your business is about!
One tactic that works well is sending one email every week or two weeks. This gives subscribers enough time between emails so that they don't forget who you are, but not so much time that they lose interest in engaging with your brand.
When deciding how frequently to send emails, keep in mind whether or not people can opt out of receiving them by changing their preferences (which we'll talk more about later). If there are no options for subscribers who might not want constant contact with your brand (like when a new product launches) then it's probably better if they don't have an option rather than giving them the ability to turn off communication altogether when this may not always be what's best for everyone involved.
Write the Emails
For the best results, it's important to keep your emails focused on the needs and wants of your customers. If you're sending out an email about a new product or service, make sure it's relevant to your audience. Don't send out random emails just because you think everyone should be interested in what you have to say!
Your messages should also be clear and concise so that readers know exactly what they're getting from reading them. If possible, use bullet points or numbered lists—these are easier for people to process than paragraph-based text.
Finally, make sure the emails are easy for both mobile users and desktop users by designing them with mobile devices in mind first. This means making sure that there is enough space between paragraphs so that readers don't feel overwhelmed by too much text at once (or worse yet skip over some important points). If possible add images throughout the message to break up content as well as add visual interest; this helps draw attention away from long blocks of words which can become tiring after awhile!
There are many email marketing tools available, but do not underestimate the power of doing it yourself!
There are many email marketing tools available, but do not underestimate the power of doing it yourself!
By doing so, you will be able to customize your emails to fit your brand and audience better. This way, you can be more creative with the content that you use in your campaigns (e.g., images). Also, there is no limit on what type of content or how much space it will take up on people’s phones when they receive them; therefore, this allows for testing different types without worrying about costs every month.
In addition to being cost effective and allowing for creativity within each campaign, doing it yourself also gives you control over where people go once they click a link inside an email (i.e., if someone clicks on an ad in one campaign from another provider). When using an external service provider like MailChimp or Constant Contact, these companies will send visitors back out into their wilds upon clicking links—but when using this DIY method we talked about earlier with HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Software Platform at its heart...you have complete autonomy over where traffic goes after receiving something through your own domain name instead of theirs! You can even set up pages here specifically designed just for driving referral traffic back out into whichever platform(s) work best for what you're trying accomplish.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses and can be used to help grow your brand. The best part about it is that it's not that hard to set up, so if you're looking for an easy way to get started, then DIY email marketing might be the answer!
If you'd like some help getting set up then my email marketing plans are the first step in sending emails to your customers!