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Email marketing has been a really good way to connect with your audience, gain their trust and turn them into customers for your business. A good thing about email marketing is that these days all your campaigns can be automated. This means there is no need to be spending hours on end monitoring them and you will be able to devote some more time to other sections of your business.
Email marketing has been something I’ve had over 10 years of experience in. I have gone through all the trial and error and have gathered enough information to effectively run any email marketing campaign. With this in mind, I have developed a step by step guide that is easy to follow and will have your first campaign up and running.
Create A Email List
This is always an important step in email marketing. You should always know who exactly you are emailing. With no list, your email will go nowhere. You need to start thinking of building a list of people who have given you the permission you need to contact them about your business.Permission, of course, means they have given you their email address for a specific purpose. Customers like to know what they are getting in return for entering their private email addresses to ensure you are convincing enough to be able to collect those contacts. With this in mind, you need to now create what is known as an exchange of value. Also known as a lead magnet. This can be anything from a free downloadable pdf, an ebook, discount codes or even an email information series.
It’s also good to let them know what you will be sending them and maybe how often they will be receiving these emails. For example, your subscribers will be the first to know when you are offering discounts and new offers. Emailing people who did not sign up for your list or who did not sign up for different reasons are less likely to become your newest customers.
Finalize Who Is Your Email Service Provider (ESP)
You don’t want to be using your regular email provider such as Google. Their service is not equipped to automate and create the professional campaigns that you would need for your business. An ESP, however, enables you to professionally send out your email campaigns to a list. MailChimp, Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact are all ESPs. They provide a wide range of services that allow you to create and build your subscribers list, create and customize emails that are tailored to your audience and even provides reports and analysis to help you track your emails effectiveness.When looking for an email provider think about how you will be using email and what features you will need to make your business successful. If you are just starting you may not need much, to begin with but there are some features to look for.
1. Eye-catching templates. You always want to ensure the template you choose captures the attention of your audience and also that it is mobile friendly. Most persons tend to check their emails on their phones and so you want your emails to be able to look amazing no matter what device it is viewed on.
2. Able to create schedules for your email campaigns.
3. Tracking and reports are easy to understand. You always want to know if your subscribers are opening your emails, who are clicking on the buttons in your email, your bounce rate and if anyone unsubscribed.
4. Sometimes you are going to need the help of experts to correctly perform a task. Check to ensure that your ESP has a support team that you can contact at any time no matter what time zone you are on.
5. Some providers offer monthly plans that are priced based on the number of subscribers you have on your list. Check and ensure that the ESP prices fit within your budget.
6. Imagine you spend all this time creating these beautiful emails and it doesn’t even end up in your subscriber’s inbox. Ensure to check that the ESP you’ve chosen has a delivery rate that is above 98%.