An Experts Guide: How To Set Up Your Very First Email Marketing Campaign

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An Experts Guide How To Set Up Your Very First Email Marketing Campaign - BillLentis

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Utilizing Email as a marketing channel can prove to be very effective if done well. With the right advice, small business owners and solo-precuneus can create a successful campaign that is effective and also affordable. This is why it is such a big deal for these individuals to really understand the concept of email marketing to help further their businesses.

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%.

Create And Customize Your Email

What is the objective of your email campaign? Before you begin writing you need to think about what it is you are going to be talking about with your subscribers. Be sure to make whatever you are offering very clear from the beginning. Don’t forget to put in a call to action that stands out and is very clear. Try to use more than one preferably three calls to action buttons. Images are always important. Lots of readers tend to not read the full email but are instead captivated by the images you use. Ensure your logo is at the top of the email so that customers know exactly who it is from. Try and customize the email by adding their name to the subject line. Don’t forget to add contact information to the footer area of your email and you must always give customers the chance to opt out if they feel they need to. Once you are happy with your email you are ready to send it off.

Reports And Analytics

When going over your reports and analytics be sure to revisit your original objectives and see if they were able to match up. You always want to check whether they were clicking on your call to actions and what were the outcomes of those clicks.

Continue To Learn

As you become more comfortable try testing out other features of your ESP to get the most out of it. See what works and what does to draw your customers in and get them to click on your call to action buttons. Even if the rate of increase is small it can make your campaign even more successful.