Email Marketing

Email marketing is the process of sending commercial messages to a group of people via email. Email marketing can be used to promote a company’s products or services, build customer loyalty, or increase brand awareness with both B2B and B2C customers.

Types of email marketing

There are many email marketing examples out there, however they are divided into 2 mian types based on their purpose: operational and marketing-based.

Operational Email Marketing

Operational email marketing is focused on supporting your overall marketing funnel and is triggered by customer or prospect actions. These are typically emails that customers expect to get and are not solicitations.

Examples of operational email marketing include:

• Thank you emails from website form fills.
• Automated content suggestions based on user website activity.
• Order confirmation emails after purchasing.
• Meeting confirmation emails after booking an appointment or phone call.

Marketing-Based Email Marketing

Marketing-based email marketing are emails that are focused on generating interest and provoking action

How email marketing works varies across different types of email campaigns, however they follow the same primary steps:

• Define your target email marketing audience.
• Determine your email marketing goals.
• Develop a plan that encourages your audience to take action toward your email marketing goals.
• Execute your email marketing plan.
• Continuously optimize your email marketing funnel.

Define your target email marketing audience.

Who will be the recipient of your email campaigns? The most effective campaigns come from sending targeted emails that the right audience receives at the right time. It's possible to have both one single target audience or multiple target audiences across multiple types of email marketing campaigns.

Determine your email marketing goals?

Email marketing lead generation might be the primary goal of most campaigns, however, that's only one reason why email marketing is important to your business. Do you want to reactivate past customers, introduce a new product to your current customers, generate more reviews, show customers how to use your product or service, or build a fan base that can refer you to new customers? Define your email marketing goals so you can build a targeted email plan to reach them.

Develop a plan that encourages your audience to take action toward your email marketing goals.

If your plan is to build loyalty with your company, sending brand emails will reinforce name recognition and the value your product or service provides. If lead generation is the goal, you could develop a targeted cold email marketing campaign to attract potential customers. Before you send your first email, you should know what email should go next and what action you want your audience to take.

Execute your email marketing plan.

Now is the time to start sending your email campaign newsletter or building your email marketing automation. Whatever your plan is, don't hesitate when it comes to building out your email marketing funnel.

Continuously optimize your email marketing funnel.

The best way to increase your email marketing return on investment is to optimize your email marketing funnel on a regular basis. Measure open rates, click-through rates, lead conversions, and revenue generated from all types of email marketing campaigns. Split test email subject lines, email copy, landing page design, and your goals based on what will bring you the most return for your email marketing dollars.

There are many features of email marketing that make it beneficial for your B2B marketing efforts, including:

• Unlike search, social media, and any marketing on platforms you don't own, you have control. There is no one throttling your reach in order to sell more advertising.
• Email is one of the least expensive forms of marketing for the return on your investment. Most of the email marketing tools we recommend cost between $500-$1,000 per month, however, email marketing returns an average of $32 for every $1 spent.
• Email is used in the day-to-day business, so there's a great chance that your customer will at least see your name and/or brand via the email you sent.

Email marketing provides one of the highest returns on investment you can achieve on your marketing investment. It's effective, you have more control than most marketing channels, and it's practically free to run.

An email newsletter is a type of email marketing campaign where you send emails to a list of recipients who have opted-in to receive emails from you or your company. Through this email, you can inform customers of new products/services, build trust by providing value, drive thought leadership, or foster raving fans that write reviews and drive referrals.

The best place to find email leads is through your current and past customers, vendors you work with, or through your social media and online presence. You can also generate cold email leads, however, you could get in trouble for mass mailing to email addresses that have not asked to be contacted by you.

Email marketing can fuel your inbound marketing strategy by providing a channel to send emails that nurture your leads and move them through your sales funnel. Email marketing automation cna send targeted emails based on trigger events providing a marketing experience that’s tailored to each individual’s actions.

The most important email marketing skills one can learn are copywriting, data analytics, and knowing how to use all the email marketing features in your chosen email marketing tools