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Do you use email marketing in your business? If not, you’re missing out.

Email marketing is still one of the top ways to market to your audience.

Using the power of email marketing, businesses can connect with customers, build brand awareness, encourage brand loyalty, and nurture prospects to become paying customers. 

An email marketing strategy that follows the below nine steps can help marketing teams experience better open and click-through rates — and ultimately conversions.

Whether you’re just beginning or brushing up on your email marketing knowledge, let’s take a look at nine steps to get your email marketing started.

This blog post is your complete guide to all things email marketing—from the fundamentals and best practices to how to start your own email marketing campaigns.

But before we continue, if you’re looking for a top-notch blog dedicated to content marketing, we highly recommend ContentMarketing.

ContentMarketing is one of the best resource sites dedicated to  content marketing and related topics, including digital marketing,  blogging, SEO, email marketing, website building and affiliate marketing

We offer easy to follow step by step guides, tutorials and software advice to help you jump-start and grow your online business, learn how to make money online, and be a successful entrepreneur. We are 100% supported by our readers (YOU).

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Let’s get started.

Key Takeaways

• Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that helps you generate leads, nurture clients, and build relationships.
• Email marketing offers the benefits of targeting specific customers and greater personalization.
• A cost-effective strategy, email marketing delivers a return on investment (ROI) of 36 to 42 percent.
• Using email marketing effectively requires a personal touch. Add engaging, clickbait-free titles, and keep your messages brief.
• Before you start sending emails, you’ll need to start building your list. Collect email addresses by offering free incentives like checklists or eBooks in exchange for contact information.

• SEO – unlock more SEO traffic. See real results.
• Content Marketing – Creates epic content that will get shared, get links, and attract traffic.
• Paid Media – effective paid strategies with clear ROI.

In this blog post, we’ll look at the nuts and bolts of email marketing.

• What is email marketing?
• Why is email marketing important?
• How do you build and grow your email marketing lists?
• How to do email marketing: A step-by-step guide 
• 6 beginner-friendly email marketing campaign examples
• Email marketing FAQs

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a type of marketing that involves sending promotional messages or content to audience and customers via email.

This allows marketers to nurture relationships, generate leads, and drive sales.

Why is Email Marketing Important?

Although email is one of the oldest forms of digital communication, email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies out there.

It is one of the most profitable marketing channels that offers a direct and personalized way for brands to engage with customers.

This helps build meaningful relationships, and drives conversions. 

Email marketing beats out SEO, social media marketing and affiliate marketing as the most impactful marketing channel.

It is an essential marketing channel leveraged by B2C and B2B companies to build brand awareness, grow customer loyalty, and drive conversions. 

Additionally, email marketing has a return on investment (ROI) of between $36 and $42 for every dollar you spend. 

Email marketing is also:

• Cost-effective: Sending emails is more affordable than launching traditional marketing channels like direct mail.
• Highly targeted: Email segmentation allows you to target customers effectively, meaning they are more likely to convert.
• Good for click-throughs: Emails provide a direct route to your website and can boost sales. Depending on the type of marketing campaign, they have a click-through rate (CTR) of 1 to 5 percent and a conversion rate of up to 7.2 percent.

In addition, with email marketing, you own the connections—you don’t have to worry about algorithm changes tanking your reach.

This blog post is long, but it’s worth reading.

We will discuss tips and strategies for building an email list, creating an email that users want to read, designing automated campaigns, and tracking your efforts.

How Does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing is one of the best marketing strategies, in no small part because it is fairly intuitive and often automated.

It can also support several other marketing strategies, including lead generation, sales, and content marketing.

An effective email marketing campaign requires three crucial elements:

An Email List

An email list is a database of subscribers who have agreed to let you send them emails.

To build successful email marketing campaigns, you need a list of active, engaged email consumers.

There are several ways to build an email list.

One of the easiest is to create a lead magnet (offer) that your target audience is interested in.

An Email Marketing Platform

An email marketing platform (email service provider), is software that helps you manage your email list and design and execute automated email marketing campaigns.

You can use an email marketing platform to create automatic triggers when your audience completes specific actions, such as sending a cart reminder if a user adds an item to their cart and doesn’t check out.

These triggers enable you to personalize interactions to improve engagement and open rates.

Clearly Defined Goals

An effective email marketing strategy helps you achieve many business goals, including:

• Boosting brand awareness
• Keeping customers engaged
• Increasing customer loyalty and lifetime value
• Generating and nurturing leads
• Driving sales

To execute an effective email marketing campaign, your email list, email marketing platform, and goals must align.

Then, you can get to work:

• First, segment your email list according to subscriber demographics or actions.
• Next, create an email (or series of emails) designed to get users to do something (your goal).
• Finally, use your email marketing platform to send emails and monitor the campaign automatically.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing

As with any other marketing channel, email marketing has advantages and disadvantages.

Let’s briefly dive into some of the more significant ones:

Advantages of Email Marketing

There are plenty of advantages to email marketing.

These are just a few advantages to keep in mind.

• It’s easy to measure success: Measuring the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign is crucial, and automated email marketing makes measuring your marketing campaign a breeze.
• It’s scalable: Email marketing campaigns can easily scale as your audience grows without straining your resources or compromising quality.
• It’s permission-based: When a customer trusts you and your business with their email address, it’s the virtual equivalent of being given the keys to their house. Gaining permission to enter rather than showing up uninvited increases the chances of engagement and conversion.
• It provides more personalization capabilities: You can use demographic or psychographic data to create personalized and hyper-targeted email marketing campaigns. Research shows segmented and personalized email marketing campaigns increase revenue by as much as 760 percent.
• It offers direct access to your audience: You can communicate directly with subscribers on their schedules. Plus, because most people check email multiple times daily, subscribers are more likely to view your message.
• Email provides more control: With most other marketing platforms, you don’t own the platform. If the platform ceases to exist, all your hard work sinks with it. If search engines like Google updates their algorithm, your reach could take a hit. However, with email, you own the relationships you forge with your subscribers.

Disadvantages of Email Marketing

Email marketing isn’t all roses and butterflies.

There are a few disadvantages to be aware of.

The good news is a great email marketing strategy can reduce the impact of disadvantages, which include:

• You need an email list: For email marketing campaigns to be effective, you must already have an email list. Building an email list can be tricky and takes time.
• The competition is tough: Standing out in a cluttered inbox can be challenging. You will need to get creative to ensure your subscribers open your emails.
• There are many rules and regulations to navigate: Several laws govern the use of email for commercial purposes. Common examples include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), CAN-SPAM, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Unfortunately, some subscribers might report your emails as spam even if they subscribe. As a result, your sender reputation takes a hit.
• Delivery and deliverability issues: Deliverability is not guaranteed. Many email marketing services (like Gmail or Outlook) use spam filters. To run effective email marketing campaigns, you must contend with delivery and deliverability issues.

Fundamentals of Email Marketing

Before diving into the strategies you’ll use to build and leverage email marketing for your business, let’s cover the fundamentals.

These tips will help you maximize your email marketing campaign, which we will discuss next.

Email marketing is popular—which also means it is competitive.

Use email to speak directly to your consumers, use their names, and let them see the human side of your brand.

1. Stay Human

Showing your human side is an absolute must if you want to gain loyal customers and increase conversions.

Why?

Because research shows that readers are 26 percent more likely to open personalized subject lines.

Users like to feel that you’re talking to them personally.

The way you address them can make all the difference.

2. Use Engaging Titles, But Don’t Bait and Switch

Interesting subject titles are crucial to increasing email open rates, but keep them on topic and non-spammy.

If consumers feel duped, they’re likely to unsubscribe or mark your message as spam, which impacts deliverability.

To prevent this, concentrate on creating subject lines that reflect the content of your emails and use action-oriented language.

Use subject lines like:

•  Don’t miss out on this limited time offer!
• You’re invited
• Join the community today and exclusive perks
• Last chance to save

Just ensure you use accurate headlines so you don’t disappoint users when they click through.

3. Keep Messages Short

Many users read their emails on a mobile device, so keep your copy concise and to the point.

One suggestion is to keep your emails between 50 and 125 words.

If you need to add more info for context, then use easy-to-scan bullet points or numbered lists.

Direct users to a blog post or landing page if you need to share a ton of information.

Doing this keeps your emails concise and lets consumers access the content in their own time.

4. Include CTAs at the Top and Bottom

On landing pages, calls to action (CTAs) generally appear above the fold.

Use the same marketing strategy with email marketing by including strong CTAs after the first paragraph and again at the end.

Adding an engaging CTA after the first paragraph makes it easier to grab your readers’ eye and encourage them to convert.

Then, include a follow-up CTA at the end of your email reminding the user to act.

Avoid overusing CTAs, though, or you’ll overwhelm your subscriber. Keep it to two or three, max.

5. Ask Permission and Deliver On Your Promises

Never purchase email lists—that is illegal in most cases and won’t deliver ROI.

If you offer a great deal or high-quality content, make sure to deliver just that.

If you do buy an email list, know that you’re likely to get a low response rate.

Why?

Because you are reaching out to users who haven’t opted in and have little interest in your offer.

A better approach is creating your email list organically by offering valuable content, tailored offers, or incentives.

To improve engagement, don’t just try to sell.

Instead, draw people in with stories or solutions to their issues.

Finally, add a double-opt-in for your new subscribers, and make it easy for your list to unsubscribe.

Important Features of Email Marketing

Let’s look at three of the most important features of email marketing for your business.

Data collection

One of the key reasons businesses leverage email is for data collection. 

As the reliance on third-party cookies as a tracking method reduces, getting email users is a great way to collect personal data from people who are interested in your business with consent.

With users wanting to protect their information, businesses need to adhere to data privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA.

Email uses first-party data to collect information in a way that builds brand loyalty and awareness.   

Inbound marketing

Email marketing can also help you to attract prospects and leads by using relevant content.

So, how can email marketing fuel your overall inbound marketing strategy?   

Email marketing is a great way to engage with prospects who have already shown an interest in your company, product, or service.

They do this by opting in or signing up as a subscriber to an email list.  

The nature of using email for inbound marketing means that your leads are warmer as they have greater intent and interest in your business. 

It also means the return on investment (ROI) is higher and costs can be lower as inbound email lists tend to have lower subscribers. 

Personalization

As you know who you are making contact with, content and messaging can be segmented and personalized using email.

This means you can group email lists in a variety of ways by people who:

• Show an interest in a particular product or service
• Have specific preferences e.g. a particular interest 
• Are based in the same location
• Are a specific age and gender

The more you know about your customers or prospects the easier it will be to write a prospecting email that gets replies. 

Don’t bombard your email lists though, be clever about the frequency and make sure you A/B test subject lines and content to see what resonates. 

How Do You Build and Grow Your Email Marketing Lists?

With so many benefits to email marketing, it’s no wonder that businesses are looking to start or build and grow their email lists. 

There are several ways to do this.

• Use CTAs – Use clear and directed CTAs on your website or landing pages to urge people to sign up for email updates 
• Use social media – If you use any social media platform, let your users know that you have an email list for special offers or exclusives  
• Offer free downloads – People love freebies, so think about offering a free downloadable eBook or whitepaper.
• Use pop-ups or forms – Pop-ups or forms are common across websites and urge people to give their email addresses to find out more   
• Offer a blog subscription – If you have a blog, consider setting up a subscriber list to get the latest content. Find out how to start a successful blog if that sounds like a fit for your business. 
• Get customers involved – You can give existing customers a referral incentive e.g. get 50 percent off your next purchase if a friend signs up 
• Run a competition – Competitions are a great way to get people to provide personal information, just make sure the offer is enticing enough!
• Advertise a special offer – A discount or an offer can urge people to join your email list 
• Ask for feedback – As part of a feedback or testimonial form, ask people to opt-in to email   
• Host a webinar or podcast – These offer high value and people will provide information when signing up 
• Create a newsletter – This can be a good way to keep people up-to-date on discounts or competitions    

How to Do Email Marketing: A Step-By-Step Guide

Now that you know the value of email marketing and how to start and bolster your email lists, how do you create and implement an email marketing campaign?  

Build Your List

When you create an email campaign, the key metrics for success are the growth and quality of the email list. 

You should look at creating email lists that are segmented by type.

That can be by audience, preference, or category but avoid putting every contact into one pot and hoping it will work. 

Look at what prospects or customers you want to engage and why.

Then build an email list using Excel, your email marketing management system or use an AI platform like Drift or Mailmodo.

Be sure to label each list clearly so you can find them again easily and also track performance. 

Choose an Email Marketing Service

There are a lot of email marketing services out there.

So you need to do your research and choose the best email platform for your business. 

Some email marketing tools are free to start using and then charge by the number of contacts in your database.

This is why keeping on top of your email lists is important as you’ll be paying for each one, so be prepared to audit your lists regularly. 

A few tools to look into are:

• MailChimp
• GetResponse
• MailerLite
• Optimove
• Hubspot

AI tools for email marketing

There are also lots of services and tools that use AI to help improve your email marketing campaigns.

Some of the most effective include: 

• Segmentation – Tools like Optimove and Hubspot use algorithms to analyze customer data, including demographic, behavioral, and transactional information, to uncover valuable insights and segment your email list. 
• Customer journey mapping – You can use ActiveCampaign for lead scoring and customer journey mapping.
• Optimize send times – Seventh Sense is an email delivery optimization system that uses AI to optimize send times by analyzing subscriber behavior.
• Content optimization – A tool like Jacquard uses natural language generation to analyze messaging history and brand voice to create compelling subject lines, email content, and CTAs. You can also use an email assistant like Lavender to write better emails.
• Personalization – Zoho Campaign can link to Shopify to target customers based on purchase history including abandoned cart emails. 
• Tag and note – The email extension Mailbutler allows you to use tags and notes to keep your inbox organized and find information quickly. You can also create reusable templates for common messages that can be customized.

Plan an Email Workflow

An email workflow is a series of automated emails that are put in a certain order to nurture a prospect or guide a consumer to take a certain action. 

There are a few steps required to set one up:

• Set a goal for your workflow – For example, it could be to convert prospects to enter a free trial
• Create enrollment criteria – This decides who enters the workflow by the settings you choose e.g. group people who downloaded a specific eBook
• Decide on your email assets – This could be a CTA to drive someone to a blog or a custom landing page for a free trial sign-up
• Create your emails – Once you know your goal and have the assets in place, think about each step in the journey and the touchpoints 
• Include a time delay –  i.e. space the first and second email with a day in-between
• Run a test – Always send  a test email before activating any workflow to make sure everything is correct

Make your workflow live and keep an eye on it.

Check in daily to see that your flows are working and the right people are being added to it.

Make any changes as soon as possible. 

Plan a Calendar

An email calendar is like an editorial calendar.

It’s about planning the frequency and audience regularly to target prospects and customers. 

Decide on how often you want to communicate with certain segments or groups and set goals for each campaign.

Tracking your email marketing activities by date will help you to see who you are targeting and when. 

You also need to keep times and days in mind when sending.

Some will work better than others depending on your audience e.g. on a commute or first thing in the morning.

Test these out to see what works for your email lists.

 Follow Email Marketing Laws and Regulations

Make sure your emails follow local rules and regulations, including CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

Don’t let all the legalese scare you.

All this means is you can never buy email lists, and you should consider using double-opt-in options so people know what they’re getting into.

Finally, make it easy for people to unsubscribe.

Write Email Copy

Now to the most important bit – the email content.

As a marketer, you should know your buyer personas or ideal customer/s and understand their problems.

If so, then you’ll be able to target messaging in a way that prompts a click on an email. 

With an email, the subject line is super important as it’s the first thing a person sees in their inbox.

Think about A/B testing subject lines with certain groups to compare performance and see if it can guide your copy. 

It’s also key to keep your messaging clear and succinct and use CTAs to direct people to take an action.

Use a content and copywriting checklist to keep your messaging clear and focused when writing every single marketing email.

Press the Send Button

Now you’ve done all the hard work, it’s time to see how your email does in the real world. 

Test before you send (check copy, subject lines, images and ensure your links work), and then let it free! 

5 Beginner-Friendly Email Marketing Campaign Examples

When you’re starting it can seem overwhelming to figure out how to set up an email campaign and what content to include.

There is a range of different types of email marketing to keep in mind when crafting your campaigns:

• Awareness building – new product, welcome, announcement
• Lead generation – downloadable asset, blog article, custom landing page
• Nurture – new offer, additional product, reminder
• Traffic generation – relevant blog article, trial or offer on the website
• Revenue generating – conversion 

Email marketing: FAQs

Let’s look at some of the most frequently asked questions about email marketing. 

When is the best time to send marketing emails?

Establishing the best times to send emails could be a question of testing different days and times with your various audiences. 

According to research by OptinMonster, the best time to send an email is between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. 

Additional engagement peaks can occur in the early afternoon (1–2 p.m.) and evening (5–6 p.m.).

However, there is no set time that’s best. The most effective way to find out is through trial and error with your databases. 

What is a good open rate for email marketing?

The open rate of an email is the percentage of subscribers who open a specific email out of your total number of subscribers.

According to GetResponse’s 2024 Email Marketing Benchmarks, the average email open rates are up by 12.84%, while click-throughs grew by 1.36%.

The report believes this increase is down to marketers creating more relevant content and investing in segmentation and personalization. 

Here’s a breakdown of email metrics by industry.

It shows that the communications industry saw the highest open rates, jumping from 48.8% in 2022 to 65.1% in 2023 while legal services saw the highest clicks from 3.2% to 12.1% – a 4x increase. 

What is A/B testing in email?

A/B testing (split testing), is a way of comparing two versions of an email against each other to determine which one performs better.

Variables in an email can be the subject line, CTAs or content. 

The key is to perform one test at a time to gauge results.

If you try two or more elements you won’t know why one test worked better than another.

Also, set up your goals in advance so your test drives the right metric e.g. higher open rates.  

How much does email marketing cost?

Aside from email marketing platform cost, you may want to hire an email specialist if you need more expertise in-house or rely on email for sales and revenue. 

If you don’t have a budget for an email marketing specialist, it’s best to complete a course that can give you the fundamentals and guide you with your email campaigns.

Otherwise, you may end up spending more time undoing mistakes or starting over.  

 What are the benefits of email marketing?

Email marketing can help businesses reach a wider audience, drive sales, recover abandoned carts, and further develop your relationship with your audience.

It’s also one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies.

How do I build an email list?

Build your email list by offering a downloadable asset, hosting a giveaway, or offering a free email course.

You might also consider placing a banner at the top of your website to gather emails.

What email marketing regulations are there?

CAN-SPAM and GDPR require you to protect user’s privacy and avoid sending emails to purchased email lists.

What is email automation?

Email automation allows you to create complex email campaigns that send automatic emails based on actions, such as when a subscriber adds an item to their cart or downloads an asset.

How do I segment my email list?

Use your email marketing tool to split subscribers based on demographics, interests, or customers versus non-customers.

Then, send customized messages to each segment.

Are there different types of email marketing campaigns?

Yes. One example is a regular newsletter. Other types of email marketing include welcome or onboarding, follow-up, promotional, informational, and survey emails.

You can also send automated emails to re-engage customers or encourage them to complete a transaction (abandoned basket emails.)

Getting started with email marketing

Here’s a brief review of the steps of email marketing:

1. Define your audience. Identify the various demographics of an ideal customer.
2. Set goals. What is the purpose of your email campaign?
3. Choose an email marketing service. It can help you streamline everything from creating your email list and sending emails to evaluating analytics.
4. Determine email marketing campaign type. How will your emails be coordinated? What is the CTA for customers?
5. Build an email list. Do this organically and make sure everyone has opted in.
6. Segment your list. For further customization, create unique emails for segmented groups within your email list.
7. Create your email. This content will determine whether customers engage further with your business.
8. Test your email. Create variations of email elements to see what is most effective.
9. Measure your results. Use analytics to see if you’re reaching your goals and how you can improve.

And don’t forget to comply with the law. Be transparent, and make it easy to unsubscribe.

Email marketing is popular because, if deployed properly, it’s an inexpensive, effective way to get recipients to engage with you.

But segmenting, creating email campaigns, testing, and analytics are even easier if you use an email marketing platform like ConvertKit.