A Complete Guide In Creating An Effective Email Marketing Strategy

Last Updated on March 28, 2022 by Troika Gellido

Why Email Marketing Is (Still) Killing It

Not only is email marketing one of the most useful sales tools today, it also comes with a lot of great perks.

Reaching out to people who are already interested in what you have to offer, generating leads, and staying in touch with your customers are just some of them. Today, email marketing proves to be more user-friendly through the use of email automation apps and software. This makes it an effective and convenient strategy for sales campaigns.

Standing out from the crowd is one, making sure your targets won’t hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button is another. The balance between these two can be a bit of a head-scratcher for those just starting out with email marketing. It pays to know what you’ll be dealing with. Take note that email is still a personal platform wherein content and delivery can be managed by its recipients.

No reason to fret because in this guide, we’ll teach you how to create an effective email marketing strategy that will help you reach your target audience, generate leads, and convert them into actual, paying customers.

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a kind of direct marketing that uses promotional email messaging strategies to send to a targeted list of recipients.

Email marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy that enables businesses to connect with a specific audience that has already shown interest in their services. It’s a perfect tool for lead generation, customer acquisition, retention, and sales enablement. This tool also offers businesses a more personal way to build trust with customers, explain a product or service better, schedule calls, and make connections valuable for every customer.

Emails have been around for decades, and with the help of digital media has evolved in many ways. It started from simple email newsletter, which then evolved into email blasts, email campaigns, salesletters, and the like.

Email marketing campaigns are often created with the help of email automation software like MailChimp or Campaign Monitor. These tools allow you to create email templates that will be sent out automatically when certain conditions are met.

Why Do You Need an Email Marketing Strategy?

Email marketing helps you stay in touch with your customers. It also enables you to identify and engage with your target audience.

An effective email strategy can help you reach more people, build a better relationship with your customers, and improve your bottom line.

Email marketing is a highly effective way to get in touch with your audience, but it can also be challenging to set up. There are many types of email marketing strategies that you should consider when setting up an email marketing strategy for your business or brand.

How Effective Is This Marketing Strategy?

Email marketing is indeed effective. In fact, HubSpot studies show that 78% of marketers in 2022 have seen an increase in email engagement in a year.

It’s definitely one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. However, it should involve planning, execution, and measurement. It’s perfect for both B2B and B2C businesses, each with different strategies.

An effective email strategy should be based on the following:

• The type of business
• The industry
• The size of the company
• The target audience

What Are the Benefits of Email Marketing?

Email marketing has many benefits, such as:

• Send personalized messages to your customers and prospects
• Track the success of your campaigns with analytics tools
• Reach out to your target audience
• Increase customer loyalty and retention
• Increase revenue and profits
• Improve customer service

Email Marketing vs. Other Marketing Channels

Email marketing is the most reliable and cost-effective way to reach your target audience. It is also one of the best ways to generate leads and sales.

Email marketing has been around for a long time, but it has not always been used for business purposes. It was mostly used for personal emails and newsletters. In recent years, email has become a powerful tool in business marketing.

Below we’ll discuss the pros and cons of email marketing versus other marketing channels such as social media, SEO, content marketing, and more.

Email Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Email marketing has been around for a long time and is still one of the most effective ways to reach your audience. However, social media marketing has taken off in recent years, and it is essential to know which tool works best for you.

There are many advantages of using email marketing over SMM. Email marketing offers the opportunity for companies to build stronger relationships with customers by providing them with valuable, personalized, and relevant content and information they can use in their day-to-day lives.

Email Marketing vs. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Email marketing is a great way to reach out to your audience and build a relationship with them while maintaining a low customer cost of acquisition. It is also an effective way to generate leads and sales.

SEM is a form of online advertising that uses paid advertisements on search engines like Google Adwords or Bing Ads. These ads are shown when people search for relevant keywords on the internet.

SEM is an excellent way for marketers to get their message in front of the right people at the right time. It also helps them track conversions and measure ROI. However, SEM can be expensive, and it can take time before you see results from your campaign.

Most companies today combine their email marketing campaign efforts with SEO and SEM.

Email Marketing vs. PPC/ Paid Advertisement

Email marketing has been a popular option for businesses for the past few decades. It is inexpensive, and it can be used to reach out to your target audience in a more personal way.

However, email marketing has its limitations. For one, it can only be used to target a specific audience. This is not as effective as paid advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram.

Paid advertisements can also reach out to a broader audience than emails can do. Moreover, they have better targeting options. They can even provide discounts or coupons for the users who visit their website or follow them on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram.

Email Marketing vs. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves sending emails to existing customers or prospects to promote your business or brand.

Email marketing has become one of the most effective channels for businesses as it provides them with direct engagement with their audience. It can also be used as an effective lead generation tool.

What to Consider When Crafting An Effective Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to reach out to their customers. It is also a great way for companies to build relationships with their customers. However, email marketing campaigns can be complex to craft and execute.

Many factors need to be considered when crafting an effective email marketing campaign. This includes the content of the email, the timing of the email, and how it will be delivered.

Content

A significant factor in the success of an email is the content. There are many different types of content in email marketing, and you must find what works for your audience. 

For example, if a company sends out a newsletter, it might be best to write about product updates or industry trends that are relevant to their customer base. 

Personalization is key. A marketer or salesperson can send out email campaigns with a personal story about how you can be successful with their product and what you’ll gain in return.

Timing

Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audience. It is also one of the most effective ways to build relationships with customers and prospects.

Email timing is an essential factor in email marketing campaigns. It can be used to send out emails at the right time when people are most receptive and ready to take action.

The following are some factors that you should consider when crafting an effective email marketing campaign:

• The best time of day for your audience
• The best time of the week for your audience (weekends or weekdays)
• The best time of the month for your audience (holidays and paydays)
• The best day of the year for your audience (seasonal offers)

Delivery

Additionally, consider how your email will be delivered. This includes factors like:

• The type of device that will be used to read the email
• The time of day that the email will be sent
• The location where the recipient lives
• The recipient’s behavior on your product/service

Email Marketing Strategies and Industries

Email marketing strategy is the process of planning and executing email campaigns to promote your brand or product. It includes planning, creating, sending, tracking, and analyzing email campaigns.

The first step in an effective email strategy is planning. This includes deciding on the type of content you want to send out and how often you want to send it out.

The next step is creating content for emails – this includes writing copy for emails, designing graphics for emails, and coming up with creative ideas for emails.

The third step in an email marketing strategy is sending – this includes sending emails through different channels like social media platforms or websites.

The fourth step in an email marketing campaign is to ensure that your email is working for the best results by verifying which of your campaigns are being opened by people.

B2C Email Marketing

B2C email marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on the consumer’s needs. It is a form of direct marketing that uses email to reach out to potential customers.

B2C email marketing can be used for lead generation, customer acquisition, and customer retention. It can also be used to build brand awareness and increase sales.

The most important thing about B2C email marketing is that it should be personalized and relevant to the individual recipient.

The goal of B2C email marketing is to increase customer retention rates by providing them with relevant content that they are interested in. 

In addition, by sending educational content to your potential customers regularly, you can increase your chances of selling more products and services to them because they will be more likely to engage with your messages and learn about all new products.

B2B Email Marketing

B2B email marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on the business-to-business (B2B) market. It is a way to reach out to potential customers and prospects in the same industry as your company.

B2B email marketing aims to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and build relationships with customers.

Email Marketing for E-commerce

E-commerce email marketing is a form of marketing that uses email to reach out to customers. It is a way for businesses to communicate with their customers and build relationships.

E-commerce email marketing can be used in many ways, such as sending newsletters, promotions, and announcements. It can also be used as a lead generation tool by collecting customer information and sending relevant offers.

Email Marketing for Marketing Agencies

Marketing agencies use email marketing for their clients. For example, they can send emails with personalized content and track the performance of these emails.

They can also use email marketing for their own business by sending newsletters and other promotional messages.

Email Marketing for Real Estate

Email marketing has become an essential part of the real estate industry. It allows real estate agents to easily market themselves to potential clients in a cost-effective way.

Email marketing is a revolutionary online tool that allows real estate agents, landlords, and business owners to reach out to potential buyers and tenants with targeted messages. Email marketing also helps you to stay in touch with your current customers.

7 Ways On How to Craft an Effective Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing campaigns are not just about sending emails. They are about crafting an effective email marketing campaign to help you achieve your goals and objectives.

1. Decide Who Your Audience Is

The key to crafting an effective email marketing campaign is defining your audience and crafting a message that will resonate with them. This can be done by using personas, fictional characters representing different types of people in your target audience.

Define Your Buyer Persona

A buyer persona represents the target audience for a product or service. It describes the person who will be using the product or service. Additionally, it is an idealized representation of your target audience. It can be created by analyzing demographics, psychographics, and other data about your target audience.

• Demographics: Various factors such as age, gender, location, interests, etc.
• Psychographics: The needs, wants, and motivations of the target audience.
• Pain Points: The problems or “pains” your ideal customer is actively seeking to solve.

Interview Current and Prospective Customers

When interviewing your customers, it is essential to know who your audience is. Therefore, you should ask questions that will help you understand their needs and wants.

The first step in this process is identifying the type of customer you are interviewing. There are three types of customers:

• Current Customers: These are people who have already purchased from you or have been exposed to your brand somehow. They may be loyal, or they may be new customers.
• Prospective Customers: These are people who haven’t purchased from you yet, but they might in the future. They might be potential clients, partners, or employees.
• The Market: This includes everyone else – people who don’t buy from you but could potentially buy from you in the future if they need

2. Set Goals

The goal of an email marketing campaign should be clear and concise. In addition, the goal should be something that the customer can easily understand and relate to. For example, if you are selling a product, your goal could be “to increase sales by 10%”.

Overall, an email marketing campaign aims to get the customer’s attention and make them want to take action.

3. Create a Way for People to Opt-in

The key to success in email marketing is creating a way for your audience to subscribe. This can be done by using an email signup form or asking for their email address at the end of the email.

Additionally, you’ll need to create an incentive to get people to opt-in. This can be done through the use of a lead magnet.

4. Build Your List

To build a list of subscribers interested in your product or service, you’ll need to create a compelling offer, use email automation tools, and segment your list based on demographics and interests.

Email automation tools allow you to send personalized emails to your subscribers based on their preferences and behaviors. They also help you track the effectiveness of your campaigns so that you can make adjustments accordingly.

5. Decide The Best Campaign Type

Another key to a successful email marketing campaign is to decide on the best type of campaign for your business. There are three types of email campaigns: transactional, promotional, and nurturing.

• Transactional: Emails sent when you want to sell something or ask for a purchase or donation. They are also designed to keep customers engaged.
• Promotional: These emails are a vital part of the marketing industry. They are sent when you want to share your company’s information about a product, service, or new developments with your audience. As their name suggests, promotional emails can be used for different purposes, such as special promotions and personalized offers.
• Nurturing: A type of email sent when an author wants to build a relationship with their audience and keep them engaged with content that they find exciting and relevant. A nurturing email can be sent when reaching out to your audience, replying to their emails, or checking in on how they feel about a recent piece of content.

Once you’ve decided whether your marketing campaign will focus on nurturing, transactional, and promotional emails, you can further specialize them into subcategories with templates. Below are a few examples of popular styles of sales and content emails:

New Content Announcement

This email type is used to send an announcement about a new product or service that you are launching. It can also be used to announce a new blog post or article that you have published.

Product Update

Products updates are emails sent out to inform customers about new products, features, and changes in the product. They are sent out regularly and are usually sent out by email marketing software. Product Update emails have been proven to increase customer engagement and retention rates by up to 20%.

Newsletter

The newsletter email type is a transactional email that sends information about a company or brand. It can be sent as an email newsletter, but it can also be sent through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Event Invitation

Event invitations are sent to people who have been invited to an event. The event organizer or the venue typically sends them out. Event invitation emails are typically used for events such as weddings, parties, and conferences. However, they can also be for exclusive online classes, seminars, Q&As, or special deals in the digital world.

6. Schedule Your Emails

The key to success when scheduling your email marketing campaign is consistency. If you want your emails to be effective, you need to send them regularly and make sure they are relevant and exciting.

Plan and schedule your emails at the right time to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign.

7. Analyze and Optimize Results

Email marketing campaigns are not just about sending out emails. They are about understanding your audience, crafting compelling content, and measuring the success of your campaign.

When you’re crafting your marketing strategy, it’s crucial first to identify what your KPIs are. You can then establish ways to measure the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.

Types of Emails for Different Stages of the Sales Funnel

There are many different types of emails that you can use in your sales funnel. Each one has a specific purpose and is used at a different sales funnel stage. However, they do tend to follow a general pattern. Below is a simplified structure of how an email campaign carries a lead into the later stages of the sales email.

The first email is the welcome email. It is sent to your new customers, and it should be personalized and informative. It should also include a call-to-action that will help them get started with your product or service.

The second email is an onboarding email. This type of email is sent to your new customers after they have signed up for your product or service, and it should be personalized and informative. It should also include a call to action that will help them get started with the product or service.

The third email is an activation email that is sent to your existing customers after they have used the product or service for a certain period.

Below we share more specific and popular examples of emails you can use at different funnel stages.

1. Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing emails are a great way to build trust and rapport with your leads by delivering on a promised piece of content. They are also a great way to keep your leads engaged and interested in what you have to offer.

Lead nurturing emails can be used for lead generation, lead conversion, or lead retention. They can also be used as a tool for customer service or sales. They are typically sent out on the first day of the month, but they can be sent out at any time.

2. Addressing Paint Points

Sales emails that address your customer’s pain points are sent to potential customers who have a problem and need a solution. These emails are designed to help the customer solve their problem and make them feel like they have been heard. They can be used in many different ways, such as offering an additional lead magnet or even as an appointment setting strategy.

Problem-focused sales emails can also be used for customer retention by sending them to customers who have had a positive experience with your company.

3. Social Proof

Social proof emails contain testimonials, case studies, or other forms of social proof. They are sent to your customers after purchasing from you or signing up for your email list.

The purpose of these emails is to increase the trust between the customer and the company by showing them that other people had bought from you before and had positive experiences with your product or service. As a result, social proof emails are a great way to increase conversions and sales.

4. Overcoming Sales Objections

The most common objection emails are those that say “I’m not sure,” “I need more information,” or “I don’t know what to do.”

The best way to overcome these objections is by providing a clear and concise answer. This can be done by using the following tactics:

• Provide a clear call-to-action in the subject line.
• Include a link in the email that provides more information about your product or service.
• Offer a free trial of your product or service.

5. Last Calls

Last call emails are emails that are sent out to customers who have not yet responded to a previous email. They are sent out at the last minute before an offer expires.

Last call emails can be used for a variety of purposes, such as:

• Reminding customers about an upcoming event or sale
• Providing information about a new product or service
• Offering discounts and incentives for early purchase

Important Statistics and Metrics of an Email Marketing Campaign

The statistics and metrics of an email marketing campaign can be used to measure the performance of a campaign. This is important because it allows us to know which areas need improvement.

We have put together a few statistics and metrics to consider when planning your next email marketing campaign.

Metrics

Some important metrics to watch out for when running an email campaign include:

• Open rates
• Click rates
• Unsubscribe rates
• Conversion rates.

Statistics

Here are some statistics that you should be aware of when running an email campaign:

• Email opens are declining at a rate of 10% per year 
• Email deliverability rates have been steadily increasing over the past few years 
• The average open rate for emails is 25%.
• The average click-through rate for emails is 0.2%.
• The average conversion rate for emails is 1%.

How Do You Know If Your Campaign Is Effective?

The goal of marketing is to reach people and influence them. The effectiveness of a marketing campaign depends on how well the campaign is designed.

Marketing campaigns are often evaluated based on their ROI (return on investment). This can be done by measuring the number of leads generated, sales, or if the campaign has impacted the brand.

Increase in awareness

There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of a campaign. While you can’t actually measure brand awareness, you can set certain goals and KPIs relative to your business.

The familiarity of the market with your brand can’t be measured accurately but recorded data from your email marketing efforts can help. You can do it by tracking how many people opened their email, clicking on a button, or viewing your website.

Your campaign should also be able to provide returns. To do this, your can calculate your ROI: take the amount of money spent on advertising and then comparing it with the amount of money earned from sales generated from your ad.

Site Traffic

Another way is to look at the site traffic. If you see a significant increase in traffic, then you know that your campaign was effective.

Inquiries and Callbacks

The number of callbacks and inquiries is another important marker for an email marketing campaign. The more inquiries and callbacks you get, the more effective your campaign is.

Actual Sales

The most common way to measure the effectiveness of a campaign is by looking at actual sales that were generated by it. Setting up campaign goals with conversions can be done through tracking tools like Google Analytics.

Wrapping It Up

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. But unfortunately, it is also one of the most challenging marketing channels to master.

When creating an effective email strategy, one critical decision is choosing the right tools. Many tools can help you with this process, but choosing a tool that fits your needs and budget is essential.

Once you have chosen a tool, it’s time to plan your campaign. This includes deciding what type of content you want to send out and how often you want to send it out. You should also decide how long you want your email campaign to last and what kind of content will be sent out during each campaign stage.

The email marketing strategy should be based on a clear goal and a well-defined target audience. The goal should be measurable, and the target audience should be segmented into different groups with different needs.

Lastly, marketing consulting services are a great way to get started with email marketing. They can help you create an effective email strategy and campaign that produces a meaningful ROI for your business.