is Email marketing & how to get started [2023]?

Some people claim email is a thing of the past. Email is one of the most powerful digital marketing channels.

Email marketing still delivers a staggering return on investment of $42 per dollar, despite the rise of social marketing. It is also a direct way to engage and reach your audience.

To make it work, you have to do it correctly.

This guide will teach you:

• What is it and how does it work?
• Why it is important for every business
• How to start right away

What is Email Marketing?

Sending mass promotional emails to people is an example of email marketing. The goal is to educate, inform or convince them to do something. This digital marketing strategy uses email newsletters and transactional emails to promote sales.

Brands are also incorporating AI in their email campaigns, to convert prospects into buyers and one-time purchasers into recurring buyers.

Email marketing is a powerful tool for any business. You need to find out what your audience enjoys, and use that information to design powerful newsletters.

requires that the user consent. You are in the inbox of your recipient, and you should treat it as a guest.

Let’s see how it works now that we know what email marketing is.

How Does Email Marketing Work ?

Email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. It is also easy to automate. Even a complete beginner can get started, learn quickly and be successful.

Email marketing is a three-part process.

1. A Email List

You need an email list to start your email marketing campaign. Your email list is made up of the email addresses of people who have agreed to receive your marketing messages.

You must make sure that your email list is active before you can send a successful email marketing campaign.

You can build your email list in a variety of ways. You can build your own email list by offering an incentive to your audience. They will give you their email address in return.

Lead magnets are usually called incentives.

• Coupons
• Bookstores
• Downloadable content

2. Email Service Provider

An Email Service Provider (ESP) is also known as email marketing services and it’s a platform which allows you to manage your list of email addresses. It allows you to segment and personalize your messages for each audience.

Using an ESP will also allow you to create automated email campaigns. You can automate actions based on the behavior of your audience. You can, for example, set up a reminder to remind users of their abandoned cart if they add a product to their cart but don’t checkout. This allows for almost all interactions to be customized, resulting in higher conversion and engagement rates.

Modern ESPs are also compatible with other tools that you may use, like CRMs or platforms for eCommerce, so you can streamline the process.

3. A Specific Goal

A clearly defined business goal is the final element. You risk sending messages to your audience that they will ignore if you don’t. Email marketing can be used for a variety of purposes.

• Lead generation
• Brand awareness
• Drive more sales
• Increase engagement with your brand
• Build a relationship of mutual trust with your audience

You will be on the right track to success if you have a goal in mind before creating your email marketing campaign.

Let’s explore the incredible benefits of email now that we have seen the basics!

Email Marketing: 5 Benefits

Marketers need to develop the best strategies in order to survive today’s highly competitive and demanding marketing environment. Email marketing can help you become a gladiator of email marketing who runs a successful company.

You’ll discover below the benefits of email marketing, and why it is essential for any successful digital marketing campaign.

Improved Conversion Rates

Email is not only a great way to reach a large audience, but it also has incredibly high conversion rates. According to research, email converts more leads than Facebook or Twitter combined. It makes sense, doesn’t it?

Email is also seen as a professional and trustworthy channel. With the right elements like user testimonials and reviews, a campaign can be a powerful conversion tool.

Let’s not forget emails can be measured, in terms of conversions, open rates, click through rates, bounces and more.

Source

You need an email marketing automation platform that provides you with sophisticated reporting tools to monitor your performance.

When you register for a free Moosend Account, you will have access to the platform’s real-time analytics and reporting to track your email performance. This allows you to optimize your conversion rate. You will know exactly how well your messages are performing!

Top Communication Channel

Optinmonster reports that 99% of users check their email every day. This is a staggeringly high number! 72% prefer to get promotional material via email.

Email is also a more professional way to get information on products and services compared to social media or television ads. Email marketing automation has allowed email marketers to deliver personalized content.

Here is a simple but personalized Email Marketing Example from G2.

This campaign will not only send professional emails, but also personal and friendly messages that make your audience click!

Expanded audience reach

Email has become a part of our online daily lives. Statista predicts that global email usage will reach 4,48 billion users in 2024.

It may seem absurd, but if you consider the online journey of a client, it is easy to understand. Anyone who uses the internet has an email account, which they use to send and receive countless messages every day. Check out:

Source

Gmail is a mobile app that makes it easy to access and read emails.

Email marketing is the most effective way to reach potential clients and leads, as it has the largest reach among all known channels.

High Return On Investment

Email marketing also has a high ROI. It offers a ROI of approximately 4200%. This means that for each $1 you spend, you will receive $42.

Source

Email is an effective online marketing tool for all businesses.

Email is the most important source of ROI for 59% of marketers. It’s not surprising that email is a great way to deliver personalized and relevant messages to the right audience. This is something social media and SEO can’t match.

Permission based channel

Email marketing relies on your customer actively showing interest in your brand and providing their email address.

If you earn permission before sending your marketing message, rather than just randomly displaying advertisements and hoping that they work, then there is a higher chance of conversions and engagement.

The fact that you can unsubscribe your audience from your list of email subscribers and they will no longer receive your messages allows you to maintain a healthy list while making good use your budget.

Contact List of Engaged Users

Email is the last but not least way to own your list. Or should I say “the Lord of your List?”

This is a great benefit, as you don’t have to depend on anyone else. You also won’t lose such an important asset.

You can communicate directly with each new subscriber by adding them to your list.

Social media platforms are different. Your account and valuable leads can be taken at any moment, without notice. This could negatively affect your ability to engage and reach your target audience.

Building and maintaining your email list will prove to be a significant investment for you business over the long-term.

Email Examples

This section contains some of the essential email marketing examples that a growing company needs. This section is intended to provide you with inspiration and ideas on how to design your next email.

1. Abandoned Cart Email Marketing Campaign

Subject: Please hurry! You can get a discount for your purchase…

Why this works: This abandoned-cart campaign by Tsuki, is a masterpiece in simplicity and effectiveness. The subject line works because it grabs your attention immediately and gets you ready for a sale on an item you planned to purchase.

The email design is elegant and clean, without any unnecessary elements. The email copy creates FOMO by telling customers that the item will be sold out once it is gone. Restocks are not allowed.

2. ModCloth Promotional Email Campaign

Dresses for $29 on Thursday!

Why does it work? The ModCloth brand uses clever messaging to market its products. The brand uses the contrast between blue and white in order to achieve a pleasing visual result. The email copy is very minimal, and most of the work is done by the headline. It’s an email that caters to the reader’s limited attention span.

3. Starbucks – Customer Loyalty Program

Subject: Your Free Plays are Awaiting

Why does it work? In this email campaign to reward customers, Starbucks has used the brand’s color palette while the images subconsciously reinforce the message. The email is short and has a clear CTA (Join Now) that directs users to take the desired action.

Get started with Email Marketing in 6 Easy Steps

You’re going to ask yourself: ” how do I get started with Email Marketing?”

We’ve put together a video that will show you how to start with email marketing, from signing up on an Email Marketing Platform to sending your very first campaign.

Or you can keep reading here.

Do not worry! You will learn how to create a successful email marketing campaign by following 6 easy steps.

Select an Email Marketing Platform. Step #1: Select an Email Marketing Platform

To get started, you need to select a high-quality email marketing service that will provide you with all the tools necessary. It can be a bit tiresome to look through endless email marketing service providers.

You should consider these two factors to make life easier.

Cost of Email marketing platform

When you are just starting out, the cost is important. Most email service providers provide a free plan, or a free trial of their platform.

It is a great way to test the features if you have a limited budget. A free trial or plan is a great way to gather data before you decide on a paid subscription.

Tip Try a free trial or plan to get started. You’ll also need to scale your business as your list grows.

Email marketing services charge by either email volume or number of subscribers. The first model is better suited for businesses with standard needs who want to send out a set number of emails each month. The second pricing model is better suited for most businesses, as it does not limit the number of email campaigns you can send and pricing scales according to your business growth.

Email Marketing Essential Features

You should also pay close attention to the features that your email marketing software offers.

Never compromise on something that offers less than what you need.

Here are some of the most popular options available to you:

Your email marketing software must include the following features:

• A drag-and drop email builder.A user-friendly editor helps you customize your templates and design your emails without any technical knowledge.
• email templates: pre-made templates can save you time and provide inspiration.
• Variety of email campaignsYour platform should offer you different types including A/Testing campaigns, RSS campaigns, automation campaigns, and more.
• Segmentation and Personalization Options:To target your audience with a specific message, sophisticated tools are required to segment them according to certain criteria.
• Integrations:integrating with popular applications will streamline your marketing efforts.

It is also important to check if your chosen email marketing software has capabilities. An all-in one tool can help you increase email signups and boost your email marketing.

You can create a free Moosend account to see how it all works.

Windows Report has selected Moosend as a solution for email marketing. Windows Report is an authoritative website for everything Windows. It also offers tips and news for tech users.

Step 2: Grow Your Email List Step #2: Grow Your Email list

Now that you’ve selected the platform best suited to your needs, it’s time to move on to the second most important step. It’s time to move on to the next most important step: email database building.

You should always ask for permission before you send an email to your audience. You must always get permission before emailing your audience! It’s important to be clear about the purpose of requesting an address when you ask for one.

You can grow your list in many ways:

Add an opt-in form to your website

The first thing that you should do is to create a simple opt-in on your website. You can now easily embed subscription forms into your website using most ESPs.

This is an example of the popular brand MEUndies.

For to create a successful opt in form you must make it clear what your audience can expect. You can tell them what type of content to expect in their emails, or how often they’ll be contacted.

Keep your promises or else you may end up annoying your subscribers, causing them to unsubscribe, or worse still, to flag your emails as spam. It would negatively affect your email delivery rate.

Use Lead Magnets and Content Upgrades

You need to give something of value away for free in order to maximize your efforts. This is what we called a “lead magnet”.

Lead magnets consist of digital content such as videos, PDFs, etc. that cost little or nothing to produce. The lead magnets can be anything, as long as they can be used immediately by the audience.

Here is an example of a real MVMT lead magnet that comes in the form a discount.

New customers looking to save money can benefit from 10% off at an eCommerce business such as MVMT.

Different subscription forms can be used to entice users into signing up:

• Newsletter signup form.
• exit intention pop-ups : Offer an additional, highly valuable resource to your visitors before they leave. This will boost sign-ups without interfering with the user’s experience.
• floating box:they move and stay on a visitor’s webpage as they scroll down. They usually contain a strong call to action that encourages visitors to subscribe
• Full-page forms : forms that cover a visitor’s page in order to draw attention.

Leverage Social Media

You can also expand your list using social media.

Share your sign-up form on social media to increase your email subscribers.

Important note:Never buy email lists online. They will hurt your business, not help it. It’s because the addresses you purchase haven’t given you permission to contact them with promotional messages. They will therefore flag you as spammer if you don’t know who you are.

Segment Your Email List in Step 3. Segment Your Email List

Email List Management Best Practices: Segmenting your audience by similar interests is one the best practices for managing email lists. Why? Your email campaigns will not be effective if you do not segment your emails properly.

Create targeted groups to create content tailored to your customers’ needs, and offer them unique solutions.

The benefits of segmenting your business are numerous:

• Open rates can be improved
• Click-through rate boost
• Unsubscribe from the newsletter
• reduce spam complaints

The value of segmentation cannot be denied. According to DMA research, targeted and segmented emails produce 58% of revenue.

Take it one step further and you will find a multitude of ways to segment your list. Let’s look at some examples that will get you going!

Best Segmentation Criteria

Email marketers segment their audiences based on Demographics such as age, gender and profession.

The power of advanced segmentation can help you target your audience in new ways.

Here are some of the most creative segments you can make:

• Send a welcome message to new subscribers. Or send a series of welcome emails to establish trust and a relationship which will lead to sales.
• Customer List: separates leads who have bought from those who have not.
• First-time buyers can be turned into repeat customers with a bounce back email or follow-up offer.
• VIPs : your most loyal customers who make frequent purchases. Make sure they are happy with exclusive offers and loyalty programs.
• Cart abandoners : Subscribers who have forgotten to add something to their cart.
• Preferences : Segment your audience by whether they only want to receive sales notifications or also blog posts.
• Lead Magnet: Depending on the lead magnet that your subscribers have chosen, send them relevant email.
• Open Rate: Send an exclusive offer with a conversion subject line to reward your most loyal customers.

It’s clear that segmenting your mailing list gives you an edge over those competitors who do not.

Instead of sending emails that are impersonal, you’ll send targeted emails . This will also make it easier for you to automate your campaigns, as we’ll discuss in the next section.

Create Your First Email Campaign Step #4: Create Your First Email Marketing Campaign

After you’ve mastered the basics, it’s now time for a successful email campaign.

You’ll see:

• How to select the right campaign type
• What you need to do in order to create your email and finally,
• How to send it to Your Audience

Select The Right Campaign Type

You can send different types of emails to your subscribers. What type of email campaign you choose will depend on your overall goal.

Moosend offers, for instance, four types of email campaigns – Regular, A/B testing, Repeatable and RSS.

It is a good idea to create a campaign that you can easily design if you are looking to promote a product.

Bloggers can use RSS campaigns to promote their blog posts, and boost their content-marketing efforts via email.

You can use A/B tests to test two variations of an email sent to different segments on your list to see which worked.

Create Your Email Marketing Campaign

After selecting the campaign type you want, it is time to design your email Newsletter.

You need to know some basic things in order to get the most out of your campaign:

• Visuals
• Email Copy
• Personalization
• Call to action button

Your campaign should be designed in a manner that encourages reading. A campaign that is difficult to read or boring will be sent straight to the spam folder.

To avoid this, encourage your subscribers to read through your content. can then guide them to your CTA.

The inverted pyramid is a great way to achieve this. Here’s an excellent example from morphe.

You will need:

• A concise and catchy title with the main message of your campaign
• High-quality images in newsletters to convince the reader
• A CTA will show you what to do.

All of the above is essential for a high conversion rate and a click-through rate.

You don’t want your email to be cluttered with too much information or text. Add visuals to your email. This will help you to avoid walls of text and make it unique.

When it comes to the copy of your email try to keep it concise, on-point,, and relevant for your subject line.

Take a look at the successful email marketing example created by Guess.

Don’t forget personalization. It is essential to engage your subscribers. Try adding their name to the subject line of your email.

Your CTAs need to be as clear and concise as possible. Use consistent colors. Avoid adding too many.

Pro tip Having trouble with subject lines? Get your hands on a subject tester that will help you improve them.

Send your campaign to your subscribers

Now your campaign is ready to reach subscribers!

select the segment of your list to receive your email.

We’ve already said that relevance is important, so don’t “annoy” your subscribers unless it’s necessary to achieve your goals.

You need to check the deliverability for your campaign. Deliverability is negatively affected by weak content, poor designs and non-responsive email templates.

Including a visible Unsubscribe Link in the footer, like MOO can do the trick.

Wait, what?

If you don’t provide a way for your uninterested readers to opt out, you may be reported as spam. It will harm your sender rating.

Remember that many people are going to read your email on a mobile phone, so you need to make sure that your campaign is mobile friendly.

You should run a test with an email tester after you have done these things to see if your email is received in popular email clients such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo.

Finally, you need to schedule the delivery. It may be best to schedule the delivery for a certain time or send it immediately to get maximum impact.

A tip for email marketers: It is possible that some recipients will not open the email. You can automate resending of emails to people who do not open. It can be a great way to double your open rates with little effort.

Step #5. Step #5.

You can send an email to each subscriber and respond to them. As your list grows, and as your campaigns become more complicated, it becomes impossible to manually send hundreds of emails.

Marketing automation can help. autoresponders allow you to send emails automatically to specific segments of your database after an event occurs.

When a customer signs up for a newsletter or adds products to their shopping basket, this is an example.

You can create a simple recipe to prevent cart abandonment through your email automation platform.

You can be “present” to all of your subscribers at any time and avoid going dark for extended periods.

It also helps you build a strong relationship to your subscribers, and turn them into potential clients.

In general, automating a sequence is a bit advanced for beginners. However, you will eventually become familiar with the process.

This guide will help you understand email automaton in depth, and how it can be used for your eCommerce business.

Step #6. Step #6.

It’s time to move on to the next step.

To make the most of your email marketing campaigns, you must track them and identify where they can be improved.

You can find free reporting and analytics in your email marketing tool’s Reports tab.

You’ll come across the following metrics:

• The number of unique clicks and opens
• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Subscribe rate
• Bounce rate
• The number of spam complaints

The three metrics that you should start with are your click-through rate and unsubscribe rate.

What reporting tells you about your campaign

Your open rate is a good indicator of the relationship you have with your subscribers.

Idealy, your subscribers should be able quickly to open and read your emails. A low open rate is a sign that your subscribers may not be engaged.

you can provide them with more value and meet their needs. A spammy subject is another common culprit for low open rates.

Why not include your subscriber’s names to make it more engaging. A/B testing is another way to find out what makes people open your emails.

Source

Your click-through rate shows you how many people have clicked on the link in your email. If your CTR is low, either your email is not targeted or your copy isn’t as compelling as you should be.

can be used to integrate Google Analytics into your platform.

Unsubscribes, I would say, are common and unavoidable. Unsubscribe rates that are high can indicate you’re losing customers.

You need to find out the reason for their departure and act accordingly.

Do you remember your promises? Are autoresponders sending a targeted message? Sending too many emails to sell instead of offering value is a mistake.

The takeaway is to pay attention to the data and act.

Frequently Answered Questions about Email Marketing (FAQ).

You’ll find answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about email marketing.

1. What is the best time of day to send an email marketing campaign?

According to various analyses, the best time for sending a marketing e-mail is between 9 am and 11am. It is also recommended that you send your marketing emails between 9 and 11 am, as many consumers are on their lunch break.

2. What is Email Marketing Automation?

Email marketing automation is a strategy that involves sending triggered emails to your subscribers. These personalized emails are sent to customers or prospects automatically when they take a certain action or meet a specific condition.

3. What is the cost of email marketing?

You can run successful email campaigns with as little as a zero-dollar investment, depending on which email marketing service provider you select. You can expect to pay anywhere between $15 and $100 per hour for an employee or agency who will handle your email marketing.

4. What is the average email open rate?

In 2022, the average email open rate across all industries will be 21.5%. This number is a good starting point, but you should also look at specific industry numbers to determine whether or not your business’s open rates are within the normal range or if they can be improved.

5. What is the best service for email marketing?

Moosend has the most advanced functionality and is easy to use. Its pricing can be scaled up as your business grows.

Take your first email marketing step

It’s time you started using email marketing!

You’ll need an email marketing tool that will help you become friends with email marketing. If you want to try Moosend, sign up for a FREE account .

Remember to ask permission and deliver on your audience’s expectation. Also, send the right messages at the right times to the correct people. You’ll see results that are better than ever!

The post Email Marketing: What is it and how to get started [2023] first appeared on Email marketing automation platform for growing businesses.

Author: Marilia Dimitriou