What is Email Marketing?

Calling all savvy marketers! Ever wondered what is email marketing and how does it work?

Well, you’re in for a treat.

Emails for marketing can supercharge your brand’s visibility and engagement.

The latest numbers show that for every dollar you put into email marketing, you’re likely to make forty four dollars back on average.

In this post, we’re diving into the world of email marketing and unlocking its potential for your brand. 

We’ll share the secrets to crafting compelling campaigns, growing your subscriber list, and driving conversions like a pro.

What Is Email Marketing And How Does It Work?

Email marketing is a powerful tool that allows companies to connect directly with their target audience, delivering tailored messages and promotions straight to their inbox.

In 2022, there were 4 billion daily email users worldwide, and this number is expected to climb to 4.6 billion by 2025

More than 90% of businesses say email marketing is important to their company’s overall success, and 41% say it’s vital

55% of consumers say email is their preferred digital channel for business communication

Globally, 30% of marketers cite email marketing as having the highest email marketing ROI. For every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return, according to a study by Campaign Monitor, which equals a 4400% ROI.

According to research from December 2022, the average open rate across 200 million emails was 34.51%, and the average click rate was 1.33% 

Email marketing is mostly used for lead generation (85%), sales (84%), and nurturing leads (31%) in B2B organizations

Therefore, opting for email marketing has become a pivotal strategy for businesses seeking to expand their reach and increase revenue. 

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a tool in digital marketing. 

It involves sending targeted emails to showcase your business’s offerings to potential customers. 

This practice ensures that your audience stays informed about your products or services.

When coupled with marketing automation, even during non-purchasing phases it becomes indispensable for:

•  lead generation
• fostering brand recognition
• maintaining connections with customers

While there are newer means of engaging with your audience, such as social media posts and live chat, email remains the reigning champion of marketing channels, boasting a user base exceeding 4.5 billion people.

Is Email Marketing Outdated?

Absolutely not!

Email marketing is still effective.

Despite the popularity of social media, email remains a powerful tool. 

Why? 

Because most people are active on email.

In fact, the number of email users worldwide has been steadily rising. 

In 2022, there were around 4.26 billion email users. Projections suggest this will grow to 4.73 billion by 2026.

The COVID-19 pandemic further boosted email usage. Marketers are now using it more compared to before the pandemic.

Looking ahead, the user base is expected to grow by 3% annually, adding roughly 100 million users each year.

Moreover, with email marketing, you have full control over your connections. No need to fret about sudden algorithm changes affecting your reach.

How Does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing is a powerful tool to grow businesses. We’ll share a proven plan that’s boosted our business significantly over the years. 

This strategy is beginner-friendly and we’ll guide you through it step by step.

Build Your Email List

To make your emails count, you need the right audience. Let’s dive into the first step: building your list.

What Not to Do?

Avoid purchasing email lists. 

Firstly, many of the addresses may be outdated. 

Secondly, these recipients never opted in to hear from you.

As a result, they’re unlikely to engage with your emails. 

In fact, a significant portion may mark them as spam, which is not what you want.

Caution:

Too many spam marks can send all your emails to the dreaded spam folder.

The Right Approach?

Encourage people to willingly join your list. Offer a valuable lead magnet, something so enticing they willingly share their email.

You’ll want to craft a highly valuable piece of content that’s so appealing, that people will gladly provide their email address to get it. 

This content is often referred to as a lead magnet, lead generator, or freebie.

The type of freebie you offer can determine whether you build a robust and engaged list, or end up with no sign-ups at all.

Creating Your Lead Magnet

Make it transformational, not just informational. Aim for results, not just knowledge.

Let’s move on to what works well and what doesn’t when it comes to building an email list.

What doesn’t work is simply asking people to sign up for a newsletter. A newsletter usually doesn’t bring a clear benefit or transformation

On the other hand, what does work is offering something that delivers a specific result. 

For instance, instead of offering ‘five things to know about SaaS marketing,’ provide a ‘step-by-step plan to 3x your organic traffic in two weeks.’ 

he latter promises a tangible outcome.

Relevance Matters:

Ensure it aligns with your paid offerings. It should be a taste of what you provide.

Choose a lead magnet topic closely related to your paid services. For example, if you’re a SaaS product owner and offer training, a training guide makes sense as it’s a simplified version of your paid training services. 

Avoid topics that don’t form a strong connection between the freebie and your paid services, like ‘how to choose the right HR manager.’

Spread the Word:

Once you’ve created the lead magnet, utilize both free and paid traffic to spread the word.

Post about it on all your online channels (website, social media). You can put up paid ads to promote the lead magnet as well.

Make opting in easy on your website.  

Create a Landing Page for the Lead Magnet

First, you want a dedicated landing page that’s all about your freebie and nothing else.

Wes McDowell does it really well on his website, to promote his free lead magnet.

 

You see that he just leads with a compelling title a brief description and a super simple form that just asks for the first name so he can use it in future emails and of course their email address.

That’s it. 

Then underneath, he includes some bullet points that are meant to build curiosity. 

Now this is just a really strong formula for an opt-in page like this. He gets about 600 leads per month using this formula.

Bonus: Duplicate the upper section and insert it onto each page of your website. Position it roughly halfway down your homepage and at the bottom of all other pages. 

This repetition significantly boosts opt-in rates, as you can’t predict which pages visitors will explore. This approach ensures comprehensive coverage.

Add an Exit Intent Pop-up

To boost your success, consider incorporating this into a site-wide exit intent pop-up. 

This means that when a visitor is about to leave your site by clicking the back button, they’ll receive one final offer. 

This trick can potentially increase your opt-in rates by an extra 10-15%.

Drive Traffic to the Dedicated Landing Page

Now, let’s focus on channeling visitors to your dedicated landing page through social media. 

If you have a robust presence and a sizable following, make regular posts about your lead magnet. Include a direct link to the opt-in page.

Additionally, if this approach proves successful, consider amplifying it by investing in paid advertising. 

You can utilize various major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even TikTok.

Remember, whether users opt-in through your organic posts or paid ads, the process remains consistent: they provide their email addresses.

Now that we’re actively growing your email list daily, let’s move on to the next step: cherishing your list. 

Simply acquiring an email address is just the start.

Remember, you’re not collecting them for a distant future. Your aim is to cultivate each lead with tailored emails at the right pace.

Send Helpful Emails That People Actually Want To Open

What are the right kinds of emails that people want to open? 

These are the ones that increase interest in your paid offers. Instead of bombarding your list with promotions, focus on providing value. 

We like to follow  Gary Vaynerchuk’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. This means giving value at least three times before making a sale offer. 

If you only sell in every email, your audience will lose interest fast. 

To avoid this, treat your email list like an emotional bank account. 

Just as you need to deposit money to make a withdrawal, in emails, you must invest in goodwill, value, and building a connection for your audience to stay engaged.

As our friend and email copywriting expert Jules Dan puts it, if you were just selling in every email, you’d lose your audience quickly. So, we need to ‘deposit’ value and goodwill to build a relationship.

For every four emails, three should offer helpful tips or advice, possibly linking to articles, podcast episodes, or videos. 

Remember, email marketing and content marketing complement each other. 

Sharing valuable information, even if created by someone else, is just as valuable as creating it yourself.

Once you’ve drafted the email and its contents, select an email provider of your choice, and set up your campaign.

Our top picks are  MailChimp , Drip or Snovio. They will automatically send your freebie out to your new subscribers in real-time.

Email Marketing Example

Let’s dive into examples to illustrate effective and ineffective email marketing.

Starting with the positive, Rover, an app for booking dog care services, excels in crafting emails with valuable content.

These do a great job at peaking curiosity for any dog owner. This is stuff a dog owner would definitely want to know. 

For instance, they use subject lines like “Tired of getting pulled around by your dog?” which immediately addresses a common concern. This approach adds value to their sales emails.

Use Story Telling For Email Marketing

To enhance email engagement and build stronger connections, incorporate short stories to convey your message. 

Stories allow for a more subtle approach, avoiding direct labeling or assumptions about your audience’s feelings. 

This is crucial, especially with cold leads, as their guard is naturally up. By sharing relatable stories about yourself or clients, you create a more inviting atmosphere.

Here are actionable ways for service businesses to utilize storytelling:

1. Narrate how you solved a client’s problem, a highly effective strategy.
2. Avoid excessive pitching. Instead, conclude with a thought-provoking question or takeaway.

Additional Tip:

Contrary to popular belief, elaborate HTML templates can make emails appear sales-driven. Opt for plain text, devoid of headers or logos, to increase visibility and engagement.

 This approach allows your email to seamlessly blend in with personal messages, ensuring it stands out without looking like garbage.

Tips For Email Marketing

Here are some simple techniques to make your emails more engaging and easy to read:

1. Utilize short paragraphs and plenty of line breaks.
2. Highlight important phrases in bold to ensure they catch the reader’s eye.
3. Incorporate emojis and bullet lists when relevant.
4. Ensure your emails are easily scannable for quick understanding.
5. Maintain a conversational and friendly tone for a one-to-one connection.

Wrapping It Up

That covers our post on what is email marketing and how it works.

Remember, we’re writing these emails for marketing. Being overly formal won’t make a strong impression or nurture a genuine connection.

People value authenticity in the businesses they choose. They prefer dealing with individuals, not faceless companies or HR departments.

Understanding your audience is key. Know what kind of content will resonate with them and which might not.

Above all, nail your subject line. After all, if nobody clicks on your email to begin with, the rest doesn’t matter.

Tailor your approach accordingly.

Voila! There you have it.