OK, you’re going to create and send out your first marketing email. Now the questions start. What do I say, “Who do I send it to?” “How do I know if it’s working?” You think, “Hmm, maybe I’ll start this later.”
Not to worry. Stay right there at your computer. This practical, step-by-step guide will walk you through everything you need to know, even if you’re completely new to email marketing.
Step 1: Build an email list
Before you hit “send,” you need to have people to reach, of course. A good email list should include updated email addresses, names, locations, and other pertinent information.
Usually, a good email list starts with your website. Visitors to your site likely have an interest in your business and what you have to offer. You can capitalize on that by asking them for their email address.
While many people may be reluctant to share their email to avoid spam and unwanted information, you can overcome that obstacle by offering something valuable in return. Try creating a helpful industry guide, tip sheet, or template your customers might want.
A popular way to do that is by offering useful content. If you have a plumbing business, offering tips and tricks to avoid frozen pipes, reduce water consumption, or unclog drains can entice someone to share their email information.
Another common technique is the use of discounts. Invite your customers to enjoy 10% off your product or service when they provide their email address. Alternatively, you can ask for email addresses during the account creation/check-out process, or as a way to save a product online for later.
Get creative here. Some websites even use gamification, the process of integrating point scoring and competition, to increase engagement and obtain more emails.
In short, the best way to gather email addresses is to offer your customers something first. When people feel like they’re receiving something of value, they may be more likely to share their personal information with you.
Step 2: Research and purchase email marketing software
Email marketing software can help you segment lists, customize campaigns, build templates, and measure results.
It may even help you create a “set it and forget it” automated campaign, where you allow it to run then check on the results later. That way, you don’t have to spend time and energy building every email from scratch and sending it individually.
Many email marketing software solutions will even let you organize campaigns by behavior. This means you can send separate emails to customers who have:
- Opened your first email, thereby demonstrating initial interest.
- Opened and clicked on your email, showing motivation to learn more.
- Failed to open your one or more emails, showing a lack of interest.
Here are a few popular solutions you may want to try out for yourself and see which one works best for you. Please note that the information about pricing and offerings is current as of the publication date of this article.
HubSpot: Many small business owners find HubSpot1 easy-to-use and powerful at reaching new and existing customers. The software makes it simple to segment lists, build email templates, and target different customers, based on persona and behavior.
This personalized approach to email marketing can be very effective. It speaks directly to your customers, making it clear that you understand them and their needs.
HubSpot also offers a free CRM (customer relationship manager) to complement its email marketing software, dubbed Marketing Hub.
This tool can help you organize your sales pipeline, track deals, customer information, and gain insight into behavior in real-time. For example, you can quickly see when a customer opened your email, visited your website, scheduled a meeting, and much more.
Constant Contact: Constant Contact is one of the most popular email software providers among small business owners. Not only do they offer email automation software, they also offer tools to help you create social ads, measure results, design sign-up forms and polls, and much more.
Constant Contact is also regarded as having exceptional customer support through live chat, emails, phone calls, and community resources. With Constant Contact, it’s easy to get started. Just head over to their website to start a free trial.2
Mailchimp: While Mailchimp3 may not have as many features as other solutions currently on the market, we had to add it to this list due to the platform’s popularity and insane price point — yes, Mailchimp is actually free if you’d like to try email marketing without a costly commitment. You could test out a few email campaigns using Mailchimp’s free solution.
If you like the results, you could upgrade to one of Mailchimp’s paid plans or explore other email programs.
Remember, your email software solution isn’t written in stone. You can always try different solutions to find the best approach for your small business, then make a change later.
Fortunately, today’s products are relatively easy to switch out and rebuild. Plus, many solutions offer hands-on customer success experts (such as HubSpot) who can walk you through the start-up process.
We recommend trying out a solution, sending a few campaigns, then taking note of what you like or don’t like.
Step 3: Determine your goals for email marketing
Before you start designing your email and writing content, it’s important to take some time to think about your goals.
For example, do you want to drive sales? Need to boost your company’s brand? Want to keep current customers engaged? Maybe you hope to accomplish all three.
Here are a few common goals to consider:
Increase brand awareness.
When people recognize your brand and equate it to positive emotions, they’re more likely to choose your company over a competitor. That’s why so many small business owners focus on getting their brand name “out there.”
Email can be an effective tool for boosting brand awareness, particularly if you’re a small or newer company that hasn’t engaged in digital marketing in the past.
Try launching an informational blog with helpful resources for your customers, then promote it via email. Offering potential customers free helpful information may give them positive vibes when they remember you.
Generate and nurture leads.
Email marketing can capture leads who are learning more about your company, product, and services — and who are demonstrating initial interest. It also can help nurture these leads, which can convince them to buy at the right time.
Drive sales.
It may be fairly obvious, but for most business owners, increasing sales is a top goal. Fortunately, a well-timed email that features free shipping, a coupon, clearance event, or creates a sense of urgency can be enough to get a potential buyer to close the sale.
Refer new customers.
It’s great when a customer buys your product or service. It’s even better if they help you sell it. Email marketing can help you turn customers and clients into advocates.
Consider asking your customers for referrals in your emails. If you can offer an incentive, such as a discount or special offer, that’s even better. Not only will this help make them feel special, but they’re more likely to share that sentiment with others.
Step 4: Choose what type of email to send
Different email goals can require different types of emails. You may want to be familiar with these three: Welcome Emails, Promotional Emails, and Product-focused Sales Emails. Our partner, UENI, offers examples, tips, and tricks of each of these types of emails.
Welcome emails.
Welcome emails are your chance to say “hello” to new customers or anyone who has just joined your email list. These emails typically give a little background about your brand and include links to your product or service. The idea isn’t to push a specific sale, but to introduce yourself and share a bit about your business story.
It’s also a good way to let them know what might be coming their way, such as tricks and tips, special offers, new product or service announcements, and anything else you have planned for your email program.
Promotional emails.
Unlike Welcome Emails, Promotional Emails are all about clearly showing your customers a specific deal you’re offering. You want the offer to grab their attention and encourage them to use it.
For instance, you might use a large bright image that immediately tells them what they’re getting (like “free delivery”) and how to get it (by using a code at check-out). Basically, promotional emails aren’t about building your brand’s image; they’re about getting people to visit your website and buy something or book a service.
Product or service emails.
These emails highlight a specific product or service your business offers. It’s a great way to let customers know about something new, but you also can use these emails to shout about what you already do, such as a handyman who hangs holiday lights or a beauty professional who offers eyelash extensions.
Product and service emails can be tuned to drive seasonal business, such as a videographer who offers a special prom night package or a landscaper who announces clearing winter snow services.
Seasonal sales, flash sales, and other promotions that have a time limit work well, since they create a sense of urgency. This means customers are more likely to act quickly and buy a product or book a service because they don’t want to miss out on the deal.
Step 5: Write your subject line and email
Truthfully, we could write a whole blog article on the importance of effective subject lines, preheaders, and email copy. But for now, here’s what we say: Your email subject line is critical in getting someone to open the email and read more.
A preheader, the light gray text that appears next to a subject line in your inbox, can help convince a reader that there’s something exciting to read if they click.
Here are a few tips for writing subject lines and preheaders:
- Be brief. Stay around 60 characters or fewer. Otherwise, your copy might get cut off, especially on mobile devices.
- Be personable. Most email marketing platforms will allow you to insert code that pulls someone’s name or other details. A personalized approach can help boost open rates.
- Try out emojis, but sparingly. It may seem cheesy, but emojis can actually intrigue readers, getting them to click open. Just try using just one at a time and see what happens.
- Be direct. Go straight for the deal if you have one (i.e., “40% off — today only”). People want to glance at your subject line rather than having to hunt for your offer.
When it comes to the body copy, here are some best practices:
- Write personalized copy. While you might have a list of hundreds of addresses, an email should be written as if you were writing to another person. You can even pull in their name and other personal information that you’ve collected to demonstrate you know them and understand their needs.
- Avoid industry jargon. Nothing will put your readers to sleep more quickly than reading industry jargon. Instead, stay personable, relatable, and conversational.
Step 6: Make sure you follow CAN-SPAM requirements
Simply Business Email Marketing Specialist, Katie Dakin, strongly recommends that you familiarize yourself with the federal rules around sending emails.
These are part of the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act, U.S. law that sets rules for commercial email. A CAN-SPAM guide from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can be found here,4 but here are some of the key requirements:
- Accurate Identification: The header and subject line of the email must be accurate and not deceptive.
- Clear Opt-Out: Your email needs to provide a clear and easy-to-find way for recipients to opt-out of receiving future emails.
- Physical Address: Your emails need to contain a valid, physical postal address for the sender.
- Opt-Out Honored: You must honor opt-out requests within 10 business days of receiving them.
- Valid Return Address: A valid return email address must be provided so recipients can opt-out.
If you have any questions about the CAN-SPAM Act, we encourage you to speak with a lawyer who can help you build a compliant email program.
Step 7: Design and build your email.
By now, you should have a solid foundation for your email marketing plan and strategy. If you’ve done all your prior steps, you should be ready to design your email template.
If design isn’t your strength, it may be worth hiring an expert designer or purchasing a template and customizing it for your business.
Here are some best practices to keep in mind as you design your email:
- Use responsive design to ensure readability on mobile devices.
- Keep the copy scannable by using headers, subheaders, and bulleted lists.
- Insert white space where visually appropriate.
- Avoid including too many colors and fonts that may confuse or turn off readers.
- Add photos, but try to avoid stock images when possible. Be real and relatable.
- Ensure users can unsubscribe to your emails.
- Include clear, visual calls to action that support your marketing goals.
Once you’ve designed your email, consider adding a second template that takes a different approach. Then A/B test both designs to determine which one performs the best.
Also, remember to test and preview your email’s design before sending out your campaign. Make sure the design works on different types of screen sizes and devices, especially the ones that your audience uses the most.
Step 8: Measure the results of your campaign.
Test, test, test! The beauty of email marketing is you can always learn from past campaigns and tweak future ones to improve performance.
In general, A/B test subject lines, email length, and the design and format of your email. Try different versions and learn which performs best.
Consider creating a dashboard that lists your campaign’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracks your performance over time (e.g., once a month). Here are a few common KPIs that can help you understand how your campaign is measuring up.
- Open rate — The percentage of people who click and open your email.
- Click rate — The percentage of people who click within your email.
- Bounce rate — The percentage of people who never received your email because it was bounced in the email service provider.
- Unsubscribes — The number of people who chose not to receive any more emails from you.
- Conversion rate — The percentage of people who decide to become buyers after receiving your email.
There’s an AI Tool for That
From writing a strong subject line to crafting the email text and integrating images and design, there’s a variety of platforms and tools that can handle nearly every part of your email marketing. Many of these use artificial intelligence (AI) to help create, schedule, measure, and manage your email efforts. We highlight several of these in our AI tools library. You can check out all of our articles here.
You’ve Got Email Marketing
If you’ve gotten this far in our email marketing guide, congratulations! You should have everything you need to kick off your first campaign.
While you might have hundreds or even thousands of people on your email list, a well-crafted email at its heart is a one-to-one communication. It’s you talking to each customer, person-to-person. Few other marketing tools allow you to reach and connect with customers and potential customers as well as email does.
Give it a try.
References: