E-mail Marketing – What it is and how to use it

When we talk about digital marketing it is impossible not to talk about email marketing. Contrary to what many people say and think, e-mail marketing is still one of the most effective strategies when it comes to reader retention and conversion into sales. Currently, there is no campaign on Facebook, nor any SEO optimization that comes close to the conversion rates recorded when it comes to conversion rates recorded through email marketing.

One of the great advantages of email marketing is that it can be a one-to-one type of communication. That is, it allows you to send a personalized e-mail directly to the person who has consented to be contacted. The great advantage of e-mail marketing is the connection between the speaker and the listener, with the great advantage that you have that person’s permission to communicate with him or her.  Unlike other forms of marketing where you just shoot messages to the entire public, as is usually the case with Facebook ads.

So, what is this strategy?

An email marketing strategy consists of communicating with your readers/customers through email communications. Established through email marketing platforms or marketing automation platforms that are available all over the internet, it is through them that you can send emails to small and/or large contact lists without being considered a spammer.

Email marketing should be used to communicate everything you want, however, it is important to maintain a coherent and consistent communication strategy. The email marketing strategy is used for the following purposes:

• Communicate product discounts and/or sales;
• Confirm a purchase made in an online store;
• Communicate new product and/or service launches;
• Inform about changes or updates to the site;
• Inform you about a new blog article;
• To sell a physical and/or digital product;
• Among others.

Why use an e-mail marketing strategy?

There are several reasons why you should consider e-mail marketing as a valid communication strategy. Below we have highlighted some of the reasons why you should adopt this type of strategy immediately:

• Interaction with your audience

If you have a newsletter subscription box on your website or blog, every time someone gives their email contact to receive your newsletter, that person is giving you consent to contact them. This strategy is one of the most overrated in businesses. However, it is a tool that allows you to not only establish a close connection with your audience but also increase your authority.

• Educate your audience

E-mail marketing is not only for commercial actions. In a digital communication strategy it is essential to think about educating your audience. Educating your leads is fundamental for them to understand the importance of your content and the relevance of the solutions you present for their problems.

• Great organic reach

Unlike what happens, for example, on Facebook, where organic reach has dropped significantly in recent times and companies find it increasingly difficult to make messages reach their target audience, this does not happen with email marketing. In other words, if you send an e-mail to a list of 100 contacts, all those people will receive your e-mail. This does not mean that all 100 contacts will open it, but you are sure that your communication has reached all of them.

• Promote content

When you start developing a content marketing strategy, also think about including email marketing as a way to promote that content to an audience that wants to read it.

• Sell your products

It is obvious that in an email marketing strategy, one of the main goals is to sell, however, this should not be your priority when sending an email to your readers/customers. If you try to work your leads well through relevant content and nurture their knowledge without ulterior motives, you will end up generating a very high conversion rate. It is crucial to be aware of the commercial actions you do with your readers/customers and understand how often you should use them, at the risk of many of your subscribers unsubscribing from your newsletter.

• Communications Automation

With the evolution of email marketing platforms, one of the processes that became more recurrent was the introduction of automated communications. Nowadays, through an email marketing platform, it is possible to schedule your emails to be fired upon certain circumstances. For example, when someone subscribes to your list, that person may immediately receive a welcome e-mail.

The biggest mistakes in e-mail marketing:

There are some factors to consider when it comes to planning and developing an email marketing strategy. It is essential to work on your contact lists, as well as campaigns, otherwise, you will lose your entire business and your credibility with your readers/customers.

So, here are some of the mistakes that are often made:

• Buying email lists – Buying an email list will not be your salvation. Not only is it illegal to send communications to people who have not given their consent to do so, but you will also be sending communications to people who have never heard of you or your company. This will cause your email open rates and conversions to be terrible.
• Exaggerate sales – If you show your readers that you are desperate to sell, this will send the wrong message. Remember that your readers want to be nurtured with quality content and want to learn something new from you.
• Not segmenting your campaigns – Sending differentiated e-mails to each of your lists is fundamental. The most recurrent segmentation is based on the language criterion. Imagine that you have two contact bases, one in English and another in Portuguese. Ensure that you send the newsletter in the language that corresponds to the language spoken by your contact base.
• Sending non-stop emails – In other words, being too pushy. One of the main reasons why someone unsubscribes from a newsletter is precise because of how often they are “bombarded” with commercial actions. Give your audience time to consume the content you recommended to them.
• Don’t send text emails – Keep in mind that the performance rate of text emails is much higher than the rate of image emails. Besides the fact that text emails are much lighter, which makes them fall into the spam box much less often.
• Not performing A/B tests – These types of tests can be performed in any email marketing platform and serve to test two variations of the same campaign. That is, you can change only the title or part of the content to analyze which one your audience reacts to better.
• Not tracking metrics – Metrics are essential for you to understand what you are doing wrong and what you need to improve to achieve your goals. Metrics analysis is a must and should be done with a critical eye because metrics are often misleading. It is common for e-mails to have a high open-rate, but a much lower click-through rate. So, in this case, it is necessary to analyze what is failing.

Finally, there are numerous mistakes to avoid when it comes to establishing email communication. However, you must understand the medium and the way your readers consume your content. That way, never forget the importance of writing content that contains a value and adds something to those who will read it. Finally, never forget that you are talking directly to a person who has an interest in your content.