E-Mail Marketing
E-Mail marketing is a way to connect with a lot of prospects/customers to share information on what you have to offer. The goal is usually to build trust, convert prospects to customers, getting them to buy what you have.
Building Your List:
Before you begin your campaign, you must have e-mail addresses for those you want to include. There are multiple ways to build your list and here are a few examples:
Have a blog on your website – if the content of your blogs is quality, the more traffic you will have to your website and the better chance you have of getting subscribers.
Social Media – be active on social media to have better chances of getting people to your website.
If applicable to your company/what you do, offer giveaways. People love the chance to get cool stuff for free, so this is a great way to gather contact info.
Provide items of value such as e-books, white papers, guides, etc. If the item is enticing because they have a need for that content, you can capture their information when they make the request.
Define Your Audience:
Once you are ready with your lists, it is time to determine your messaging. You may have multiple campaigns going on at one time to different “personas”. It is important to define your audience before you begin your e-mail marketing campaign. For example, you would have a completely different message for a brand-new contact than you would a loyal customer. Creating specific messaging content is key so that it will resonate with people.
Deliverability:
There is no point in putting together a campaign if ultimately the emails do not get delivered to your contacts. You can cause harm to the reputation of your domain as well. Bounce backs can get your domain put on a spammer list and your email will not get delivered. If the bounce rate percentage is high enough, it can get your domain blacklisted.
There are a few things you can do to help assure your emails get delivered.
Set up a separate domain for outbound email campaigns.
Use an email-marketing system that has a bounce-blocker.
Do not send too many at a time – warm up your campaign by starting with sending out a small number of emails per day (like 5-10) and slowly increase that count daily. It is suggested not to send more than 100 emails per day. Also consider your potential follow up capacity.
Connect with your email provide to check that your SPF (Sender Policy Framework) & DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) records are set up correctly.
Tools/Systems:
Here are some of the different systems you can use to set up and run your e-mail marketing campaign:
HubSpot
Constant Contact
Mailchimp
Drip
There are many others out there and it is best to research a few to determine which will suit the needs and goals of your campaign. A great place to find more resources on what systems are out there is YouTube. There are countless videos where people review different systems and discuss features and benefits. That is a great place to start.
Good luck!