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Mohamed

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E-mail marketing: what it is, how it works and templates [GUIDE]

Getting the most out of the marketing campaigns you undertake is essential for the growth of your company or entrepreneurial project. As the world has been transformed in recent decades with the emergence of new technologies, direct channels have been appearing with which to adapt to a new reality that has changed the way we live, communicate, do business and arrive to our consumers. E-mail marketing is an essential tool to achieve our reach and sales goals. If you want to know what e-mail marketing is, this is your post.

It may interest you: Master in Digital Marketing

What is email marketing

E-mail marketing is one of the main keys in the world of marketing and consists of the communication technique in which we use e-mail to attract potential customers. It is one of the most effective ways in the world of marketing to convert leads (contacts) into customers.

Email has become a direct channel with which we can adapt our content to different audiences and this is something that more and more companies know every day, who do not hesitate to create their own newsletters and contact interested people by sending campaigns that can achieve great results.

To give you an idea of ​​the reach you can achieve using this resource, you only need to know that today there are more than four billion email accounts registered. Incorporating e-mail marketing into your communication strategies will allow you to retain your audience, increase sales and improve the image of the brands you work with. With a minimal investment, the profit you will get can be immense. We advise you to review our post on the 15 best email marketing tools for your business , where you can find the best platforms to work with.

Understanding e-mail marketing as a tool with which to build lasting relationships with your audience is important, becoming an ally that will allow you to offer discounts to your subscribers or exclusive content to create campaigns with which you obtain responses to satisfaction surveys, inscriptions to informative seminars in which you present your products and/or services. The options are endless!

What are the benefits of email marketing?

When working with e-mail marketing, it is important that you always keep in mind that everything is based on taking care of relationships with your readers. Above all, because by doing so, none of them will consider unsubscribing from your mailings, something we will talk about later. For now, let's list the main benefits of this incredible communication channel:

Information exchange (1)

We are not only talking about a sales method, but also a form of communication that serves users to obtain information and subscribe to those services in which they may be interested. Thanks to the analysis of the behavior of our readers, we will be able to discover what they are interested in and how to offer them the content that most attracts their attention.

Traffic Redirection (2)

If what you are looking for is to boost your traffic, our advice is that you start by taking care of your SEO before playing all your cards on e-mail marketing. Think that organic searches on your website are the ones that generate the greatest flow of traffic. Of course: by sending email campaigns you can also enhance it.

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Personalization in shipments (3)

E-mail marketing is a way to communicate with established customers and new users, bringing them all together in a database that you want to increase with different strategies. Segmentation is basic in order to attract users with different needs. Thinking about their location, preferences and interests, subscription source and their purchase history will help you to generate conversions and, therefore, increase your sales. Distinguish campaigns by types of consumers!

Data collection (4)

For this, it is essential that you attend to the users who respond to each of your mailings, especially since we are talking about potential customers that you can convert into sales. Do not stop inviting your readers to respond to you, to give you their opinion and always value the importance of obtaining new data from each of them.

Minimum investment (5)

The automation of shipments and the ease of use of e-mail marketing tools such as MailChimp will allow you to carry out campaigns for a minimum investment, both financial and time. Of course, never forget to include the following elements in all of them:

  • A well thought out affair
  • Header text that hooks
  • A defined call to action (CTA)
  • Textual and audiovisual elements (don't forget your logo)
  • An unsubscribe link
  • Your contact details and social media buttons

Sales increase (6)

When you send an e-mail marketing campaign you are knocking on the door of a multitude of customers or potential users interested in your products, so you will stimulate your sales. Remember that less is always more and that it will benefit you to present your content in a simple and direct way than to get entangled in complex texts that lose the focus of your message.

Work on the design of a responsive template (that adapts to all devices) and think carefully about the frequency of your mailings: each strategy and campaign will have a different objective and moment. Never fall into saturation or you will stop being relevant.

Constant improvement tool (7)

Once you have defined the objectives of your campaigns, e-mail marketing will allow you infinite possibilities with which you will be able to follow up with which you will learn what hours and days lead to better opening rates. In addition, you will be able to classify your audience in different lists and, above all, not lose sight of how important it is to plan a constant improvement in the communication that you put into practice with your audience.

Adapt to the feedback you get, establish a work routine that allows you to dedicate the necessary time to this task and think about what you can offer your clients in the next mailing. How about an exclusive trial period, a first-aware promotion, or a giveaway for subscribers?

Types of emails

There are various types of campaigns that will allow you to hit the center of the target depending on the objective you are pursuing and the type of audience you want to seduce each time. These are the main types of emails that you can implement in your email marketing strategy:

Newsletter

They are defined because they are more generic and habitual communications in which you can deal with different topics, offering content related to your products while echoing the latest successes achieved by your company and reviewing the main content published on your blog in the same communication. They usually have a defined periodicity and are sent to all the subscribers that we have in our database.

Promotional emails

They are communications that help us to focus on specific products , whether or not there are offers that we want to offer in the shipment. We may do this to promote the publication of free content that we have created (such as an eBook or video tutorial) or to seek the sale with an exclusive offer. Its objective is conversion and requires correct segmentation to target with certainty the public interested in what we offer.

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Seasonal emails

Seasonal emails are emails we send on specific dates, like Christmas, Black Friday, or Valentine's Day. Also the day (or week) of the users birthday, with which we could offer a discount code with a limited validity time. The objective is to show that we are up to date on trends and special dates, excellent moments to look for the sale. The use of attractive photographs and an optimal CTA in this type of email is essential.

Welcome emails

It is the first email a person receives when they become a lead . Even if you think it is not relevant, it is a communication that will mark the desire and attitude with which they will wait for our next shipments. Taking the opportunity to show gratitude and give key information about who we are is key in this type of e-mail. If you also offer exclusive content, your footprint will be even greater.

Emails for inactive clients

What can you do with that percentage of your database that never clicks on any of your links or even opens your emails? Well, create a specific email to wake them up . Here the important thing is that (first) you create a particularly attractive subject that is hard to resist opening and that (second) you make an offer or give a definite reason for them to react to your communications. Creating impact is key.

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How to avoid falling into SPAM

Although there are many channels that you can exploit between your company or project and your clients, taking maximum care of your email marketing campaigns should be a priority. So that your effort does not fall on deaf ears, it is important that you take into account the following tips in order to prevent your subscribers or email platforms from marking you as SPAM. Take note!

1. Work the attraction so that they register in your database: take advantage of each purchase, message programming cycle in your social networks or communication through Customer Service or comments on your blog to remember the existence of your content submission via email.

2. Send emails that are really relevant: focus on communicating what can solve problems or interest your readers and think carefully about your frequency of sending. If you do not have quality content, it is better that you do not send anything. Otherwise, the perception of your database will be affected, the quality of your shipments will decrease and you will begin to receive cancellations due to saturation.

3. Try different options to find the best one: carry out campaigns with different types of subjects, extensions, content, delivery times and frequency. Analyze how you get better results and focus on enhancing what works.

Never forget that it is important to take care of the presentation of your e-mails : the more careful your spelling is, the template you use and the distribution of texts and images, the better image and perception of your subscribers. Don't forget to do a test send and review everything before doing a bulk send!

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Email marketing funnel

Being clear about how the sales funnel works in email marketing and optimizing it will help you boost your subscribers and the sales you generate. This is the funnel of one of the most important channels in current digital marketing:

  1. Arriving in the inbox: after an attention call through our website, advertisement or content that causes a first impact with the user, who will be registered in our database through an explicit form to sign up for our communications or by accepting to be part of it by sending your data on any landing page of any of the services we offer.

  2. Opening of the mail: we will have aroused the interest of the user, who will spend some time reading the e-mail that we have prepared and segmented specifically for him.

  3. Click on the link : we have already generated a desire and created some expectations that will redirect the user to the link that interests us. It is important to take care of the destination site and prepare a specific landing when it comes to specific promotions or sites where we risk the sale.

  4. Start of conversion : the user is on the landing page after clicking on the link and the time has come to list the benefits that they will obtain by purchasing our products. Carrying out a correct distribution of the contents and taking maximum care of the design are decisive factors to increase the conversion rate.

  5. Conversion : mission accomplished! When the user acquires the product, we will have achieved our main objective. Of course: remember that everything does not end here and that it would be interesting to ask you about the satisfaction of their experience and try to retain your buyers with different strategies. For example: create a specific mailing list for those who have made a purchase and give them a distinguished treatment.

Examples of email marketing

When developing your own email marketing strategies you will need to activate your creativity, worry about all the details and put a lot of love into it. So that you can be inspired, we leave you three examples of campaigns that we have come across in recent days:

The Fork and an irresistible discount

Who doesn't like being able to make a reservation at a delicious and beautiful restaurant where they can also enjoy the same dishes as the diners at the next table at a much lower price? That is the strong point of The Fork, formerly known in Spain as El Tenedor, which addresses us directly by name to offer us a 50% discount on our next reservation with a beautiful design, the right text and an optimized CTA.

Springfield and a gift for giving your opinion

That a company that we usually trust cares about our opinion and that it also does so by offering us an exclusive discount makes us feel important as a customer. Among the latest promotions of the Springfield clothing brand is a post-purchase campaign in which it offers us a 10% discount just for leaving our opinion about the shopping experience. The customer wins and the company wins.

Rituals and preferential treatment for its members

The Dutch cosmetics chain Rituals has managed to position itself as the first luxury cosmetics brand that can boast of selling products for the home and for the body, constantly using the slogan slow life to seduce an audience willing to turn the moment of the shower in one of the most anticipated of the day. That care for the experience is the same that they put into this e-mail marketing campaign in which they present a new line of products for a limited time, with the use of words such as joy, beauty or exclusive , a beautiful image and a CTA to the it's hard to resist. You, who are special, do you want to try our new products?, seem to say to a subscriber willing to take advantage of that 'Last chance' that says the subject of the email.

Email Marketing Templates

A decisive element in the impression you give your users with your email marketing campaigns is the template you use in your mailings. For this, our recommendation is that you dedicate the necessary time to the elaboration of your own templates, since once you have them defined, you will simply have to modify your text and images. We give you several options so you can find the ones that best suit your projects:

Downloadable Canva Templates

Simplified graphic design tools website Canva offers plenty of professionally designed templates that you can edit to your liking to keep your customers up to date with your offers, promotions and news. You can search by category , download them in different formats and achieve advanced finishes without the need for design knowledge.

Benchmark Email

It is one of the best tools to manage e-mail marketing campaigns, with a free version that already offers you a multitude of features. In it you will find more than 500 free templates with which you can attract more traffic, increase your sales and multiply the results of your business.

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Stripo

Used by companies of the stature of Netflix, Samsung or The New York Times, this email design platform has more than 800 free HTML email templates that you can customize in just 10 minutes and export to a multitude of email clients such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, or Campaign Monitor.

Acumbamail

This Spanish platform also has its own responsive HTML email template editor with which you can create fully customized campaigns in a matter of minutes, without requiring any programming knowledge.

You will tell us which of all of them you stay with! What did you think of the post? We await your comments and suggestions, in addition to recommending our Master in Digital Marketing with which you will be able to delve into this subject and become a unique digital marketing professional capable of attracting traffic, measuring it and optimizing it to improve conversion. Enjoy 1,125 hours of learning guided by active professionals!

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