What is Email Marketing: A Complete Guide for Beginners

Are you about to launch a new product, service, catalog, or event?

Well, you can do this in one of the best ways by launching an email campaign to reach all your contacts. This will ultimately allow you to drive engagement, increase conversions, and boost revenue gain.

However, if you find yourself caught in a maze of options to know about 'What is email marketing,' that's absolutely normal. The realm of email marketing is enormous.

To help you with that, this blog post is a complete anatomy of email marketing. Just keep reading and, I promise you will master your next product launch with the highest sales! 

What is Email marketing ?

Email marketing is the most practiced form of digital marketing endured by businesses to communicate with their audiences.

In email marketing, you will send messages directly to your subscriber’s inbox on various occasions. These include sending promotional messages, confirmational emails, welcome emails, and resourceful content. 

Additionally, email marketing aims to improve customer relationships, promote their services or products, and grow engagement with the company. This method is beneficial for users as it is easy to track, cost-effective, and provides detailed analytical data.

 Advantages of Email Marketing 

Email marketing provides businesses the most efficient way of communicating with their audiences. According to Emersays, 81% of small businesses depend on email marketing to communicate and engage with their customers.

In fact, it is estimated as the most cost-effective way of bulk communication that can accumulate the highest return on investment (ROI) in time. A study from Statista found that the average ROI from $1 spent for email marketing returns $36 with a ratio of 36:1.  

Even, the same study showcases that the average ROI for different businesses and industries is even more higher than that as well. For instance, where it is a $36 ROI for a Software and technology company, the amount changes to $45 for retail and consumer goods companies. 

Moreover, a business can grow its brand awareness, drive conversion, and build customer loyalty. It allows you to monitor, measure, and figure out how audiences are receiving your messages when you launch an email campaign. 

Let's have a glance at some statistics about the benefits of email marketing campaigns- 

🤩 69% of consumers prefer email to contact with their favorite brands. [optinmonster]

🤩 Emails with video clips can increase click rate up to 300%. [Oberlo]

🤩 49% of customers like to get promotional emails from their preferred brands. [2] 

🤩 37% of marketers are increasing their budget for email marketing. [Litmus]

🤩 The percentage of marketers who use email marketing as a primary source to generate leads is 89%. [Snov io]

🤩 Personalized subject line emails can generate 50 percent more open rates. [ 2 ] 

🤩 For 58 percent of users, emails are the first check of their day. [ 1 ]

Disadvantages of Email Marketing

Surely, there are two sides of the same coin. Therefore same goes for email marketing. Along with the numerous benefits of email marketing, it also has some drawbacks. Being aware of these might be your ticket out of trouble. 

👉 Engagement

When you send an email to your customers, there is no chance you can put extra input on it to keep them engaged. 

In that case, there is a risk your subscribers may stop getting engaged with your message if the content seems to be hard to understand. 

So, you need to create copies that are easy to consume and also have the power of engagement to launch a successful email marketing campaign. 

👉 Design

Anyone can access an email using any type of device. One can use their mobile phone, tablet, or computer to read their emails. Thus, when designing an email, the email template design should be ideal for any type of device. Or else your recipients might miss out on the ideal vision of the email like this example down below. 

As an email marketer, you might not know how typography, whitespace, or alignment works in email design principles and laws. But these are the core elements that hook the audiences in. Thus, you might need to get help from a designer or look for email marketing tools that offers beautiful email templates. 

👉 Cost

Despite the availability of free plans, many email service providers charge for supplementary tasks like adding visuals or going beyond word count. 

Make sure you have complete acknowledgment of your budget and the package you are using. Try to prepare a plan for what additional services you need before choosing a free or a paid package. 

👉 Spam

As creating an email list is quite a formidable mission, businesses opt for purchasing email lists. And here, it can turn your entire email marketing result. Your messages may land in your recipients' Spam folder without knowing it, which is an understandable drawback in email marketing. 

Moreover, there are bundles of messages in our inboxes like - “One-time opportunity", "Don't miss it!”, or “Loose 100 pounds without exercising”. We don’t even open them most of the time.

Sometimes, there might be emails that are in the spam folder that we do not open unless it’s an urgent mail we are looking for. 

Therefore, these Spam and ignored messages often turn up as a waste of time for the brand who is sending them.

👉 Competition

According to Earthweb, there are about 333.2 billion emails sent every day. This means your email is not only the one in your target audience’s email box. There is a survival of the fittest game going on to get your audience convinced! 

In consequence, you should put in extra cash on writing effective copies and offer attractive deals if you want to stay ahead of the pack. 

👉 Size

Most of the subscribers to your emails are more likely to open it on mobile devices. That means the larger your email will be, the less likely they will read it through. Even if they take that patient, the large email will charge more data for them to check it out. 

Therefore, the readers are more likely to get disturbed or delete the message if it takes too long to load. 

Email Marketing Examples According to Their Types 

Email marketing campaign is the most significant and effective way of connecting with a target audience. Knowing about the types of email marketing can help you recognize which type of email is performing better than the others.

So, let's have a glance at the most common types of emails, along with real-life email marketing examples.

1. Welcome email

When someone signs up on your email list for the first time, these emails are sent to them as a warm welcome. This is the first email they get from you as a subscriber. 

Welcome emails provide an introduction to your brand identity, encourage users to learn more about it, and often offer free trials. These emails often contain a call to action as well. 

👉 Here are some common reasons why welcome emails are important:

🟢 74% of email subscribers expect to receive them.

🟢 These emails have a high open rate. 

🟢 Has an average of 51.9% conversion rates, which is superior to other e-commerce email campaigns. 

2. Promotional emails

Promotional emails aim to drive specific actions, such as making a purchase or taking advantage of a limited-time offer. They showcase products, services, or discounts to encourage conversions.

During special occasions like Black Friday or Christmas, marketers run promotional email campaigns to promote their products or services to the customers, grow engagement, and increase sales. 

👉 Here are some common reasons why promotional emails are important:

🟢 Emphasizes communication and awareness. 

🟢 59% of subscriber buys products by getting influenced by email marketing campaigns. 

🟢 Keep customers hooked without being shifted to competitors' carts.

3. Confirmational emails

Confirmation emails or confirmational emails are messages sent to your users to verify a specific action or decision they made. These emails ensure your leads that you have received their query or information, and they will get additional emails regarding that subject. 

Confirmational emails are a significant part of email marketing as they work to build customers' trust and contain transparency. 

👉 Here are some common factors why confirmation emails are used and important:

🟢 Account creation confirmation.

🟢 Subscription confirmation.

🟢 Order confirmation.

🟢 Password reset. 

🟢 Form submission.

🟢 Event Registration.

4. Informational emails

Emails that are sent to the subscribers not to promote your products or service but to educate the users are known as informational emails.

These messages aim to educate, engage, and provide value to the recipients. There are commonly two types of informational emails. 

📣 Announcement emails -

Emails that deliver an announcement, changes to services, or new product releases are known as announcement emails. 

These emails are the most secure, professional, and instant way to connect with your email list. It also allows you to build a communication bridge in serious conditions like- a glitch in your service, delay in shipment, etc.

📰 Newsletter emails- 

These types of emails are not used for special occasions. Instead, newsletter emails are regularly sent to the contacts, providing knowledgeable and valuable content. You can send newsletter emails to your contacts daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and even monthly.

Commonly, newsletter emails contain content, case studies, updates, articles, tips, and related information.

These newsletters normally contain elements like call-to-action buttons to redirect the user to the gated content. They also contain an Unsubscribe option to help you sustain a clean email list and improve your mail delivery. 

5. Lead-nurturing emails

Lead nurturing emails are a series of strategic emails sent to potential customers or leads. They aim to build a relationship, provide valuable information, and guide the contacts through the buying process.

These emails are designed to engage leads at different stages of the sales funnel, ultimately moving the leads closer to making a purchasing decision. Lead nurturing emails focus on delivering personalized content that addresses each lead's needs, pain points, and interests.

Here, Sephora’s lead nurturing email example can be a perfect fit for it.

👉 Here are some common reasons why lead nurturing email marketing is important- 

🟢 Allows you to identify your contacts' needs and pains. 

🟢 Assists in knowing more about the leads and segmenting them into different categories. 

🟢 Automates lead nurturing. Market2Lead says that nurturing takes a 23% shorter time in the sales process. 

6.Survey emails

Surveys are windows into the minds of your audiences. They assist you in improving your service or product quality based on your customers' input. 

When you seek feedback from your email contacts about your brand, these emails are called survey emails. Companies or brands send survey emails to get their lead’s opinions and insights on a specific topic. 

7.Re-engagement emails

Re-engagement emails are not part of regular emails. It is the most powerful way to connect with subscribers or leads who haven't been active lately. Therefore, re-engagement emails are sent to inactive contacts to reconnect their relationship with the brands again. 

Re-engagement emails may contain exclusive offers and promotions or provide new content to re-engage them. 

👉 Here are some common reasons why re-engagement emails are considered an effective form of email marketing-

🟢 Promotes your brand, goods, or services to meet the target audience’s needs. 

🟢 Encourages them to interact with your brand. 

🟢 Opens the pathway to shift them to the bottom of your marketing funnel. 

8. Seasonal marketing emails

Seasonal marketing emails are messages sent to your audience in alignment with specific seasons, holidays, or events throughout the year.

These emails tap into the cultural and emotional context of various seasons to engage the contacts, promote relevant offers, and create a sense of timeliness. 

Seasonal marketing emails allow you to connect with your audience on a more personal and relatable level by leveraging the themes and sentiments associated with different times of the year.

Building an email list is one of the very foremost steps to start email marketing campaigns. Once you have determined what type of emails you need, it is necessary to build an email list to start the campaign. 

In the next phase of this article, we are going to discover the ways of doing it right. 

How to Build an  Email List?

So, how to build an email list? Let’s discuss the steps to build an effective email list for your business. You will see an immense improvement in your email campaign performance by following these email marketing strategies. 

1. Create Attractive Incentives 

Incentives are things that can motivate and encourage your audiences to take a particular action. They can be rewards, or benefits that will give you your desired outcome by insisting on your audiences.

So, try to offer valuable and effective incentives like discounts, free trials, email courses, or exclusive content. Provide things that will encourage your visitors to share their email addresses in exchange for that incentive. 

Think about what your customer values and try to knot that with your CTA or Sign-up forms.

2. Select the right email marketing software 

Email marketing platforms are software tools or online services that facilitate the creation, management, and execution of email marketing campaigns. 

These platforms provide businesses and individuals with the tools needed to create, send, track, and analyze email campaigns to reach their target audience effectively. 

Look for an email marketing tool that aligns with your needs. Some of the best email marketing software tools include- Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and ConvertKit. 

3. Create and Add Personalized CTAs on Web Pages and Blogs 

Design personalized Call-to-Action buttons and Call-to-Action copies that add value for your target audiences. Make sure your CTAs contain a clear message about your incentives in the opt-in forms. 

Run experiments with different types of CTAs like ‘Download Now’, ‘Try Now’, ‘Get the Discounts’, and many more. It will help you which part of your crafting CTAs is hitting the marks.

Check that example of spark hydrate. You need to subscribe to get the presale code from their website! 

It’s brilliant, right? 

5. Add Pop-Up Forms Strategically in Your Website 

You need to be subtle to use pop-up forms while building an email list. When a visitor stays a certain amount of time on your web page, you can show the visitors a pop-up subscription form related to the web page’s content.

There are various types of pop-up forms you can leverage to get the most out of email subscriptions. Some popular types of pop-up forms are exit intent pop-ups, timed pop-ups, gamified pop-ups, and click-triggered pop-ups. 

6. Create Compelling Landing Pages  

A landing page is a self-standing page that is specifically designed to guide visitors toward a certain action or goal. 

It is easier to send the visitor to a certain webpage that is dedicatedly built to serve a specific purpose. Therefore, when someone lands on that page, it will guide them to find your sign-up forms in a most easiest way. Thus you can build your email list by creating converting landing pages. 

Use helpful landing page tools like Dorik, Plai, and Flowmapp to create converting landing pages. 

8. Use the Newsletter Signup Form on Social Media and Email Signatures 

Reach wider audiences and grow your email list by sharing signup forms and incentives in your social media accounts. 

You can also add sign-up links to your email signatures like Dr. Amy Cogan added an appointment booking CTA in her bio.

Email Marketing Best Practices and Tips

You can do a bundle of things to add accuracy to your email marketing campaigns. But, there are strategies and email marketing tips that can give you instant success without dragging your feet. 

So, let’s move on to the steps to know about email marketing best practices and some tips.

 Create Personalized Emails. 

Add a connection with the recipients by personalizing the emails. Provide them with the best possible value through your message. For instance, addressing your contacts by their name is the simplest way of forging a personal touch to your emails.

There’s a bundle of other ways to create personalized emails for email marketing, too.

Use Email Segmentation

Split your email list into different groups. This way you can launch a more focused and targeted email marketing campaign based on the contacts' interest. 

Start email segmentation depending on your user's interests, demographics, behaviors, or past interactions. For instance, if you want to send special offers to your early customers, segmenting the contact list based on the subscribers list will be a great help to find those particular contacts. 

Avoid Spam Triggers

Will you be able to run a successful email campaign if most of your emails land in the contact’s spam folder? No, right?

You can save your emails from going in the trash by following a few essential things. For example, avoiding commonly associated spam-triggered words like ‘free’ ‘limited time offer’, and excessive exclamation marks on emails saves your valuable emails. 

Leverage Double Opt-in Email Signup

Double opt-in email sign-ups are two-stepped email subscriptions that provide complete verification to you to send emails to the recipients. These emails are also known as confirmed opt-in emails that comply businesses with SPAM laws (e.g., CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR) and regulations. 

Put an extra layer of security and create higher-quality lists by using double opt-in email signups.

Write Compelling Subject Lines

Impactful subject lines save your mail from SPAM laws and are the best way to catch visitors' attention.

Besides, all your email marketing efforts will matter if your visitors open it. That’s why create headlines that can catch reader’s attention and encourage them to open them. 

Additionally, avoid making your subject lines overweight with unnecessary words, emojis, and exclamation marks. 

Make it Easy to Skim.

No one likes to read monotonous and pointless content. Instead, they put their time into emails, which are easy to cast an eye on. 

Structure your email in a visually appealing manner. Keep alignment in the elements like texts, images, and videos. Try to add punch words that have the power to grab readers’ attention.

Plan, Schedule, and Keep Consistent Email Marketing

It is important to wear a professional hat while sending emails to your contacts. People will appreciate and feel pleased to read emails that can address them in a respectful manner. 

They create brand identity, build trust, and grow reliability if they can identify professionalism in their favorite brands. 

Plan your marketing ideas, make a strategic schedule, and send emails in a consistent manner. Do not make it a roller-coaster ride by fluctuating mailing times like sending massages on day and night, or with prolonged gaps between them.  

Add Unsubscribe Option

It's natural that not every subscriber on your mailing list will feel the same level of enthusiasm, excitement, and motivation in your emails, no matter your efforts.

It is important to keep those people in your sales funnel who really want you. So, try to include an ‘Unsubscribe’ link whenever you are sending emails to your contacts. This way, you can improve your email delivery, run more focused email campaigns, and allow unengaged subscribers a true path to opt-out.

Test, Test, and Test

Conducting email testing contributes to enhancing open rates and conversions. A/B testing aids in comprehending subscriber behavior and identifying resonant content. This process empowers you to craft and deliver technically proficient emails that display accurately across all devices. 

Through testing and analyzing reports, you can ensure your emails avoid landing in spam folders. It will also allow you to get valuable data after launching email campaigns like- Bounce rate, Open rates, Click-through rates(CTR), Conversion rate, etc.

So, ensure you are testing your email campaign before and after sending it. And bring growth in sales rate by using email marketing strategies.  

How To Choose the Best Email Marketing Automation Tools 

There are many things you should consider when selecting an email marketing automation software to get started with email marketing processes. However, we’re going to cover the must-have features of an automation tool. Giving due attention to each of them can result in long-run outcomes.

✅ Define your email marketing goals.

✅ Understand what type of emails you want to send.

✅ Research various email marketing software and read their users’ reviews.

✅ Consider must-have features like list management, integrations, and automation. 

✅ Know your budget. 

✅ Compare packages between similar platforms.

✅ Have a look at its ease of use and customer support.

✅ Begin with a free plan and understand its usability as per your need.

✅ Test each of the apps and compare the given analytics.

✅ Embrace the power of switching.

What are the Best Email Marketing Software Tools?

81% of businesses use marketing automation software tools to grow their businesses. They can give you a more efficient workflow, save contacts, create a better customer experience, reduce errors, give detailed reports, and many more. 

So, let’s check out the 9 best email marketing automation software.

All of these tools are masters of various email marketing works. For Instance, ActiveCampaign is best for automation, whereas HubSpot is known as the best all-in-one marketing tool.

Choose the best email marketing tool for your requirements and begin your email marketing adventure. 

Launch Your Email Marketing Campaign with Confidence

In this article, I aimed to offer a clearer insight into What is email marketing. It's understandable that there's a wealth of information here, but remember, by approaching it step by step, anyone can harness the power of email marketing for business growth.

You can integrate the best email marketing automation tools with your website and boost your sales rate without breaking a sweat.

So, if you are a service provider, you need a website to begin your email marketing journey. Dorik, the best no-code website builder, can help you build a website without having an in-depth understanding of technical concepts.

Have a functional business website, utilize email marketing automation software, and turn your audiences into customers!