What Is Email Marketing and How Does It Work?

Email marketing is the most successful kind of direct marketing, with a $42 average return on investment for every $1 spent (DMA, 2019).

Email should be a cornerstone of your digital marketing approach for this reason alone. It's like leaving money on the table if you don't use email marketing.

It's perfectly normal, however, if you're unsure where to begin. Email is a broad topic. Beginners might easily become lost in a sea of tools, strategies, and jargon.

Stay tuned to discover everything there is to know about email marketing:

1. What Is Email Marketing and How Does It Work?

Sending commercial emails to a list of contacts who have given their express permission to receive email messages from you is referred to as email marketing.

Like a newsletter, you may use email marketing to enlighten your contacts, increase sales, and establish a community around your business.

Modern email marketing has shifted away from mass mailings that are one-size-fits-all in favor of consent, segmentation, and personalization. This may appear to be time-consuming, but marketing automation takes care of the heavy labor.

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2. Is email marketing still relevant?

Email isn't a novel concept. In reality, it was one of the earliest digital communication systems to be introduced in 1971. But consider this: email marketing, which is already 50 years old, is being used more than ever before.

"Do people actually still use email?" you might wonder. Isn't today's marketing all about social media?" While social media is a vital part of any digital marketing strategy, email has a number of benefits.

For starters, email marketing initiatives can be more tailored than social media advertising. Next, prices are significantly lower than for other channels, especially when considering email marketing's reach and conversion rate.

3.Email Marketing's Advantages

Emails are an important element of the growth and management of your business, from order confirmations to newsletters.

Email marketing aids you in achieving three essential goals:

1. Conversions (selling your products and services)

Are you planning a sale or a promotion? To increase sales, you might send an email marketing campaign to your subscribers. Additionally, to increase conversions, try using the following email marketing techniques:

For subscribers' birthdays/anniversaries, in welcome emails, and as a method to re-engage your audience, provide personalized discounts or special offers.

When a visitor adds an item to their cart but does not check out, an abandoned cart email is sent.

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2. Brand recognition

Email has the advantage of allowing you to contact someone directly. It's the epitome of one-on-one communication. And nowadays, people don't just let anyone into their mailbox. It's a carefully managed environment where you can find your favorite brands and publications.

Your brand will stay current in the thoughts of your subscribers if it appears in their email inbox. A tailored marketing email has more impact than a social media post because you never know if your message was received.

Scalability is one of the key advantages of email marketing. This means that for a relatively little cost, emails can be sent to a huge number of recipients (compared to other marketing channels).

3. Customer retention

At every point of the buyer journey, including lead nurturing, conversion, onboarding, and retention, email drives client loyalty. Email marketing is also an important tool to utilize in conjunction with sales CRM systems to streamline communication.

As we explained in our guide to developing relationships with email, it's a tremendously effective method to build a community.

4. What is the Process of Email Marketing?

To send marketing emails, businesses employ what's known as an email service provider (ESP).

A software that sends and handles email marketing campaigns is known as an email service provider.

Email marketing software is sometimes known as an email marketing platform, email marketing tool, or email marketing service.

You might be thinking, "Can't I just use my usual inbox provider to send marketing emails?" Is it truly necessary for me to pay for this extra email service?

It is technically doable. (We even show you how in our Gmail guide to mass emailing.) But be cautious. Limited email bandwidth, design, and, most critically, email deliverability are all likely to cause issues. This is why:

Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are intended for personal use only, not for mass emailing. As a result, when an ISP sends a mass email, spam detectors readily detect it, and your account may be suspended for suspicious conduct.

ESPs, on the other hand, have the infrastructure in place to ensure high email deliverability rates – that is, the capacity to get emails into your subscribers' inboxes. Get a specialist email marketing solution if you want to start succeeding with email marketing right away.

5. What do I need to get started with email marketing?

To keep things simple, you'll only need two items to launch email marketing campaigns.

1. Software for email marketing

A dedicated email marketing service, as we've just explained, is the way to proceed. Sending marketing emails through an ISP will only jeopardize your brand and reputation as an email sender.

2. An email address book

The email addresses of interested subscribers who have opted-in to receive email communications from you should be included on this list.

When they placed their email address into an email signup form on your blog, website, landing pages, social media, or anywhere else, they accepted to receive emails from you. This is referred to as a 'opt-in' in email terms.

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Conclusions

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of the world of email marketing as a result of this essay.