What Is Email Marketing In 2022? How Does It Work?

Intro

Getting in touch with people from afar through written text isn’t a 21st-century invention. It has been in the cycle for eons now, in medieval times it was the main form of communication between armies, by the advent of the 20th century through the military application it had been long turned into dusk, the rise of the magnificent Internet led to the birth of sending a text using binary digits.

And if that wasn’t enough 70s brought Email into the stratosphere while the 90s and 00s changed the game forever for those with the hope to market using Emails.

Today there are 4 billion global Email users on the planet. With a quarter of them actively checking their inbox daily, Email Marketing is a bottomless treasure waiting to be found.

What Is Email Marketing

Just like any other form of Direct or Digital Marketing Email Marketing is also one of the prominent channels to grow a business. It is a tactic to form a one-to-one relationship with the customer, develop the brand image, incentivize loyalty, promote products and services that a business might have to offer, and of course get word out about what’s to come next.

In hindsight, it follows the same structure as the other marketing channels. What makes Email Marketing a unique prospect is personalization on the horizon.

It is not possible to tune the Social Media Campaign or even a specific post for a single person. Search Engine Optimization isn’t done with a single user in mind. Paid Marketing can never be curtailed to be directed toward a specific person. PR/ORM activities are intended to bring a broad audience on board.

Email marketing on the other hand…

It gives you the liberty to land in a sacred place (Inbox) of your customer. It gives you the opportunity to connect with them on a personal level to nurture your connection. Apart from SMS Marketing, no other channels come close in this regard, and SMS are not as often interacted with as Emails.

So…

Email Marketing is an excellent medium to keep customers engaged, and on the same wavelength, you want to dictate for them.

Types of Email Marketing:

Despite the simplistic entry to its decorum Email Marketing isn’t confined to certain sets or situations. Each Industry and Business Model requires a different approach. You can’t set up Abandoned Cart Flow on a website that has Informational Content.

However, there are certain parts or in this case methods that can be implemented regardless of context.

  • Welcome Email Flow: If you are active on multiple communities or at least hold a subscription to anything, you would’ve received a welcome email once you had completed the signing-up process. Email Marketers do that to begin onboarding you in their laid-out strategy. What’s happening behind the scene is a predetermined path that – they – want you to journey to reach a certain stage – mostly the conversion panel.
  • Re-engagement Email Flow: Have you ever noticed Netflix stops the movie sometimes and asks if we are still watching it? If you have it is because on their side lack of interactivity is flagged. And since we are paying customers they have to ask. Email Marketers do the same with Re-engagement Emails. Automation is set up in the background to alert the EMS to flag the customer that hasn’t opened Emails lately.
  • Informational Email Flow: Usually digital publishers or Bloggers use this form of Email Marketing mostly, it is not mutually exclusive to any of them. If a brand or company is doing Email Marketing it is obvious they have had to share something with you. And what would it be if no information?
  • Promotional Emails Flow: This one is pretty self-explanatory Marketing, in essence, is carried out to promote something so it is not rocket science to figure out why Promotional Emails are one of the four.

Advantages of Email Marketing

Email Marketing is quite famous in the digital world. Its low barrier for entry fueled with little cost to run an effective Email campaign with a healthy ROI poses it as a lucrative option for many.

And it is…

Email Marketing is a lucrative option. Perhaps more so than the other form of Marketing Channels, and perhaps more so for small businesses.

How?

Well, SEO is a long-term game, it’s effective and cheap, but you have to wait. Paid Marketing is effective but it requires substantial investment. Social Media Marketing is quite similar to SEO and Paid Channels – however – on the wrong fronts. You have to wait and invest at the same time.

Email Marketing…

As iterated before remains a clear champion for small businesses (and of course large enterprises). It is not only easy but effective to deploy it and much easier to scale with time and patience.  

Through it you can direct traffic to any place you want. A blog post. A Social Profile. A Website. It doesn’t matter. Email Marketing helps in forming ideal customers, increasing brand image, attracting sales to a product page, and removing the friction between checkpoints.

And it is not like an algorithm is in place that in the end could dictate the success.

With the right A/B testing practices on the subject line and Email Body, you have the liberty to format it to the best of your ability and have the best of odds to make it work. 

Disadvantages of Email Marketing

Just as we discussed the downsides of other Marketing channels Email Marketing also has its fair share of problems that might be effective in the long run.

SPAM: Sending an Email is easy. It is easy for you, and it is easy for me, and it is easy for spammers spamming. One of the biggest reasons Email Marketing gets a bad reputation is because of the hundreds of SPAM emails people end up receiving on a daily basis. “Buy This Sock For $10” “Win A Ride To Moon and Live There!” While the actually well-planned and thoughtful Emails get lost in the junk folder.

Size: An Email Body containing a lot of details that might not even be necessary or needed can cause adverse side effects.

Engagement: A user can sign up for your service and not want to maintain frequent contact with your business or brand. It happens. And it is common. Hence it is necessary to keep an eye on analytics and will to update the client database in order to prune anything or anyone on whom resources are being wasted.

Competition: If done right Email Marketing is a gold mine to explore for Marketers. Hence it is not a wonder our inboxes are too saturated nowadays to tell apart the genuine efforts. Every business seems to be doing it. Therefore to stand out it is necessary to invest in copyrighters or change in strategies.

Cost: Contrary to popular belief Email Marketing is not completely free. As mentioned before the barrier to entry is low there is still a minimum threshold to hop over.

Devices: There are far too many devices and screen sizes to optimize a perfect Email body. So there is always a chance your customer might not be able to see the best version of what you intend to offer.      

Common Terms: Email Marketing Glossary

If you are an Email Marketer or if you want to become one soon, chances are you would be hearing about these terms one way or another pretty soon.

  • CTR: Click Through Rate: The ratio of the number of people who clicked on a link in your email divided by the total number of recipients.
  • OR: Open Rate: The ratio of the number of people who opened your email divided by the total number of recipients.
  • Unsubscribed Rate: The number of people who unsubscribed divided by the total number of recipients. If this number is high, you need to review your email frequency and segmentation.
  • Bounce Rate: The number of emails that failed to deliver divided by the total number of emails sent. 
  • Soft Bounce: Soft bounces are due to temporary issues like the recipient’s inbox being full. 
  • Hard Bounce: On the other hand, Hard Bounces are due to permanent issues, like an inactive email address.
  • Automation: Automation is a handy way to onboard a cold lead and begins the nurturing process.
  • A/B Testing: The success of each marketing channel depends on the fail-safe availability of alternatives and Email Marketing isn’t saved from it either. Hence it’s more than a need to meet for improved ROI, CTR, and CX to have everything tried and tested.
  • Segmentation: Since the behavior and interactivity of each customer varies it is important to run a successful campaign to understand and sort the users based on the contributing factors (user activity, geography, email opens, devices used, time of the interaction, and further segmented corners) to create different user profiles.

How To Do Email Marketing: Email Marketing Guides

In order to conduct a successful Email Marketing campaign it is important to have a platform. It can be a website or a social media platform. After that what you need is to create a list of interested – not nurtured – contacts to make your email list.

What usually happens is people try to find a shortcut to skip the first step and that is the worst they do for their career. The majority of Email Marketing Companies have taken a stern stance against the malpractice of buying the list.

Even International Laws protest and protect against the following actions of a few marketers. Therefore it is important to adhere to the laws that apply to your geographic location.

And yes they are not just referring to buying the list.

These laws regulate various aspects of Email Marketing and as such is your responsibility of you (as a marketer) to keep them in mind while planning your Email campaigns.

  • CAN-SPAM Act states the rules that all commercial emails should give the recipient the option to opt-out of it.
  • GDPR dictates Email Marketers protect and preserve the privacy and integrity of the data of customers.

Depending on the area you live there might be other regulations too.  Thus it is necessary to keep a keen eye on each and every option.

Use email to communicate with your clients. Email is a fantastic marketing tool, but it also has other benefits for your company. Consider interrupting your usual marketing content every now and again to send out surveys, express your gratitude to clients when they make a purchase, follow up on an abandoned cart, or simply say hi. It not only gives your audience a chance to offer you insightful input, but it also enables them to learn more about the person running the company.

Send only when absolutely necessary. Don\’t misuse someone else\’s trust after they\’ve given you their email address. Sending too many emails to your audience will make them unsubscribe completely or lose interest. They will remain loyal for a very long time if you concentrate on providing them with pertinent, interesting messages about the things they enjoy.

Outro

So there you have it.

You understand what Email Marketing is all about. It is a complex form of nuanced art of marketing channels. You can do a lot with it.

Be it nurturing leads, sending promotional offers about upcoming events or products or services, informing the audience about the brand, working on the branding, educating the masses, or just having a conversation with your customer to seek their opinion.

Email Marketing can be a powerful tool in a cross-channel marketing strategy to take the next step for your business. All you need is imagination and hard work.

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

  • What are 4 types of marketing emails?

The following four are universally accredited by Marketers around the world to be considered basic Email Marketing.

a) Acquisition Email

b) Retention Email

c) Promotional Emails

d) Newsletters 

  • Which tool is used for email marketing?

Depending on the business model there are many useful tools Email Marketers use to run successful campaigns. MailChimp, ConvertKit, SendInBlue, and HubSpot are a few of the most popular ones.

  • How do I find Email addresses for customers?

You can use opt-in for traffic on your website to get their email address. Other practices also include using lead magnets to attract potential clients.

  • Which Email is used most?

Gmail. Google Mailbox service is the most popular email service in the world. With 1.5 billion active users Gmail is the platform to target for your email marketing campaigns.

  • Why is Email Marketing Important?

Since Email Marketing allows you to connect with the customer one-to-one it offers a unique opportunity to be able to develop brand loyalty and be able to promote, sell, and ask for referrals without any problem.

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