Email marketing isn't a new concept, however in 2021's digital era, is there space for your business to communicate this way?
If your first questions is ‘what is email marketing?’, then I will start by giving you a brief introduction.
In the 1970’s, email marketing was founded and it began shaping the beginning of the modern communication era as we know it today. Gary Thuerk, a Marketing Manager at Digital Equipment Corp, sent the first commercial email, where the message reached a list of email addresses. The thought process was simple – create a list of people who you would like to communicate with – and send them an email with a marketing message.
By 2021, you may feel that you are inundated with 'spam' emails – but hopefully, since GDPR was introduced in 2018 – you will get far less now than you did before. If you’re able to segment your audience, learn about their behaviour and ensure that a relevant, timely and interesting email lands in their inbox, you could be on to a winner! Email marketing remains one of the strongest forms of communication – and it’s very inexpensive.
As a digital marketing consultancy, Youbee Media can work with you by giving expert social media management advice on generating story ideas, segmenting your audience and measuring the success of your email campaigns. We can work this into your marketing plan so that all of your digital content creates an impact - and at the right time.
Why should I send marketing emails?
Sending an attractive, personalised email campaign helps you to connect with your audience, generate brand awareness and start conversations. You must consider selecting a template that represents your brand, think about your language and style, but most importantly – remember your audience.
If you're a service based business, you want to be remembered when people are looking for your services, or the kind of topics that connect to you.
For product based businesses, it's easy to create exclusive promotions, sneak peaks and entice your audience into communicating with you and your products. You're hoping to create a strong, credible relationship with your audience, so use it wisely.
Have you made it easy for people to sign up to your email campaigns?
How do you get your subscribers? Have they been through a process which ensures that they are happy to hear from you? Have you made it easy for them to unsubscribe? This in itself requires thought, planning and design.
Make sure that you have an easy to find sign up area on your website, tell your audience on social media that you send regular news / offers and updates, but also ensure you have a CRM system to collect the data. Remember, you want to give these subscribers a reason to hear from you.
What are the best platforms to use?
Like any form of marketing, this bit is up to you. There are plenty of free platforms out there that allow you to create and build your marketing emails, but also some which charge. Try and find one which is right for you, your brand and your contacts list.
It is important to also find an email marketing software which links to your CRM to help you manage, filter and add to your contact list.
At Youbee Media, we create a lot of email campaigns on Mailchimp. This platform offers a free license and also has some great tools to create branded content.
Mailchimp's new Creative Assistant allows you to create customised, branded content at the touch of a button.
All you need to do is enter your website URL and let the widget get to work to create styles which are based on your brand.
Tools like this, can help you to quickly create an effective email campaign that gets your business noticed.
Always keep in mind - If your email campaign landed in your inbox, would you read it?
If you're not confident that you're able to give your email marketing campaign the pizazz that it needs, or dedicate the right time to wow your audience, why not outsource it? At Youbee Media, we can do this for you! We will create a strategy that is aligned with your business, audience and objectives, and monitor the results to ensure that we're ticking all of the boxes, and if your still struggling join one of our marketing workshops to gain expert tips that will help you with all your marketing queries.
