Today, we're overwhelmed with email marketing campaigns, and indeed, some of them feel spammy. However, we can not ignore the impact a well-crafted email can have on the clients—not to mention CRM and lead nurturing.

Email marketing has been around for a really long now, and there's a good reason. It's the most personal and practical way of connecting with your leads, nurturing them, and converting them into clients, consistently prevailing over all other marketing channels.

In this guide, we'll walk you through the complete process of setting up your email marketing strategy so that you can send automated emails, capture leads and generate sales 24/7. But before that, let’s get into the nits and grits of email marketing.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing tactic based on sending emails and strengthening relationships with prospects and customers. An efficient email marketing strategy helps convert prospects into clients and first-time buyers into repetitive clients.

One principal benefit of email marketing is that you can automate the whole process. Email marketing assists you connect with your target audience to promote your brand and boost sales. You can do so much more with emails, like selling products, sharing news, or tell a story.

An email marketing campaign is perhaps an important pillar of your digital marketing strategy. To not make the most of your email marketing is like leaving money behind in your old denim.

However, it might seem like a tedious task in the beginning, but that's normal. Email marketing a broad domain, and things might get a little overwhelming for a beginner.  

It's best to learn how to do email marketing before starting your first email campaign. This way, you'll gain better results and avoid embarrassing mishaps. 

Does Email Marketing Work?

When you want to relate something about your brand or market your product, email marketing is perhaps one of the most cost-effective means to do so. How?

Well, as per a study, customers spend 138% more when marketed through email than those who do not receive email offers. Also, around 73% of marketers ranked the ROI of email to be “Good” or “Excellent.”

Incredible, right?

However, we often receive hundreds of emails per day, and it can feel like a challenging task to stand out in overflowing inboxes. That’s why HubSpot offers you the tools you need to develop powerful email marketing campaigns and ace them. 

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How to get Started?

So you are planning to start working on your email marketing campaign? Well, you would need two things to take care of your email marketing. 

The first one is an email marketing software. You don’t want to sit all day and write individual mails for each of your subscribers, do you? The second one is an email list, you need to have valid email addresses of your subscribers and make sure you have their permission.

Now that you are sorted with the basics, let’s move on to the approach you need to follow.

Create an Email Marketing Plan

No matter what you sell, have a clear idea of who your audience is to communicate with them effectively. HubSpot helps you get a deeper insight into your target audience to send them personalized emails that further boost engagement, develop trusting relationships, and generate higher ROI.

Once you've recognized your target audience, you can create groups and segments to send more suitable and personalized emails —and the more connected the campaign, the better the results. You'll need to send messages with a reason that truly addresses your subscribers, so keep in mind what made them sign up.

There's nothing fixed about how regularly you should email your clients. However, if you send emails too frequently, your subscribers will probably put your email on mute or unsubscribe you. Select your own pace for the email marketing campaign, keep track of the unsubscribe rates and the click-through rates to change the frequency if required. 

Design your Emails

While planning for email for marketing campaigns, focus on your message and keep your design layout simple. We recommend putting out all the elements for your email marketing campaign in order, putting the most relevant information or the principal takeaway at the top so people can instantly scan your email if they're in a rush.

And you can always use email marketing templates. HubSpot offers a series of email marketing templates that you can use.

Test your Emails

If you have colleagues who can review your email for grammatical errors and provide you some feedback on the format, you can send them a test email to preview the campaign right in their inbox.

Not confident which subject line will get a higher open and click rate? Think there may be a specific time of the day your clients are most likely to purchase through your campaign? Running an A/B test allows you to explore different avenues regarding different versions of your emails to perceive how the modifications you make influence your results.

Email Marketing Automation

Unlike routine email marketing campaigns, automation is a targeted email or series of emails you can schedule and forget. From an invite email series to follow-up emails after every purchase to offering your clients a special incentive, automation streamlines your communications with the clients. 

This way, you have more time to create content and increase return on investment (ROI). Besides, you can design, send, and track order notifications to update your clients on products they bought from your store.

And all this is possible with HubSpot Sequences. Want to know how? Find everything you need to know about getting started with HubSpot sequences, here.

Measure your Performance

These are the most obvious insights for estimating campaign engagement, as they determine how strongly your subject lines and campaign content connects with a specific list. But it’s essential to compare your open and click-through rates to other companies in your industry.

Tips to Improve your Email Open Rates

With all of the efforts you’ve put in to grow your email list and then segment it, you won’t be benefitted unless your subscribers open your emails.

Several factors play a role in whether or not your emails will get opened. These tips will come super-handy while starting your email marketing campaign. 

So, let’s get started!

Keep your List Fresh

It's essential to email your subscribers consistently so your list doesn't go stale. However, it is inevitable, and eventually, your email subscribers still get outdated. Some subscribers may have changed email ids, or perhaps they aren't engaged with your brand any longer.

So to keep your list updated and filled with committed subscribers, it's an excellent approach to remove inactive subscribers periodically. An inactive subscriber could be someone with zero engagement with your email for six months or more.

Another way to keep your subscriber list updated is by occasionally checking in with them to ask if they want to update their information or preferences. This way, they will be assured that they can control how they want to connect with you.

Make your Subject Line stand Out

With regards to email open and snap rates, your subject lines are everything. So, you have to make your subject lines stand out.

Draw curiosity; however, don’t be too keen. You want your subscribers to be curious enough to open your email. But without being mysterious to the point that the subscriber has no idea concerning what you’re talking about.

Use numbers or statistics to draw their attention. Write in a warm and conversational tone, in a language that they understand.

Draft an amazing Content

You may think that as soon as a subscriber opens your email, you've won the battle. However, the content of your email also has a significant role to play in your open rate.

Here's why: if your subscribers are pleased with your content, they will be inclined to open your emails in the future also. They may even start to expect your emails eagerly. However, if a subscriber is disappointed with what they received, they apparently won't open your emails again, and perhaps they may also unsubscribe.

But how would you ensure your supporters are satisfied with your email content? Simple: make it remarkable. 

Keep in mind that you're not sending emails just to keep your email marketing campaign running. Every time you email your subscribers, you need to convey something of actual worth. The higher your content value, the more loyal your subscribers will become, and your open rates will improve.

Personalization is the Key

When you create your subject line and message content, it's logical to consider all the people who are about to receive it. However, it's undeniably more successful to compose your email as if addressing an individual, with a personalized subject line and a personalized message. 

To write this way, you'll need to keep your buyer persona in mind. You have to understand their problems, desires, values, preferences, and dislikes. 

If you are experiencing difficulty with this, send out an email requesting a quick five-minute talk. You can ask questions that will help you understand your subscriber's requirements and how they think. After a day or two of speaking with your supporters will be time spent well because it will not only help with your emails but also with improving your products and services.

Add a Touch of Humor

Humor has a way of forming a strong, immediate connection with people. It's personal, engaging, and stands out in peoples' minds.

But what if you are not really a funny person? It's not always natural to be clever or funny and trying to come up with a witty subject line. 

Fortunately, you don't need to be a comedian to pull off a witty email. It's more crucial to know your subscribers and what they'll react. It will be so much more natural to pull off a joke or make a funny remark if you know their preferences.

Wrapping Up

If you've been overlooking email marketing, now is the time to reevaluate your strategy. Today, email marketing is producing huge returns for marketers willing to get started with it. However, it need not be too intricate.

Keep in mind that you're a visitor in the subscribers' inboxes, and your emails are just one click away from losing their interest for good. Be pleasant, respectful, and provide value.

As you begin, you'll need to take their consent. Indeed, it's the right thing to do. Besides, keeping in mind the new data protection, it's also a legal obligation. You'll need to follow through with the guarantees you make. Deliver what they've asked for, and email regularly that meets up with their expectations.

Hope you found this article useful. Remember, there's no recipe for a successful email marketing campaign—it's all about what turns out the best for you and your organization. 

Want to get started with your email marketing services? Or need help with setting up your email marketing campaign on HubSpot?
Get in touch with us now. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Email marketing typically involves five key steps. First, list building where you collect email addresses of potential customers. Second, segmentation, which involves categorizing your email list based on criteria like demographics or behavior. Third, content creation, where you craft engaging and relevant emails. Fourth, sending and tracking, as you send emails and monitor their performance, adjusting as needed. Finally, analysis and optimization, where you analyze data from your campaigns to refine future email marketing strategies.

There are four primary types of email marketing. First, transactional emails, these are automated messages triggered by user actions, like purchase confirmations or password resets. Second, promotional emails, these are used for advertising products, services, or special offers to a targeted audience. Third, relational emails, these are also called drip campaigns, nurture relationships by providing valuable content over time. Lastly, lifecycle emails are strategically sent at key points in a customer's journey, such as onboarding emails for new subscribers, to guide them through the customer lifecycle.

The main purpose of email marketing is to engage with and nurture a targeted audience through personalized and timely email messages, ultimately driving desired actions such as purchases, sign-ups, or brand loyalty.

A well-structured business email has six important parts: the subject line, greeting, introduction , the main information, what you're asking for, and how you end the email.

Richa Sharma brings her passion for clear communication to the world of marketing content. Though an engineer by training and a Ph.D. dropout at heart, Richa excels in crafting engaging and informative written pieces. With over 7 years of experience, she leverages her technical background to create easy-to-understand content on diverse topics, including technology trends, digital marketing strategies, and consumer insights.