Everything about email marketing you need to know

Last Updated: March 2024

Table of Contents

1.Why is email marketing used?

I will cut straight to the chase, and share with you, why several businesses use email marketing.

Email is common

I can’t think of any active user of the internet who doesn’t have an email. You literally need an email for almost everything online. And now, emails can readily be accessed by most smartphones. Such ease of access cannot go unexploited.

Therefore, many businesses tap into the power of emails to land prospective clients and keep in touch with customers. It’s a highly effective way of reaching out and having direct communication with customers and potential clients.

It’s cost-effective

A vast majority of email service providers offer decently paid plans to suit all kinds of budgets. Most email service providers have free plans as well, which can be a perfect choice to start with, if you are low on budget and now starting out in email marketing.

The barrier to entry in email marketing has never been so low, such that you can easily start out for free or with little cost involved.

Compared to traditional methods such as print and tv ads, email marketing is a more cost-effective method to reach and engage with your audience.

If you should make an error in a print ad, you will certainly be paying some extra dollars to rectify it. In the case of email, errors can easily be rectified with little or no cost involved at all. I mean, how well does this get?

It has an unrivaled return on investment

Aside from the low cost involved in the use of email marketing, email marketing has been proven to produce a great return on investment (ROI).

Email marketing techniques such as segmented, targeted, and triggered campaigns have been shown to be a lucrative source of revenue.

According to Statistics by Campaign Monitor, an average of $44 is generated in ROI for every $1 spent on email marketing.

This is one sure reason why several businesses use email marketing. It’s highly effective in generating revenue.

Email marketing is easy to measure

Most email marketing tools enable you to keep tabs on delivery rates, click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates and unsubscribe rates.

This allows you to easily measure the productivity of your email campaigns. From these metrics, you can know what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

You can then adjust your email campaigns to get the intended results you want, or maintain/improve your email campaigns, provided you are getting the kind of results you want.

Email marketing is targeted at interested consumers

Email marketing is probably the only marketing method where consumers give consent to receive promotional and informational content on your product/service.

Once consumers give consent via the provision of their emails, it allows most businesses to send targeted and personalized content to interested consumers.

This can increase conversion rates since most of the subscribers have some form of interest in your product or service to begin with.

Email marketing increases brand recognition

Email marketing not only allows businesses to build healthy relationships with customers/potential customers but also serves as an effective tool in increasing the awareness of their brand.

As promotional and informational content are frequently sent out, it registers the product/service on the minds of the readers, which increases brand recognition.

People might not be in need of the product/service immediately, but since brand awareness is created by emails, people are likely to resort to these businesses once a need arises for their products/services.

These are a few of the many reasons why people use email marketing. You’ll be missing out on a lot if you miss out on email marketing.

2.How do you start with Email marketing as a beginner?

In this answer, I will attempt to provide a comprehensive guide on how to start email marketing as a beginner.

You need an email list

With email marketing, I believe your first point of call is an email list. An email list is pivotal to your email campaigns and certainly cannot be overlooked. You can only begin your email marketing campaigns once you have a bunch of emails you can reach out to.

You need to create a system on the web that can be used to gain the emails of consumers who are interested/might be interested in your product or service.

You can employ the use of a lead magnet to build your email list. A lead magnet is anything amazing that you give away for free in exchange for the email of the consumer.

It’s called a lead “magnet” because it’s meant to attract and pull the consumer to provide his/her email in exchange for the giveaway.

Lead magnets are mostly digital products such as ebooks, PDFs, you can readily create cheat sheets of tips, free trials or consultation,, at minimal or no cost at all.

For the lead magnet to be effective, it must be relevant and valuable to the consumer. You can finally use an opt-in form to capture the email of your consumer.

You can also use multiple sign-up forms on your website, after post forms, in-line opt-in forms, and exit-intent pop-ups to build your email list. You can look up a variety of techniques to build up your email list.

You need an email service provider

Once you have a ready email list, you need the right tools to start your email campaigns. This is when email service providers come in.

An email service provider basically allows you to send large quantities of emails to a list of subscribers.

An email service provider offers many advanced features, including:

  • Email message automation
  • List management and personalization
  • Effective HTML design
  • A/B testing
  • Lead capture forms
  • Landing Page creation

There are several email service providers that you can use for your email marketing campaigns. There are free and paid plans. You need to choose an email service provider that meets your budget and has the tools to implement your email campaigns.

Examples of email service providers include Mailchimp, HubSpot, Sendinblue, Omnisend, GetResponse, Mailerlite, AWeber, etc.

Practice Segmentation

Once you have an email list and an email service provider, the next point of call in your email marketing journey is email segmentation.

Segmentation involves the breakdown of your email list or subscribers to smaller groups based on certain criteria, in order to send them more personalized and relevant content.

You can break down your email list based on subscriber preferences, location, open rates, new subscribers, the kind of lead magnets they choose, etc.

An email list without proper segmentation might not be productive. Segmentation of your email list is likely to boost your email campaigns and yield results.

Segmentation has been proven to improve your email open rates, click-through rates, and decrease your unsubscribe rates.

Create personalized email content for your segmented list

Once you have a segmented list, you can proceed to create personalized email content for your segmented email list.

Make sure to create amazing email content for your subscribers. This will go a long way to convert potential customers to customers and existing customers to loyal customers.

The importance of good email content cannot be overemphasized. Your content is key in helping you actualize your marketing goals.

You can hire the services of a writer to create your email copy for you. If you have good writing skills, you can do the deed yourself.

Email Automation

The last part of this beginner’s guide to email marketing is email automation.

Email automation is simply the act of crafting emails that will be automatically sent to an individual or a group of people on your email list when a certain action is taken by them.

The triggers that set the automation process into motion can include downloading a pdf, signing up, buying a product, cart abandonment, etc.

Email automation is achieved via the use of an email service provider. You can easily use your email service provider to craft email content in advance and program it to be sent automatically, any time a certain action is taken by your subscriber.

Examples of automated emails may include a welcome message for new subscribers, transactional emails, re-engagement emails, etc.

Imagine having to send a new welcome message, each time someone subscribes to your email list. Email automation definitely alleviates your workload and saves you time.

With email automation, you can consistently engage your email list, build relationships and potentially convert prospects to customers.

With the outlined steps, you should be able to start out in email marketing without much difficulty, even as a beginner.

3.Which is better, email marketing or SEO?

There are certain areas where email marketing has an edge over SEO and certain areas where SEO has an edge over email marketing. Both email marketing and SEO have different approaches and are best suited for what they are intended for.

For instance, SEO will be your best bet if your business depends heavily on organic search. Customers search specifically for some products, therefore you will need SEO to rank high on search pages, in order to have your product/service viewed and potentially purchased.

Email marketing is a great way of continuously reaching out to customers and potential customers on a 1 on 1 basis. Email marketing will be a better choice if your business depends on promotions, discounts, and word-of-mouth marketing to thrive.

Through email campaigns, you can create brand awareness, engage your subscribers while gaining revenue through the sales you make.

You can get great results using both SEO and email marketing as separate marketing strategies, but both SEO and email marketing are strategies that should be implemented hand in hand to increase the overall profitability of your business.

4.What is email marketing? How does it work? What are the benefits of using email marketing?

To explain email marketing, I will, first of all, explain marketing. Marketing is defined as the act of promoting, advertising, and selling a product or service.

So put together, email marketing can be defined as the process of promoting, advertising, and selling a product or service through the medium of email.

In the event of promoting and selling a product or service via email, email marketing can be used to develop relations with current customers and reach out to potential customers.

How does it work?

Email marketing begins with an email list. You need to create a system on the web that can be used to get the emails of consumers who are interested and might be interested in your product.

This can be achieved via lead magnets, opt-in forms, sign-ups, pop-ups on your website, etc.

Once your email list is set, you need an email service provider to commence your email marketing campaigns. There are lots of email service providers with excellent email marketing tools that you can utilize.

Once you have an email list and an email service provider, the next point of call in your email marketing journey is email segmentation.

Segmentation involves the breakdown of your email list or subscribers to smaller groups based on certain criteria, in order to send them more personalized and relevant content.

After the Segmentation of your email list, you can proceed to create email content and refine the content to attain your marketing goals.

Most email service providers give room for automation in your email campaigns, which will make things easier for you.

What are the benefits of using email marketing?

1.It’s affordable

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing methods to reach and engage your audience. There is little cost involved in running an email campaign compared to other traditional marketing methods such as direct mail and print or tv advertising.

Most email marketing services offer fairly decent pricing for their email marketing tools. Some email services even have some unbelievably free plans, which you can take advantage of to kick-start your email campaigns.

There’s no way you can use a traditional marketing method of cost, for starters, but with email marketing, you can start for free and upgrade to a paid service to suit your growing needs.

If you should make a mistake in a print ad, you will definitely be paying some additional dollars to rectify it. In the case of email, errors can easily be rectified with little or no cost involved at all. I mean, how well does this get?

2.It has great returns on investment

Aside from the minimal cost involved in the use of email marketing, email marketing has been proven to produce a great return on investment (ROI).

Email marketing techniques such as segmented, targeted, and triggered campaigns have been shown to be a lucrative source of revenue.

According to Statistics by Campaign Monitor, an average of $44 is generated in ROI for every $1 spent on email marketing.

This statistic is indicative of how profitable and cost-effective this marketing strategy is. This makes email marketing a great choice for businesses since it’s relatively cheaper to start and maintain email campaigns, with a potentially profitable return on interest.

3.Email marketing increases brand awareness

Email marketing not only allows you to build healthy relationships with customers/potential customers but also serves as an effective tool in increasing the awareness of your brand.

As you frequently send out promotional and informational content to your email list, it registers your product/service in the minds of your readers, which increases brand recognition.

People might not be in need of your product/service immediately, but since awareness has been created by your email on your brand, they are likely to resort to you, once they are in need of your product/service.

4.Email marketing is measurable

Most email marketing tools enable you to keep a close eye on delivery rates, click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates and unsubscribe rates.

These metrics allow you to easily measure the productivity of your email campaigns. You can know what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong from these metrics.

You can then adjust your email campaigns to get the intended results you want, or maintain or improve your email campaigns, provided you are getting the kind of results you want.

5.Email marketing is targeted at interested consumers

Email marketing is probably the only marketing method where consumers give consent to receive promotional and informational content on your product/service.

Once consumers give consent via the provision of their emails, it allows most businesses to send targeted and personalized content to interested consumers.

This can increase conversion rates since most of the subscribers have some form of interest in your product or service, to begin with.

5.What are the best and free email marketing tools?

There are several email marketing tools available on the internet. Some top-level and free email marketing tools include:

Mailchimp

 

MailChimp is treasured by many bloggers and small business owners, primarily because it was one of the first email service giants to offer a free plan. MailChimp has some exceptional email marketing tools.

The free plan allows you to send 10,000 emails per month for up to 2000 subscribers. There is a daily send limit of 2000 mails.

Omnisend

 

If you run an online store, Omnisend will be a great pick for you. However, this is not only limited to online store owners.

Omnisend can readily extract products from your store and generate beautiful, exciting emails and opt-in forms to grow your email list.

The free package allows you to send 15,000 emails per month to an unlimited number of subscribers. There is a daily limit of 2000 mails per day, which is pretty cool for a free plan.

Sender

 

This is another remarkable email service with an excellent free plan. It provides push notifications that correspond with its segmentation, integration, and amazing designs.

You can send 15,000 mails on a monthly basis to up to 2,500 subscribers for free. Sender puts no caps on how many emails you can send per day, even with the free plan.

15,000 mails per month with no daily limits for free is an absolute steal you should leverage on.

Mailerlite

 

One of the email services that has been a standout performer in the last two years is Mailerlite.

Mailerlite is built for efficient email marketing and improves interaction with your audience via the use of pop-ups and surveys.

You can send 12,000 emails per month to up to 1,000 subscribers absolutely for free. There are no limits on how many emails you can send per day.

Sendinblue

Sendinblue has a decent free plan coupled with support for SMS text messages, all in the same dashboard.

The free plan enables you to send 9000 emails per month to an unlimited number of subscribers. You are limited to 300 emails per day. This is quite a downside if you intend on sending more emails on a daily basis.

However, you can certainly leverage the free plan, especially if you are a small business now growing your email list.

6.Is email marketing dead, or is it still possible to head in 2021?

Email marketing can only be dead when people stop using emails. So far as people keep on using emails, email marketing will continue to thrive.

Email marketing is not dead, and it’s far from being dead. As a matter of fact, email marketing keeps on getting bigger and better, with every fleeting moment.

Don’t be beguiled by the phrase “email is dead”, which sometimes pops up in the marketing world, contrary to the highly impressive statistics generated by email marketing.

Email marketing is certainly not a new innovation but still stands out as one of the best marketing methods.

Email marketing is still relevant for today and a marketing tool you should utilize heading into 2021. This is why.

Email users are more than social media users

According to Lyfe marketing, 94% of internet users use email, while 61% use social media.

This makes email marketing a great strategy for reaching out to internet users, relative to social media.

Actually, statistics show that email marketing is nearly 40 times effective than social media in acquiring customers.

Email marketing is cost-effective

A vast majority of email service providers offer decently paid plans to suit all kinds of budgets. Most email service providers have free plans as well, which can be a perfect choice to start with, if you are low on budget and now starting out in email marketing.

Compared to traditional methods such as print and tv ads, email marketing is a more cost-effective method to reach and engage with your audience.

If you should make an error in a print ad, you will certainly be paying some extra dollars to rectify it. In the case of email, errors can easily be rectified with little or no cost involved at all. I mean, how well does this get?

Email marketing has a great return on investment

Aside from the low cost involved in the use of email marketing, email marketing has been proven to produce a great return on investment (ROI).

Email marketing techniques such as segmented, targeted, and triggered campaigns have been shown to be a lucrative source of revenue.

According to Statistics by Campaign Monitor, an average of $44 is generated in ROI for every $1 spent on email marketing.

This is another reason why you must make use of email marketing heading into 2021. It’s highly effective in generating revenue.

Email marketing is measurable

Most email marketing tools enable you to keep a close eye on delivery rates, click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates and unsubscribe rates.

These metrics allow you to easily measure the productivity of your email campaigns. You can know what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong from these metrics.

You can then adjust your email campaigns to get the intended results you want, or maintain or improve your email campaigns, provided you are getting the kind of results you want.

Email marketing increases brand recognition

Email marketing not only allows you to build healthy relationships with customers/potential customers but also serves as an effective tool in increasing the awareness of your brand.

As you frequently send out promotional and informational content to your email list, it registers your product/service in the minds of your readers, which increases brand recognition.

People might not be in need of your product/service immediately, but since awareness has been created by your email on your brand, they are likely to resort to you, once they are in need of your product/service.

These are a few of the many reasons why email marketing is far from being dead and why you should include it in your marketing strategies even in 2021 and beyond. If Email marketing is done rightly, you can reap a ton of mind-blowing benefits from it.

7.What are the steps to create an email marketing funnel?

Choose an Email Service Provider

The first step in creating an email marketing funnel is to choose an email service provider. With an email service provider, you are provided with the requisite tools needed to create your email marketing funnel.

Generate leads

Once you have an email service provider, the next step to take is to generate leads. Generating leads provides you with email contacts that you can reach out to, engage with, and promote your products to.

You can generate leads via your email service provider by:

  1. Creating opt-in forms

You can easily create forms that capture the details of prospective clients in order for them to receive newsletters or promotional content. Opt-in forms usually request an email address and a first name which is an excellent way of gaining leads.

Email service providers make it super easy for you to integrate the lead generating forms on your website to gain traction.

  1. Creating landing pages for lead generation

Landing pages usually have the sole purpose of converting visitors to leads. You can utilize this great marketing tool in gaining more leads while promoting your brand.

Your landing page should have a single and noticeable call to action (CTA) for effectiveness. In this case, your call to action will be signing up for your email funnel.

Craft engaging content to connect with your leads

Once your leads are set, you need to create compelling and engaging email content for your leads. This allows you to build and nurture your relationship with your subscribers.

In connecting with your leads:

  1. Segment your email list based on criteria like new subscribers, subscriber preferences, location, etc, and create personalized campaigns for each segment.
  2. Provide valuable content
  3. Use educational emails to build trust with subscribers at the initial stages
  4. Automate the emails to make your email campaign less daunting and efficient

Convert prospects to customers

Once you nurture and engage your subscribers with your email content, you can proceed to convert your subscribers to customers.

It’s advisable to craft content that aims to create customers out of your subscribers once you have educated them on the value of your product or service.

You can use time-sensitive messages and retargeting strategies to convert your subscribers to customers

Convert one-off customers to loyal customers

Getting a subscriber to buy your product or service should not be your end goal. The last goal of your email marketing funnel should be customer retention.

You need to come up with strategies to prevent your subscribers from being one-off customers and turn them into loyal customers.

You can increase customer retention via the following strategies.

  1. Provide them with good quality experience in the first sale
  2. Offer special promotions or discounts to existing customers
  3. Send customers gifts and messages on special occasions
  4. Consistently engage, educate and add value to your customers through your emails
  5. Upsell your product or service
  6. Read and answer newsletter replies or emails from customer

8.How do I generate more leads through email marketing?

The generation of leads is key to any marketing campaign. With more leads, there is an increased potential in converting prospects to loyal customers and increasing your returns on investment (ROI).

You can generate more leads through email marketing via the underlisted strategies.

Use subject lines that spark interest

The subject line of your email is one of your biggest assets in converting your email marketing to a lead generating machine.

The subject line determines if a reader is going to be interested in your email and subsequently determines if your email will be opened. You can have great content, but once your email is not opened, all your efforts will go down the drain.

This is why you must pay attention to crafting impressive subject lines. This increases your prospects of gaining quality leads when your email is opened by the reader.

Your subject line should capture the purpose of the email and definitely arouse the interest of your reader. It should be as concise as possible and highly engaging to work its magic.

Make your email content brief and concise

Most people are likely to finish reading a short mail compared to a lengthy one. If a consumer fails to read your email, you are less likely to elicit a response from them.

Create email contents that are brief, concise, and engaging. Most customers like contents that are straight to the point and can be read on the go. You can include visuals or images to your content while keeping it brief. Visuals or Images are more pleasing to the eye than long generic texts.

This is more likely to generate quality leads in the form of subscriptions or mails/calls from the consumer that expresses interest in your product.

Send an email at the right time

Not every time is favorable for sending emails. There are optimal times that can be profitable in generating more leads. There are statistics that show that Tuesdays are a great day for sending emails with high click-through rates, others suggest Thursday.

But u can’t follow these stats and opinions alone, you need to experiment and study your customers/prospects to know the right time and days for sending emails that will produce results in the form of leads.

State a clear call to action (CTA)

You must always include a clear call to action in your email campaigns. A call to action is one of the ways your reader can reach out to you and express interest in your offer.

Mention a clear call to action and make the call to action button easily noticeable to your reader. A clear call to action can be efficient in generating more leads from your email campaigns.

Optimize your emails for mobile phones

A great number of people use their smartphones for online activities including checking their emails. According to Campaign Monitor, about 53% of emails are read from mobile phones.

Make sure to design your email template in a way that the entire content can easily be viewed on mobile devices as well. Considering the statistics stated above, you can miss out on quite a number of leads if your emails cannot be viewed properly on mobile devices.

Test your email campaigns before you send them

Last on the list is to test your email campaigns before you unleash them out. It’s highly significant to run A/B testing on your email campaigns and analyze the outcome of the results.

This will help you know the defects, and loopholes in your email campaign before you send them out. With testing, you can easily rectify any issues detected in order to send an error-free email campaign.

An error-free campaign is likely to yield more results than an email campaign laden with errors.

9.How do I create a free landing page for email marketing?

You can create a free landing page for your email campaigns primarily through the use of a free landing page builder. You can equally create a free landing page via coding, but this requires some technical expertise in coding.

The most preferred choice of building a free landing page is through the use of a free landing page builder since you can easily create one yourself without much technical know-how.

You can follow the outlined steps in building a free landing page for your email marketing endeavors.

Choose your preferred landing page builder

The first and foremost action to take in building a free landing page is to select a free landing page builder.

A landing page builder is a software that allows you to easily create effective landing pages with pre-made templates that are 100% customizable to suit your preference.

There are several landing page builders that allow you to create landing pages for free. Most email service providers provide landing page creation features as well.

Examples of free landing page builders include MailChimp, Mailerlite, Sendinblue, Wix, ConvertKit, Ucraft, Card, etc.

Select a template

The next step after choosing a landing page builder is to select a landing page template of your choice. This template becomes the framework for your landing page.

There are templates for lead generation, product promotion, etc. So choose one that suits your conversion goals.

Customize the template

Once you have a template that is suitable for your landing page goals, you need to customize it to suit your preference. In customizing the template:

  1. Write a riveting copy for your headlines and body section
  2. Make sure your email content matches with your landing page content
  3. Use engaging and beautiful images
  4. Make sure your design is optimized for mobile devices
  5. Make sure your landing page is optimized for SEO
  6. Use an easily noticeable call to action (CTA) and place it at a good location on your page

Publish your landing Page

Once you are satisfied with your landing page design, you can readily publish your landing page and use it for your email marketing ventures.

10.What is the acceptance rate in email marketing?

The acceptance rate in email marketing refers to the percentage of emails that are successfully delivered to your recipients.

As the name implies, the acceptance rate simply measures the rate at which your emails are accepted by the recipient’s Internet Service Provider (ISP). In other words, the rate at which your emails are successfully delivered.

Accepted emails are emails that are not returned from the recipient’s ISP as bounced emails.

Acceptance rate focuses on the fact that your email was successfully delivered to the recipient and does not take into consideration whether the email ended up in the spam, inbox, or junk folder.

You can readily assess the acceptance rate of your email campaigns through the metrics provided by your email service provider.