If you are running a business, e-mail marketing is a very important step to promote your company’s products and services or just to connect with your customers. E-mail marketing is a very effective digital marketing strategy, it is a great way to inform your audience of your products, discounts, and other services. Effective email marketing can convert prospects into customers and turn onetime buyers into loyal customers.
Importance of e-mail marketing despite social media
Email marketing is very important for your business. If you are ready to grow your business, then you need to be ready to start using email marketing. Despite the rise of social media, email still remains the number one communication channel and the most effective way to boost customer loyalty. Most consumers check their email on a daily basis, so it doesn’t surprise why email marketing must be a priority in your business marketing.
Just posting something on social media doesn’t mean that your target audience will see the post. However, on the other side, an email will sit in an inbox as long as your customer reads it (or delete it). Email marketing can go hand to hand with social media. You can add social media „Like“ or „Share“ buttons to your email marketing so that customers can connect to your brand. Also, positive reviews from your social media fans can be included in emails or social media posts can drive customers to your email newsletters.
If you run your business using any social media platform, you know that your account with all your posts and fans can be deleted or suspended, for any reason and without notice. But, on the other side, you can have an email list, that is your own and no one can take it away from you.
Also, according to some researches, the average order value of an email is at least three times higher than the average order value of social media. That is all proofing that email marketing is simply the best way to make your online business marketing.
How to get started with e-mail marketing
When you decide to start your email marketing, you will probably ask how to get started. It doesn’t need to be complicated. You can start with your email list and with choosing your email service provider. When you make those two steps, it’s just a matter of refining your lists and your messaging so you can reach your audience and really connect with them. You can also be able to put some automation in your email service, which can make everything much easier.
Email marketing allows you to target particular groups or even specific individuals that are related to your business. For example, some companies are sending an email to customers on their birthday, offering 50% off prices. This kind of personalization helps a business develop and increase the good relationship with your customers and provide customer loyalty.
Choosing an e-mail marketing service
Sometimes you can be wondering why you need an email service if you are just getting started with your business. It doesn’t matter which email provider you use–Gmail, Outlook, Zoho, AOL, etc.–you have to know that they are not intended for email marketing. That means they have some limitations regarding email sending volume and design, and they are limited to inbox providers. Just with your email provider, you are not able to create an email template if you don’t have design skills, and also can manage your mailing lists and personalize your emails. That’s why a professional email marketing service is important for your business marketing.
E-mail marketing strategies
If you want to have effective email marketing, it can take a lot of effort. You can use some strategies so that your job email marketing would be much easier.
Opt-in email and Build your own list–you need to send your emails to a customer that is open to your product or services you provide, and the most important opted-in to receiving your emails. Customers who don’t opt-in specifically for your email list are not people who will buy from you. If you send emails to them, you will just waste your time, energy, and money. Opt-in email marketing is so much important if you want to have successful email marketing for your business.
Follow the low–email marketers’ need to follow the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act. That means you are having a non-deceptive subject line, including your name and address at the end of emails and providing a clear way to unsubscribe.
Mobile optimization – some studies by marketing analysts found out that almost half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. That means that you need to provide for the customers to be able to open your emails on their mobile platforms. If you don’t do that, half of your audience will think of you as unprofessional.
E-mail marketing for free
The new strategy often means more money, but it doesn’t need to be true. There are actually dozens of free marketing apps, with many tools available, and they have all the features you need for your email marketing.
When you are new in your business and want to try a few new options before you get committed to a paid plan, there are a lot of different options for you. There is plenty of options that offer the flexible subscriber and provides everything that your small business needs – and it’s all for free.
Options that the platform offers for free
If you decide to start some free email marketing, here are some options that are available for you. Subscribers and sends – the number of subscribers and sends that you can get for free, depends on the app you choose. Some of them can give you thousands of free sends per month, and some of them are restrictive and don’t provide free service for a very long time. You have to keep that in your mind when you are choosing which app is the best option for your business.
Templates and customization–visualization of your business is a very important step if you want to interest your audience.
Audience–it is very important to be able to deliver the right emails to the right persons at the right time. If you are having a growing business, that means it’s important to have a capable audience segmentation.
Scalability–as your business getting better, the free email app getting better too. First, you can get them for free, then you can get paid for them if it is necessary, and apps will add you more options, features, and higher limits.
Free apps
If you are a beginner in your business and want to improve your business marketing, you are probably looking for an email marketing service that allows you to send a thousand emails per month without spending any money. There is a ton of free email marketing platforms that you can choose, depends on your preferences and the needs of your business. There are some examples of them.
MailChimp
MailChimp–one of the first big email services that provides a completely free plan, and because of that, this is a favorite app for bloggers and small businesses. For free you can get 10.000 emails per month for up to 2.000 subscribers. MailChimp also has some excellent email marketing tools–you get landing pages, drag-and-drop builder, tools for Instagram and Facebook ads and posts, automation tools that include options for abandoned carts, welcome campaigns, and product recommendations, etc.
MailerLite
MailerLite–one of the most popular free email marketing services in the last two years. On this service for free, you can create beautiful email newsletters, pop-ups, and surveys, easy to design a mobile-optimized email template, get access to more than 49 newsletter templates for the blog, eCommerce business, etc. This is ideal for startup businesses, small to mid-sized businesses, and eCommerce stores.
Sendinblue
Sendinblue – with this platform you can promote your brand and grow your business with beautifully designed emails. They have a decent free plan along with support for SMS text message sending all in the same dashboard. For free you can have an unlimited number of contacts, but you are limited to 300 emails per day. Because of that, this is maybe not too great a platform if you need to send out email blasts to all your subscribers at the same time, but it is suitable for one who has a lot of drip campaigns.
OmniSend
OmniSend – if your business including an online store, this is the right platform for you. You can generate beautiful and fun emails and easy to take your products from the store and. With the free plan, you can send 15.000 emails per month and 2.000 emails per day, no matter the number of your subscribers. Interesting tools are pop-ups as creative sign-up forms, landing pages, and a “wheel of fortune” game. OmniSend is mostly used for eCommerce stores, but if you don’t mind missing out on a lot of the unique features, you can still use it even if you are not running a store.
