“ Email Marketing: What is it? and How Does it Work? ”
Although technology is constantly evolving from WhatsApp to Snapchat, email is still an important part of our daily lives. In fact, in 2020 the number of global email users was around 4 billion and is set to grow further still to 4.6 billion users in 2025 – this is thanks to growing internet availability and a generation of tech-adept kids.
The look and feel of emailing has changed, but the way we use it has developed over the years making it an important in any business’s toolkit.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is an email or regular newsletter that allows a brand to connect to their audience to promote their products and increase sales. Regular email marketing is called a campaign and can be seasonal (e.g., around Black Friday or Christmas) to promote certain products or shout about deals or sales, or can be news related to the business.
How does it work?
It all starts with your audience list. Building an extensive audience list is key to being able to see the highest ROI on your campaigns. Although it can take time, it’s recommended you have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers before you start your email campaign.
There are a couple of ways you can build an email list, either by creating a signup form on your website or by driving subscribers through social media.
How often should you send marketing emails is up to the industry your company occupies. For hair and beauty, this could be frequently surrounding seasonal promotion periods (like Black Friday) and then down to 1 to 2 per month. Whatever you decide, if you start you should keep to a regular schedule so that your audience is kept engaged and that you’re driving sales.
Are there different types of marketing email?
In short yes. There are quite a few, but here are some that important to consider if you’re building an email marketing campaign.
1- Email newsletters.
These, as mentioned, are the most common and can have content that entices the audience to read further on the brands website (blog page). These can also be a mix promotional information and brand news.
2- Acquisition emails.
These are emails that are designed to convert your email audience into paying customers. These emails can include attractive offers and informative content to show the value of becoming a customer via exclusive deals or pertinent information.
3- Retention emails.
If you have an extensive audience list it’s important to keep that list engaged so that no one is hitting that unsubscribe button. This could be by requesting feedback or sending exclusive offers to those who haven’t interacted with your business or email campaigns in a while.
4- Promotional emails.
For any ecommerce business, these help drive sales, audience sign ups, and deliver information about your business, new product offerings, and any discounts, deals or sales you may be offering. These emails are important for businesses around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Diwali, or any other sales day that you can plug.
Okay, but does it really work?
If done correctly, yes! Recently the marketing team here at Adeo created a successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing campaign for one of our clients. The client had an audience of 20,546 but hadn’t utilized email marketing before so the team started with a blank slate. The campaign saw a 20% open rate and a 10% click rate on products through to the website. This in turn meant that purchases from the emails via the website were up 259% making revenue up 4367%.
The team are on track to grow this success as we move into the festive period, and it has not only laid the groundwork for future campaigns, but also gives the team key learnings to continually adapt and evolve campaigns to ensure we increase the subscriber list and drive sales.
I’m in. How do I get started?
Email marketing campaigns need an investment of time, and although there are free packages you can get with preloaded templates, nothing beats the advice and skill of an expert! We can help build your email marketing strategy from segmenting and building your audience, creating the bespoke design, writing the content, scheduling, and monitoring your newsletter…you name it, soup to nuts.
