Email marketing can be one of the best strategies employed by your business but, unfortunately effective email campaigns don’t come that easily. Even for seasoned marketers, generating compelling copy isn’t a walk in the park. That’s why we put together a 5 step process to help guide beginners through the process and to offer some new perspective to the experts.

5 Steps to Mastering Email Marketing

Build a list with engaged individuals and dedicated landing pages
Where you acquired your contact list from affects the success of your email campaign. If your email list is built solely on individuals who have subscribed to your newsletter it would have better chances for engagement as opposed to a list of one year old leads. Once you have a solid list, make sure the Calls to Action in each email links to a dedicated landing page with designated copy and content.

Segment your subscribers into relevant groups
The more you get to know your subscribers the better you will be able to communicate with them. Once you understand their immediate interests, supplying them with relevant content will become much easier. Companies like Hubspot collect relevant data from their subscribers before they can access their free download. This process works really well and can help you further segment and understand your email lists.

Share your knowledge and industry secretsSharing industry know how and secrets is the greatest form of content marketing. Give your subscribers some value in exchange for listening to you. Let them know that you understand their problem and that you can provide a solution. Help them make money with your knowledge and they will definitely come back to learn more. But, don’t give them your best kept secrets right from the start, try and break up emails so you can build up momentum with your campaign. Your emails should always have a clear Call to Action included as well.

Structure and automate your campaignsThis structure is just an example to get a feel for what works best for your business. The first email should be to welcome the subscriber and it should also let them know what to expect with their subscription. The second email should offer genuine help and the third should complement the preceding email. The fourth and fifth should offer fresh perspective to their problem and dig deeper into the problem respectively. The sixth email should offer your best advice to their problem or some of your secrets for success. The seventh email should contain a special offer or low deal to work as a solution for their problem.

Tips to increase readership
  • Consider the “Real Subject Line” because in some inboxes the receiver is able to see a short preview of the message. That means that the receiver sees: From field, Subject Line and Short Preview. Not just the subject line.
  • Avoid writing in first person and focus on writing in second person. 
  • Create a series with multiple parts to build momentum: SEO for Beginners Part 1… SEO for beginners Part 6.
  • Write your emails with a personable tone and include images once in a while.
  • Only include one Call to Action per email and avoid multiple offers with more than one link. However the same call to action can be repeated in the same email for emphasis or reinforcement.
  • Your CTA should be colorful and standout among the text. The copy of your CTA should be relevant to the email’s content and offer.
The last consideration of email marketing is that your success will depend on testing and learning from your mistakes. Of course there is a lot more to email marketing than presented here but as mentioned above this list is meant to serve as guidance for beginners and provide new perspective for experts. If you have any questions or would like to share some of your email marketing tips, please do so in the comment field below.