Introducing email marketing into your business can be daunting, especially if you have limited knowledge about it.

Find out how to do email marketing, including creating audience lists, setting goals, choosing a platform, and building your first email.

Why is email marketing important?

Email marketing is an important part of any marketing strategy and can help you meet several goals. From increasing website traffic and conversions to building brand awareness and customer loyalty, email marketing boasts a range of benefits.

Steps for using email marketing

There are a number of things to consider before you get started to ensure that you get the most out of your email strategy.

1. Understand your audience

With email marketing, you’ll be contacting a list of people that have subscribed to receive emails from you. This means they already have an interest in your business. Although there may be some emails relevant to all subscribers, there will be others that are only appropriate for certain people. For example, you might want to send a discount code to customers who shopped with you in the past 3 months. In this case, you’d need to separate them from the rest of your data set.

By understanding the different groups within your email marketing audience, you can personalise emails to be tailored towards them. This helps you get the right messages to the right people and increases engagement.

2. Set email marketing goals

As with all marketing efforts, it’s important to set email marketing goals before you introduce this channel into your strategy. Your goals will depend on your business and what you’re hoping to achieve. This could be an increase in website traffic, a boost in sales, or more people reading your blog posts. Once you have your goals in place, you can create an email marketing strategy focused on these.

Through ensuring that each email you send has a purpose, you’ll save time and reduce the risk of sending spam emails to your subscribers.

3. Choose an email marketing platform

There are numerous email marketing platforms available, each with its own features. Most will enable you to build and send simple emails to your chosen list, which may be all you need. Consider how many emails you’ll be sending per month, as this is often a factor when choosing a platform. Typically, you’ll be able to build email templates which will help you to personalise your emails and save time going forward.

An email marketing platform will provide insights and data following each email send. You’ll be able to see how many emails have bounced, the open rate, and the click through rate. These reports will show you what’s working and help to inform your future email content.

4. Consider email types

There are many types of email that you can send, so you’ll need to identify which ones are relevant for your subscribers. Examples include:

• Newsletters:  A newsletter enables you to share company updates, promotions, blog posts, and much more. They provide a great way to increase website traffic by including links to further information.
• Welcome emails: Welcome emails make new subscribers feel instantly appreciated. Introduce the type of content they can expect from you and build brand awareness with your logo, brand colours, and imagery.
• Promotional emails: An email announcing a promotion, offer, or sale to subscribers before anyone else will show that they’re valued. You could choose to segment your audience and send the email at different times depending on how often they shop with you or when they last made a purchase.
• Abandoned cart emails: An abandoned cart email is an automated email to people who have put something in their basket but not converted. This puts their considered purchase to the front of their mind and may encourage them to return. Including a discount code or free delivery can increase conversion.
• Birthday emails: If you collect people’s birthdays when they subscribe, sending a birthday email is a nice personal touch. A birthday discount or freebie is always appreciated and can boost brand loyalty in addition to conversion.

5. Write and build your first email

Once you’ve decided on the type of email you’d like to send, and who you’d like to send it to, it’s time to write and build your first email. Emails should be short in length and include a prominent CTA. Use an engaging design and imagery to captivate your subscribers and encourage them to keep reading. Headings are useful for separating content and helping people to find the information they’re most interested in.

As previously mentioned, creating an email template is helpful as it will ensure that your emails remain consistent and on brand. They also reduce the risk of human error and will save you time when you want to send your next email.

Can an agency help with my email marketing?

There are multiple ways in which an agency can help with your email marketing. Agencies that specialise in email marketing have the knowledge and experience to ensure that you get the most out of your efforts. From designing and building engaging email templates to efficiently testing subject lines and CTAs to see what best suits your audience, an agency can take all aspects of email marketing off your hands. With an agency, you can be confident you’re sending optimised, attractive emails and spend the time you save on other business activities.

We hope we’ve helped you understand how to introduce email marketing into your eCommerce business. We’d love to help you create audience lists and build emails that help you reach your chosen goals.

For information about how we can support you and your eCommerce email marketing activity, contact us today.

To discover more about the different ways in which email marketing can positively impact your website traffic, sales, and engagement, look at our News page.