What is Email Marketing & How Does it Work?
Email marketing a powerful content marketing technique that many eCommerce businesses use today.
Email marketing is the process of sending optimized commercial messages through email to targeted consumers. It includes the process of developing promotional emails, testing, and maintaining them as well.
Email marketing can be used to increase sales, improve brand loyalty, and deliver important information.
It is a kind of direct marketing and in the past, it was used to mass-target people. Current regulations now in place are stricter on how email marketing can be used as a communication channel.
It is a direct form of marketing, similar to marketing through snail mail, but email marketing is much more efficient for your wallet and for the environment since it’s totally paperless!
Examples of different types of marketing emails
Emails can either be promotional or informational and fulfill a specific purpose in the buyer's journey.
Promotional emails
Email marketing campaigns are used to promote, whether it’s to promote a special offer, a new product release, an ebook, or a webinar. A campaign could consist of 3–10 emails sent over several days or weeks.
Promotional emails have a clear call-to-action — or CTA for short. The CTA represents the specific action you want the reader to take, whether it’s visiting a webpage or make a purchase.
This type of marketing email is sent as and when required, in line with the rhythm of your business.
Informational emails
Newsletters: A newsletter, as the name suggests, share news related to your business (new milestones reached, new product capabilities) or to highlight a product use case. Sent according to a set schedule (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly), newsletters help maintain a consistent connection with your subscribers.
But did you know? Newsletters don’t just have to be about ‘news’. As email guru Ann Handley says, focus on the letter aspect. Imagine you’re writing a one-to-one letter to your subscribers about something that interests them.
Put like this, a newsletter is an opportunity to share insights, thoughts, tips — whatever brings the most value to your audience.
Announcements: Email is the perfect way to inform customers of company announcements, new releases, changes to the service, etc.
How does email marketing work?
Businesses use what’s known as an Email Service Provider (ESP) to send marketing emails.
An Email Service Provider is a software that sends and manages email marketing campaigns.
It’s also referred to as an email marketing platform, email marketing tool, email marketing service, or email marketing software.
Now you might be wondering, can’t I just send marketing emails with my regular inbox provider? Do I really need to pay for this additional email service?
Technically, it’s possible (we even explain how in our guide to sending a mass email with Gmail). Beware, though. You’re likely to run into problems with limited email bandwidth, design, and more importantly, email deliverability. Here’s why:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. are designed for personal use — not for email blasts. So when a mass email is sent from an ISP, it’s easily flagged by spam filters and your account can be disabled for suspicious activity.
ESPs on the other hand have the necessary infrastructure in place to ensure email deliverability — the ability to land emails in the inbox. If you want to set yourself up for email marketing success from day one, get yourself a dedicated email marketing service.
How to start email marketing: what do I need?
1. Email marketing software
As we’ve just explained, a dedicated email marketing provider is the way to go. Sending marketing emails through an ISP will only put your brand and email sender reputation at risk.
2. An email list
This list contains the email addresses of interested subscribers who have opted-in to receive email communications from you.
Yes, that’s right — opt-in. Because here’s the thing about email contacts:
Everyone on that email list needs to have given their express permission to be there.
What does that mean?
It means they agreed to receive emails from you when they entered their email address into an email signup form on your blog, website, landing pages, social media, or anywhere else. In email terms, this process is referred to as ‘opting in’ (‘opting out’ would be an unsubscribe).
Permission-based marketing is essential to confirm with data protection laws and safeguard the integrity of your brand. After all, nobody likes a spammer.
Still with us up until now? Great, because here’s where it gets exciting — learning how to launch an email marketing strategy, starting with your first email campaign.
