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Top Email Marketing Software
What Is Email Marketing?
This refers to a form of direct marketing that utilizes electronic mail as a means of communicating messages about products, services and offers to an audience. This concept is widely used by marketers and a number of organizations for creating awareness about a brand, customer loyalty building, for acquiring new customers, converting customers, for company advertisements and for communicating about offers.
In a broader sense, the concept of electronic mail marketing can be summarized as a means of informing targeted customers about new products, services as well as promotional offers provided by a company or a blogger.
Today, the term "Email Marketing" can be said to refer to:
a. The sending of emails with the sole purpose of enhancing the relationship between a merchant and the current or previous customers and to encourage them to be loyal and to continue buying from the merchant.
b.The sending of emails with the sole purpose of getting new customers or convincing new customers to start purchasing your products and services.
c.It is the addition of ads in emails sent by other companies to their customers.
Who uses it?
There are many people who use email marketing as a channel of creating awareness about their products, their services as well as any promotional offers.
Some of them include:
a.Non profit organizations
b.Real estate
c.Marketers and advertisers
d.Bloggers and website owners
e.Health and wellness businesses among others.
Benefits of email marketing
Below are the benefits of electronic mail marketing which include:
Targets the right audience
Every business is looking for more customers who will buy their products and service assuring them of profits in the end. When you use this type of marketing, you can be able to target a particular audience unlike traditional marketing services like TV and radio ads.
Cost effective
No printing costs, no postage fees, no advertising rates which means more savings for you. This form of marketing is cost effective and it has a huge ROI.
It’s a must
If you are looking for the best tool that will be able to reach that housewife who wants to slim, that teenager who wants to increase their muscles or that dad who wants to grow their hair, then email marketing is a must tool for you.
Shareable
Anyone can forward an email to a friend, a family member or even a stranger you have met in the office or at the gym with a single click of a button.
Increases brand awareness
Smart email design and targeted content will assure you of consistently building your brand value. Many people will get to know about your brand thanks to your subscriber list.
In order to create a successful email marketing campaign that will assure you of new customers who will buy your products and services, you need to learn about the tools and strategies professional marketers having been using over the years.
For the best electronic mail marketing campaigns, click here.
Below is a step by step guide that will help to explain to you how this type of marketing works.
Step One – Make a plan
The one thing every successful person will tell you is that in order to achieve your goals and objectives, you need to have a plan. Your plan should be able to detail all the milestones as well as defining them in detail to enable you understand what you want in the end. Learn about the advantages of making a plan.
When it comes to marketing via email, apart from milestones, you need to incorporate who your global targets are in your plan. Which customers are you targeting? You need to breakdown your plan in states, regions, countries and continents. Remember, when doing this, you need to be sure that you have the means of delivering the products to all regions you have listed. Marketing via email is more of a marathon than a sprint.
With a clear and well define plan, you will achieve all your intended goals and objectives. For more examples on successful campaigns, click here.
Step Two – Collecting your target audience data
As a business person with an online store, your long term goals are making more sales, building the brand attracting more customers and retaining the current customers. In order to do this, you need to create awareness about your brand, your products and services.
The best service that will enable you to achieve this is email marketing. Marketing via electronic mail requires you, the business person, to have the emails of your target audience.
Since hacking is FORBIDDEN, the only other legal means you will acquire your targeted customer’s emails is by requesting. Thanks to developers, you can have a splash screen or landing page for your email which will request your targeted audience their email address.
It can have the following message “Sign up here to get our free monthly Newsletter via email!” with a text field and a submit button.
Step Three – Consolidate your data in a database
Databases have eased the way people access and even store data and information. They are composed of tables which have rows and columns. Databases can store large quantities of data in a single or multiple tables. When it comes to multiple tables also referred to as a relational database, different tables will be related making the process of searching easy.
Once you have collected your data, you need to consolidate it in a database. You can create a table for your subscribers list which can be composed of the first name, last name, address, email and gender among others.
You can also integrate plugins in your website which will create the tables for you automatically and you don’t have to go through all that hassle.
The one thing you need to remember is to obtain permission from the subscriber before sending them emails.
Step Four – Define your strategy
Every war, whether in the jungle, in the boardroom or even at home, has been won thanks to an effective strategy. No leader has suddenly woken up and decided this is the path the company should follow or this is how the products and services will be priced without implementing a strategy.
Strategies are well thought plans or concepts that spell out the road map that will be followed in order to conquer different challenges finally achieving the intended reward. In this case, you are the general; your war is convincing targeted audience to buy your products and services so, what’s your strategy? A call to action message, a regular newsletter or a multi-stage campaign? When it comes to strategy, you need to select one that will work for you.
Step Five – Select the right tool
Thanks to modern technology, marketers have several tools available online that enable one to create successful marketing campaigns with ease. You have your plan; you have your subscribers list and now a strategy. With these three, you can finally choose the right tool that will allow you to reach your subscribers whenever you want.
The good news about third party electronic mail marketing tools is that they are affordable. How? The companies have come up with different packages that fit your budget perfectly. Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, third party services like GetResponse have the right tools at the right package. You can even operate a free account for 30 days as a trial. Other services will offer you a free account but you have to keep within a certain limit for example, you can only send 2500 emails in a month.
Which features should be available in the best email marketing program?
a.) Responsive email creator – this will allow you to create your emails plus content from any device whether a computer or a tablet.
b.) Responsive landing pages – this will allow you to collect emails from your new subscribers and they will work on all devices.
c.) Autoresponders – you can always remember those special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries for your customer thanks to this feature.
d.) Hundreds of email templates – this are perfect for both newbies and professionals as they help to make work easier.
e.) The right price and training videos – a good electronic mail marketing program should have different pay packages that are attractive to everyone. Webinars help to train newbies on how to successfully create the best content, the best landing page and the campaign.
Step Six – Developing the content
Now that you have selected the right tool for your business, it’s time to come up with the best and right content. What is your brand all about? Are you involved in health and wellness products or do you sell body building equipment?
When it comes to developing the right content, you need to be in the reader’s position. If you were the reader, what would you like to read? What pictures or graphics would you like to see? When coming up with the best content, you need to include the best graphics, the right photos, the right format and other visual elements.
You can learn more tips and tricks for writing better emails for marketing by clicking here. You can also take a look at these examples.
Step Seven – Setting up the email
Normally an email is composed of a section for the sender’s address, the subject line and the text editor where you will add your content. If you chose the right tool, you can make your work easier as you will be able to have hundred of email templates available for you. All you have to do is select the right one, add a few visual elements, text, your subscribers’ emails in the senders sections and click send.
Before choosing the easy way, it is good to take your time and ensure that you have done the right thing. Remember, sending a poorly drafted and designed email or newsletter will result in your losing customers and brand value.
Include the header and footer, arrange the text well so as to make it easy to read, add a call to action message appropriately, add your visual elements, add useful links and buttons, finally add your subscribers emails and the subject line before sending the email.
Each email created should personify the subscriber exactly as they want it. You can include flash content, PDF and HTML.
Step Eight – Analysis
The one thing you need to know is that your journey does not end when you send the emails. It’s time to collect the vital statistics that will help you to make the right decisions. Thanks to electronic mail marketing programs like GetResponse, you can gather vital statistics such as which emails were delivered, which were not delivered, how many readers opened the emails, how many read the emails and how many did not among others.
This data will help you to understand where you went wrong and it will help you to tweak your current campaign in order to fit the needs of the customers. The tools present the data inform of line graphs, pie charts and pictograms therefore easy to understand.
Conclusion
Today, email marketing is still an effective means of getting new customers to buy products and services from your online business. Even though social media and mobile ads have become popular, electronic mail marketing is still a force to reckon with.
It is widely used today by different groups of businesses such as nonprofit organizations, manufacturing industries, online eCommerce stores, bloggers, website owners, health and wellness businesses. This form of marketing has several benefits to the user and some of them include ability to create brand awareness, ability to attract new customers, it’s cost effective and shareable as well.
In order to ensure a successful marketing campaign, you need to be creative, patient and analytical. Read the following to learn more about creating awesome newsletters that convert.
The good news about third party electronic mail marketing tools is that they are affordable. How? The companies have come up with different packages that fit your budget perfectly. Whether you are a small business or a large corporation, third party services like GetResponse have the right tools at the right package. You can even operate a free account for 30 days as a trial. Other services will offer you a free account but you have to keep within a certain limit for example, you can only send 2500 emails in a month.
Which features should be available in the best email marketing program?
a.) Responsive email creator – this will allow you to create your emails plus content from any device whether a computer or a tablet.
b.) Responsive landing pages – this will allow you to collect emails from your new subscribers and they will work on all devices.
c.) Autoresponders – you can always remember those special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries for your customer thanks to this feature.
d.) Hundreds of email templates – this are perfect for both newbies and professionals as they help to make work easier.
e.) The right price and training videos – a good electronic mail marketing program should have different pay packages that are attractive to everyone. Webinars help to train newbies on how to successfully create the best content, the best landing page and the campaign.
Step Six – Developing the content
Now that you have selected the right tool for your business, it’s time to come up with the best and right content. What is your brand all about? Are you involved in health and wellness products or do you sell body building equipment?
When it comes to developing the right content, you need to be in the reader’s position. If you were the reader, what would you like to read? What pictures or graphics would you like to see? When coming up with the best content, you need to include the best graphics, the right photos, the right format and other visual elements.
You can learn more tips and tricks for writing better emails for marketing by clicking here. You can also take a look at these examples.
Step Seven – Setting up the email
Normally an email is composed of a section for the sender’s address, the subject line and the text editor where you will add your content. If you chose the right tool, you can make your work easier as you will be able to have hundred of email templates available for you. All you have to do is select the right one, add a few visual elements, text, your subscribers’ emails in the senders sections and click send.
Before choosing the easy way, it is good to take your time and ensure that you have done the right thing. Remember, sending a poorly drafted and designed email or newsletter will result in your losing customers and brand value.
Include the header and footer, arrange the text well so as to make it easy to read, add a call to action message appropriately, add your visual elements, add useful links and buttons, finally add your subscribers emails and the subject line before sending the email.
Each email created should personify the subscriber exactly as they want it. You can include flash content, PDF and HTML.
Step Eight – Analysis
The one thing you need to know is that your journey does not end when you send the emails. It’s time to collect the vital statistics that will help you to make the right decisions. Thanks to electronic mail marketing programs like GetResponse, you can gather vital statistics such as which emails were delivered, which were not delivered, how many readers opened the emails, how many read the emails and how many did not among others.