A Beginner's Cheat-Sheet To Email Marketing (PowerPoint Templates Included)

Do you think email marketing is long gone or a thing of the past? Stats says not a chance!

With the advent of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and others like chatbots, virtual reality, it may sometimes feel like email marketing is losing its charm.

But stats prove that this is just a fallacy and if you think that email is dead, you are simply ignoring the real metrics.

No, we are not just saying for the sake of it rather we can prove our point that email marketing has always been and is still the best strategy to be adopted.

Here is the proof-

Data analytics in the year 2018 show that email marketing beats all other channels of marketing like Affiliate marketing, Paid Search, Social Marketing Radio, etc.

ROI For Marketers

Hence proved, Email Marketing is not a spam. Neither it is an old personal letter from a colleague. However, if used right it can help build a relationship as well as profit.

A company should use email marketing to build a strong relationship with its customers. Because email is not about you or your company, it is about your customers- the foundation on which a business lays its success.

Let us explore why this age-old technology hasn’t lost its efficiency even after so many years and the best possible way to use it.
Before getting overwhelmed with the possibilities of Email Marketing let us learn what this term stands for, its benefits and facts.

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What is Email Marketing?
Email Marketing refers to the act of sending commercial messages to a group of potential customers via email. In other words, email sent to the customers can be called as email- marketing. These emails may consist of advertisements, offers, ebooks, solicit sales etc. anything that helps the business as well as the company.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Cost Effective- One of the most peculiar advantages of email marketing is that it is cost effective as compared to mainstream marketing channels which involve a lot of investment cost. There is no print or transport cost involved in sending emails. Also, there is no restriction as to how many people you can send an email to.
Unmatched and Unrivalled Return on Investment- The biggest and the most important benefit of email marketing is its unmatched capacity to yield a higher Return on Investment. Direct Marketing Association and Demand Metric of marketers in the United States conducted a survey which showed that an email median’s ROI was 122%, which was 4 times greater than any other marketing platforms such as social media, paid search etc.
Increase Brand Awareness- Email Marketing helps a brand to advertise itself without any extra cost which helps to build brand awareness.
Demographic Segmentation- Email Marketing helps you curate personalized messages based on a person’s demographic characteristics such as his interests, problems etc. This is a very efficient marketing tactic as it helps the company to communicate directly with their target audience which is not the case with other marketing strategies.
Reach the Global audience- Through email marketing, an organization can reach large segments of people around the world without any extra investment. All they have to do is send an email blast and you are done. Even though social media also allows one to connect with the global audience, keeping a track of who is reading your content.
Boost Sales of the company- Since an email can be curated as per the customers liking and interest it may entice them to purchase a product. This helps in boosting the sales of the company sending such emails.
Ease of Sharing- An email is perhaps the easiest and most convenient marketing platform to share information. All you have to do is craft an email, add in the email Id’s you want to send emails to and you are done. It is that easy and simple!

There are also a lot of facts to back up the benefits of Email Marketing. Consider reading a few of these-

Most Insightful Email Marketing Stats and Facts

Marketing Weekly- 73% of marketers said that email marketing is the number one digital marketing platform for ROI.
Adobe- As much as 58% millennials claim that they prefer to be contacted via email.
Statistica- Gmail claims that it has more than 1 billion active users around the world.
Mailigen- 89% of the marketers agree that email is their primary lead generation channel.
Blue Kangaroo Study- 7 out of 10 people say that they have made use of the vouchers given to them via email marketing in the last week.
Litmus- 82% of the consumers check and open the emails sent to them by a company.
Experian- Every $1 spent on email marketing yields $44.25 return on investment.
Email’s convert 3 times more than social media.

How to devise a successful Email- Marketing Plan (that you’ll stick to)

Download this Market Strategy Email Marketing Ppt Powerpoint Presentation

Before we talk about the steps the most important thing to remember is that you are a guest in someone’s inbox. Even though you might think your email is unique and intriguing chances are that the customer might think yours is the usual stuff, nothing unique, nothing different. So it is very important to remain in the best of your behaviour at all times and do not offend them under any circumstances.

Now coming to the steps-

Identify your Target Audience-

The first and foremost step to create an effective email campaign is to get hold of your target audience. Once you get a grasp of who are your readers and what all they want it becomes very easy to craft an email campaign that gets them excited to read.
If, suppose you already have a list of subscribers it is very important to determine who they are. Are they the people you have reached you through your website or simply general audiences.

Determine the content of your email-

Now that you have identified your target audience, it is super important to decide what you'll serve them in their plate so that they devour it.

Email marketing is all about expectations which you will set as per your standards. It is up to you whether you meet your customer’s expectations or not and all of this narrows down to great content. It is the deciding factor for the success of your campaign. Hence, serve your best content so that your email does not end up in the spam box.
If you are wondering what is great content and how to add it to your newsletter. Follow along!

Tips and tricks to create and gather great content

Treat your readers as VIP’s- Value the permission of entering the inbox that your readers have given you. They should be the first one to know about any of the new products, sales and any new ventures being initiated by you. Also, give them access to special benefits being your subscribers.
Give it some oomph- Nobody wants a dull and boring content to read even if it is sitting ideally in their inbox. Either it will get deleted or spammed. So, inject some oomph factor to your content by giving it some personality of its own. Preferably different from that of others. Write as if you are talking personally to your reader. You can also add some humour to your content to make it more exciting for the reader to read and interpret.
Address it to your reader- Without happy and loyal customers a company cannot benefit so address the content to the wants of your reader. Make it as useful as you can. Make sure your content benefits your customer and give it something that he never had before in the form of some facts, information or any other detail that addresses their needs and wants.
Keep it short- Well this is probably the most overlooked rule. Long is not always better and especially not in the case of a newsletter.

Research shows that between the years 2014 and 2018 an average office worker received approximately 90 emails a day. So, you don't want to bombard your reader with a looonngg.. newsletter. Keep it short and simple and of course interesting.

Determine the time, frequency and the duration of your newsletter

Not all newsletters are sent out daily or even weekly. Some do, some don't. It all depends on the content and its usefulness. Feel free to skip a day or two if you think that is what is correct. Ultimately, it is all up to you to decide when to send the newsletter.

However, if your reader is expecting daily updates then you ought to deliver a daily newsletter so that they don’t get offended.
It is also very important to determine important dates and events of your company which we will explain in the next step.

Create a Timeline-

This step may not be that important but if you want your email marketing strategy to work then it cannot be ignored.

Create a timeline with all the important dates and events so that your team doesn't miss any. Consider it as a prerequisite to achieving success. Having a proper timeline will ensure smooth functioning in all the levels whether they include writers, designers or managers as they will have a deadline to work for.

Some examples of amazing newsletters to learn from-

Adidas-

Welcome Email Newsletter by Adidas

This newsletter example from Adidas is a welcome email with bold colours and graphics showing their most popular products.

This leading sports retailer knows very well how to value their customers and so they have provided a coupon code of 15% which is redeemable upon any purchase. This tactic surely helps build brand loyalty which will eventually lead to an increase in conversions.

Buzzfeed

This is a company that strives to offer the best of the content that people want to share with others.

They have definitely done a commendable job in gaining subscribers. However, the most commendable thing is how they have retained those subscribers by the use of intriguing subject lines and text previews.

Pinterest

Pinterest creates customer specific newsletters. Whatever topic the customer search for on Pinterest, their team creates a newsletter specific to that topic to make it much more convenient for the customer.

This is how SlideTeam builds its Newsletters-

#Newsletter 1
Newsletter sent by SlideTeam on Double Exposure Hack