Email is perhaps the oldest form of communication over the Internet, but it is still one of the most effective ways to connect with people. Despite the success of new communication channels like social media platforms, it is still the most prevalent communication channel with over four billion email users worldwide.
That is why marketers utilize email marketing campaigns to supplement their overall marketing strategies. With email campaigns, brands and businesses directly connect with their audiences and effectively communicate their brand messages.
What Is an Email Campaign?
In an email campaign, a marketer sends out an email or a series of emails to a set of contacts. These emails are designed to achieve a certain goal for a brand or business. The goal could be to drive conversions, inform audiences about a new product or service, or simply reach out to individual customers.
Compared to other marketing strategies, email campaigns can resonate with audiences on a more personal level. Instead of having to stand out on digital platforms, emails land directly in the inbox of your audience, giving you a chance to get their undivided attention.
What It Takes to Run an Email Campaign
Running an email campaign is fairly simple. You only need three things: an email service provider, your goals for your email campaign, and your trusty email list.
You are strongly recommended to build your email list organically instead of buying contacts online. This is because an organic mailing list ensures that your leads are high quality, and you will have a higher chance of achieving your email campaign goals because of this.
Setting Up Your Email Campaign
Before beginning an email campaign, you must first establish your goals. This will help your organization measure the success of your campaign and see the return on your investment. Here are the steps you should follow when setting and meeting your email campaign goals.
-
Identify the purpose of your campaign
Why are you running an email campaign? Whether it is to promote a new product, inform your customers about a sale, or send out a newsletter, your audience must be at the heart of your campaign. Establish a clear purpose to have a general idea of what you want your campaign to achieve.
-
Identify and study your audience
Research on your mailing list. If you built your email list organically, this means that those who are part of it are already interested in your brand. Discover what draws them to your brand and identify what types of content resonate with them the most. This will help your campaign become more engaging to them.
-
Set SMART goals for your email campaign
When setting your campaign goals, ensure they are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. SMART goals are easier to achieve and track, and they can often make your email marketing campaign successful.
-
Establish key performance indicators
Go back to your goals. What metrics indicate that you’ve successfully achieved your goals? There are ten key performance indicators that you might want to keep track of, depending on your campaign goals:
- Bounce rate
- Spam flags
- Shares on social platforms
- Click-through rate
- Click-to-open rate
- Delivered emails
- Opened emails
- Email forwards
- Unsubscribers
- Conversions
-
Track metrics to see your campaign’s progress
Analyze the above-mentioned metrics to monitor the progress of your email campaign. When your campaign ends, you can also use these metrics to see how successful your campaign was.
The Best Practices for Running an Email Campaign
- Send out emails at an appropriate time. Know when by checking your audience analytics.
- Write an engaging subject line to increase the chances of the recipient opening your email.
- Do A/B testing with a small portion of your mailing list to see which email campaign is the most effective with your audiences, then use the more effective campaign for a bigger audience.
- Personalize the emails you send out to give your email a human touch and show the recipient your brand cares about them.
- Optimize your landing pages, so your recipients’ post-click experience is just as strong as their pre-click experience.
