New careers in digital marketing have arisen with the growth of technology. For example, today you can utilize search engine marketing or even social media management.
But one of the most effective forms of marketing is email marketing. Email marketing is useful because it allows you to directly communicate with your customers.
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing involves a company sending an email to subscribers. These emails can be newsletters, promotions, or special deals. Some emails help inform the customer or can express a general message from the company.
Email marketing is one of the ways a business keeps in touch with potential customers. In some instances, email marketing allows companies to communicate regularly with their customers. However, persistent communication may annoy customers and end in the company’s emails labeled as spam.
When used correctly, this form of digital marketing may convert an interested party into a loyal customer. It also gives companies the ability to offer long-term customers deals, specials, or even exclusive, limited-time offers that aren’t available anywhere else.
What Is Email Marketing Used For?
Email marketing is used primarily to communicate with a target audience. This could include the following marketing campaigns:
- Reaching out to potential customers for them to purchase a product
- Notifying customers of certain deals or specials
- Communicating with customers about future company goals
- Staying connected with customers
- Responding to customers and receiving data
There are several ways to use email marketing and, as you’ll see from the various types below, email marketing can help numerous strategies.
Types of Email Marketing
There are several types of email marketing out there. Some are designed to inform while others are meant to persuade customers. Below are some of the most common forms of marketing emails.
Newsletter Email
Newsletter emails inform customers. These emails may tell customers about upcoming promotions, sales, or the latest offerings of a shop or service.
This type of email is particularly effective for customer retention. Through newsletters, you can keep returning customers aware of events your company will hold. With customer retention an important aspect of running a business, newsletter emails are vital.
Triggered Email
Sometimes, it is important to reach out to customers after a particular activity. Triggered emails allow you to reach a user after they complete a certain action.
One common form of triggered email is reaching a customer who left a web page without checking out. This could remind the customer to finish their purchase. Other triggered emails include campaign, list management, e-commerce, and subscriber email notifications.
Welcome Email
Once someone subscribes to your email list, it is important to send them a welcome email. These emails typically explain what is included in the subscription. That could include monthly newsletters, access to special deals, or the ability to give direct product feedback.
Some companies provide a special deal or discount coupon for customers through welcome emails.
Gift Email
Everyone loves a gift. Even if it is something simple like a downloadable wallpaper or a useful ebook. Gifts are a great way to show your appreciation to customers. Some companies offer gifts to subscribers on their birthday or particular holidays. Others give gifts to valued customers.
There are lots of creative ways to give gifts to customers and to show them how valued they are. This is an important part of email marketing that should never be skipped.
Survey Email Marketing
With an email list, you can learn more about your customers. Email lists serve as an excellent way to get information and find out what your customers like and dislike about your service or product.
Survey emails can be simple, interactive experiences that provide vital feedback. They may be what help you decide what new products to use or how to improve your service.
Generally, companies offer some form of reward to those who partake in a survey. This could be anything from a gift card to a coupon.
Learning Email Marketing
Email marketing is a vital part of business management. If you want to become an entrepreneur, email marketing is essential to ensuring business success. That’s why you should learn how to develop an email list earlier rather than later.
If you seek to work in marketing, you should learn the ins and outs of using email for your job. Email campaigns are highly effective, especially for repeat customers.
There are many ways to learn email marketing and it’s a skill that can be useful for a variety of career fields.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Email Marketing?
It can take three to six months to learn email marketing. People often learn email marketing as part of a digital marketing course.
Learning email marketing involves setting up email lists, gaining subscribers, and investigating how to create various emails for customers.
In most cases, you’ll learn both the technical aspects of marketing and the most effective ways to write emails that appeal to customers.
How to Learn Email Marketing: Step-by-Step
Learning email marketing is a simple process. Below are the steps to become successful in this area.
- Build your email list. The first step is to build your email list. You can do this by offering something new like free ebooks or newsletters. Or you can prompt readers to provide their email address. As you collect more emails, you can extend your reach.
- Create valuable emails. This step varies greatly. After you build your list, you need to reach out to customers with emails they feel are valuable. Try not to email too often. Some customers will consider your emails spam if you send too many in a short amount of time.
- Avoid spam filters. It does you no good if customers don’t see your emails. Make sure your emails aren’t placed in a spam folder. Provide certain information to customers to whitelist the email, so it arrives in the right inbox. Avoid language that may place your email in a junk folder.
- Update email list. In addition to adding new email subscribers, make sure to remove inactive subscribers. Try to keep your list fresh.
- Perform A/B testing. Split testing, also called A/B testing, is basically an experiment. You compare the results of your original email with one that has a single element changed. This change could be the subject line, call to action or design. After testing, find out which one has the best results and implement the change if necessary.
- Start using autoresponders. After you’ve gotten a hang of things, it’s time to get into automation. Email marketing automation reduces the amount of manual work involved. Autoresponders automate important parts of your marketing campaigns.
Once you’ve done all the above, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful email marketer.
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The Best Email Marketing Courses and Training
One of the most effective ways of learning email marketing is through courses and training. A good deal of email marketing courses are now available remotely. With that in mind, below is our list of the best email marketing courses and training.
Best Online Email Marketing Courses
There are several online email marketing courses out there. Below is a list of some of the most useful and well-received email marketing resources available.
Lynda.com: Content Marketing – Newsletters
Lynda.com offers a content marketing course for newsletters. There are email marketing management courses as well. If you want a well-rounded course that goes into various aspects of email marketing, Lynda.com is right for you.
These courses aren’t particularly in-depth, but they’ll give you all the information needed to get started.
Udemy: Email and Affiliate Marketing Mastermind
Udemy offers several email marketing courses taught by various experts. This course in particular teaches you some of the more practical strategies for email marketing.
Email campaigns involve more than just sending great emails to your subscribers. You need to build a list, find leads, and acquire subscribers. This course goes over how to do just that.
The Complete MailChimp Email Marketing Course
MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms for those with e-commerce businesses. This course focuses on how to use MailChimp specifically.
Throughout the lesson, you’ll learn how to do A/B split tests, create quality emails, and how to use the MailChimp platform.
Clickminded Email Marketing Course
Clickminded is a premium marketing course. It teaches you how to create a successful email marketing campaign. Upon completing the course, you’ll also learn about automated emails.
The instructor is the email strategist for Airbnb, which means the information comes from a leading expert. Within the course, you’ll receive tactical walkthroughs for intermediate and expert marketers.
Best Free Email Marketing Courses
If you cannot afford a premium course, there are several free options to learn email marketing. These courses still provide quality information.
Wishpond Email Marketing Master Class for Beginners
Wishpond is for those who are completely new to email marketing. This free course brings you up to speed. Within it, you’ll learn how to meet marketing goals, learn different types of emails to create, and more.
The course takes less than an hour to complete. There are also workbooks and an exclusive group for students.
The Strategy of Content Marketing
This course is provided by Coursera. It is a content marketing course that teaches you about strategy. Students can enroll in the course for free. It takes approximately 19 hours to complete.
While you learn content marketing through the course, it also teaches management, writing, and copywriting skills. If you want to learn and strengthen your email writing skills, this may be the course for you.
Hubspot Email Marketing Certification Course
HubSpot Academy is an email marketing course that teaches you how to create an email marketing strategy. Use this knowledge to grow your business or further your career.
Students learn everything from contact management to analyzing email sends. You’ll learn how to build trust with your subscribers.
The course takes more than three hours to complete. It comes in nine lessons and is accompanied by a series of quizzes. You also get to use HubSpot’s free email marketing tool as you learn.
Email Marketing Certifications
Earning your certification in email marketing proves you have an understanding of the process. Add your certification to your online profile and resume. It’ll help with job recognition and increase your chances of being hired.
When it comes to email marketing certifications, look into the popular email marketing platforms people commonly use. Below are examples of the best resources to earn your email marketing certification.
MailChimp Certification
MailChimp is widely regarded as one of the most popular platforms for individuals who wish to learn email marketing. It comes with several resources, opt-in templates, and more.
By earning your MailChimp certification, it’s possible to learn the ins and outs of their service. This way, you can take advantage of everything MailChimp has to offer. Some use this information for their own marketing campaigns. Others use this information to work with companies that already use MailChimp.
Even if you don’t end up using MailChimp for email marketing, there are benefits to getting certified.
Online Email Marketing Resources
If you are new to the field, email marketing may seem difficult. Luckily, there are several free online resources to help. These resources either provide valuable information or give you the tools to make marketing easier.
Below are the most popular and useful email marketing resources you can find online.
Venngage.com
Having an attractive email layout is important in marketing. A good layout and design encourages subscribers to continue reading. Venngage offers several email newsletter templates.
There are free and premium templates available. Templates are also categorized into various sections to find something appropriate for your emails.
Campayn.com
Campayn offers responsive email designs. This means the emails work for users on their desktop and mobile devices. This valuable resource also allows you to import contacts from popular sources such as Yahoo and Gmail.
If you want to perform A/B tests or learn about the effectiveness of your campaign, take advantage of the analytics Campayn provides.
Emailmonday.com
EmailMonday has several resources for email marketers. One of the most useful is its email marketing checklist. This checklist helps ensure you cover all the important points of an effective email before sending.
With so many moving parts and things to consider in marketing, it’s easy to forget things. When you are new to the process, having a checklist is a great way to stay organized.
Should You Study Email Marketing?
When it comes to digital marketing, email marketing is essential. Most companies communicate with their existing customers by email. Email remains necessary even though other forms of marketing like video and social media gain in popularity.
People check their email constantly. Being able to inform and communicate with customers through email allows a company to be far more successful.
If you are interested in marketing or growing your business, then learn email marketing today. It’ll be well worth it.
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