In 2021, email marketing will still be commonly used, and will still be a very effective type of digital marketing. Even though email has existed since 1960, it gained mass use and popularity between 1990 and 1995. Since the popularity of email has grown to the point where almost all internet users have an email address, email marketing has been widely used by many businesses to sell products and services.
Is Email Marketing Dead?
Although email open rates have dropped substantially over the past 25 years, email is still very much a part of daily life for internet users. Before you cry “Email marketing is dead” keep in mind that almost all smartphones, apps and social media platforms require email to start using the device, app, or platform.
Email marketing is still alive and well, and if utilized correctly, and strategically, it is one of the most effective digital marketing tactics to convert sales.
What Are The Types of Email Marketing?
Even though the term “email marketing” is about marketing via email, there are multiple email marketing types that pop up in your inbox daily. You just didn’t know that all of these are different in nature and in objective. Let’s break it down:
- Welcome emails – The most common type of email marketing campaign used to build trust and familiarity with new subscribers.
- Promotional campaigns – Very common, but also one of the least effective forms of email marketing, often used to promote a special offer, single product, or service.
- Seasonal campaigns – Think of all the emails you get related to Black Friday or Valentine’s Day, those are seasonal email marketing campaigns.
- Triggered Email Series – These campaigns are a series of relevant and automated emails that get sent to a user once they have performed a specific action. For example, clicking a specific link in a previous email or signing up to receive a specific piece of content/download.
- Newsletters – Daily, weekly, or monthly emails sent to subscribers indefinitely, or until they unsubscribe.
- Abandoned Cart campaigns – Especially useful to e-commerce businesses when users might have added a product or service to their digital shopping cart, but never completed the purchase. These emails serve as a reminder to the users but can often be used to offer a discount code or special offer to help close the sale.
- Re-Engagement Campaign – These emails are sent to inactive subscribers. First and foremost it’s an attempt to get subscribers to engage with the marketing emails again, or to clean your subscriber list of inactive subscribers.
Email Marketing Strategy
Without a proper strategy, your email marketing campaign is bound to fail. An effective email marketing strategy can also help inform social media marketing and re-targeting, so developing and understanding your email campaign strategy is doubly important for marketing your business.
The strategy you want to follow with your email marketing campaign will also help inform you what type of email marketing you have to use. Compiling email marketing reports is also much easier if you have a clear strategy in mind for your campaign. With a clear strategy, it is also much easier to measure the success of your email marketing campaign.
Email Marketing Templates
There are hundreds if not thousands, of places online where you can find email marketing templates. Before you start copying and pasting to your heart’s content, keep in mind that no two effective email marketing campaigns are the same. Various factors like your type of service or product, your geographic location and cultural factors all come into play with email marketing.
What you really need is a template crafted specifically to suit your business and objectives. Are you looking to build your subscriber list? Are you looking to gain downloads of your lead magnet? Are you sending abandoned cart emails? All of those have vastly different objectives and will use different templates. If you are new to email marketing, or if you want to take your email marketing to the next level it will be worth your time to make use of a digital marketing agency that can help you craft the perfect email marketing template for your specific business objective.
Email Marketing Software or Tools
Again, there are plenty of email marketing software or tools to choose from. For most of our clients, we use Everlytic. Another very popular email marketing tool is Mailchimp. When you break it down, they all perform the same tasks and functions for email marketing, it just comes down to personal preference.
If you are planning on making use of a digital marketing agency to run your email marketing for you, the tools they use are of little relevance to you. What will matter more is the results. To find out how an email marketing campaign can help your business, contact us today.