Demystifying Email Marketing: A Cheat Sheet for Beginners

You’re staring at your computer at the end of a Monday. After a full day of working off of your CRM, your eyes have begun to ache, and your stress has surged. Through some reflection, you come to the realization that you are far from your lead gen goal that you’ve set for yourself, and the leads you have gotten this quarter aren’t the hottest. An idea comes to mind: email marketing. It sounds glamorous, but where do you even begin? While setting up a marketing plan with an expert might help you to get some clarity on your specific situation, here are some tips to keep in mind when entertaining the idea of leveraging email marketing.

Getting set up with email marketing

First things first, you need to make a few initial decisions. There are several great email marketing platforms you can consider. Some options include Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Constant Contact. Once you’ve looked into the pros and cons of each and made a decision, we can begin to build your email list.

Crafting your first campaign

Once you’ve chosen a platform, you can begin to build your email list. There are several ways to do this. You can include an email opt-in on your website, employ a lead magnet, or even personally make connections and manually add them to your email list (with permission).

Now you’ve got some email contacts, and hopefully it’s continuing to grow! Now it’s time to focus on content. Think of the following question: What is valuable for my target audience? Maybe for a roofing business it’s a before and after story. For a nail salon, it’s a list of the top nail trends. Decide what your target audience would love to see on a regular basis.

Send, analyze, convert

Now that you’ve got a plan and you’re ready to start sending those emails, it’s time to attend to some details that will make all the difference in terms of conversation rates. First, add engaging calls to action in your emails with buttons and enticing microcopy. Then, track how many people in your email list are opening your emails and clicking those buttons. Finally, start to run A/B tests to determine which small details make big differences in your emails.

There’s a lot that goes into email marketing, but these are some of the most important aspects to consider when you’re just getting started. If you’d like some help with getting your email marketing campaign set up, contact us, and we’ll shed some light on the subject (pun intended).

About Katy Thomas

Katy Thomas is a Digital Marketing Strategist with In Transit Studios. She collaborates with businesses to discover the best marketing strategies for their industry and brand.