Millions of people around the world start their day the same way—opening up their email inbox to see what has digitally reached them. Did you know that the average person checks their email inbox 15 times a day? That’s why it’s a no-brainer to start an email marketing campaign.
Reaching out to potential customers in their inbox gives you direct access to create a tailored and personalized message that could turn them into lifelong customers. Check out these easy steps to launch your next email marketing campaign.
1. Build Your List
Start by determining your audience. Consider hosting a form on your website where visitors can sign up for your newsletter or email list. It’s important to remember that everybody starts somewhere, and you will continue to build your list over time.
2. Choose Email Marketing Software
While you can certainly manage your lists and send out emails manually, there are many services that help simplify the process. Email marketing software is available to help with storing various targeted lists of emails, scheduling emails and tracking the open rates. Depending on the size of your business and email lists, you may be able to find a free service. Do some research to see what makes sense for you.
3. Determine a Call to Action
The best place to start with your email campaign is at the end. It’s much easier to develop your email if you know your ultimate end goal. Each email you create should have a “call to action” which simply means a call to do something. Some typical calls to action could include:
- Shop a limited time sale.
- Sign up for an event.
- Read more about a new product or service.
- Check out a new video, blog post or social post.
Once you determine what you want the recipient to do, you can begin to frame your email.
4. Draft Your Email
Now it’s time to start writing. Attention spans are short, so remember to keep things concise. You’ll want to start with an attention-grabbing subject line to make sure your email avoids the trash folder before it’s ever opened. Lead with a short, compelling statement to open. Then, in the body of the email, include images or videos to help break up the text. Take advantage of anything you can do to help captivate your audience’s attention. You’ll finish with your call to action in the form of a button. Make sure the call to action stands out by using a bold font or color.
5. Hit Send
And now, for the finale of your email campaign! Make sure to send a test to yourself or other team members to ensure the formatting is correct and that everything looks in order. If the test email looks great, you’re ready to select your audience list and hit send. This may be nerve wracking the first few times, but we can assure you that the reward is worth the effort.
6. Follow Up
Okay, so we said hitting send was the finale—but once you start sending email campaigns your work is never truly finished. Depending on the content of your email marketing campaign, you may want to make this a regular occurrence. If you were sending out a special offer, you should consider following up with a reminder before the time period ends.
Now it’s your turn to start crafting and sending an email. Don’t be afraid to test your email with an internal audience before launching it to the world. Remember, with people around the world checking their email almost 15 times per day, it’s a great space for you to try to garner potential customers. Get out there and get to sending.
