Everything you need to know about email marketing as a beginner in 7 simple steps

Email marketing is one of the most effective tools for increasing sales on your website, despite many claims that it is outdated. In this blog post, you’ll learn more about how you can harness the full potential of email marketing to attract new customers, retain existing ones, and boost sales.

We’ll start with the assumption that you know nothing about email marketing, so I’ll briefly describe the whole process from scratch. Read the headings and if you already know what they mean, feel free to skip that part.

1. Build your email list

To start an email marketing campaign, you first need to build your email list. I recommend that you use a tool for this, as it will make your life a lot easier.

1.1. Email collection and sending tools

There are a myriad of tools on the market such as MailChimp, MailerLight, SendFox, etc. Each of these tools has its strengths and weaknesses. At BoldizArt agency, we use SendFox, but my recommendation is to try a few of them and decide on the best solution for you. Whatever you choose, you won’t go wrong and you’ll make your life easier.

1.2. How to collect emails?

This step is where most entrepreneurs give up. This process takes a long time and can be a bit of a killjoy, as it is very difficult to “force” people to subscribe to your email list. However, you can speed up the process a bit. There are a few ways to do this:

1.2.1. Place an email list signup form on your website

ou can place it in the footer of your website or in a more visible place, but in my experience, people will not sign up there very much. It happens, of course, but rarely and the whole process is very slow.

You get better results if your email list signup form pops up to a visitor after 5 seconds, but many people find that really annoying.

1.2.2. Place an email list signup form on the blog post page

If you write blog posts, the ideal place is to put a form at the end of each blog post (as we do) with a description so that if they want to read similar posts, they can sign up for your list.

This technique has been shown to have the greatest effect, and members of this list will be most likely to open your emails. However, they mostly want to read your blog posts and may not be interested in your offers at all. It’s not a bad idea to put them on a separate list, but we’ll talk about that later.

1.2.3. Offer discounts or free products in exchange for an email address

You can offer something valuable to your target audience in exchange for their email address. For example, if you are a life coach who sells your book, it is not a bad idea to make a short version of the book in electronic format, like 10 ways to… and offer it to people for free if they sign up for your email list.

In the above case, this combination is a perfect fit, because people are interested in your advice and there is a good chance that if they like your e-book, they will buy the real book too, and you can also motivate them to do so by sending emails with your advice, blog posts and offers.

1.2.4. Organize a sweepstakes

You can give away some valuable prizes to those who sign up for your email list. This technique usually attracts a lot of people, but after the sweepstakes, many of them unsubscribe from your list because they are not interested in your email marketing, they were only attracted by the prize.

You have to calculate whether this way of collecting email addresses will pay off, whether you will get enough subscribers, and compare it to the money and energy you put into this campaign.

These are just some of the ways to collect email addresses, there are countless other ideas, and you can come up with some yourself. Test them freely and you will see whether they work or not.

Attention: There are email address databases that you can buy, but I strongly advise against this. Not only does it violate GDPR and you could get fined, you won't achieve anything because people will quickly unsubscribe from your email list because they are probably not interested, given that they didn't even sign up for your newsletter.

2. Email list segmentation

As mentioned above, you can create multiple lists based on how a person signed up for your email list. This strategy will allow you to tailor your messages and offers to different groups.

Here are some examples of how to segment your email list:

• Your customers;
• People who have read your blog posts;
• People who have requested a quote from you;
• People who have downloaded your e-book;
• People who have…

This way, you can create targeted campaigns that will better meet the needs of your subscribers, which will lead to greater response and higher sales.

3. Email Personalization

When someone signs up for your email list or later through email campaigns, collect some key information about your users (of course, within the GDPR standard).

When writing emails, use this information to personalize your emails as much as possible.

Start with simple things, like using the recipient’s name in the email subject or greeting. Then, consider using data about previous purchases or specific interests to provide relevant and compelling offers to each individual customer.

Instead of a generic email like:

The new clothing collection is here!

Try a more personalized option:

Hi [Name], the new collection of dresses has arrived, and we know how much you love our dresses! Be among the first in Serbia to wear them with satisfaction.

4. Send emails regularly

Regularly sending emails is important to stay in touch with your customers and stay on their minds. However, be careful not to overdo it, as this can lead to your customers feeling like you are spamming them. Find the right balance between frequent and infrequent emails to keep your customers’ attention and encourage them to buy.

Of course, don’t spam your audience, or you’ll quickly be without it.

4.1. Less is more

As cliché as it sounds, it has been proven 1000 times that people don’t like to read long emails. If you want to write a novel, I recommend writing a blog post, and in the email, write very briefly about what it is about and link that post. If someone is interested, they will read the blog.

In this way, you won’t spam your audience and they probably won’t unsubscribe from your email list after the first email.

5. Email marketing automation

Email marketing automation can help you save time and resources. Automatically send emails in certain situations, such as welcoming new subscribers, reminders for abandoned shopping carts, or thank you messages after a successful purchase.

This will ensure consistency in communication with your customers and help build relationships with them.

6. Track results and optimize

To improve your email marketing campaigns, it is important to track the results and effectiveness of your emails.

Pay attention to metrics such as email open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and return on investment (ROI). Based on this data, you can adjust your campaigns to improve their effectiveness and increase sales.

7. Testing and experimenting

Don’t be afraid to test and experiment with different approaches to email marketing. Test different subject lines, designs, calls to action, and offers to see what works best for your audience. With continuous testing and adaptation, your email marketing campaigns will become more effective and successful.

Build your email list, segment it, personalize emails, send them regularly, use automation, track results, and test different approaches. All of these tactics will help you maximize the potential of email marketing achieve impressive sales results and grow your business.

Boldizar S. Santo (Co-Founder)