With the birth of social networks, the declaration of the GDPR, and the appearance of inbound marketing, many companies have started to give less importance to their emailing practices. So does the emailing campaign have anything to worry about?
According to studies by Plezi, the benchmark marketing automation platform, emails maintain an average Emarketing effectiveness rate, whether in B2B or B2C. They, therefore, remain powerful marketing tools.
In order to succeed in email marketing, working with a specialized agency is the best solution. Sortlist can connect you with a good email marketing agency near your business.
Email Marketing: what is it?
Basically, an email is an electronic mail that enables remote digital communication between two parties. The emailing campaign is therefore a sending of several emails to several recipients. It is a marketing strategy adopted in business since forever.
The emailing strategy is classified as direct marketing because it consists of addressing recipients directly via clear and crisp information.
Like a simple communication email, an email sent as part of a marketing campaign is opened in email readers such as Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft Outlook.
What are the different types of Marketing email campaigns?
Prospecting email
This is basic direct marketing, which consists of sending an e-mail, with the aim of acquiring new customers. Recipients often find this marketing email intrusive. However, it remains effective in acquiring new leads.
To get the maximum open rate, it is recommended to send original acquisition emails. Indeed, consumers or customers do not wish to receive the same types of prospecting emails, such as: “Hello X, we are Y. We would like to offer you our service of… Do not hesitate to come back to us if our offer interests you. We will be delighted to work with you”.
In many cases, companies send a prospecting e-mail 3 times: a first sending to present and offer their services, a second to follow up on their recipient, and a third sending for a new follow-up. After these 3 emails, if the prospect does not react, the company can try again another time or delete it from its contacts.
Loyalty email
Probably the best-known loyalty campaigns are newsletters. When opening a website, you often have a small tab that appears, asking if you want to subscribe to the site’s newsletter. To accept, you must specify your e-mail address on the box dedicated to this. Otherwise, you have the right to refuse and close the tab. By subscribing to the newsletter, you will regularly receive content, keeping you up to date with the latest news from the company and its website.
The other type of Emarketing loyalty message is privilege offers. When you open the email, you will find a little note that says that you have received a small gift as a thank you for your loyalty. It can also be a promotion, free support, a voucher, or any other type of bonus offer.
Email retargeting
This type of e-mailing strategy can be translated as “retargeting by email”. Retargeting emails are primarily intended for visitors to your company’s website. These are visitors who have only looked at your site without taking any specific action, such as buying a product, subscribing to an offer, downloading a white paper, etc
The main objective of your emailing campaign will therefore be to send a kind of follow-up email to these types of visitors, with the aim of converting them into potential prospects, then into loyal customers. By receiving the email, these people will be more likely to return to your site to perform a specific action.
Email de transaction
It is a kind of automatic email when replying to an email from a customer. An acknowledgment indicating that you have received his message, that you take it into account, and that you will respond ASAP.
This is one of the best practices in e-commerce. It helps maintain good communication and a good relationship between you and your client. In most cases, if a user has made a request by email and does not receive a transactional email, he will look elsewhere. Setting up a transaction email is an excellent customer retention strategy.
What are the different types of email formats?
Emailing formats are the type of communication medium through which the message is transmitted. Email campaigns can take three main forms.
The text
This is the most common and also the simplest emailing format. Although it allows information to be integrated with all its details, it nevertheless has the lowest opening rate, due to its lack of originality. The recipient’s feedback is even less hoped for because he will probably have just skimmed the text for lack of time without even having assimilated it.
The image
The usefulness of visual communication in the world of Emarketing is well established. Nowadays, an e-mail in the form of an image is much more interesting than text mail. The image allows you to better highlight your brand and your message thanks to an easily assimilated design. The click rate of image e-mailing campaigns is high: they thus demonstrate good marketing effectiveness.
Warning: in many cases, a marketing email in the form of an image is considered spam by certain software and will end up in unwanted mail. The recipient will therefore not be able to see the sent message.
The HTML
For an HTML emailing campaign, you will have to modify HTML or CSS codes in order to create unique content. This type of format combines text, image, and other blocks. If your company is a big brand, this is the recommended format because of its efficiency and professionalism.
If you are not comfortable with HTML coding, you can generate email marketing using an email template.
If you have planned e-mailing actions, you can benefit from the advice and support of one of Sortlist’s e-mailing agencies. Our agencies have worked on major emailing campaigns such as Mr. Bricolage, a retail company, or Quechua, a famous sporting goods brand.
What are the advantages of e-mailing?
E-mailing campaigns are of great importance in the marketing strategy of professionals. The campaign makes it easier to reach key customers in a company’s database.
One-Click Shipping
The speed of sending emails is probably the main advantage of emailing. Indeed, the setting up of the sending is done in a few minutes and in a single click. Additionally, emails can be scheduled and sent automatically. This represents a significant time-saving in business. You just have to select the recipient customers in your database and you’re done.
E-mail marketing is effective if you have urgent information to pass on to your community or a temporary promotion, for example.
Creative and original messages
The main format of mailing marketing used in a business is HTML, because of its practicality and the creativity it offers. Indeed, this method gives free rein to your imagination when establishing your message. This gives you the freedom to select the best colors, text types, and layout to suit your brand.
Ranging from a simple illustration to a GIF or a video motion, using HTML for your campaign allows you to integrate all the means in your e-mail to increase its opening rate.
Sending with an interesting cost
Among all the communication strategies on the market, the mailing campaign remains, without doubt, the most accessible. Compared to marketing advertisements, e-mailing campaigns even allow you to exceed your objective.
Confidentiality of personal data
Mailing marketing falls within the framework of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) stipulating the obligation to keep secret the personal information collected in the databases.
Tracking in detail
One of the advantages of mailing campaigns is the possibility of following the evolution of the campaign in all its details in real-time. Click rate, opening rate, number of visits, conversion rate: the statistics allow you to define the ROI of your campaign.
Monitoring also allows you to detect flaws and will allow you to improve your next mailing. But still, the figures released to allow you to study the behavior of your consumers in order to better direct your future campaigns.
Campaign SMS
Instead of sending e-mails, you can opt for sending SMS to your customers. The SMS ensures an opening rate of more than 80%. It can be opened as soon as the client receives the information. During an e-mailing campaign, to be able to consult his mailbox, the recipient must have access to the Internet. Which is not necessarily always the case.
Why do e-mailing?
The e-mailing makes it possible to maintain a communication company/customers. Through a newsletter, a brand builds consumer loyalty by keeping them informed of the latest news and promotions.
According to a study conducted by Ventura Beat, a mailing campaign can generate a rate of return of 127% in SMEs. E-mailing is, therefore, an excellent way to optimize a company’s return on investment by more than 100%.
Combination with social networks
E-marketing nowadays takes place mainly through social networks. Professionals build a community on these platforms to expand their notoriety. For even more effective digital marketing, it is smart to combine the use of the brand’s social networks with mailing. Indeed, thanks to an emailing campaign, you can inform your customers of content on your social networks and redirect them via a CTA.
If your goal is to acquire new customers or increase visitors to your site, studies have shown that email is 40 times more effective than social media. But given the power of the latter today, combining your social account with the mailing can lead you to the ultimate in digital marketing for your brand.
How to create an e-mailing campaign?
To achieve an effective and efficient e-mailing campaign, the establishment of the strategy should not be taken lightly. Here are the steps to follow for a mailing ensuring a good ROI.
Database update
Remember to update your database. Indeed, for an objective to be achieved, you must first clearly define the targets. Sending an e-mail to the wrong people reduces the chances of achieving the campaign goal. A well-targeted email has a better click-through rate.
You must, therefore:
- Delete inactive email addresses.
- Classify your customers according to their behavior.
- Update new information from your customers.
Definition of the campaign objective
Your goal and objective must respect the SMART method: Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic and Time-bound. With a specific goal, you will be better able to select potential recipients from your database.
The main objectives of the mailing
- Increase in website visitors.
- Redirection of Internet users to the company’s social networks.
- Seasonal promotion.
- Presentation of a new product.
- Presentation of the latest company news.
- Etc.
Pay attention to the presentation of your mailing
This is one of the main stages of mailing. If you want your email to have a maximum open rate, in addition to following the steps of the strategy, it is also important to respect certain points.
Best practices for a successful email marketing campaign
The weight of the email
Before shipment, it must be ensured that the weight of the contents is not too heavy. This will allow it to load faster and therefore be opened more quickly by the recipient.
The title of the email
This is the subject of the email in question. It must be powerful in order to arouse the desire to read in the recipient. Otherwise, its chances of opening will be less.
The subject is what the recipient sees first when receiving the email. If the reading at first glance seems uninteresting to him, he will not open the message. In the worst case, it will even send mail directly to the trash.
The contents
This is the message in the mail. It must be concise because the recipient will not necessarily have the necessary reading time. The content must relate to the 5 W (who, when, where, what, how). This is the best way to get straight to the point while responding exactly to the campaign title. Also, consider the AIDA formula when establishing the message. The latter must therefore generate Attention, Interest, Desire in the consumer in order to push him to Action.
Little tip: put a “call to action” or “call to action” at the end of your message. This can be a button, a banner or even an image on which the customer will click to be redirected to a blog post on your site or a product on sale, for example.
Signature
It is the indication of your brand or company at the end of your email. The signature can contain your brand name, the sender’s job title, the sender’s contact details, and your company’s social media and website. It is a way of giving more credibility and professionalism to communication.
Your email address is also part of the signature. It must therefore be established in a serious way. There are many tools to generate a professional email address.
The chart
This is the presentation of your email. Colors, fonts, illustrations, formatting should represent your brand. The charter must be pleasant to see.
Le e mailing responsive
To raise the bar even higher, including responsive design in your email marketing. Responsive emailing is when the mail is readable on all devices: smartphone, computer, tablet, etc. A responsive email has a higher open rate.
Today, the majority of mail is read via a smartphone or tablet, which makes responsive emailing even more important.
Schedule the campaign at the right time
Once you’ve fine-tuned your email, don’t send it right away! It is essential that the e-mailing is done at the right time, in order to optimize the expected results. Always based on your main target to push your consumers to action, study their behavior and schedule your online direct mail during the times when they will be the most reactive.
Results analysis
To conclude whether the goal of your newsletter has been achieved or not, you must study the performance indicators of your campaign.
The opening rate
It is the number of emails sent opened by the recipients compared to the number of initial emails.
Click-through rate
It is the number of clicks on one or more links inserted in your mail compared to the initial number of emails.
Rebound rate
This is the number of emails whose sending failed compared to the initial number of emails.
Unsubscribe rate
This is the number of people who have unsubscribed from your newsletter compared to your previous e-mailing campaign.
If large companies like Orange still integrate mail marketing into their communication strategy, then why not you? Thanks to Sortlist, you will be able to collaborate with a specialized agency that meets your needs.
What are the e-mailing tools?
B2B or B2C, whether you are looking for free or paid software, a thousand and one platforms allow you to set up a mailing campaign. Ranging from updating the database to establishing the mail and analyzing the results, you can carry out many actions using these tools.
Outlook is often the emailing platform common to all companies, regardless of their field of activity. However, the service is limited. This tool limits the sending of messages to 300 recipients per day. Gmail is another common emailing tool. It allows mailings to be sent to 500 people per day. These are therefore platforms intended mainly for VSEs. If you are a big brand, consider other emailing software for more mass mailing and broader actions.
Emailing tools
For effective direct mail, here is a list of the best emailing software on the current market:
- Sendinblue.
- Sarbacane.
- Mailjet.
- Dolist.
- Message Business.
These tools put all the essentials in your hands to carry out your direct mail: email template, email creation, sending, analysis, etc. These tools are easy to use and you also benefit from advice and optimal support throughout your campaign. All you have to do is have an account on the platform of your choice and subscribe to the package that suits you. There are many free platforms, but with more or less limited service. In addition to being mailing software, some tools are also CRMs.
How to avoid spam e-mailing?
Many Internet users do not read your e-mail, simply because they do not see it in their mailbox. Why? The mail was probably sent to spam. This happens when the user has activated the anti-spam filter on the browser bar of their computer or if they have reported your business as spam.
The criteria to respect to avoid being spammed
- Do not write an e-mail that is too attractive, that is to say with words such as “win”, “benefit”, “free”, etc.
- Avoid putting a single image in your email, as filters ignore this type of content and will automatically put it in spam.
- Avoid texts with excessive use of capital letters and exclamation points.
- Only send your newsletter to people who have agreed to subscribe to it and at a suitable time.
I do consider all of the ideas you have offered in your post.
They are really convincing and will certainly work.
Nonetheless, the posts are very brief for newbies.
May you please prolong them a little from subsequent time?
Thanks for the post.