What is the best email marketing tool?
What is Email Marketing Automation?
Effective Email Marketing
Email marketing is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of Internet advertising. This is because there are many distinct advantages to the concept of email marketing. However, email marketing does have some disadvantages as well. In this article we will examine the advantages and disadvantages of email marketing and will also provide some insight into how to plan and execute an effective email marketing campaign.
Email marketing certainly has a set of unique advantages over other types of marketing both online and offline. Perhaps one of the most significant advantages to email marketing is the ability to reach a worldwide audience with minimal effort. It is certainly possible to reach a worldwide audience with other types of advertising but traditional types of advertising such as television, radio and the print media are not nearly as effective for reaching potential customers around the world all at once.
Another major advantage to email marketing is it is extremely affordable. This is significant because there are many other types of marketing, including Internet marketing, which are significantly more expensive than email marketing. The costs associated with email marketing are minimal. Ideally you will already have a list of email recipients who are interested in your products and services so there is no cost associated with obtaining a list of email addresses. Additionally the cost to send out emails is minimal and can be considered part of your regular operating costs. All of these factors already make email marketing extremely cost effective.
However, there is some cost involved in email marketing. Primarily this is the costs associated with writing the advertisements and creating any graphics which will accompany the email advertisements. This will require hiring a writer to write the copy for the advertisement and a designer to create and implements the graphics. The cost of these services will vary pretty widely but in general you will pay more for writers and designers with more experience. This is because these writers and designers are expected to be able to produce a higher quality of work than those with less experience could produce.
The most obvious disadvantage to email marketing is the possibility of having your email marketing viewed as spam. This is a very important problem because it could prove to be quite costly in terms of the profit margin for your business. Each day Internet users are bombarded with unsolicited emails serving as advertisements. This problem has reached epic proportions and the abundance of spam infiltrating the email boxes of innocent Internet users has to be cautious and suspicious about any email they receive which is unsolicited and appears to be promoting a particular product or service.
Emails which contain subject lines or content which appear to be similar to spam may be automatically transferred to a spam email folder by the email system. Emails which are not automatically deleted may be deleted without being opened simply because the recipient does not recognize the sender of the email. Both of these problems can result in essentially wasted time for the business owner because the recipients are not even viewing the emails advertising the products and services offered by the business. Additionally, they may result in complaints being lodged against the company for being a purveyor of spam.
The content of the emails should also be carefully considered. They should certainly highlight the products and services you offer but should do so without appearing to be a hard sales pitch. A writer with experience in writing this type of copy should be able to assist you in providing insightful and accurate copy which also entices the reader to find out more about your products and services. Finally your emails should provide the readers with a call to action. This should be a statement urging the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or researching a product.
Email marketing and automation platforms have multiple purposes, one being to drive sales, another to increase conversions, qualified leads and other factors also predetermined to be goals.
Focusing on email marketing, traditional platforms essentially allow you to send email blasts and track parameters like click through and open rate.
Adding automation to your email marketing campaigns enables you to first set conversion goals, and second – automate many of the elements of an email campaign, including:
- Sending thank you emails after a purchase is made
- Gaining insight as to which emails contacts open
- Sending special offers including discounts
- Sending abandoned cart reminders
Marketing automation software is capable of monitoring every digital interaction a lead has with your business, making it more sophisticated than traditional email marketing platforms.
Lead Scoring
Another important component of email marketing and automation is lead scoring. Lead scoring is the process of assigning a value to leads which represent the stage they are at within your conversion funnel. This important aspect can lead to more targeted marketing efforts and cohesiveness between the marketing and sales team, which will in-turn result in increased sales.
Automation creates a sense of connectedness for those on your email list, leading them through the complete marketing journey until the desired action is taken and a conversion occurs.
Finally, you can think of automation in terms of inbound and outbound marketing. Traditional email marketing doesn’t allow marketers to do much but send email blasts, collect minimal data and use it to make optimizations to text in upcoming emails as a result. This process is outbound only.
Automation, however, sends a different message, and quite literally, creates an inbound marketing experience where two way communication is not only something that is sought out, but encouraged.
How to Compare Email Marketing Software
There are a few key elements to be on the lookout for when comparing and selecting the best email marketing software for your marketing needs:
Pre-designed Mobile-Responsive Templates
Third-Party Apps/Integrations
List Segmentation Abilities
Personalization Capabilities
Advanced Analytics Tools and A/B Testing Tools
Heatmaps
24/7 Customer Service
Lead Collection Tools
Ease-of-use
Now that you understand the advantages and disadvantages of email marketing, you might wonder how you can maximize the advantages to use email marketing to your advantage. The most important factor to consider is your email distribution list. This should consist of former customers who have expressed a desire to receive emails with information and advertisements as well as potential customers who have also expressed interest in more information. Each feature may have different function according to your business nature. So choose the best system software that suit your needs and the most important of its user friendliness.
Some of the software that you can choose.
Sendinblue, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Get Response, Benchmark, HubSpot, Active Trail, Constant Contact.
Personally I prefer <<<GET RESPONSE<<<Powerful, simplified tool to send emails, create pages, and automate your marketing. 1,000 free iStock images, All-in-one digital marketing platform
