What Is Email Marketing?

Anytime a company sends out an email, aside from order confirmations and direct responses to customer questions, it could be considered a form of email marketing. Is one segment of internet marketing, which encompasses online marketing via websites, social media, blogs, and more.

Email marketing can include newsletters with updates on the company, or promotions of sales and exclusive deals for subscribers. Marketing emails may also seek to share a general message on the company’s behalf, such as in the wake of a natural disaster or company scandal.

At its best, email marketing allows businesses to keep their customers informed and tailor their marketing messages to their audience. At its worst, this kind of marketing can drive customers away with persistently annoying spam emails.

How does it get results?

Email marketing is all about sending messages, tracking responses, and keeping up with unsubscribers. If your marketing strategy relies on email, you’ll be glad to know that email marketing remains alive and well. According to the research firm Econsultancy, “Email continues to be a vital component of the marketing mix and the vast majority of companies (72 percent) rate email as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ in terms of ROI.”

To use email effectively, you’ll need a sound knowledge of email design best practices, an eye for email deliverability, and a flair for developing engaging content that targets specific audiences.

How to build an email marketing list

When you build a house, the first thing that is built is the foundation. That same concept applies when you are building your email program. The how, where, and when of building your list are as critical a factor in the success of that email program as anything else you can create. A relevant and engaged audience is crucial to deliverability success and having the right mailing list is a good start.

Once you’ve chosen the platform/solution for sending messages and managing responses, you’ll want to focus on building your email list. To be clear, email marketing is not spamming. In fact, it usually begins when website visitors voluntarily “opt in” to be added to a database of marketable names. Your audience has asked for your emails and should be expecting to get them. They might have signed up for a newsletter or webinar, filled out a form on your site, or be following you on social media. It is better to build your email list with people who want to hear from you, rather than buying email lists or procuring email addresses from other sources.

In this way, you can better ensure that the email is something the recipient wants. Sending a random email out, even if it’s relevant to recipient’s interests and business, is the same as cold calling. Your audience didn’t ask to be contacted and may not be receptive to hearing from you. See below for several best practices for building your email list.

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