What is Email Marketing and How to use it

Whole world is going mad on the number of users Facebook and twitter are having which is at 900M and 175M respectively. But let me tell you that the  number of user that use email everyday is whooping 3100M, in all sense email Marketing makes sense.

What is Email Marketing

Its as simple as that “marketing though emails” i.e., When you send an email to a potential or existing customer thats called email marketing. It is a part of Inbound Marketing which is also called attraction Marketing. A customer comes to your website and they like it and would like to keep posted on the activities that your businesses is doing, they will register their email addresses in your subscriber form. This is where the process of customer relationship can start as you can regularly send them mails about all the recent activities and product launches.

Types of Email Marketing

There are different types and purposes for which you can use email marketing, On different occasions and for different reasons.

1.Welcome Email

Whenever a customer register his/her email id on your website, you can set auto-respond to send them a personal mail to welcome them and thank them for showing interest and assure them of the best services and products and future relationship.

2. Transactional email

When a customer buys something or sells something on your site, you can send a mail including the details about the transaction as it will build trust in the customer mind that the deal is recorded. And in most cases the email acts like Bill or a Receipt for the transaction.

3. Email Newsletter

The main purpose of the newsletter is to build relationship with your customer. Newsletter may not include the sales pitch but some related stuff. For example if you a restaurant you can send some interesting recipes and exercising tips. Get creative and send what your customer may find interesting.

4.Quick Announcements

Often called postcard emails, these are simple, brief announcements  informing customers of a special offer, a popular new product or quick fire sale. These types of emails are typically restricted to a single call-to-action and should be easy for the recipient to scan in a few seconds. You can use images to get attention.

5. Catalog Emails

As name indicates put all your products information and call for action. Usually it will be a brochure which is sent in mail to show the customers all the wide range of products and services that you offer

Why Email Marketing

With the advent of social media, email marketing has taken a bit of a back seat in terms of buzz – but not with marketers that understand the power this tool has for long term trust building and short term conversion.

• Biggest advantage of using email marketing is the number of people using it.
• It helps you reach all the interested customer or prospects faster and more efficiently.
• Build Brand Awareness and trust about your company.
•  Give recipients incentive to spread the word and your campaigns become viral, spreading from your original contacts into new territory.
• Average person has 250-500 contacts. you have options of increasing your audience by allowing your customers to share it with their friends. You can put Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn share button in your email
• Increased and recurring traffic to your website .
• Best for getting feedback and improve

How to use Email Marketing

Don’t be afraid of email! To run an effective email campaign, you don’t need to hire an expensive design firm or copywriter. You just need to focus on writing some messages, and you’ve already got a start on that, whether you know it or not.

You must discuss questions, news in the industry, and the unique selling points of your products all of the time with your customers. Just put it into writing!

First step will be to find an Email Marketing Service providers. You can go to the service providers website and sign up for the free trail or paid options as per your requirements.

One of the most popular email marketing service is Mailchimp. Mailchimp gives a forever free plan- If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, you can send up to 12,000 emails per month absolutely free. There’s no expiring trial, contract, or credit card required. And it gives almost all the features which a paid service will give but some exceptions like Transactional emails and inbox tracking features are not included.

In India there are local email service providers for a minimum pay option of Rs.200 to Rs.10,000 monthly. Once you decide on the service provider following are 5 simple step to show you how to use email marketing.

Step 1. Create Account and signup for the appropriate email plan

Step 2. Build List and integrate into your website or facebook page or wherever you get your customers.

Step 3. When you have some people registered you are ready to send your first Campaingn which you can fully design and customize it yourself.

Step 4. Design the template, even ready made templates too will be available. Write the content in best way possible and send a test mail to have a feel about how it looks in your inbox. And send the mail to your List

Step 5. Monitor the Campaign. Keep a track of how many people opened the mail and responded to it. It will give you a better way of approach next time

Thats it you are now an expert at sending emails but not an email Marketing expert yet. It will take sometime for you to become expert which you can by monitoring and learning more about your customers.

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