The popularity of digital nomads and online courses means marketers have more platforms to reach audiences with targeted messages. Email marketing is a vital part of any campaign and learning how to use it effectively is critical to your success.

Why should you be using email marketing?

According to Radicati, 76.2% of people (in the U.S.) open email messages, while 64.9% click on those messages. Additionally, 50.9% of people (in the U.S.) have opened an email message containing a coupon or discount code.

That means your email marketing is more likely to be read and acted upon. You can also use email campaigns to follow up with leads after they’ve interacted with your website via a form or another method (e.g., downloaded a resource, bought a product, etc.).

How does email marketing work?

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing in which you send messages to potential customers with the purpose of encouraging them to take action.

People click on, read, and respond to email messages because they want to receive helpful information. They typically don’t want to be bombarded with promotional messages.

If you send out regular mailers with useful tips and tricks, you’ll grow your list of subscribers who are interested in your product or service. By segmenting your email list, you can target specific groups of people and send them tailored messages.

How do I create an effective email marketing campaign?

The following advice will help you create email marketing campaigns that actually work:

1. Build a solid foundation.

Before you start your email marketing campaign, you need to have a solid foundation of engaged and interested subscribers. Start by building a quality email list of potential customers using a tool like MailChimp.

Use your email list to determine the type of content and strategies you’ll use in your messages and to segment your audience. Don’t be afraid to experiment and test different tactics and content strategies. Once you’ve established a regular stream of engaged and interested subscribers, you can determine the optimal frequency of your communications and the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) for your particular industry.

2. Target the right audience.

With your foundation in place, you can start to target your ideal subscriber. Begin by defining key terms and concepts that your audience will understand. Use your marketing emails to provide value and offer information your audience doesn’t have access to elsewhere.

The most effective and persuasive emails provide unique value that isn’t readily available elsewhere. For example, if your product is designed for entrepreneurs, you might send them an email with actionable tips and tricks. Or if your product is a PDF guide, you might share valuable insights from the process of creating the guide.

The key is to find a way to make your email standout from the rest. You can incorporate graphics or video to make your emails more engaging.

3. Testimonials work.

In addition to offering unique value, your marketing emails can use testimonials from previous customers to demonstrate the success of your strategy. Testimonials not only provide a potential customer with a sense of value, but they also offer you the opportunity to showcase your skills as a marketer.

If you can get meaningful testimonials from existing customers, even better. However, if you can’t get any, don’t worry – you’re not locked into using them either. In the event that a customer decides your product isn’t for them, you could remove their testimonial and replace it with an optional explanation as to why you believe their specific needs were not met by your product.

4. Personalization works.

You can set the tone for your email campaign by adding a personal touch to it. Use the name of the person you’re writing to (i.e., Joe User instead of just Joe) and tailor your message to their interests. If you’ve used email marketing successfully in the past, you can take advantage of your existing subscriber list and segment it into interest groups. Then, you can use automation to send personalized emails to each group.

For example, if you’ve used Segmentto create multiple lists of qualified leads, you can choose to follow-up with an email marketing campaign. But instead of using your ‘standard’ email template, you can choose to tailor it to the interests of each list. In this way, you’re able to increase the chance of your email being read and acted upon. Plus, since the content is personalized, you’ll grow your open and click rates.

5. Make the most of email sub-groups.

If you’ve used email marketing before, you may know that some people prefer to receive messages in digital nomads, while others prefer to receive them in travel agents. If your email list is already segmented into these groups, you can take advantage of this information to further personalize your message.

You can also use a tool like Splinter to create separate email newsletters for your different groups of subscribers. For instance, you might decide that your digital nomads would benefit from a travel agent’s view of the world. So, you can create a seperate email list for digital nomads who also work in travel and send them a monthly newsletter.

The Many Different Formats of Email

While most people use email as a form of communication, it’s not the only way to send messages. You can use other platforms like Google Docs, WordPress, or Shopify to write your messages and email lists to engage your audience.

Here are some more tips on how to create effective email marketing campaigns: