Every entrepreneur’s journey starts with an idea and a desire to share it with the world, and often times, that means using digital marketing to do it.

You may have heard of email marketing, but did you know that it can be tricky to get right? You may also be doing all the wrong things and not even knowing it! Not to worry, we’re here to help. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the foundations of effective email and newsletter marketing so you can get started off on the right foot.

Digital Marketing: An Overview

If you’re already doing business online, you may know that attracting and retaining customers is one of the biggest challenges. According to HubSpot Blogs research, 78% of business owners say attracting and retaining customers is their biggest challenge. So if you’re looking to take your business to the next level, consider digital marketing as part of your strategy.

What is digital marketing, you ask? Glad you asked. According to HubSpot Blogs research, 48% of respondents say it’s “marketing campaigns through digital platforms,” while 38% say it’s “blogging for business.” So basically, digital marketing is using digital tools to attract potential and existing customers so you can grow your business.

The Difference Between Email Marketing and Digital Marketing

Got an email marketing question? You’re in the right place. If not, feel free to scroll down to the next section to find the answers to your questions.

First off, let’s discuss the differences between email marketing and digital marketing. According to the HubSpot Blogs research, respondents say:

• email marketing is “personalised letters or emails from a company or brand to a customer to promote a product or service.”
• digital marketing is “marketing through digital channels (including websites and social media).”
• email marketing tends to be “one-way,” while digital marketing is “multi-channel.”
• email marketing is generally considered “traditional,” while digital marketing is “modern.”
• email marketing is typically considered “spammy,” while digital marketing is “creative.”
• traditional email marketing is about “just connecting with the person,” while digital marketing is about “engaging with the person.”
• traditional email marketing is about “getting the person to buy a product,” while digital marketing is about “building a relationship.”

Why You Need to Get This Right

You may be thinking that since your business is online-based, you don’t need to worry about emailing and digital marketing, but that’s not true. In fact, a lot can go wrong, even if your business is purely digital.

For example, if you’re using the wrong software to send your emails, you may end up with a botched campaign. Or, if you’re not using a reputable email marketing service, you run the risk of your emailing ending up in a spam folder by the recipient.

By understanding the basics of email marketing and digital marketing, you can avoid making these common mistakes and instead, can use these important tools to grow your business.

Get The Basics Right

If you’re just getting started with email marketing and digital marketing, here are some things you can do to ensure your success:

• Make sure your email address is easily discoverable (i.e., that you use a professional-looking email address)
• Checking the “from” address on an email can help you identify the sender (e.g., is it from your company name? Your full email address? A personal email address?)
• Use a reliable email service that has a good reputation
• Get comfortable with writing emails
• Find out what works and what doesn’t work (through A/B testing)
• Understand what moves and motivates your customers
• Track the success of your marketing efforts (e.g., through analytics tools like Google Analytics)
• Don’t be afraid to try new things

Now that you’re equipped with the basics of email marketing and digital marketing, let’s move on to discussing some of the most common mistakes that people make when using these tools.

The Top Three Email Marketing Blunders To Avoid

If you’re looking to get the most out of email marketing and don’t want to end up in a bit of a mess, here are the top three email marketing blunders you need to avoid.

1.Not Testing Different Email Marketing Variations

Every business is different and the emails you send may not always work out perfectly the first time you try them out. That’s why you need to test different versions of your email marketing efforts to find the one that works best for your business.

If you’re not testing different versions of your emails, you may be leaving money on the table and possibly even hurting your business by choosing to send an email that isn’t working. In order to find the perfect email for your business, you need to test different messages, subject lines, and templates until you find one that generates the most interest from potential customers.

2.Not Monitoring And Measuring The Success Of Your Campaigns

If you’re looking to take your email marketing and digital marketing to the next level, you need to be monitoring and measuring the success of your campaigns in order to determine what’s working and what isn’t.

Simply checking your email inbox to see if you received any responses from potential customers is not enough. You need to look at conversions, too (the actions that your audience takes after opening your email).

For example, if you are marketing your new product via email and the majority of your potential customers respond favorably, but none of them buy your product, it may be time to review and adjust your strategy.

3.Taking Shortcuts To Build Your Email List

There are easy ways to build an email list, but they come with a price. Sometimes, those “shortcuts” can cause you more harm than good. That’s why you need to be careful about what kind of email list you’re creating.

If you want to take your email marketing to the next level, don’t shortcut the process and build your email list manually. Instead, use the email marketing tools that can help you reach your audience and increase the chances of them engaging with your offers.

Top 3 Digital Marketing Blunders To Avoid

If you want to take your digital marketing to the next level, here are the top three digital marketing blunders you need to avoid.

1.Focusing Only On Search Engines

Back in the day, if you wanted to grow your business, you’d start a blog, write some articles, and hope that people would come across your content when they searched for related topics.

While that may still be a viable strategy, these days, it’s much easier to grow your business via social media.

If you’re not using social media to grow your business, you’re losing out on a whole world of potential customers. To get started, simply search for the name of your business followed by “social media” (e.g., “[your business name] social media tips”), and you’ll see a variety of platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, where you can share your content.

2.Not Optimizing For The Most Important Parameter

Just because you can measure something, doesn’t mean that it’s the most important factor in driving results. For instance, if you’re sending out emails to build your email list, you need to make sure that you’re not overlooking the most important factor. Are you sending the emails from the most suitable email address? Does the content within the email relate to what the person is looking for?

Instead of looking at metrics like open rates and click-through rates, which can be very high, but not always indicate perfect engagement, you need to be looking at conversion rates and determine, based on this, whether or not you should increase your efforts.