Are you a marketer or business owner? Do you regularly use email as part of your marketing mix? If not, you might have several reasons, including a fair amount of skepticism. After all, with so many opportunities to advertise on social media, email marketing can seem antiquated. So, is email marketing worth it? At HatchMark Studio, we have helped numerous clients with their email campaigns. In this article, we will explore the unique advantages of email marketing and explain why we firmly believe it’s definitely worth it.
Basics of Email Marketing
First, we will define precisely what we mean by “email marketing.” To clarify, this is not merely about taking a stack of leads and emailing them individually. Although this approach might be effective in certain industries, it can significantly drain your time and resources. Specifically, in this context, email marketing refers to using platforms like Klaviyo and Emma to engage with customers and leads. These platforms enable you to create custom-designed emails that are dynamic and provide you with the analytics to track your campaigns. Additionally, we present some excellent examples of designed email marketing in our case study for NeuLine Aesthetics.
What Are The Pros and Cons of Email Marketing?
Like most things, targeted email marketing has clear pros and cons. If you are considering adding email marketing to your strategy, you should evaluate several factors on both sides of the fence.
The Pros of Email Marketing
- Email marketing is relatively affordable to start. Depending on the size of your email list, email marketing is relatively cheap. With most platforms, if you have a list of a couple thousand emails, you can start sending emails for less than $100 a month.
- It’s easy to get started. Although using custom design is always the best route, every email marketing platform has easy-to-use templates that you can use to build effective emails that drive clicks. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to get started.
- Emails are super easy to track. As soon as you send your marketing email, you can start tracking the effectiveness. Within days, you will be able to tell how successful your campaign was so that you can make tweaks to your next one.
- Segmenting emails helps focus your messaging. With email segmenting, you can separate your email leads by several different variables so that your email campaigns can get more targeted toward a certain audience to increase your conversion rate. For example, you can send a special email promotion to only users who live in Alabama and have purchased your product before with targeted messaging.
- Automations for the win. You can use your email marketing platform to create custom forms for your website. Using these forms, you can set up unique triggers that will automatically send an email or series of emails to potential leads. Having an email sent automatically is a huge advantage since you can set it up and forget it.
The Cons of Email Marketing
- Can be expensive at scale. Although getting started is affordable for most budgets, companies with hundreds of thousands of leads will need to set aside a significant budget since most platforms charge by the number of email addresses you have on your lists.
- It’s heavily regulated. There are a lot of consent laws that affect your ability to send emails to users. This is why every email you have received from a business or product has an unsubscribe feature.
- Emails can get spammy. Emails are easy to send, but they’re hard to do super well without sounding like spam. Even the best email marketers and strategists struggle with getting more leads to open their emails. Finding the balance between sending too many and not enough can take a lot of trial and error.
- Doing it right is time consuming. From getting automations set up to performing regular maintenance in your contact lists, great email marketing can take up a significant amount of your time. It’s best to have someone on your team who is dedicated to maintaining it.
- Emails are easy to delete. Lots of companies around the world are sending emails to leads. It’s easy for your emails to get mixed in with others and simply get deleted by default. Even if you create a stunning email, if it gets deleted, it won’t help your conversions.
How to Get Started With Email Marketing
Now that you understand the pros and cons of email marketing and have set aside the budget, how do you start? Setting everything up can take time, but it’s well worth the effort. First, follow these initial steps to get your email marketing strategy up and running for your business or clients.
Purchase Your Platform Membership
You won’t get very far without doing this first. There are several email marketing platforms out there. We can’t possibly say which one is best since everyone has their favorites. The good news is that almost all of them function more or less the same. We use Klaviyo for ourselves and our clients, but you find the best one for you!
Collect Your Leads
Most businesses have a spreadsheet or two full of email leads they’ve collected from a form or through a paid source. Either way, you’re going to want to compile all of these into CSV documents to upload to your platform. Pro tip: if you already have these segmented, make sure to create segmented lists so you can get started straight away with targeted messaging.
Create a Strategy
You don’t want to just start sending random emails to all of your leads. First impressions are lasting ones in the email game. If you’re starting for the first time, this is potentially the first marketing email these people have ever received from your business. Take the time to plan a promotion or come up with some really unique messaging so that you don’t get hit with a massive unsubscribe.
Create Your Emails
If you are a graphic designer or are lucky enough to have one on your team, this is when some visual creativity can really help. After you have written your email copy, get it designed with great photography to support it and a clear call to action. Remember, you want people to click on your emails. Opening them is only one piece of the puzzle.
Send Your Emails
The best time to send email marketing is a contentious topic. As with most things, a little common sense can go a long way when you’re scheduling your emails. What we’re saying is, don’t send a promotional email at 5PM on a Friday when everyone is already out for drinks. Send it on a Tuesday around 11AM or a Thursday at 2:35PM. Additionally, sending right at 8AM on Monday can potentially get you purged in the junk mail delete when people first open their Outlook or Gmail after getting to work.
Track Your Performance
What good is sending an email if you don’t know how it performed? Every email marketing platform will have an analytics dashboard that will show you how many people opened the email, how many of them clicked, how many emails bounced, and so on. Be sure to take notes on which emails were successful and which ones fell short. Making adjustments to future campaigns based on what you are learning from customer behavior will be the difference maker.
Change Your Website Forms
Your email marketing platform should have a form builder integrated into it. Changing all of the forms on your website to these forms will save you from having to manually enter new leads into your lists. Additionally, using email marketing forms is the best way to leverage automations. For instance, you send all of your newsletter sign ups an automated three-email welcome flow without having to lift a finger.
Bonus: Create a Landing Page
While you certainly don’t need to do this, we always recommend it to clients who have the budget and capability. Creating custom landing pages with curated content for your email campaign can greatly improve your chances of converting. Think about it. If you are running a promotion for 25% off a product and send them to your home page, they have to go find the product themselves. Drop your customers right in the middle of the content they want. Even better, a landing page will give you an added layer of analytics on the backend of your website for the campaign.
Final Thoughts on Whether or Not Email Marketing Is Worth It
Although every business is different, incorporating email marketing into your overall strategy effectively reaches your customers. Coordinate your email messaging with your social media posts and display ads to amplify your campaigns and give customers more opportunities to convert. Ultimately, have fun with it. Use email to experiment with creative subject lines, edgy campaign ideas, and exclusive promotions. Is it worth it? We certainly believe so, but the best way to find out is to try it yourself.
Don’t Have Time for Email Marketing? Let Us Do It For You.
If you’re amped up to get started with email marketing for your business and just can’t find enough hours in the day, you’re not alone. As a matter of fact, most business owners struggle with allocating the resources necessary to all of today’s marketing channels. That’s why hiring an agency, a team of professionals who live and breathe marketing all day long, can really give you the boost you need. At HatchMark Studio, we have a dynamic team of designers, social media masters, and marketing experts who can help you from start to finish with your email marketing program. Get in touch with us today for a free discovery call to learn more about how we can support you!
