Email Marketing Basics: The Smart Way to Know, Like, & Trust

Email marketing is one of the most important tools entrepreneurs can use to reach out to customers and build relationships.

But, it can also be confusing and overwhelming when you’re starting out!

That’s why I’m here to give you some basics on email marketing so you can understand how email marketing works and how to get started the right away.

1. Email Marketing is not Spam

The first thing you need to know about email marketing is that it’s not spam!

Spam is unsolicited commercial email sent without permission.

What classifies an email as spam?

Campaign Monitor describes it like this:

Most people define spam as junk mail. While it may seem like a basic definition, it’s actually a good one. A more detailed definition would be unsolicited, irrelevant emails that land in your inbox. Spam is usually sent out in bulk email “blasts” in hopes that someone will open it.

In contrast, email marketing is a legitimate way to send messages to people who have given you their consent to email them.

This consent is usually in the form of an opt-in. The most boring is asking someone to sign up for your newsletter. The most effective is using a lead magnet, or a freebie offer to entice and attract people to get on your email list.

Type of email marketing

There are many different types of email marketing, including transactional emails (which are automated), promotional emails (which are designed to promote sales of a product or service), and relationship-oriented emails (which build relationships between companies and customers). More on those soon.

First, let’s go briefly into how email marketing works.

2. How Does Email Marketing Work?

When someone subscribes to your list, they opt-in to receive future communications from you.

When you want to reach out to those subscribers, you create an email message to those subscribers. You don’t send this out of your Outlook or Gmail; however, you use an email service provider that allows you to legally email everyone on your list.

You can use email to announce special offers, events, promotions, news updates, etc., or to simply keep your existing customers informed.

Your email service provider will allow you to:

• segment your email list, so you can send specific emails to specific subscribers
• see the stats of each email you send
• manage your contacts
• allow subscribers to manage themselves (like unsubscribe)

READ MORE: How Email Marketing Works

3. Types of Emails

There are three broad categories of email marketing:

Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are automated emails that help businesses complete a transaction. For example, if you sell products online, you might use transactional emails to confirm order details, provide tracking numbers, update shipping methods, and notify customers of payment success or failure.

Promotional Emails

Promotional emails are designed to encourage action. For example, you could use an autoresponder to send details of a hot new sale, to subscribe to your YouTube channel, or fill out a survey to win prizes.

Relationship-Oriented Emails

Relationship-oriented emails focus on building relationships with current and potential customers.

These emails often begin with a greeting and follow a conversation format. For example, you might send thank you notes after a purchase, birthday wishes on your company’s anniversary, or offer educational or entertainment content to your subscribers.

These relationship emails also have a deeper purpose: to get subscribers to know, like, and trust you.

How do you get your email subscribers to know, like, and trust you?

The key is to provide value in every email you send. This could mean sharing helpful tips, providing exclusive content, or simply sending a personal note. Whatever you do, make sure your emails are informative and relevant to your audience.

Another important aspect of email marketing is staying consistent. If you only send emails occasionally, your subscribers are likely to forget about you. But if you send emails on a regular basis, they’ll start to appreciate your content and look forward to hearing from you. It’s all about building trust over time.

4. Why Use Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a great tool for reaching out to customers and prospects. Here are some reasons to consider using email marketing:

Email Marketing Easy To Set Up And Maintain.

Most email services offer simple interfaces and tools for setting up campaigns. If you don’t have experience running an email campaign, you can take an email marketing course to learn email marketing or you can hire a professional to do it for you.

You Can Reach A Wide Audience.

Your target audience is likely to be looking for what you have to say. By sending targeted messages to specific groups of people, you can increase the chances of making a connection.

Your Message Will Be Read.

According to statistics published by the Direct Marketing Association, email is the second most popular method of communication behind social networking sites. People check their email accounts hundreds of times per day, so it makes sense that your message will get noticed. But Email Stats show email is more powerful, more effective, and converts better than all other digital marketing efforts.

READ MORE: Why Email Marketing is Important for Small Business

Email Marketing for your Small Business

As you can see, email marketing is a powerful way to reach and engage your audience. It’s not spam, it builds know, like, and trust with subscribers, and it can help you grow your business.

If you aren’t using email marketing yet, or if you are but want to improve your results, try some of the principles we shared in this post. And if you need help getting started or want more ideas for what to do with email marketing, let me know!

I’d love to help you create an email strategy that works for your business.

Get Started with Email marketing today.