Every day, over 300 billion emails are sent worldwide, and businesses use email marketing as one of the most effective marketing channels to reach their audience. In fact, global email marketing revenue is projected to increase to $18.8 billion in 2028. It’s clear why it is a significant business strategy for connecting with customers and driving growth.  

But what exactly is email marketing, and how does it work to help businesses grow? Why is it still such an effective strategy to connect with customers and drive revenue?  

In this article, we’ll learn what email marketing is, the types of email marketing campaigns, best practices, common mistakes to avoid, and ways to get started on your email marketing journey.  

What is email marketing?  

Email marketing is a form of communication where businesses send targeted emails to a group of people, including potential and existing customers. The goal is to keep people engaged, build trust, and encourage them to take action, like making a purchase or signing up for a service.

It’s a simple and cost-effective way for businesses to connect directly with customers, boost sales, and strengthen brand loyalty over time.

A brief history of email  

Email has come a long way since it first started in the early 1970s. The first email was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer. He used a network called the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) to send a simple message using a string of characters. Tomlinson also introduced the “@” symbol, which is now a standard part of every email address. 

Then in 1978, Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp, sent the first commercial email to promote a product. This significant move marked the start of email marketing.

6 benefits of email marketing  

Here are the key benefits of a good email marketing strategy. 

Maximizes your ROI  

Email marketing offers one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) of any marketing strategy. It’s affordable and allows businesses to reach a large audience without spending much. Email marketing helps you save money by delivering targeted messages directly to your audience’s inbox, whether you’re sending regular newsletters or promotional offers.  

By focusing on the right audience, email campaigns can drive significant sales, customer loyalty, and engagement with minimal cost. Unlike traditional advertising or social media ads, email marketing’s cost-per-lead is much lower, making it a smart choice for businesses aiming to maximize their ROI.  

Reaches your customers directly  

Unlike social media platforms, where your posts are often limited by algorithms and competition, email lets you land straight in your audience’s inbox. This makes it easier to communicate important updates, promotions, or personalized offers to your customers.  

Since subscribers have opted in to receive your emails, they are more likely to pay attention to your messages and engage with them. This helps you maintain a more personal connection with your audience, ensuring that your message is heard.  

Engages with personalized content  

People pay more attention to emails that feel personal. Instead of sending the same message to everyone, you can group your audience based on things like their location, interests, or past purchases. This helps you send emails that are more relevant to each person.

When emails feel tailored to them, people are more likely to open, read, and respond. This not only keeps them engaged but also helps build a stronger connection between your business and your customers.

Automates & scales your effort 

You can set up automated messages to connect with inactive subscribers or follow up with customers after purchases without manual effort. Automated emails, such as welcome emails, birthday offers, or cart abandonment reminders, allow you to engage with customers at key moments in their journey.  

The ability to scale your marketing efforts without sacrificing personalization makes email automation a game-changer for businesses. It ensures consistent communication and engagement with your audience, saving time and resources while driving results.  

Boost your brand and build loyalty 

Email marketing helps drive sales and build trust and loyalty with your customers. Consistently sending valuable content (e.g., helpful tips, exclusive offers, or important updates) keeps your brand top of mind. This constant engagement helps reinforce your brand message and encourages repeat business.  

Over time, customers who feel connected to your brand are more likely to stay loyal, refer others, and become long-term advocates. By nurturing these relationships, email marketing helps build a community around your brand, fostering lasting Loyalty.  

Track and measure performance  

With metrics like open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates, you can see exactly how well your emails are performing. This data allows you to understand what resonates with your audience and what needs improvement.  

It’s important to measure these key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure that your email campaigns are effective. 

• Open Rate. This is the percentage of recipients who open your email. It gives you an idea of how effective your subject line and sender name are at grabbing attention. 
• Click-Through Rate (CTR). This measures how many people click on a link inside your email. It’s a good way to see how engaging your content is and whether it’s driving people to take the next step. 
• Conversion Rate. This tells you what percentage of recipients actually take the action you want, like making a purchase or signing up for something. It shows how successful your email is at encouraging the desired response. 
• Bounce Rate. This is the percentage of emails that don’t make it to the recipient’s inbox. A high bounce rate might mean there are issues with your email list, like invalid or outdated addresses. 
• Unsubscribe Rate. This is the percentage of people who opt out of receiving your emails. If it’s high, it could indicate that your content isn’t resonating with your audience. 

By continuously tracking and analyzing these metrics, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your email strategy. This ability to test subject lines, content, and calls to action ensures that your campaigns keep improving and driving better results over time.  

Types of email marketing campaigns  

Email marketing offers a variety of campaigns that businesses can use to connect with their audience at different stages of the customer journey. [Write a transition here] 

Welcome emails  

Welcome emails are one of the first interactions you’ll have with a new subscriber. These emails set the tone for the relationship because they introduce your brand and outline what subscribers can expect from you moving forward.  

A clear call to action (CTA), such as offering a discount or a free resource, should be included in this email. Not only does it show gratitude for signing up, but it also encourages immediate interaction, building momentum right from the start.  

Welcome emails have high open rates because they are triggered by a specific action (e.g., signing up). This gives them a remarkable opportunity to establish trust and create a lasting first impression. This helps customers to engage with your brand and guides them through the next steps with clear, concise messaging.  

Promotional emails  

Promotional emails are designed to grab attention and drive action. These are usually focused on sales, discounts, or new product launches. What makes them effective is a strong subject line and a sense of urgency, like a limited time offer, that encourages recipients to take action. 

Well-crafted promotional emails can provide significant value both for your business and your customers. But remember to maintain balance and don’t overdo it with promotions to avoid overwhelming your audience.  

Transactional emails  

Transactional emails are the ones customers expect to receive after making a purchase or interacting with your business. These include order confirmations, shipping updates, receipts, and password resets.  They have some of the highest open rates because they contain critical information that customers need to track their orders or manage their accounts.  

These emails are an excellent opportunity to reinforce your brand’s value, provide next-step instructions, or offer upsell or cross-sell recommendations. While they’re triggered by customer actions, you can still make them personalized and valuable by adding a friendly tone or offering additional resources, like customer service contact details or relevant product suggestions.  

Newsletter emails  

Newsletters include regular updates on your business, industry news, blog content, or helpful tips. These emails can stay on top of your customer’s minds if they provide them with valuable and relevant content that fits their interests. 

To make it more readable and effective, keep the design simple and set a consistent schedule, whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, so subscribers know when to expect it. This helps keep the content engaging and encourages them to keep reading.  

The key to successful newsletters is consistency. Whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, the timing should be predictable, and the content should always be interesting enough to encourage subscribers to open and read.  

Abandoned cart emails  

Abandoned cart emails target customers who’ve added items to their cart but didn’t complete the checkout process. These emails can be effective at recovering potentially lost sales because they remind the customer of the items left behind and encourage them to finish their purchase. Including a discount or a reminder of stock availability can give them that final nudge to complete the transaction.  

These emails have high conversion rates when done right, because they’re based on specific user behavior. They’re also relevant and timely, which makes them hard to ignore. Do note that you need to create urgency without being too pushy.

Re-engagement emails  

Re-engagement emails are designed to reconnect with inactive subscribers who haven’t interacted with your brand in a while. These emails typically offer a special incentive, like a discount or an exclusive offer, to re-capture their attention.   

These emails also give subscribers a chance to ask them what they want or need through a survey or preference update. This allows you to gather insights that can help you better cater to their interests moving forward.  

The goal of re-engagement emails is to revive a dormant subscriber list, ensuring that your contacts remain active and engaged. An effective re-engagement email should be tailored to customers’ needs and situation to increase the chances of getting them back on board.  

Email marketing do’s and dont’s  

To ensure your email marketing efforts are successful, follow these key best practices and avoid common mistakes.  

Best practices  

• Use double opt-in to confirm subscribers. Double opt-in ensures your subscribers truly want to receive emails from you. After a subscriber signs up, send a confirmation email that requires them to click a link to complete the process. This minimizes fake sign-ups and ensures you have a committed audience.  
• Keep emails short, scannable, and visually engaging. Attention spans are short, so get to the point quickly. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and clear headings to make your emails easy to scan. Add visually engaging elements, such as images or buttons, to encourage interaction, but keep the layout simple and clean.  
• Test different subject lines and content. Experiment with A/B testing to figure out what works best. Test different subject lines, content formats, and calls to action. Small changes can have a huge impact on your open rates and engagement.
• Monitor key metrics. Most email marketing tools provide built-in tools that track open rates, CTRs, and conversions to evaluate your email performance. Regularly review these numbers to understand what resonates with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.  
• Ensure compliance with CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CCPA laws. Stay compliant with regulations like the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by including an unsubscribe option in every email, respecting subscriber preferences, and handling customer data responsibly. This builds trust and ensures you avoid legal issues.  

Common mistakes to avoid  

• Overloading subscribers with too many emails. Don’t overwhelm your audience with frequent emails. Bombarding subscribers with constant messages can lead to unsubscribes and poor engagement. Find the right balance and send emails consistently but not excessively.  
• Neglecting mobile users. Most emails are opened on mobile devices, so a poor mobile experience can drive away potential customers. To avoid this, use a responsive design, keep text readable, and ensure links and buttons are easy to click on small screens.  
• Not cleaning your email list. Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers. Sending emails to unengaged users can hurt your deliverability and skew your metrics.  
• Using spammy words in subject lines. Avoid using words like “Free Money” or “Limited Time Offer” in your subject lines. These phrases often trigger spam filters and may cause your emails to end up in the junk folder. Stick to clear, honest subject lines that align with your content.  
• Ignoring analytics. Data is important for optimizing your email campaigns, which is why it’s important to regularly check your metrics and adjust your strategy based on what it tells you. Monitoring performance will help you fine-tune your approach and increase results over time.  

Start your email marketing journey today 

Email marketing is a remarkable strategy that helps businesses engage customers, boost sales, and build credibility. By following best practices like using double opt-ins, segmenting your audience, and testing your campaigns, you can ensure your emails make an impact and drive results. As much as possible, monitor your performance and stay compliant with privacy laws to ensure a successful email marketing journey.  

Unlocking your marketing efforts and discovering its full potential is only a step away when you pair it with a professional email address. This ensures you and your business a successful email marketing journey. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)