How to Create an Effective Email Marketing Campaign in 6 Steps

Email marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective digital marketing strategies you can use to grow your business. According to a 2020 study by Litmus, email marketing has an average return on investment (ROI) of 36:1¹. That means for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect to earn $36 in return.

But how do you create an email marketing campaign that delivers such impressive results? In this blog post, we’ll show you the steps you need to follow to plan, create, and optimize your email marketing campaign. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, you’ll find some useful tips and best practices to improve your email marketing performance.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is the use of email to communicate with and persuade your audience to take action. Email marketing can help you achieve various goals, such as:

• Building trust and authority with your audience
• Educating and informing your audience about your products or services
• Promoting your offers and discounts
• Generating leads and sales
• Increasing customer loyalty and retention
• Driving traffic to your website or landing page

Email marketing is not spamming your audience with unwanted or irrelevant messages. It’s about providing value and solving your audience’s problems. To do that, you need to follow some email marketing best practices, such as:

• Getting permission from your audience to send them emails
• Segmenting your audience based on their interests, behavior, and preferences
• Personalizing your emails to make them more relevant and engaging
• Crafting catchy subject lines and compelling copy
• Testing and optimizing your emails for different devices and browsers
• Measuring and analyzing your email marketing performance

How to create an email marketing campaign

Now that you know what email marketing is and why it’s important, let’s dive into the steps you need to follow to create an effective email marketing campaign.

Step 1: Build an email list

The first step is to collect the email addresses of people who are interested in your business and have given you permission to contact them. You can use various methods to grow your email list, such as:

• Offering a lead magnet: A lead magnet is a free and valuable resource that you offer to your audience in exchange for their email address. It can be an ebook, a checklist, a webinar, a coupon, or anything else that your audience finds useful.
• Creating a landing page: A landing page is a web page that is designed to capture your audience’s attention and persuade them to take action. It usually has a clear and compelling headline, a brief and benefits-oriented copy, a relevant image or video, and a prominent and enticing call to action (CTA).
• Adding a sign-up form to your website: A sign-up form is a simple and effective way to collect your audience’s email addresses. You can place it on your homepage, your blog, your sidebar, your footer, or anywhere else on your website where your audience can see it.
• Using social media: Social media is a great way to reach and engage with your audience. You can use social media to promote your lead magnet, your landing page, or your sign-up form. You can also use social media to share valuable content, build relationships, and generate word-of-mouth.

Step 2: Choose an email service provider

The next step is to select a tool that will help you create, send, and manage your email campaigns. There are many email service providers (ESPs) available, such as ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, AWeber, and more. You should compare their features, pricing, and customer support to find the best fit for your needs.

Some of the features you should look for in an ESP are:

• Email templates and editor: You want an ESP that offers a variety of email templates and an easy-to-use editor that allows you to customize your emails without coding.
• Email automation and workflows: You want an ESP that enables you to automate your email campaigns and create workflows that are triggered by specific actions or events, such as a sign-up, a purchase, a cart abandonment, or a birthday.
• Email segmentation and personalization: You want an ESP that allows you to segment your audience based on their interests, behavior, and preferences, and personalize your emails to make them more relevant and engaging.
• Email deliverability and spam compliance: You want an ESP that ensures your emails reach your audience’s inbox and comply with the spam laws and regulations of different countries and regions.
• Email analytics and reporting: You want an ESP that provides you with detailed and actionable insights into your email marketing performance, such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate.

Step 3: Plan an email workflow

An email workflow is a series of automated emails that are triggered by a specific action or event. Email workflows can help you nurture your leads, increase conversions, and retain customers. You should map out your email workflow based on your goals, audience, and offer.

Some of the most common types of email workflows are:

• Welcome email: A welcome email is the first email you send to your new subscribers to thank them for joining your email list, introduce yourself and your business, and set expectations for future emails.
• Nurture email: A nurture email is an email you send to your leads to educate them about your products or services, provide value and solve their problems, and move them along the sales funnel.
• Promotional email: A promotional email is an email you send to your leads or customers to announce your offers and discounts, create urgency and scarcity, and persuade them to buy from you.
• Transactional email: A transactional email is an email you send to your customers to confirm their purchase, provide them with their order details, and thank them for their business.
• Re-engagement email: A re-engagement email is an email you send to your inactive or unresponsive subscribers to remind them of your value proposition, offer them an incentive, and encourage them to re-engage with your business.

Step 4: Create engaging content

The content of your email is what will capture the attention of your recipients and persuade them to take action. You should craft a catchy subject line, a clear and concise body copy, a strong call to action, and an attractive design. You should also personalize your content based on the preferences and behavior of your subscribers.

Some of the best practices for creating engaging email content are:

• Write a subject line that sparks curiosity, conveys a benefit, or creates a sense of urgency. Keep it short and simple, and avoid using spammy words or symbols.
• Write a body copy that matches your subject line, addresses your audience’s pain points, and showcases your value proposition. Use clear and conversational language, and break up your text into short paragraphs and bullet points.
• Write a call to action that tells your audience exactly what you want them to do next. Use action verbs, and make it stand out with a contrasting color, size, or shape.
• Design your email to make it visually appealing and easy to read. Use a responsive and mobile-friendly layout, and include relevant images, videos, or graphics. Avoid using too many fonts, colors, or elements that can distract from your message.

Step 5: Test and optimize

Before you send your email campaign, you should test it for any errors, such as broken links, spelling mistakes, or formatting issues. You should also use tools like Litmus or Email on Acid to check how your email will look on different devices and browsers. You should also perform A/B testing to compare different versions of your email and see which one performs better.

Some of the elements you can test and optimize are:

• Subject line: You can test different subject lines to see which one generates more opens, clicks, or conversions. You can experiment with different lengths, tones, formats, or emotions.
• Body copy: You can test different body copy to see which one resonates more with your audience, provides more value, or persuades more action. You can experiment with different headlines, subheadings, introductions, conclusions, or stories.
• Call to action: You can test different calls to action to see which one drives more clicks, leads, or sales. You can experiment with different words, colors, sizes, or shapes.
• Design: You can test different designs to see which one appeals more to your audience, enhances your brand identity, or supports your message. You can experiment with different layouts, images, videos, or graphics.

Step 6: Analyze and improve

After you send your email campaign, you should track and measure its performance using metrics like open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate. You should also use tools like Google Analytics or UTM parameters to track the traffic and conversions from your email to your website. You should use the data and feedback you collect to improve your future email campaigns.

Some of the questions you should ask yourself when analyzing your email marketing performance are:

• How many people opened your email and why?
• How many people clicked on your email and why?
• How many people converted from your email and why?
• How many people bounced or unsubscribed from your email and why?
• What are the best and worst performing elements of your email?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of your email marketing strategy?
• What are the opportunities and threats for your email marketing growth?

Conclusion

Email marketing is a powerful and cost-effective digital marketing strategy that can help you grow your business. By following the steps we outlined in this blog post, you can create an effective email marketing campaign that delivers impressive results.