The Ultimate Email Marketing Guide to Get More Leads in 2024

Dec 21, 2023

Come one, come all to the marketing show! Imagine your catchy subject lines as the main attraction, your well-written content as the balancing act, and the crowd. Well, they're your potential leads, excited to be wowed!

Sending emails isn't just a fingers-crossed moment. It's like conducting a persuasive symphony, transforming casual readers into eager leads.

Why is email marketing important?

Ever wondered, "Why is email marketing important for business?" Let's cut through the noise and explore the pivotal role email marketing plays in the business game.

Here’s the highlighted point:

1. Direct Connection, Lasting Impressions:

Email marketing is your direct line to your audience. No algorithms, no middlemen. Craft messages that linger in inboxes, making a lasting impact.

2. Personalization: Your Secret Sauce:

Tailor your messages. Address your audience by name, send personalized recommendations, and watch engagement soar. Email marketing is the art of making each subscriber feel special.

3. Drive Conversions with Targeted Campaigns:

Hit the bullseye with targeted campaigns. Segment your audience, send the right message to the right people, and witness conversion rates that speak volumes.

4. Cost-Effective and High ROI:

In a world where every penny counts, email marketing stands out. Minimal costs, maximal returns. Witness the power of a well-crafted email paying dividends.

5. Build Trust and Credibility:

Consistent communication builds trust. Use email marketing to showcase your expertise, share valuable insights, and establish your brand as a reliable authority.

6. Analytics for Continuous Improvement:

Data is your ally. Dive into analytics, understand what works, and fine-tune your strategy. Email marketing isn't just about sending; it's about evolving.

Comprehensive guide on how to do email marketing

In this guide, you can understand each of the basics of email marketing, from growing your list to testing your emails, which is covered below. Read the guide thoroughly and pick which one is relevant to you.

Nail your Email Goals
Choose the Perfect Mail Service Provider
Grow and Glow with your Email List
Sort it Out: Segment Your Email List
Be a Design Wizard: Craft Stunning Emails
Words That Wow: Create Killer Email Content
Subject Lines That Shine: Master the Art of Email Openers
Hit Send and Spread the Love: Dispatch Your Emails
A/B Test Like a Pro: Tweak and Perfect Your Email Game
Measure Your Magic: Track Email Performance
Set It and Forget It: Automate Your Email Campaigns

Clean House: Maintain Your Awesome Email List

Pin your Email Marketing Goals

Get ready to rock your first email! But first, let's set some email marketing goals. Setting goals for your emails is like creating a roadmap for success. It's your game plan to make your emails shine. Figure out what you want to achieve, when you want to achieve it, and how you'll make it happen. It's like building a super-strong base for your email success story!

Here’s some golden tips for setting goals for email marketing include:

Be SMART with your goals—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely!
Know your audience's email cravings and serve it hot!
Get the lowdown on your industry's email stats—open rates, bounce rates, the whole shebang.
Team up your goals with the big picture, like boosting lead quality.
Build your dream team, from in-house marketing maestros to freelance design dynamos!

However, based on your goals, you can decide how much of your marketing budget should go towards email.

Choose the Perfect Mail Service Provider (ESP)

Choosing the perfect email service provider (ESP) for your email marketing plays a critical role in your overall email strategy. ESPs help your business send the right email at the right time to the right person. They make tasks like segmenting audiences, organizing email lists, and sending emails easy and efficient.

Some examples of email marketing tools include:

Mailchimp
HubSpot
GetResponse
Sendinblue
Moosend

When choosing your email marketing tools, ask the following questions:

What tools or features do you need now and in the near future?
How many subscribers do you have?
What is your budget?
Do you need the platform to integrate with another tool, such as Salesforce or OptinMonster?

These questions can save you time because you only focus on the ESPs that match your needs. For an example, you don’t look at a platform that does not offer the customer relationship management (CRM) integrations you need.

Grow and Glow with your Email List

Every email marketing strategy focuses on growing its number of subscribers. While you can attract new subscribers in dozens of ways, this email marketing guide focuses on the most successful tactics for both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) companies.

Some of the best effective ways to grow your email list include:

Downloadable resources: White papers, ebooks, and other miscellaneous PDFs are the most common ways to attract new subscribers. However, for these downloadable resources to succeed, you need to offer a fantastic piece of content and pair it with a compelling offer.

Discount offers: Another effective way to build your subscriber list is through discount offers. Ecommerce companies, for example, will often provide website visitors a one-time discount code for joining their email list. Keep in mind that this tactic can lead to high unsubscribe rates.

One-time events: Events like a webinar, pop-up shop, or consultation can all drive email sign-ups. These one-time events require a bigger investment of your time and resources, but they tend to bring more qualified or interested users to your email list.

Interactive features: Something as simple as a quiz or discount wheel can motivate people to sign up for your email list. You can also use the data provided, like from a quiz, to segment users and send them more relevant emails.

Regardless of the strategies employed to expand your email list, it is imperative to adhere to the following best practices:

Ensure that every offer or resource provided is highly relevant to your target audience.
Expedite the delivery of resources, coupon codes, event information, or quiz results through email promptly.
Implement a double opt-in process to enhance the overall quality of your email list by confirming the intention of subscribers.
Restrict the number of form fields required for users to complete the sign-up process, promoting a more streamlined and user-friendly experience.

Besides thinking which opt-in strategies you will use to grow your list, you will also need to investigate your options for making these strategies a reality. For example, will you use a third tool, like OptinMonster, or work with an in-house developer?

In that case, you will also need to decide:

Specify the location where the offer is presented, such as within your blog posts or product pages.
Clearly articulate the details of the offer, including information on whether the user will receive a discount, such as $10 off their initial or subsequent order.
Indicate the timing of the offer presentation, such as when a user intends to exit your website.
Define the target audience for the offer, specifying that it is exclusive to non-subscribers.

For expeditious and seamless setup, consider employing a third-party tool such as OptinMonster. Even if you intend to develop an in-house solution, utilizing a tool like OptinMonster can facilitate the attraction of new subscribers during the construction phase of your proprietary solution.

Sort it Out: Segment Your Email List

Every comprehensive guide to email marketing emphasizes the significance of email list segmentation. Why?

Segmenting your email list stands out as one of the most effective methods for personalizing your emails, surpassing the conventional approach of merely addressing individuals by their first names.

For instance, you can segment subscribers by:

Location
Interest
Age
Gender
Behavior
Birthday Month
Open rate
Shopping cart

Instead of sending a general email about your upcoming sale, for instance, you could tailor that email to different email segments. Someone interested in your candles vs. bath soaps, for example, will see an email that advertises how they can get their next candle 25% off. With email marketing tools like Mailchimp, it’s easy to segment your audience. The challenge is acquiring the user data.

Since less is more for acquiring subscribers, many companies only know a subscriber’s email address and first name. If you want to get more information, you need to monitor a subscriber’s behavior. For example, you could look at:

Which links in your emails a user clicks
When users open your emails
Which products subscribers add to their cart and than abandon

Once email subscribers convert, like by completing a contact form or purchasing a product, you can make even better guesses about what kind of content they’d like to read or promotions they would like to hear about, which can lead to even better email marketing results.

Design your emails

The impact of your email designs extends to the extent to which individuals respond to your call-to-action (CTA) and decide to remain subscribed. Hence, it is prudent to consider investing in professional email design services rather than relying on premade templates. This ensures a more polished and tailored presentation that aligns with your goals and brand identity.

No matter which route you take , follow these best practices

Use color that match your brand
Stick to one to two fonts
Build a mobile-friendly design
Add visuals to support your email’s message
Incorporate trust signals, like in your email footer
Include an unsubscribe link in your email footer

Depending on your email marketing strategy, you may create a few email templates for different campaigns. For example, you may have an email design for abandoned shopping cart emails and another for limited-time promotions.

Words That Wow: Create Killer Email Content

Every email needs great content, whether it’s text, images, or video. Before you start creating your email content, get some ideas by asking these questions:

Why did people subscribe to our emails- What did we promise them?
What does our target market like to learn or hear about?
What subscriber segments do we have– and how can we create tailored content for them?

Based on your answers, establish a foundation for your email content. As an example, you could create a campaign for advertising promotions and limited-time sales. You could also make a campaign that helps subscribers stay up-to-date on the topics in your industry that matters most to them.

If you are still looking for inspiration, some general content topics include:

Products announcements
Promotions
Event recaps
Top social media posts
Most popular blog posts
Holidays, like shopping guides for Valentine's Day

For the best results, plan but don’t plan too far ahead with your email content. Since email provides instant feedback, you will often find yourself modifying your strategy and content based on user data. If an email about organizing your closet space, for an example, does not get a lot of engagement, you may switch up your next topic/

For this reasoning, it is essential to remain flexible with your content and not get too far ahead of yourself. Aside from establishing a foundation for your content, remember to follow these best practices:

Break your text up with paragraphs, bullet points, and visuals
Include your CTA, like viewing your on-sale products or registering for your webinar
Describe your visuals, from images to GIFs, with alt text
Keep your word count to 400 words or less— you can experiment as you gain data
Proofread your email content– you can even use a free tool like Quilbot to help

Ensure adherence to a fundamental principle of email marketing: Center your efforts on your audience. While the goal may be to increase product sales, it is imperative to gauge your audience's readiness; otherwise, the risk of unsubscribing increases. Maintain a keen focus on understanding your audience and delivering content aligned with their expectations to foster engagement and prevent premature exits.

Subject Lines That Shine: Master the Art of Email Openers

In the realm of Email Marketing 101, subject lines stand out as a pivotal subject of discussion. This is attributable to the profound impact that subject lines wield on the decision of whether an individual will peruse or disregard an email. The ability to prompt recipients to open emails is intrinsic to fostering engagement with your business, thus directly shaping the outcomes of your email marketing objectives.

Start getting more people to open your emails by following these best practices:

Compile at least 5-10 options
Limit subject lines to 50 characters or less
Use proven subject line formats, like listicles or how-tos
Say what your email contains, like a promotional code or organizing tips
Add time-sensitive phrases, like “Today only, “ when appropriate
Personalize with a user’s first name, location, or another feature

Tailor your approach to suit your workflow—consider crafting your subject lines either before generating content or vice versa. Engage in experimentation to discern the most effective sequence that aligns with your preferences. This strategic assessment will empower you to refine and formulate optimal subject lines for your communications.

Hit Send and Spread the Love: Dispatch Your Emails

Every comprehensive email marketing guide underscores the significance of the email dispatching process, as it constitutes one of the pivotal steps in effective email marketing. Despite the potential daunting nature and time constraints associated with reaching hundreds or even thousands of users, rest assured that your email marketing tool is adept at streamlining and simplifying this process, mitigating any potential challenges.

That’s why email marketing tools like Mailchimp will allow you to:

Select which segments should receive your email
Select which segments should not receive your email
Choose when your email should send

To achieve the most polished and professional outcomes when sending emails, consider formulating a checklist similar to the one provided below:

Justify the subject line is typo free
Check the content for typos, broken links, and mobile issues
Confirm the email footer contains a working unsubscribe link
Send a test version to your email address and view the email your desktop and mobile device

Once you have completed your version of this checklist, go ahead and schedule your email.

A/B Test Like a Pro: Testing your email

In the context of Email Marketing 101, it is prudent to underscore the importance of email testing. While your current audience size may not warrant immediate testing (with the ideal threshold being 1000 total subscribers), it is crucial to acknowledge that such an opportunity will likely arise in the future. Therefore, maintaining email testing as a prospective element in your strategic plans is advisable.

With email testing, you can experiment with your:

Send times
Subject lines
Email content
CTAs
Landing pages
Audience segments

These experiments furnish your business with invaluable data, which can be employed to enhance the efficacy of your email marketing campaigns. For example, if findings reveal that sending emails in the afternoon garners more opens compared to the evening, it prompts an adjustment to your default send time. In many instances, your Email Service Provider (ESP) will present email testing options, such as A/B testing, to facilitate such refinements.

Depending on your subscription plan, an upgrade may be necessary to avail the benefits of email testing.

Therefore, when selecting an email service provider, it is advisable to assess whether they currently offer the functionalities you require and anticipate needing in the future. For instance, if your objectives involve experimentation with elements such as landing pages or determining the destination when a user clicks a link, a recommended solution is to utilize a free tool such as Google Optimize. Google Optimize facilitates the swift setup of landing page experiments, and its seamless integration with Google Analytics enables efficient data synchronization.

Measure Your Magic: Track Email Performance

Conducting regular assessments of your email performance is a fundamental aspect of email marketing that merits attention. Through systematic email marketing audits, you can effectively illustrate to organizational decision-makers the tangible impact of your email strategy on the company.

Typically, businesses monitor the following email metrics:

Open Rates
Click-through rates
Conversion rates
Bounce rates
Unsubscribe rated
Spam complaints

In addition to conveying insights to your company's leadership, these metrics serve as valuable tools for self-assessment. Examining open, click-through, and bounce rates, for instance, offers an opportunity to enhance your email marketing campaign. This may involve dedicating more time to refining subject lines or adjusting content strategies to generate more compelling topics for readers.

Furthermore, the analysis of these metrics provides a comprehensive understanding of how subscriber actions contribute to the overall value of your business. For instance, if promotional emails exhibit high open rates but low conversion rates, this misalignment may necessitate adjustments to better align with your desired impact and value. Thus, a meticulous examination of your email data is crucial in assessing its influence on your company.

Set It and Forget It: Automate Your Email Campaigns

Once you've got the hang of starting email marketing, the next step is learning how to make your work easier—by using automation. With email marketing, you can set up automatic journeys based on what users do. It's like putting things on autopilot to save time and make your emails work smarter! Including:

Completing a purchase
Abandoning a shopping cart
Signing up for an event
Clicking a link

These automations save your time and allow you to send the right email at the right time.

Clean House: Maintain Your Email List

By maintaining your email list you can retargeting your clients.Reaching significant subscriber milestones, such as 1000, 10,000, or even 100,000 subscribers, is a commendable achievement. However, consistent with the advice provided in most email marketing guides, it is essential to systematically eliminate inactive subscribers and flagged spam accounts.

While the act of purging your email list may result in a reduction in the overall number of subscribers, the benefits include:

Optimizing your email costs by investing your money into the most valuable readers
Helping your business create a high -quality vs. high-quantity email list
Enhancing your results from A/B testing
Improving your email deliverability

Dealing with inactive subscribers is easy with your email tool. First, check who's not active. Before saying goodbye, send them a quick email asking if they still want to stick around. If they don't open it, it's time to remove them.

Now, for the spammy ones, use a handy tool like:

It'll help you clean up your list and keep things tidy. How often you clean your subscriber list will depend on your business and email marketing strategy. Most companies, however, should aim to remove inactive subscribers or spammy email addresses quarterly.

Best 3 Important tips for Email Marketing

1st tip for email marketing is personalize

Treat your subscribers like friends, not just another email address. Use their names, tailor content based on their preferences, and watch engagement soar. Example: "Hey [Name], A Special Offer Just for You!"

2nd tip for email marketing is Short and Sweet Content Wins:

Respect your audience's time. Keep your content concise, focused, and easily digestible. Break it down into bite-sized chunks for a smoother reading experience. Example: "Quick Tips for Boosting Your Productivity.”

3rd tip for email marketing is test and optimize continuously:

Never stop refining. A/B test different elements – subject lines, content, CTAs – and use analytics to understand what resonates. Constantly optimize your strategy for maximum impact. Example: "Testing, Testing: Discover What Works Best for Your Audience.

Opportunities in Email Marketing Careers

The need for skilled professionals in email marketing is skyrocketing, bringing a wealth of exciting opportunities for anyone looking for jobs, careers, and positions in this field. Explore the abundant opportunities in email marketing careers and take your first step toward a rewarding future.

1. The Rise of Email Marketing Jobs:

Email marketing jobs have become the cornerstone of successful digital marketing strategies. Companies recognize the pivotal role of targeted communication in reaching and engaging their audience. As a result, the demand for skilled email marketers is at an all-time high.

2. Navigating the Email Marketing Career Path:

The career path in email marketing is diverse and promising. From crafting compelling campaigns to analyzing data for optimization, email marketing careers encompass a range of responsibilities. Professionals in this field find themselves at the intersection of creativity and strategy.

3. Exploring Email Marketing Positions:

The variety of email marketing positions reflects the multifaceted nature of the discipline. Whether you're a content creator, data analyst, or strategist, there's a position tailored to your strengths. Email marketing positions offer a dynamic and collaborative environment for professionals to thrive.

4. Email Marketing in Ontario:

Ontario, with its thriving business landscape, has become a hub for email marketing professionals. The city's vibrant atmosphere and digital-forward companies make it an ideal location for those seeking email marketing opportunities.

5. Embracing Remote Email Marketing Jobs:

The era of remote work has reshaped the job market, and email marketing is no exception. Remote email marketing jobs have become increasingly common, allowing professionals to contribute their expertise from the comfort of their home offices.

6. HubSpot Email Marketing Certification Answers:

Aspiring email marketers often seek certifications to validate their skills. The HubSpot Email Marketing Certification is a valuable credential in this domain. To help you succeed, here are some answers to commonly asked questions about the HubSpot Email Marketing Certification.

The world of email marketing is dynamic, offering a myriad of opportunities for those ready to seize them. Whether you're exploring email marketing jobs, carving out a career path, or considering positions in Vancouver, the possibilities are vast. Embrace the evolving landscape, consider remote opportunities, and enhance your skills with certifications like HubSpot's to position yourself as a sought-after professional in the realm of email marketing.

Keep reading to learn more about email marketing as part of your digital marketing strategy!

If you need help getting started with email marketing, DTSOD has a team of 20+ email marketing experts ready to help. Contact us through our LinkedIn page or call us today at +1 800-750-1454