Nowadays, social media marketing strategies are certainly playing a central role in the strategic plans of many companies, even if it is important to underline that the more traditional methods of communication have not yet completely disappeared.

THEe-mail marketing campaigns , for example, it is still one of the most effective communication tools today.

It is indeed a very tool useful for companies as it allows them to connect with potential customers not only to promote the brand but also to increase sales.

Email marketing is a digital promotion strategy that offers many possibilities to companies that use it as it can be used for many different purposes.

In general, it is possible to say, on the basis of some data available, that it is one extraordinary tool  is contributes in meaningful way to generate important income for companies.

If on the one hand email marketing is still today an extraordinary tool for the business of companies, on the other it is wrong to think that the principles and mechanisms used in the past are still valid for email marketing strategies.

The evolution of the markets, the sudden development of digital and the change in consumer behavior cannot be underestimated. These macroeconomic changes they must in fact be taken into account if you want to maximize the potential of an email marketing strategy.

Even after several years, email marketing still retains its usefulness and represents one of the most effective and important tools for managing an online business.

The benefits of an email marketing strategy

As we anticipated in the first paragraph, email marketing, although it represents a digital marketing strategy that has been active for years, it still offers great opportunities for growth to the companies that use it. Among the main advantages of this strategy, we remember above all the possibility of:

• Improve the communication of your business. An effective email marketing strategy allows you to make your brand much more professional.
• Reach your target with ease. In fact, we all open our e-mail inbox at least once a day; taking advantage of email marketing to promote your business therefore allows you to regularly reach your audience with ease.
• Create some pretty detailed market segments. Thanks to email marketing it is indeed possible to go to segment your contact lists. For example, in this way it is possible to optimize the sending of newsletters by segmenting customers and it is possible to send certain personalized and segmented content from a demographic point of view.
• Save on costs. In fact, email marketing allows you to greatly reduce costs compared to traditional communication channels.
• Automate and analyze eemail marketing. Thanks to the e-mail marketing management software you have the possibility to program and automate your e-mail marketing campaigns and to analyze their performance. 

Why an email marketing campaign is useful for your business

Email marketing campaigns are useful for your business because they fall into the direct marketing category. This type of communication is characterized by the delivery of a promotional message to a specific group of potential customers and therefore provides direct interaction with your audience. The e-mail marketing strategy therefore allows you to find new business opportunities and, in particular, of increase sales, generate leads and increase the trust from your customers.

Going even more specifically, e-mail marketing represents a business strategy that is part of the funnel inbound marketing. This funnel represents a path of conversion of the public into customers and therefore it is a very useful system that allows you to work a lot on customer loyalty.

It thus falls into this sales funnel in which e-mail represents one of the stages that allows you to finalize the sale.

How to create a winning email marketing campaign

Le e-mail marketing campaigns have great potential and advantages, but to ensure that these promotion strategies are truly effective, it is essential to structure each campaign appropriately from the beginning.

First, before starting an email marketing campaign it is always very important insert the e-mail marketing strategy within a broader and more general marketing and communication strategy. This allows you to integrate e-mail marketing into the overall promotion framework of your business.

After this general premise, let's therefore try to address in detail all the key points that are the basis of a winning email marketing strategy.

First step: define your goals

First, just like with all winning strategies, you need to define your goals: what do you want to communicate to your contacts? Which Call To Action is the basis of your message?

Defining the objectives of your email marketing campaign in advance is essential as it allows you to more precisely determine what the content of your emails should be. They exist in fact different types of e-mails each of which has a specific structure that lends itself to achieving different promotional objectives.

So, based on the goal of your email marketing campaigns, I should choose the right type of email to best communicate your message to your contacts. Furthermore, identifying the different types of emails also plays a fundamental role in the customer management during the different phases of the customer lifecycle.

Among the goals you could set yourself to achieve with one email marketing strategy there are the promotion of new products, update users on company news, or share discounts and promotions. Whatever the purpose of your emails, remember to always be consistent with your business and your corporate storytelling.

Second step: create the right graphic and textual content

The second step in creating effective emails is the creating a template that is consistent with the graphics of your website and your social channels and that is therefore easily identifiable by whoever opens the email.

In this phase you will therefore have to take care of defining in detail not only the graphics, but also the style and structure of the textual components. Like all things, the eye also wants its part and for this reason choosing or building the ideal template for your campaign is absolutely necessary.

La graphic part is very important to attract attention of your contacts. Remember, in fact, that the risk of an e-mail being inserted in spam is high; therefore, also the design must be nice and captivatingotherwise, the chances are that the email will never be read.

At the beginning it can be very useful, for example, to use templates that many e-mail marketing software make available to users for free. Among these, certainly the best known and most effective is Mailchimp.

Il positioning of images, textual content, videos e call to action (if any) must be studied and effective. It is better to focus on a simple structure, well cared for and with the main but essential contents; moreover, it is advisable not to overdo the images.

Also for a really effective email marketing campaign it is useful to plan and study the most suitable contents to be included and it is therefore good to have a editorial calendar that will allow you to define the contents in advance.

In the phase of creating textual content, pay a lot pay attention to the subject of the email. This, in fact, must absolutely be of strong impact, interesting and captivating. Only in this way will you incentivize your users to open the email.

Third step: know your audience

The content planned for your emails must always be in line with your target audience. For this reason it is essential to start by identifying your target audience.

The main CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) allow to segment the database of contacts on the basis of different parameters: age, region of belonging, employment, role in the company are just some of the data of each contact that can be analyzed.

Knowing your target audience in detail allows you to segment your address book to send personalized messages that are able to increase user engagement and thus reduce the unsubscribe rate.

Contacts can be segmented for lists based on their preferences or based on the types of emails they wish to receive. Thanks to the software for programming the mass sending of e-mails, you can select the different lists you have created for the messages you wish to transmit.

Within each list you can also identify smaller groups and in this way you can segment your mailings in an even more detailed and precise way.

Organizing your database of contacts also allows you to send e-mails using filters, i.e. selecting recipients on the basis of specific parameters.

Fourth step: schedule the sending of your e-mails

After defining the content of your emails and selecting the audience to deliver them to, it's time to press "enter".

Also in this step, you don't have to be rushed, but you have to try to find the right time to send your messages. Does your audience open their mailbox more frequently in the morning or in the evening? What is the opening time that guarantees the May opening rate? These are the questions you need to answer before sending your emails.

Furthermore, thanks to e-mail marketing software, it is no longer necessary to wait for the right time to press send, with the risk of forgetting. In fact, you just need to plan the time when you structure your campaign and in this way the sending of your e-mails will be scheduled automatically!

Fifth step: analyze and monitor the results

Once you've prepared and sent your email marketing campaign, your work isn't done yet. In fact, it is crucial to carry out a monitoring of results to verify if the objectives that were set have actually been achieved.

CRM software allows you to observe various data including:

• Opening rate. This data indicates with a percentage value the number of people who have opened your e-mail compared to the total number of contacts to which you sent it.
• Click-through rate. Thanks to CRM software you can also know how many people have clicked on the links in your e-mail and view, for example, which links were most clicked.
• Unsubscribe rate. This figure indicates the number of people who have unsubscribed from your email marketing campaign. If this number turns out to be high, you need to take timely action and change your email marketing strategy.
• Bounce rates. Indicates the number of e-mails that were not delivered for various reasons, such as the recipient's inbox full or the cancellation of the e-mail address used.

Email marketing: examples of emails to promote your brand

Once you understand the main points for building a winning email marketing campaign, it's time to discover the different types of e-mails that you can send to your contacts. In fact, not all emails are the same and each different type is designed to achieve different promotional objectives. So let's try to figure out which email best fits your marketing strategy.

• Advertising emails. This type of email allows you to promote the launch of a new product or a special offer. An advertising email marketing campaign consists of a series of emails, sent over a couple of weeks, with the aim of inviting the user to a specific CTA (Call To Action): making a purchase on your e -commerce or in your physical store.
• Informative emails. More commonly known as newsletters, these emails are intended to inform users of all the news related to your business. The newsletters are sent to your contact list according to a pre-established calendar (weekly, every two weeks or monthly), with the aim of always staying in touch with your potential customers. This type of email must not only contain information relating to your business, but must also offer additional content: when you prepare a newsletter, you must always think about writing a letter to your audience.
• Ads of various types. Has your company policy changed, has your service been changed? An email in the form of an announcement is the best way to communicate this information to your contacts.

How to find contacts for your email marketing strategy

A winning e-mail marketing strategy cannot be separated from a large and constantly updated contact database. Before starting an email marketing campaign, it is therefore very important acquire qualified leads for building a mailing list.

Among the strategies forlead acquisition the most used is to offer a "gift" to users in exchange for their subscription to your newsletter. THE lead magnet therefore they represent a currency of exchange between you and your future customers. By offering them a free ebook, short video or free graphic in this first phase, you will also begin to strengthen the sense of trust in you.

In addition to the lead magnets, it is important to take advantage of other tools as well to acquire the greatest number of contacts. Let's see together which are the most used and effective lead capturing strategies:

• Landing page. Publish a post or story on social media with a link to a personalized landing page. When the user clicks on the link, he will be redirected to a specific page created by you where he can enter his e-mail contacts and then receive a freebie free.
• Pop-ups. A pop-up highlighted on your website or in your e-commerce has undoubtedly the possibility of capturing the user's attention and entice him to enter his data to get a gift.
• Contact form. You can insert a contact form on the homepage of your site, or in the footer of all pages or you can create a contact button to be placed at the end of your blog articles: the contact form is a flexible and effective tool to get in touch with potential customers.
• Video. You can also think of offering the display of a video (or other type of content) in exchange for the user's e-mail address.

How to create B2B email marketing

B2B email marketing represents a particular area of ​​email marketing that encompasses e-mail campaigns aimed at companies. The contents of these emails must therefore be constructed to address a more specialized audience that can be involved with technical and specific topics.

The companies you turn to, that is your potential business customers, already know what they need and will make rational decisions based on precise quantitative and qualitative data. You will then have to introduce them commercial and technical content, without however neglecting the graphic and visual aspect.

You can then send to your business contacts e-sore update on your company with specific details relating to the launch of new products or services, or with information relating to technical innovations for your production.

For this type of customer it is also good to think about personalized strategies that they can understand follow up email in which to contact a specific contact to request precise information on a specific topic.

In addition, it is good to try to keep your mailing list active at all times, by sending, for example reactivation messages inviting those who have unsubscribed from your newsletter service to re-subscribe. Also in this case, it is possible to think of personalized messages that will be more engaging and effective than a standardized aseptic message.

The new frontier of email marketing: chatbots

Even if these are recent solutions i chatbot constitute an extraordinary resource for companies that it will soon join the email marketing activities. It is in fact one very innovative tool which allows, if implemented correctly, to reach contacts much more effectively.

If to do email marketing you need to have a well-stocked contact list, with i chatbot, instead, just interact with the chatbot itself to directly join the list of subscribers. In this way it is possible to create contact lists faster and at significantly lower costs.

With this system it is also possible to interact with users who have not yet become customers and above all is possible to profile them much more effectively.

Chat Bot and Email Marketing: Two Ways to Interact with the Customer

The question is always the same: ChatBot or Email Marketing? The world seems to go very fast, it accelerates day by day and we cannot stay behind, we have to run with it.

These two tools have the same purpose but use a different platform. So what's the best strategy? Where it is best to invest? A question that arises instantly when you are researching the best strategy to reach the customer.

Nowadays the smartphone is our eleventh finger, we use it a bit for everything, to communicate, to inform us about news, to see what happens to our distant friends and relatives, it is part of us.

To answer the question asked at the beginning of this paragraph, it is necessary to analyze the content of our company, that is what we want to communicate to the user. The bot, yes, it is useful, it optimizes times but it cannot be totally associated with a human, it remains a robot born to speed up and assist interested parties 24/7 with basic answers, previously studied.

Therefore, the challenge between these two channels does not exist, for every need there is the right tool to use.

First rule: don't underestimate email marketing

E-Mail Marketing may seem like a more tiring job but it has gods advantages that cannot be underestimated.

Who, in fact, is contacted with the newsletters is certainly interested in the service or product that we offer, because he himself has chosen to subscribe to this e-mail.

Any user who is included in a list of contacts has in fact given their consent and it is clear that as soon as they see "a message received”In his inbox from that particular company will open it to keep up with offers or news.

The design and content of the email, as already mentioned, they must be engaging and able to induce the prospect to continue reading the email without unsubscribing from the mailing list.

It is hard work, more complicated than setting up a quick automatic chat. In this context, however, we must not forget that there are also some aids, e-mails can in fact be written first and then sent automatically by the system. This is part of the so-called "e-mail marketing automation".

This means that the concern is only initial: you can decide the time intervals between one sending and another and then think about the whole system automatically.

What do you choose? Are you Chatbot or email marketing?

Use e-mails it is not the same as excluding ChatBots. A company that wants to grow and always keep up with the times is right to use both of these tools.

There is no need to substitute one method because another has been discovered. Customers and users in general must be reached using every possible channel, a mistake is in fact to think that there are no more people who use the e-mail box.

Web Marketing is constantly evolving, every day you discover an extra piece and the reason is simple: its strong dynamism always offers us new ideas. In any case, we must not be overwhelmed by novelties, every news and innovative tool must be inserted into your projects with a careful analysis and previous study.

Missing something is wrong, believing that the new should completely replace the old is synonymous with little flexibility. In short, it is not always necessarily all black or white.

We quickly went from a totally paper and manual method to one online and virtual. The process resulted in more creativity and ideas being brought into play. The Web is indeed a huge platform, like a training ground, where it is very easy to try, test and understand which strategy to use to reach any person we want.

Now, with the ability to plug directly into people's phones, into people's emails, every business holds the keys to success. How? Spreading your brand without limitations to obtain guaranteed growth that will bring immediate results.

What to bet on then? It depends on the type of business you want to establish. To each his own, but the strategy always remains the same: go straight to the point, use the right words, guess the needs of users and create a marketing plan that is effective.

Once you understand these points, you can develop a series of e-mail marketing to induce the customer to become more interested and to purchase the product or service you propose.

If you have any doubts or need help, make the right choice, contact Viva Digital. We will take care of everything!