What is Email Marketing?

3 mins read -
July 5, 2023

When looking into Digital Marketing, you may have come across the term ‘Email Marketing’. Since its birth, email marketing has become a powerful tool within an organisation's digital marketing strategy, hence why it still proves to be a vastly popular choice for digital marketers.

To help you understand the concept of email marketing further we will take a closer look at what email marketing is and where it is used.

The History of Email Marketing

In 1971, Ray Tomlinson sent the world’s very first email. Not long after in 1978, Gary Thurek, who at the time was working as a Marketing Manager for Digital Equipment Corp used email to directly communicate with his company's customers about a new product. This was the very first commercial email from a corporate company and is said to have resulted in $13 million worth of sales. It is this level of success which gave birth to what we now know as Email Marketing.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves sending commercial messages to a group of people via email. It aims to promote products or services, build customer relationships, and drive engagement and conversions. By leveraging personalised content and targeted campaigns, email marketing helps businesses reach their audience directly and nurture leads.

When we talk about Email Marketing we are referring to a form of direct marketing, as well as digital, whereby businesses promote their products or services via email.

Sometimes, businesses may take on a softer approach, whereby they use email marketing to educate their audience on the true value of their brand to help keep them engaged between purchases. An example of this may be sending an email to customers about charity work the company's employees have been involved with or a climate pledge they have recently made to show how they are doing their bit to help the planet.

Email Marketing can also play an important role in customer lead generation, brand awareness and building strong relationships. This is why many successful brands implement email marketing into their digital marketing strategy, including Ted Baker, ASOS, Boots, Tesco, Pizza Express, Travelzoo and many more.

Email Campaign examples

To help give you some idea of where email marketing is typically used, we’ve gathered up a few examples from popular brands to showcase how email marketing is used as a tool within a company's digital marketing strategy:

Pinkberry

The frozen yoghurt company Pinkberry used email marketing to help reengage with customers who held a Pinkcard, but hadn’t ordered from them in a while. They did so by offering them a gift to encourage them to make a purchase.

This method not only got their customers to go onto their account and order additional products to go alongside their gift, but it also helped remind them about the brand’s presence and the tasty products they have on offer.

Starbucks

This campaign helped Starbucks showcase some of the benefits of holding a Starbucks membership. The image was used as a moving graphic which presented the reader with a number of different drinks they could get for a discounted rate if they held a Starbucks membership.

Since this email wasn’t just a static image, it helped make the campaign fun, while stressing the importance of exclusively for Starbucks members.

Spotify

One of the great things about email marketing is the ability of personalisation – something which Spotify did very well with this email campaign. The subject line was “Olivia Rodrigo made you something special” which only went out to fans of the artist.

This meant that readers were very likely to click the ‘Buy Cassette’ call to action button as the email was not only relevant to their interests but helped make them feel valued by the artist.

What is Our Approach to Email Marketing?

At our digital marketing agency, we take a strategic and results-driven approach to email marketing, focusing on business growth and maximising return on investment (ROI) for brands and companies. Firstly, we conduct thorough audience research and segmentation to ensure that each email campaign reaches the right people with tailored messaging.

Secondly, we craft compelling and engaging content that not only promotes products or services but also adds value and solves customer pain points. Additionally, we optimise email deliverability and open rates through effective subject lines, personalised sender names, and proper list management practices.

Furthermore, we employ sophisticated email automation techniques, such as drip campaigns and triggered emails, to nurture leads and guide customers through the buyer's journey. Lastly, we track and analyse key metrics, such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated, to continuously refine our strategies and achieve measurable business growth and ROI for our clients.

Don't miss out on the powerful potential of email marketing to boost your business growth and ROI. Contact us today and let our digital marketing agency unleash the true potential of your brand through effective and impactful email marketing strategies.

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