If you want to run an email campaign, the most effective way to design and roll it out is through the use of email marketing software that can support your efforts.
These tools can have different features depending on the service you end up choosing, but for the most part, any such tool can help you create the email, segment your list, and even automate some functions.
Here’s everything you need to know about email marketing software.
You might also be interested in HOW TO SEE PHONE NUMBERS IN ADWORDS CALL-ONLY REPORTS?
What Makes a Good Email Tool?
A good email tool should support your overall email marketing goals and have the necessary features to allow you to easily see the campaign through.
Below, we’ll go through some of the most important features and characteristics to watch out for when shopping for an email marketing platform or software:
The price
Of course, the first factor to consider is how much the service costs. Especially if your financial resources are limited, looking for budget-friendly email marketing is a big priority, so you’ll be happy to know that even the big names in the business can be quite price-accessible.
Most email marketing platforms and tools will charge based on the number of subscribers you have or the number of emails you can send out. For instance, SendInBlue has a free plan that allows you to send up to 300 emails per day, with unlimited contacts. Campayn also has a similar model, with a free plan for accounts that have up to 500 subscribers.
Even if you have a more generous email list, you can use such platforms to run a few tests and see if their features are worth a paid plan.
Its automation options
Automation tools help save you a lot of time and money by simply programming a few operations to roll out on their own. In email marketing, automation can help you stay in constant contact with your email list without needing to create new emails every time a particular action is made.
Here are some examples of email marketing automation in practice:
- Welcome emails
- Abandoned cart sequences
- Payment processing emails
- Delivery updated
- Requests for feedback and reviews, etc.
As opposed to creating another email every time a user signs up to your platform, a marketing automation tool can instantly send out welcome emails to the user’s inbox, complete with information about your brand, their account, or others. You create the email once, and it’s triggered every time the platform receives a new contact.
Personalisation features
Automated emails are great for your business and can help you engage your target audience, but real engagement comes from personalisation.
First, these tools can help you segment your list based on the criteria that are valuable to you:
- Location
- Demographics
- Interest
- Behaviour, etc.
Then, additional personalisation features can help you strike a better connection with that audience segment. Apart from the email content, which you write with the segment in mind, email tools can add:
- “From” name – you can use your brand or a name that’s a representative of it, to make the email newsletter feel like an interaction with a real person, rather than a brand;
- Subject line – some tools let you put the recipient’s name in the subject line, not just the email body;
- Email content – content matters a lot to convince people to complete the sales funnel after reading the email, and some tools can send different content based on what you know works best for a specific audience segment;
- Images – the design and look for the email can also be personalised to some extent.
Ease of use
Email marketing platforms or tools should allow you to build an email campaign without too much effort from a technical standpoint. Most of these services use a drag-and-drop type of editor that allows you to easily design your email the way you want.
Another thing to consider is the email templates library. While you can find some really stunning templates out there, remember to look at how many personalisation options you are given, to make the template yours and prevent it from looking like ones sent out by other companies.
The best way to find out how easy a tool is to use is by, well, using it. You can sign up for trials or free plans and take the editor out for a spin to see if you can easily work with it.
Analytics
Lastly, you’ll want to see those analytics features. An email marketing strategy could present you with some good insights into your target audience, which you can then use for other marketing efforts as well, like a social media strategy.
Plus, you need to effectively track your email campaign performance, and see how your efforts are paying off.
How to Choose the Right Tool
There are a plethora of good and affordable email marketing tools out there:
- MailChimp
- SendInBlue
- Mailer Lite
- Curated
- Constant Contact
- Campayn, etc.
The best one to use ultimately depends on your personal situation, from how big your email address list is to what sort of features you are looking for to help your campaign.
Another option you have is to work with an agency that offers email marketing services, which can help you not only choose the best tool but assist you in crafting a good strategy based on your business goals.
We Can Assist You
Australian Internet Advertising is Australia’s premier online marketing agency, with a solid reputation and knack for leveraging digital marketing to its full potential. We can help your business in designing a great email marketing strategy that will deliver the results you want.
Reach out to us online, or call us at 1300 304 640 to get started.
