What’s Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the use of email facilities to reach a wide range of potential customers or readers when promoting products and services or delivering content. In basic terms, it is marketing via email.
Marketing via email is a sustainable business model that has been known to respond to customers queries, build relationships and provide them the information that they need.
Another definition of Email marketing is when a company or organization continues to boost their communications with existing customers via email in order to enhance the service being offered, build relationships with clients and transform readers into genuine clients.
Email marketing does not go off without any negative perception from society. Many individuals see themselves as greatly disadvantaged by email marketing which is sometimes considered as spam and would not do it. Now people have the right to choose what they find useful and suitable content arriving into their inboxes.
Quick Summary
- Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that uses email to promote products, services, or content.
- It’s permission-based, meaning people must opt in to receive emails.
- It allows businesses to build relationships, increase sales, and improve customer loyalty.
- Campaigns can include newsletters, promotions, and automated messages.
- Success depends on good tools, audience segmentation, personalized content, and performance tracking.
Why Does Your Business Need Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a powerful marketing tool and one of the best online business opportunities that you can use in your business. Emails convert better For every $1 you spend on email marketing you can expect an average return of $40.
It’s in demand these days because of the following features and benefits.
Why Email Marketing is Important
Email marketing plays a crucial role in digital strategies for several reasons:
High ROI: Email consistently offers a strong return on investment—some reports show up to $40 for every $1 spent.
Direct Access: You own your email list, unlike social media followers.
Personalization: You can tailor content to each subscriber’s preferences or behavior.
Automation: Set up campaigns that run on autopilot while still feeling personal.
Retention: Stay connected with past customers and encourage repeat business.
Email marketing benefits
✔️ Email builds relationships, trust and loyalty with your potential customers.
✔️ It lets you deliver your message directly to the people (unlike a website where the people have to come to your message)
✔️ Email marketing is an extremely cost – effective marketing tool
✔️ It allows targeting and drives direct sales.
✔️ It supports sales through other channels as you can direct your audience to your sales funnels, websites, other lead magnet or affiliate offers.
✔️ It is data driven and you can set up automated email campaigns.
✔️ It increases your sales conversion and also generates repeat sales.
✔️ It drives web users to make offline purchases.
✔️ It upsells and cross sells products.
✔️ It enhances valuable feedback from your visitors.
Why use Email Marketing?
Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation, automation and other various tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of sending mails.
Email marketing is based on the idea of permission and if you are opting for email marketing you should always keep a few things in mind.
• Make sure your emails reflect your brand through your content, tone, language, imagery and colors.
• Your content should be demonstrative
• Educate your customers and provide quality additional information that keeps them hooked.
• Your email campaign may also be an opportunity to manage and further enhance your relationships with your customers.
With over 4.2 billion active email users in 2022, the figure is over half of the world’s population and shows no sign of slowing down. Email Marketing gives your brand an edge in a tough market. Daily, weekly or even monthly emails will keep your brand’s name in your target audience’s mind.
From the above features, finding another marketing method that comes close to the benefits that email marketing offers is nearly impossible. This totally answers your questions why your business needs email marketing. Now let’s dive into the different types of email marketing.
Types of Email Marketing
When starting email marketing you will first need to determine you end goal or intention of sending email campaigns to your list. Your intended goal and what you plan to achieve will direct you to choose the best type of email marketing to use.
Tip: You don’t just send emails because everyone is sending emails – you must know the goal you want to achieve by sending emails.
i) Informational Emails
This type of email notifies your target audience about an update. You could send an email about;
~ Upcoming event i.e. Webinar
~ Product updates
~ New content
~ YouTube video etc.
Informational emails help you set up the context to introduce the main call to action.
ii) Newsletter
Newsletters create anticipation in readers. As they help you to interact and build relationships with your subscribers or customers. Email newsletters generally contain quick summaries of recent content or information that you have already published.
A newsletter can be beneficial if you want to send traffic to your website, generate leads, announcements of an upcoming event, close more deals, maintain relationships and link to a survey. If readers enjoy the content, they will most likely stay subscribed to the newsletter.
iii) Lead Nurturing Emails
Lead nurturing emails are set up by autoresponder automatically according to your schedule as new leads roll in. Lead nurturing enables you to tie a series of emails to a specific activity such as downloading a content offer on a landing page or requesting a free trial.
You can craft your follow up email based on the action a lead has taken on your website. Thus enabling you to deliver highly targeted messages that shows you know their interests in topic and what they might need next.
iv) Transactional Emails
Transactional emails are messages triggered when your reader performs a specific action such as signing up for your newsletter or completing an action that they’ve taken from a website or blog.
Transactional emails can be in the form of:
i) Welcome emails – showcasing your brand’s personality and highlighting the value that your audience can expect to receive.
ii) Confirmation emails – for a recipient to confirm their registration.
iii) Thank You Emails – whenever a customer or prospect fills out a form on a landing page, a thank you email should automatically get triggered after their submission.
V) Promotional Emails
The main focus of promotional emails is to pass information to potential customers leading to conversion of sales of either products or services. For instance, examples of promotional email can be discounts, access to premium content, coupons or invitation to an event.
Vi) Re-engagement Emails
Target subscribers who haven’t opened or clicked in a while. Aim to bring them back into the fold.
How Email Marketing Works
Email marketing follows a simple but effective process:
1. Collect Email Addresses
Use signup forms, lead magnets (like free PDFs or discounts), and landing pages to build your list. Always get permission first.
2. Organize Your Audience
Group your contacts using segments based on interests, behavior, or location.
3. Create Engaging Content
This includes newsletters, product updates, event invites, or promotions. Use strong subject lines, personalized content, and clear calls-to-action (CTAs).
4. Send Campaigns Using Email Tools
Use platforms like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or ActiveCampaign to schedule and send your emails.
5. Track and Analyze Results
Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to see what’s working and improve future emails.
Tools Used in Email Marketing
To succeed, you need the right tools. Popular email marketing platforms include:
Mailchimp – User-friendly with drag-and-drop editor
ConvertKit – Great for creators and bloggers
ActiveCampaign – Strong automation and CRM features
GetResponse – All-in-one platform with landing pages
MailerLite – Simple and affordable for beginners
Systeme – best for all in one tools you need to grow your online business
Features to Look For:
Some of the features to look for include:
~ Good Customer support
~ Simple to use
~ Core email marketing features i.e
- Contact segmentation
- Automation workflows
- Analytics and reports
~ Ready-made templates
~ A/B testing functionality
~ Pricing depending on contacts
How to get people to join your Email list
Here is where you will have to create a lead magnet that will entice or trigger your audience to join your email list. A lead magnet can be a Free Gift like an ebook, online course, checklist, video training or an exclusive webinar event.
The More exciting your offers sound, the more individuals will gladly give up their email address to receive it.
You can create a free gift on your own or hire someone at Fiverr or Upwork for a few dollars or you can use and rebrand Plr ebooks or content for creating your free offer.
How To Drive Traffic to Your Email List
There are various ways of making people join your email list from using social media accounts, blogs and websites, Facebook ads, Google AdWords and solo ads. All you need to do is choose your niche, target the right audience using keywords and create content that triggers your audience desires. Now let’s jump into ways of driving traffic to grow your email list. I will state this in simple terms.
i) Use Your Social Media Accounts
In social media like Twitter you can build a following by writing tweets consistently. You can add your newsletter link on your Twitter bio or you can write a tweet mentioning what you will offer if people join your email list.
ii) Blogs and Websites
You might have seen this in various websites where some blog sites offer free courses like how to start a blog, when you join their email list. Some can also offer a free pdf report that will teach you a certain skill for example; How to drive traffic to your website using Pinterest or Twitter and so on.
iii) Set up Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are not new in the digital world. If you are using Facebook you normally see eye-catching ads which are targeted directly into your timeline. And these ads have different specific goals, some might be offering free discounts, free ebooks, free services, coupons and so on. If you click on these ads they will redirect you to a website, a sale page or landing page that will require you to fill in some details to complete a purchase or join an email list.
iv) Set Up Google AdWords
These are ads that pop up on Google targeting specific keywords and they operate under a pay per click (PPC) model. When you check your search results you will see these ads in your Google search not unless you have an adblocker software or application.
V) Set Up Solo ads
Solo ads are the best way for building an email list, since you pay someone with a niche targeted email list to send out an email for you. You will need an email that you want that person to send to their list. Moreover, you will also include a link in that email that links back to your Free offer that will increase the conversion for people to join your email list. It will also state what people will get by joining your email list in just one sentence.
Some of the places to buy solo ads:
Udimi.com
Fiverr.com
Trafficforme.me
EmailAbilities.com
DedicateEmails.com
You can find more by joining Solo Ad Facebook Groups.
The good thing about email marketing is that it works for all kinds of businesses.
3 Ways To Monetize Your Email List
After creating an email list with subscribers rolling in from the above traffic sources to receive your free giveaway. Now let’s make money and build relationships with your email list. Here are some of the ways to monetize your email list.
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing simply means promoting products and services that other individuals and businesses have created and you earn a given commission when you send buyers. You can promote affiliate offers depending on the business niche that you’re in. To start affiliate marketing you will need to join affiliate marketing programs and start promoting them to your subscribers.
Here are some of the popular affiliate networks where you can find products or services to promote to your list.
Amazon Associates
CJ Affiliate
Awin
Impact
ShareAsale
Clickbank
Digistore24
JVzoo
2. Sell your own products or Services
This is the best way to make money with your email list since you own 100% of the profits. You can create online courses and email your list about it but you will need to provide value to your audience in order to make substantial profit.
Create and sell ebooks, reports and any other digital product to your subscribers. You can also publish Kindle ebooks about a topic in your niche and sell it on Amazon Kdp for more earnings.
Offer to sell services to your email list like Creating FB Ads, Sales funnels, building landing pages, offer coaching & consulting, Copywriting, Virtual Assistant and any other skill.
3. Sponsorship
After you have grown your email list to over 2000 contacts, you can reach out to companies within your niche to run Sponsored emails for them in your email list for a given price.
Best Practices for Effective Email Marketing
Include an Unsubscribe link: At the end of every email that you send, include an unsubscribe link. There is no reason for keeping someone in your email list who doesn’t want to be there. Since this might lower your engagement and open through rate. If you don’t include an unsubscribe button this might lead to recipients reporting your emails as spam.
Include your physical location in your Email Signature: This might seem unimportant but it is an ideal way to build trust and credibility with your readers. You should always include your physical location (a valid address) in your emails.
Avoid being Blacklisted: To avoid being blacklisted, you will ask your subscribers to add your email address to their contact list or address book. Also you can tell them to mark your email as not spam if they go to the spam folder in their email account.
Always Get Permission: Use opt-in forms and avoid buying email lists.
Write Clear Subject Lines: This boosts open rates.
Add Value: Every email should help, inform, or entertain.
Segment Your Audience: Send more targeted messages.
Use Mobile-Friendly Designs: Most people check email on phones.
Include Strong CTAs: Guide your readers to take action.
Test and Improve: Use A/B testing and monitor analytics.
Common Email Marketing Terms
CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of recipients who clicked a link in your email.
Open Rate: The percentage of recipients who opened your email.
Bounce Rate: The percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered.
List Segmentation: Dividing your email list based on certain traits or behavior.
Autoresponder: Automated emails triggered by user actions (e.g., sign-ups).
A/B Testing: Sending two versions of an email to see which performs better.
Email forwards: Are emails that are being shared by recipients to other social media channels or being forwarded to friends or colleagues.
Unsubscribe: Is when the recipient in your email list decides to opt out from your subscriber base. In simple terms, it is when your recipient doesn’t want to receive your emails anymore.
Challenges in Email Marketing
Spam Filters: Avoid trigger words and use verified sender domains.
Unsubscribes: Keep your content relevant to reduce drop-offs.
Low Engagement: Track and optimize to keep readers interested.
List Maintenance: Regularly clean inactive contacts to protect your sender reputation.
Time Investment: Good email marketing requires thoughtful planning and testing.
Conclusion
Email marketing remains one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools for businesses to communicate directly with their audience. It goes beyond just sending promotional messages—when done right, it builds relationships, nurtures leads, drives sales, and retains loyal customers. From simple newsletters to advanced automated campaigns, email marketing provides a versatile way to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
Whether you’re a small business owner, an affiliate marketer, or part of a large organization, understanding how email marketing works—and how to do it effectively—can give you a serious advantage. By focusing on value-driven content, personalization, segmentation, and continuous optimization, you can turn your email list into a powerful asset that drives long-term growth.
As digital marketing evolves, email continues to hold its ground as a reliable and high-ROI channel. So if you haven’t already embraced email marketing as part of your overall strategy, now is the perfect time to start. With the right tools and a thoughtful approach, your inbox can become one of your most profitable communication platforms.