As I explained in the previous Email Marketing article, there are millions of email users worldwide, so it is a good way to reach your customers, as well as it can have many other benefits.

In this article I explain step by step how to implement the use of email marketing within your company in a simple way that will undoubtedly delight your customers.

1. Select an email tool

An Email Marketing tool will allow you to send emails on a large scale or manage a large list of contacts.

What can be done with these tools?

Segment your contacts: to have total control of the audience that will receive your emails.
Create efficient layouts: to help in the creation of the design of your emails and create replicable templates, the knowledge for this is basic, in most cases these platforms have drag & drop modules. In case you know some HTML and CSS, some of them allow you to create customized templates.
Creation of email campaigns, not all of them have this feature in the free version, however, they allow you to automate the sending of emails to gain productivity and efficiency.
Track campaign performance, to see how many opens and clicks your campaigns had, among other statistics.

In the time I have worked in Email Marketing, I have used several tools, although of the free ones I only had the opportunity to work under this modality with Mailchimp, which worked quite well, however, I have investigated which ones are currently used and have free versions, you can check the following ones:

Take your time, and try to select the platform that offers everything you need to get your campaigns up and running, it is important that you consider the type of content you are going to create. Make sure it has some of the following features:

Segmentation options.
Good image with Internet service providers.
Easy to create forms, landing pages and CTAs (calls to action).
Automation (may not be available in the free version).
Ability to run A/B tests of your emails.
Built-in analytics.
Downloadable reports.

2. Create or expand your contact list in a legal way.

In the previous point we already mentioned contacts, however, you may be thinking: Which contacts, or where do I get them from?

It is possible that you already have a mailing list of your contacts and you do not have it all present, you can import them into the Email Marketing tool (regardless of the one you choose), in some platforms such as LinkedIn you are allowed to export the list of your contacts.

To build a list or expand your subscriber base you can make use of: lead magnets, opt-in forms or pop-ups.

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Lead magnets: is an element that attracts leads (contacts) to your email list, usually through a free offer. The offer can have different formats, but it has to be valuable to users and you should offer it for free in exchange for the email address. The only difficulty is that users are increasingly protective of their personal information, so you can't expect to receive an email address without offering valuable content in return. Here are some of the types of magnets you can create:

- E-book
- Informative document
- Infographics
- Report or study
- Checklist
- Template
- Webinar or course
- Tool

Subscription form: it's the easiest way you get a prospect's information to add to your list. It is the door that divides your future leads from the amazing material you have created for them. You can even create these forms on your Facebook page and request information from your followers.
Pop-ups: they work just as the name implies. They appear on a web page when a visitor scrolls down or is about to leave the page. Use pop-ups as a last attempt to capture your visitor's email address before they leave your site. You can offer a discount or special content, according to your product or service.

3.Segment your contacts

This is another important factor to consider before implementing your email marketing strategy. In order to send the right emails to the right people, it is important to analyze your audience and divide it into niches.

Segmentation involves dividing your entire email list into subcategories that are tailored to the unique characteristics, preferences and interests of your subscribers. This is in order to treat our subscribers as individuals and not send them generic mass messages, as this will only lead you to lose them.

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You can segment your list according to:

Geographic location.
Stage of the life cycle.
Stage of recognition, consideration or decision.
Industry.
Previous interactions with your brand.
Language.

This information is provided by the email marketing platforms and other information is provided by the user, which allows you to segment the list according to the previous data, likewise if you use lead magnets or subscription forms you can also evaluate at what point the user is (i.e. if he is ready to become a customer).

The more you segment your list, the more trust you will generate in your visitors and the easier it will be for them to convert.

4. Create an attractive email template

It is important to have a written communication that is congruent in all emails, as well as a visual communication, so that your contacts, when they open your emails, can quickly and easily identify the company and the message.

Currently, on the Internet you can find email templates that, in case you do not have the technical knowledge, will facilitate the work of design and coding, however, if you do have it, there are also models that you can use as a base.

The platforms usually include templates that you can adapt to your company and that are already tested. Here are some tips:

In the upper section of the email, add a title and a call to action (CTA). As well as a header that identifies the company. This will allow your user to take shortcuts to click on your content or objective. 60% of people who open emails do not scroll, so it is important that the objective of your email is clear at the beginning.
Add images, the ratio can be 40% images with 60% text. This way you can keep structure and a light look.
The images should be of good quality, but they should not weigh more than 100kbs as this may affect the delivery of the emails, as well as their loading time.
Although it may seem inconvenient, emails should have an unsubscribe link.

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5. Personalize your emails

Sender
It is essential that you personalize the email with which you contact your users. Don't use contacto@empresa.com, don't use no-reply@empresa.com either. Try tunombre@empresa.com, it feels like a personal sender. A survey indicates that 68% of people make the decision to open the email based on the sender. Organization breeds trustworthiness and a personal name will increase your open rates. I'm sure you don't feel important when you receive an email from contacto@empresa.com.

Personalize
At this point you already know who the prospects are and what is most important to them, so it is easier to send messages with personalized details. This doesn't mean that you address each one individually, however, they should feel that way.

By customized, I mean:

Add a name field in the subject line or salutation.
Includes information specific to a region.

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Send content that is relevant to the lifecycle stage of your sales opportunity.
Only send emails that align with the last interaction a sales opportunity had with your brand.
Write about relevant or personal events, such as region-specific holidays or birthdays.
Use a relevant call to action that redirects to an offer that is useful to the reader.

To better understand this, think about the following: personalized emails get 50% higher open rates and a clickthrough rate that increases by 14% compared to generic messages.

6. Evaluates the results

There are four key metrics to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.

Deliverability: measure the rate at which email is delivered to the correct inboxes of your subscribers.
Open rate: this is the percentage of users who open your email once they receive it in their inboxes.
Clickthrough rate: this is the percentage of users who click on your CTAs. In some platforms you can even see which user clicks on which link.
Unsubscribes: measure the number of users who unsubscribe from your email list after receiving an email from your company.

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Bounce rate: is the percentage of emails that were rejected by the recipient's server compared to the total number of emails sent. This is why it is important to follow good practices such as using a reliable email marketing tool, making sure your email is in a Whitelist and complying with email regulations such as the unsubscribe link.

Checking your email marketing metrics will help you notice any patterns in performance and can also help you clean up your mailing list of inactive users or invalid accounts.

If you see any negative patterns, such as metrics dropping, try A/B testing. Test different subject lines with your contact lists and compare the results to see which was more successful. You can do the same with language, CTAs, to determine which approach results in more clicks.

This topic can be quite extensive, however, I am sure that with these steps you will be able to launch your first email campaign and even improve some of them.

Email Marketing - Step by step guide