Getting started with email marketing: an email marketing strategy in 6 steps

Want to start with email marketing but don’t know where to begin? We’ll help you get started! It all begins with an email marketing strategy that ensures each customer group receives the right message. That’s why in this article, we explain how to set up an email marketing strategy for your brand, complete with goals, email marketing tools, target audience, frequency, content, KPIs, and attention to automation.

Ideally, email marketing is an integral part of your marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy is then the starting point, where most elements of an email marketing strategy are already defined. However, we also know that this is often not the case in practice. Do you want to start with email marketing in the short term without first reviewing your entire marketing strategy? In that case, at least take the time to go through these 6 steps to quickly and efficiently create an email marketing strategy.

6 essential components of an
email marketing strategy

An email marketing strategy is a strategic marketing approach focused on distributing content via email marketing, which contributes to attracting and retaining a predetermined target audience, with the ultimate goal of acquiring new or repeat customers from this audience.

An email marketing strategy must include at least the following components:

• Goal
• Target audience
• Content
• Frequency
• Email marketing tool
• KPIs

We will briefly discuss each of these components.

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Define the goal of your email marketing strategy

Email marketing is a way to be in direct contact with your (potential) customers. But what do you want to achieve with this contact? The goal of your email marketing strategy plays an important role in the type of emails and content you will share with your target audience. Examples of email marketing goals include:

• Building brand awareness
• Increasing website traffic
• Increasing knowledge of your products or services among the target audience
• Acquiring new customers
• Increasing online sales
• Increasing online sales from existing customers
• Relationship management or building relationships

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Which target audience(s) do you want to reach with email marketing?

The goal and target audience together form the most important facets of the email marketing strategy. Who do you want to reach? Email marketing is particularly suitable for approaching different target audiences in their own way, for example potential customers, existing customers, customers based on purchased products or services, regular customers, or customers who have only purchased once. Additionally, you can segment audiences based on events, so someone who downloads a whitepaper receives a different newsletter than someone who registered in exchange for a discount code.

The next question is: how do you obtain the necessary email addresses for your email marketing? Examples of sources include:

• CRM systems
• Online campaigns
• Existing customers
• Participants in (online events)
• Sign-ups via your website or social media

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A sign-up via website or social media can come from a simple call to action or the option to register for the newsletter. Are you looking for new ways to collect email addresses via your website? Consider publishing a whitepaper or e-book, a discount code, or another reward. Of course, when collecting contact details, you must comply with applicable privacy regulations.

Do you know which target audience(s) you want to reach and how to collect their contact details? Then it’s time to think about the content you will share with each audience.

Clear plan and tools for email marketing strategy

Email marketing goes beyond a one-time newsletter. It is a full-fledged marketing channel that must have a place in the marketing mix. But many organizations struggle with (an aspect of) implementation or creating a plan. For example, they may lack the knowledge or capacity to design, choose the right program, import addresses, and draft the necessary emails.

In practice, collaboration works best. Merkelijkheid provides the necessary planning and implementation so your story stands out. Together, we focus on results and ensure that email marketing contributes to the commercial success of your brand. Contact us and we will gladly explain our approach using practical examples.

Content tailored to your target audiences

Each target audience has its own challenges and decisions to make. Email marketing works best when you can offer each audience content that fits the phase of the customer journey they are currently in. Therefore, ask yourself for each audience:

• What need or problem is this audience seeking a solution for?
• What information helps this audience make a decision?
• What information does the audience already know and what are they still looking for?
• With what content can I provide this information?
• What content will convince my audience to request or purchase?
• What form of content appeals to my audience?

If you know your audience well, you understand their needs and can provide appropriate content for different streams in your email marketing strategy. Inventory which content already exists and which content still needs to be produced. Unsure or looking for more information? Consider conducting keyword research; this gives insight into your audience’s needs and opportunities to use your content for better organic visibility.

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Appropriate content consists not only of the right topics but also the right emails. Everyone is familiar with the classic newsletter, where you periodically send updates about new products, developments, or recently published articles. But email marketing offers more possibilities. Also consider drip mailings, where recipients receive a series of emails on the same topic, promotional mailings for one product or product range with a specific offer, and emails for special occasions such as seasons, special days, or so-called “hook moments.”

The right frequency of emails

How often do you send an email to your target audiences? This depends on your market, target audience, and their needs. But our golden rule is: only send emails if you really have something to say. Of course, you want to avoid recipients no longer opening your emails because they find them annoying or irrelevant. You can determine email frequency based on your product life cycle, the average duration of a purchase phase, or the influx of new products in your assortment.

If there is no clear frequency, monthly, biweekly, or weekly emails are common. Test the frequency and determine based on the results whether your audience needs more or fewer emails.

Which email marketing tool suits you?

Of course, you don’t send emails to your audience manually from your email program; you use an email marketing tool for that. But which tool suits you? There are many different providers, including well-known platforms like Mailchimp and SendinBlue, but many CRM systems such as Salesforce also offer options to send personalized bulk emails.

Choose the tool based on your needs:

• Does the email data need to be linked to a CRM system or webshop?
• Are design and User Experience important, or do you prioritize ease of use when creating emails?
• What is your budget and how many emails do you want to send?
• How important are features like different target audiences and automated emails based on events?

Research which features of the various tools best fit your organization.

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KPIs matching your email marketing strategy

A strategy is not complete without defining when it is successful and how that success is measured. Which KPIs fit the objective behind your email marketing strategy? Examples of KPIs include:

• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Website traffic from emails
• Conversion rate
• Order value
• Revenue
• Videos viewed
• Number of new email sign-ups

Are you convinced and ready to start with email marketing? Take the first step towards a successful email marketing strategy by setting clear goals for what you want to achieve with different target audiences. Need help? We are happy to help you make email marketing a full-fledged marketing channel. Contact us for more information and practical examples.