Useful tools for email marketing

[Music]
hi again
by now you have a general understanding
of email marketing and the kinds of
emails used by digital marketers
in this section of your learning journey
we're going to be covering all things
automation and i'm also going to tell
you how to write effective emails
first we'll go over best practices when
it comes to building up your mailing
lists
you'll learn how you can get new
subscribers through different tactics
like using google display network
facebook lead ads and seo
and after you've built up your list
you'll want to segment it i'll explain
what that means later but recall from a
previous video that segmentation is the
practice of dividing an email subscriber
list into smaller groups based on
criteria like interests location or
purchase history there are four major
ways you can categorize your lists
geographic demographic psychographic and
behavioral
after we've worked on segmenting some
lists we'll ensure you have the
necessary knowledge and resources to
write effective emails
and you'll get plenty of practice then
i'll introduce you to automation tools
like hubspot and mailchimp that will
make your workflow as smooth as possible
you'll learn how to avoid mistakes in
email marketing and what to do to fix
those mistakes if you do make them
all in all this will be a fun section
with lots of learning materials and lots
of space for you to practice your new
skills
and it's important to be familiar with
these concepts because as an email
marketer you'll use all of this possibly
on a daily basis are you ready meet me
in the next video
[Music]
perhaps the most important part of your
email marketing campaign is its
recipients after all without a mailing
list there's nowhere for your emails to
go
in this video we'll discover the tactics
that businesses use to build up their
mailing lists a huge part of even
marketing is lead generation
lead generation is the practice of
collecting a potential customer's email
address
every time you acquire an email address
you're generating a lead that could
potentially turn into a sale
and since the main purpose of email
marketing is to turn possible
subscribers into loyal customers leads
are pretty important
the moment you start generating leads
you've begun building up your mailing
list so
how do you go about getting those leads
email marketers typically use one or
more of the following strategies website
prompts display ads which are shown in
the google display network or through
criteo
scm rush and taboola
social ads like facebook lead ads search
engine marketing or sem referrals and
direct email marketing
one no cost way to build your mailing
list is to create a prompt on your
website asking customers to provide
their email address marketers love this
technique because it doesn't require any
additional budget and it's a single
tactic that makes all the difference
users visit websites for a reason if
they're visiting your website they are
at the very least intrigued by your
brand to some extent so it's a great
idea to add a prompt on your home page
that encourages them to provide their
email
you can even offer them something in
return like a discount code or some kind
of free content
a website prompt is a digital banner
that calls on a website visitor to act
in some way
another way is through display ads
display ads are graphic ads on websites
and apps through banners comprised of
photos text or videos
when used in an email marketing context
they will include a place for the
internet user to fill in their email or
it will link them to a landing page
where they can sign up
when the email is filled in the lead is
generated and the email is added to the
mailing list automatically
display ads are an effective way to
build up your mailing lists but keep in
mind that they do come at a cost
at many organizations there is no budget
allotted for list building so you may
want to focus on some best practices
that don't require spending
and of course you may work at an
organization that does have a budget for
list building
recall that when someone creates a
website or a blog they have the choice
to opt into the google display network
and if they choose to do so the ads will
appear on their site those are display
ads another great way to get email
addresses added to your mailing list is
through the use of social media ads if
you use social media you've probably
seen social ads before
if you don't use social media personally
you can always go back to the course
before this one to learn more about it
social ads are paid advertisements on
social media platforms targeted to
social media users
some social media channels offer ad
formats specific for lead generation for
example facebook has lead ads
these are similar to display ads in that
they combine text images and a url that
links to a website where customers can
learn more or buy products however these
ads feature a form where users submit
personal information such as their name
email or anything else the advertiser
chooses and rather than existing on a
website or blog they exist on social
media
let's say a book publisher wants to
build up their email list using facebook
lead ads the publisher provides an
incentive for people to sign up for
their list
anyone who adds their email to the blank
field can download one chapter of their
newest book at no cost
all they have to do is sign up by
providing an email and agree to the
terms and conditions set by the brand
you learned about search engine
marketing in a previous course but let's
talk about its relationship to your
email marketing campaign
recall that sem is the increase of a
website's visibility in a search engine
through paid advertising
if you are using google.com to search
for something you will see some paid
text ads above the organic results
this is an example of search engine
marketing
one way to build your list using scm is
to include a discount or other type of
incentive written out in plain text in
your ad enticing those who subscribe
immediately in the ad copy
another way is to use sem specifically
for email marketing lead generation so
if a customer is browsing a website they
may see an ad for your company with a
form included directly in it
they can fill out the form then and
there resulting in them subscribing to
your list
one way to get additional emails without
added cost is to rely on customer
referrals and forwards
a customer referral is a word of mouth
initiative that encourages existing
customers to introduce their family
friends and contacts to become new
customers
think about how much you trust your best
friend or closest family member
if they told you you'd like something
you might believe them
customer referrals are incredibly
valuable because research has found that
people are four times more likely to buy
a product when they're referred by a
friend
if your brand has a loyalty or referral
program you can offer subscribers points
discounts or credits toward their next
purchase in exchange for them sharing a
referral link with friends or you can
keep it even more simple and ask them to
forward the email to friends
either way the goal is to get another
subscriber and even possibly another
customer and referrals and forwards can
help you achieve that
while we are talking about building your
list it's important to discuss the
ethics around handling personally
identifiable information or pii
pii basically refers to any data that
could potentially identify a specific
individual
when people share information with a
company it's important to use it in ways
that build trust and for only the
intended purpose
your subscribers didn't have to share
this information with you but they did
and in doing so they are trusting your
company to use it for good
as a digital marketer it's your job to
make sure you are up to date on your
country's latest laws and legislation
regarding pii
okay let's recap
to generate leads or build your mailing
list apply these tactics use website
prompts display ads which are shown in
the google display network or through
criteo sem rush and taboola
social ads like facebook lead ads search
engine marketing referrals and direct
email marketing
we'll talk some more about lists
throughout this section so stick with me
[Music]
if you were having a party you wouldn't
want to invite someone that you knew
wouldn't want to come right
the same is true in regards to sending
your email list to someone who wouldn't
care about the content in it
in this video you'll learn the basics of
email list segmentation and its benefits
segmentation is the practice of dividing
an email subscriber list into smaller
groups based on criteria like interests
location or purchase history
once you build an email list you need to
segment it
using segmentation a company is able to
deliver the most relevant content to its
subscribers
the more tailored and personalized the
email is the more likely subscribers are
to enjoy their emails which can result
in sales and brand loyalty
you can segment your list based on any
number of criteria but most companies
segment their lists by geography
psychographic characteristics
demographic data and behavioral data
let's explore what each of those means
when you're segmenting your list by
geography you might do it by location
climate population language or
environment
this segmentation focuses on the
physical location of your subscribers
if your brand is offering free shipping
on all orders for the month of october
but you're only offering it in the
united states you will want to segment
your list by country so that
international customers aren't misled or
confused and you wouldn't want to send
an email written in mandarin to a
german-speaking country right
if you intend to send emails out in a
few different languages consider
segmenting by language
let's say you work for a clothing
company in asia
because of the extreme variances in
weather from region to region you may
want to segment your emails by
environment or climate
in asia there are many geographic
regions with varied climates such as the
desert the rainforest and the tundra
customers that experience cold winters
like those in japan china russia and
korea might be interested in your
company's new winter coat but customers
in more tropical vietnam and thailand
might not be
another way to segment your list is by
psychographic characteristics
psychographic characteristics are based
on customers activities interests and
opinions
this includes factors like lifestyles
values and hobbies if you handle digital
marketing for a local grocery store you
might segment based on dietary
preferences
are some subscribers vegan or
gluten-free
segmenting by lifestyles and diets can
help ensure you send useful targeted
content to people while also ensuring
you don't send anything unappealing or
offensive if you work for a health and
wellness company your subscribers that
enjoy cycling might want to know about
the most famous bike paths in the world
but you may have subscribers that prefer
running in which case you'd be able to
send them a list of running trails
instead thanks to segmentation
the next category to segment your list
by is demographics
demographic data includes information
such as age gender income level and
family status
segmenting by demographics is great
because it's based on fairly consistent
information whereas psychographics are
more subject to change frequently
let's say you handle email marketing for
a company that books travel
your company has a special romantic
getaway idea that they want to include
in their newsletter
this is an example where it's important
to know if each subscriber is single in
a relationship married in a domestic
partnership or has a family
so you may want to segment your lists by
family status or let's say a famous band
from the 1980s is going on tour again
for the first time in 20 years
the concert venue that you handle email
marketing for wants to announce that
they'll be performing at your venue
however subscribers who are under a
certain age may not find this
interesting at all
thankfully your list is segmented by age
groups so you can target subscribers
whose age suggests they may enjoy the
band and finally let's talk about
behavioral data behavioral data refers
to the actions your customer takes or
doesn't take when it comes to shopping
on your website
this is one of the most important
categories because it gives you a
glimpse into how a customer engages with
your specific brand and products
purchasing habits spending habits
browsing habits loyalty to your brand
and engagement with your website are all
great ways to segment your list based on
behavioral data if you work for a
sporting goods store knowing whether a
subscriber is visiting your site for the
first time or if they've been a long
time customer can help you change your
messaging and get the right email to
that customer
for a new customer sending an email that
says it's nice to meet you here is 10
off will work just fine
for a long time customer you might send
an email with a message like it's great
to see you again here's 10 off on your
favorite team's gear if you want to
reward customers who purchase frequently
from your website you'd segment your
list based on customer loyalty to your
brand that way only your most devoted
customers receive the most exciting
offers
before we move on let's recap
we covered four very common categories
of email marketing segmentation
geography psychographic characteristics
demographic data and behavioral data
and as you choose one category you can
break it down even further and target
audiences more specifically
[Music]
although marketing emails have become
more design focused and streamlined than
they used to be the most important part
remains the same the content
you can create the most beautifully
designed emails but if the copy isn't
compelling informative or adding value
for the reader it won't matter
if you aren't sure where to start with
your emails don't worry it's a big task
writing emails is a skill that takes
practice but in this section we'll
provide you with some best practices and
guidelines that will help you do so
effectively
let's start by talking about your
subject line this is the first thing
your recipients will read before they
click into the email so the most
important thing is that it answers the
question what are you offering
and when it comes to your subject line
prioritize clarity over catchiness and
if you feel like it's clear enough add a
little excitement
here's an example
let's say my company is an emerging
online audiobook and podcast company and
my email's purpose is to introduce the
business to my audience
so i ask myself what am i offering and
how can i be clear about that
the subject line might say something
like books for your ears that clearly
explains my company's mission concisely
or bookworms you've been waiting for us
so that it's clear who my target
audience is and that they'll be
interested in what my company has to say
now let's move on to the body of the
email recall that the body of an email
is the text in the main content of your
email
when you're writing it you want to
consider the following questions how can
this content help your reader
what stories can you tell them
after you've answered those questions
you can prioritize
writing in the second person
personalizing the email telling about
the benefits rather than the features
and being brief
ensure you are always speaking directly
to your readers by using second person
language
the second person point of view is used
for giving directions offering advice or
providing an explanation
it means you are always using the
pronouns you your and yours like how i'm
speaking to you now
the only time you aren't referring to
your audience as you your or yours is
when you are using their name
email marketing automation tools allow
you to use merge tags or personalization
tags to make emails as personal as
possible
a merge tag or personalization tag is a
code that allows the writer to insert
unique user data from their mailing list
into emails
these tags will vary depending on which
programs you were using and we don't
need to get too far into the details on
them but sometimes it's as simple as
typing two curly brackets fname and two
more curly brackets to prompt the
program to include the reader's first
name
so if we were talking about the body
text of my audiobook company's email i
would type hey two curly brackets a
space f name space two curly brackets
what's your favorite book
we've got it
and if my reader was named angelique she
would see hey angelique what's your
favorite book we've got it
after i've created a clear and clever
headline and i've personalized my first
bit of body text i'll want to explain
why the reader should care about my
company
i can do this by talking about how it
will benefit them rather than the actual
features of the product or service
so my body text might read something
like hey angelique what's your favorite
book we've got it and if you like to
listen to your books rather than reading
them we've got you
listen on your way to work at the gym or
while you're doing the dishes listen
anytime you deserve it
now the final thing i've made sure to do
is be brief there's no reason to go into
very specific detail about your company
product or service
keeping your email short and succinct
will keep your readers interested and it
won't make them feel like they're doing
a lot of work to read the email
after your body include a call to action
of some kind this may include a button
encouraging readers to try a product now
or visit your website for my make
believe audiobook company i might end
the email with a clickable button that
reads try it for free now
we'll have some activities for you to
practice but i would encourage you to
practice writing emails on your own it
can be really fun
as you do that remember that for your
subject line ask yourself what you're
offering the readers
as you write your body ask yourself how
can this help your readers
what stories can you tell them
and wrap it up with a call to action
that clearly says what you want them to
do i'll meet you back here later
[Music]
when it comes to digital marketing
automation has become the key to a
campaign success
email marketing automation helps you
find your audience and serve them only
the content they want
email marketing automation tools help
email marketers generate leads or turn
strangers into customers
with automation email marketers can send
personalized messages to each individual
subscriber
email marketing automation is the
practice of using software programs and
technology to manage email marketing
processes automatically email marketing
automation makes the email marketing
process simpler and smoother
it ensures your campaign stays organized
and on track and it happens in the
background so you can be completing and
focusing on other tasks if necessary
automation has positively affected our
lives in countless ways whether it's
driving a car instead of walking
managing your money by using software
rather than manually balancing your
checkbook washing your clothes in a
machine rather than by hand or anything
else that you do in your everyday life
automation just makes things simpler
it's the same with email marketing
as a digital marketer you'll absolutely
want to become acquainted with these
automation tools because they're
integral to the success of your
marketing campaign
that's largely due to the fact that
marketing automation tools ensure your
emails don't lose your personal touch
with automation you can track emails
automatically and the real key to
automation success is just how targeted
your emails can be using automation you
can efficiently build up your list
segment that list send automatic welcome
and acquisition emails to new
subscribers follow up with newsletters
promotional emails and retention emails
using templates and easily track the
engagement and behavior of each
subscriber
and depending on which tool your
organization uses all of those
capabilities actions and insights and
more will live in the same place your
marketing automation tool
later you'll learn about specific
automation tools such as hubspot
mailchimp and salesforce but there are
countless other options when it comes to
marketing automation tools
regardless of what you use for marketing
automation all of these tools are a very
important aspect of email marketing and
they'll help you become that much better
at digital marketing
[Music]
like many other jobs email marketing
comes with its challenges how will you
decide on templates for your campaign a
design
what type of tone do your emails need to
have how will you even manage every
single aspect of an email marketing
campaign from sending a large volume of
targeted emails to tracking your
insights luckily there are tools that
were created to streamline this process
for email marketers
email marketing automation tools like
hubspot mailchimp and salesforce are all
great options for sending emails
although you will still have to remain
engaged in your automation processes for
the most part these tools will do a lot
of the work for you in the background
allowing you to focus on other aspects
of your campaign like planning strategy
and writing engaging copy
in this video i'll give you a very high
level introduction to a few of those
industry-leading tools
i'll talk specifically about hubspot
mailchimp and salesforce marketing cloud
let's get into it hubspot is one of the
most commonly used email marketing
automation tools mostly due to the
non-cost version which offers robust
features
through personalization you can offer
different experiences based on your
personas and key audiences since it's so
customizable
hubspot allows for intuitive and
effective a b testing and email
marketing which is invaluable when it
comes to finding out what kind of emails
your customers engage with
another one of the more popular
marketing automation tools is mailchimp
because of its user interface and robust
email template editor making the
automation process effective
mailchimp's automation tools include
pre-built journeys which offer
customizable workflows for some of the
most common marketing automation use
cases
salesforce marketing cloud is an
industry leader in many ways
when it comes to email marketing
automation the salesforce platform is
well liked because it offers powerful
customization
it's a little more expert level than the
others but with that comes more
capabilities like customizing your
interface
so that's a very high level look at a
few different types of email marketing
automation tools
you'll get a much more extensive and
specific look at them in the following
readings but i hope you feel like you
have a foundational understanding of the
pros and cons of each of them and if you
join an organization that uses a
particular tool that you are unfamiliar
with don't worry you will be able to
apply what you learned here to many
different automation tools
the ways the tools work and the tasks
they perform are similar you'll just
have to learn the specific features
and to learn more about these specific
tools be sure to visit their websites
[Music]
although email marketing is an
incredibly trusted and effective way to
keep your clients up to date it's
important to note that sometimes
mistakes happen
this video will give you some tips for
when those mistakes occur so you can
recover and so that your relationship
with your subscribers isn't affected
since you're sending the emails to your
recipients inboxes there's no way to
edit them in real time once the email is
sent it's out of your hands
some common mistakes are sending a
broken link sending an email to the
wrong segmented list sending an outdated
or incorrect email sending emails with
personalization mistakes or sending
emails with typos or mistakes in the
email copy the good news is you can take
preventative measures to identify
mistakes and fix them before you send
emails
first let's talk about sending a broken
link
a broken link is a hyperlink that no
longer leads to the correct website for
whatever reason
if you're sending a marketing email that
hyperlinks to external websites pdfs
documents or something else and the
reader gets an error message your link
may be broken and the best way to ensure
this never happens is to double check
every hyperlink before you send the
email out it always helps to have
another set of eyes on your email as
well so enlist the help of a colleague
to ensure everything looks okay let's
say you linked to a blog from your
website in an email but the url had a
typo how do you fix this mistake
you can redirect them so that the link
with the typo sends subscribers to the
correct url
or you can let it go and aim to triple
check next time because even the most
experienced email marketers make
mistakes
another mistake made in email marketing
is when an email is sent to the wrong
segmented list
recall that your lists are most likely
going to be segmented based on
demographics behavioral data
psychographic characteristics and
geography
so if you want to send a targeted email
to your list of 18 to 25 year olds
because they're more likely to purchase
a certain item but you accidentally send
it to your 40 to 55 age group you've
sent the wrong email
first to prevent this from happening in
the future you'll want to create some
kind of quality control or qc process
for your marketing emails quality
control is a process through which a
business seeks to ensure that product
quality is maintained or improved
this might include creating a checklist
that ensures you're using the right
format content personalization tags and
anything else you may want to be extra
careful about
if you make the common mistake of
sending the wrong or outdated email to
your subscribers don't panic there are
some steps you can take to fix it
of course the best way to fix this
mistake is for it to never occur in the
first place
this means you need to be incredibly
fluent in your automated systems tools
and software
regardless of what tool you're using you
should aim to be an expert user
this will decrease the likelihood of
sending an incorrect email however
should it happen sometimes all it takes
to make things right is a thoughtful
follow-up email
you may want to have some apology
templates already created in your
marketing automation tool so that it can
go out as swiftly as possible you'll
need to make it relevant to your
specific situation of course let's say
you sent an email that said there was a
sale on a particular product
but the product is already sold out and
the sale ended a week ago this mistake
has threatened your credibility and you
need to apologize to your customer base
in your apology email you'll need to
admit your mistake
apologize to your subscribers and offer
them something to make it right
your follow-up email might say something
like
we messed up we're sorry
we sent an email claiming a product was
on sale but that product is in fact out
of stock and the sale ended last week
to make it up to you we're offering you
10 off the entire store for today only
your subscribers will probably forgive
you for the mistake and they'll
definitely appreciate the discount
perhaps the most common mistake of all
is sending out an email with typos like
the other common mistakes these typos
leave you at risk of losing credibility
with your subscribers and they can be
especially damaging when they occur in
personalization tags
sending here's a gift for you malcolm is
obviously much more effective than
sending an email where you misspell your
tag and it ends up reading here's a gift
for you bracket first main bracket
to ensure you don't have typos
grammatical mistakes or personalization
errors in your email conduct an
automated spell check using an online
spell checker or some kind of plugin on
your internet browser like grammarly
qc your email by proofreading several
times and make sure to send a test email
to yourself to double check all
personalization tags are spelled right
finally
automated emails can sometimes end up in
spam folders rather than inboxes this
could be because you're not adhering to
your country's spam related laws or
because your email seems like it might
be spam
emails may be flagged as spam when they
include too many images or images that
are too large
take note of this and make sure to send
yourself a test email first
and review that you don't have too many
images
now that you know some of the most
common mistakes in email marketing i
hope you feel equipped to avoid these
mistakes in your journey as a digital
marketer
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