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How To Do Email Marketing: A Beginner’s Guide

Sep 3, 2024 - By Skirmantas Venckus & Emily Austin

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Imagine opening your inbox every morning, scrolling past dozens of emails, yet only a few actually catch your eye. What is it about those emails that makes you pause, click, and engage?

The truth is, behind every compelling email is a strategy—one that understands not just what to say, but how to say it in a way that resonates.

Curious to know the secrets behind those emails that make you stop and take notice? Let’s dive into the strategies that turn simple messages into converting ones.

Why is Email Marketing Campaign Important?

Email marketing continues to play a pivotal role in the marketing mix in this digital age.

As the most profitable channel for a business, email marketing helps you connect and engage with potential customers. It allows you to build long-lasting relationships and drive sales. And that’s not all:

  • Increase brand awareness. A successful email campaign can bring long-term benefits. If you share valuable email content, news, updates, and more with your subscribers, they might share a word about your brand and products with others. That is, increase awareness about your brand;
  • Drive customer engagement with the brand. Emails are incredibly versatile, giving you the freedom to create almost anything you can imagine. Harness this power to pique your subscribers’ curiosity about your following offerings and foster deeper engagement with your brand;
  • Boost website traffic. Share enticing snippets of your most popular content to encourage interested subscribers to dive into the full articles. Include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that directs your subscribers to dedicated landing and sales pages to learn more about and purchase your products or services;
  • Generate more interested leads. Nothing is off the table when you want your recipients to visit and click through your website or landing pages with more information. Personalize your content, create compelling subject lines, and clear CTAs to make them come again and again;
  • Nurture leads toward a sale. Your time and effort spent crafting the email sequences can pay back in dozens. Use them to educate, inform, and build trust with potential customers, addressing their pain points and showcasing your products as solutions;
  • Sell more products and add more revenue to your business. When strategically crafted, thesecampaigns promote your products and create a sense of urgency and desire among your subscribers. Combine this with segmentation and targeted content to have much higher chances of conversions and better customer retention.

How to Do Email Marketing Campaign Successfully?

Are you inspired to create email marketing campaigns that your target audience loves but need help knowing where to begin? This quick guide is a good headstart:

Define Your Goals 

Your first step should always be to ask yourself a question: What do you want to achieve from your email campaign

Do you want to drive sales, increase website traffic, or perhaps improve customer retention? 

Based on your expectations, set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. This will help your email marketing plans and make it easy to measure success.

  • Quantify your goals. Determine key performance indicators (KPIs) like open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and revenue generated; 
  • Align with business objectives. Ensure your email campaign goals align with broader business goals, whether it’s brand awareness, lead generation, or customer engagement.

Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for successful email campaigns. 

Gather data through primary market research, customer feedback, and marketing analytics to learn about their preferences, behaviors, and needs. You can look at Google Analytics, social media insights, and other mediums to understand their preferences and behaviors. 

The insights will help you tailor your content, making it more relevant and engaging to your audience. 

Here’s what you can do after you’ve got some data about your audience: 

  • Create personas. Create buyer personas to better understand and address the specific needs and interests of different segments of your audience; 
  • Segmentation. Divide your audience into segments based on demographics, purchase history, and engagement levels to personalize emails accordingly. 

Choose the Right Email Marketing Platform

Once you outline your goals and have a basic understanding of your audience, it’s time to pick an email marketing tool. 

Choose a solution that offers essential features like automation and drag-and-drop builder and has a generous free plan. Also, look for email marketing platforms with responsive customer support. 

If you want a no-fuss solution with all the premium features, human customer support, and amazing deliverability, try Sender.

Set up your email campaign in a breeze with Sender’s drag-and-drop builder and responsive templates.

ecommerce-template-sender-drag-and-drop-builder

Write a Compelling Email Subject Line & Preheader

When you’re ready with your email marketing solution, it’s time to start creating a campaign. The first step is to create an engaging email subject line and a preheader text. 

Subject_line_Sender

Your subject line is the first thing a prospect will notice. Moreover, it’s the only thing that influences their decision to click (or ignore) your email. So, always pay extra attention to creating them. Your subject lines should: 

  • Consist of action words or reasons to click; 
  • Be personalized; 
  • Invoke FOMO, urgency, or curiosity; 
  • Not contain common spam words. 

Your email subject lines should be catchy and informative, while preheaders (the text next to it) should elaborate more on the topic. 

Design Email Campaign 

Once you’re done writing a compelling subject line, it’s time to design your email campaign. 

Your goal should be to design a compelling email campaign that attracts, engages, and compels subscribers to know more about your offer or product. A visually appealing design with a balance of text and graphics will give you the best results. 

  • Use a responsive template that adapts to various devices; 
  • Keep the layout simple and clean, with a clear call-to-action (CTA); 
  • Create an engaging header with information that makes them read further; 
  • Add interactive elements like countdown timers, reviews, or product blocks. 

Sender helps you create a beautiful email even if you’re not a designer. With an intuitive drag-and-drop builder and a library of readymade email templates, you can get started within minutes.

Sender-email-templates-gallery

Pick one from the library of responsive email templates that fit your email marketing goals and brand identity. Then, use the visual design builder to customize its layout, content, and other design elements as per your requirements.

4th_of_July_Sender_template_mockup

Craft Compelling Content

Your subject line will attract, your design will engage them, and what you write in your email will convince them to act. So, your content should be quite compelling and relevant for your audience. 

Start with a catchy introduction, explain the benefits of your offer, and end with a strong CTA. Break down your content into blocks using bullet points for clarity and easy scannability. 

Also, make sure to personalize your content based on what your audience needs. Remember, all your marketing emails should always include the following:

  • Company’s name;
  • Contact information;
  • Unsubscribe link;
  • Privacy policy link;
  • Brand logo.

Once you’re done writing your content and are happy with the email design, send a test email and move on to the next step, i.e. choosing who to send the emails to. 

Select Recipients / Build Your Email List 

Select a list of recipients you want to reach with your email marketing campaign. This can include all subscribers or any specific group/segment based on your goals. 

Sender_Recipients

If you’re new to email marketing and don’t have any subscribers yet, set up popups or sign-up forms on your high-traffic pages. 

You can use the signup forms template library within Sender to quickly set up a form and start building an email list. Alternatively, you can import your current subscribers.

Once you’ve gathered subscribers (or have an existing audience), you can send an email campaign instantly or schedule it for the future. 

Test and Optimize

Before launching your campaign, optimize it for different audience segments. Tailor variations in subject lines, email content, or send times to specific groups to see what resonates best. This helps you understand how different audiences respond and refine your approach accordingly.

Also, don’t forget to send a test email to yourself to ensure everything looks and functions as expected. This extra step ensures your campaign is polished before reaching your audience, setting you up for success.

Launch the Campaign

Once you’re happy with the results, click to launch the campaign immediately or schedule it to go out later. 

Sender_Launch_campaign

After you launch your campaign, check your key engagement metrics to see if they’re what you’ve expected. If not, optimize your campaign accordingly and use the gathered insights for future campaigns.

Email Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Campaigns

By breaking down some standout examples, you’ll see how the right approach can transform a simple email. With the right strategy, it becomes a compelling piece of communication that drives results.

Ready to see these strategies in action? Explore some emails that truly hit the mark:

Last Crumb — Welcome Email Example

Welcome emails are one of the most important emails you will ever send. It sets the foundation for the future relationship with the subscriber. Here’s an example of a great welcome email by Last Crumb:

last_crumb_example
Image source: Last Crumb

The welcome email is great at creating an instant connection. The personalized letter with an appealing header image makes the reader feel special. The talk about brand values in the welcome email is an excellent idea, as most consumers are attracted to brands with a strong ethos.  

Why it works? 

  • Relatable and warm email copy; 
  • Simple and minimalist design; 
  • Reassurance and confidence towards brand values; 

Scott’s Cheap Flights — Monthly Newsletter Example

Monthly newsletters are like personal letters that a brand sends to its subscriber list informing them about the latest happenings. Generally, newsletters have a common theme and reach out to users on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis.

Here’s a great example of a monthly newsletter by Scott’s Cheap Flights: 

monthly_newsletter_example
Image source: Scott’s Cheap Flights

The company sends a monthly newsletter touching on a relevant topic and sharing its take on the issue. The newsletter email discusses the issue and shares relevant messages, articles, blogs, and more for the reader, just like a magazine. 

Why it works? 

  • Reminds users about your brand or business; 
  • Adds value to subscriber’s life consistently; 
  • Shares things that they’d love to read on a regular basis. 

Gold Belly — Promotional Email Example

Promotional email campaigns tell subscribers about your latest offers, sales, discounts, or deals on your product range. It’s a great way to remind them about you, generate interest, and increase sales by luring customers to buy. Here’s an example of promotional emails by Gold Belly: 

promotional_email_example
Image source: Gold Belly

The refreshing email has a striking and eye-catchy design. Plus, the reference (and social credential) to Martha Stewart is an ice-breaker, making the subscriber consider buying from the brand.

The promotional email has excellent offers, a subject line that stands out (Banana Pudding on Sale — Martha Steward APPROVED! ), and great CTAs to make an impact.

Why it works? 

  • Attention-grabbing subject line; 
  • Beautiful email design; 
  • Social proof embedded within the email; 
  • Great and contextual offers that tempt users to make a purchase. 

Also read:

About author
Skirmantas Venckus leads marketing at Sender, bringing hands-on experience helping brands connect with customers. He deeply understands email marketing’s evolving role and is passionate about making it work smarter, not harder, for everyone.

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