e-mail marketing is still a valuable communication tool, as it allows you to establish a direct dialogue with your customers. Moreover, with the advent of CRMs (customer relationship management) you also have the possibility to segment your audience and achieve a higher ROI (return on investment).
Read on to find out what e-mail marketing is, what regulations govern it and why you should use it to promote your products and/or services.
Table of contents
e-mail marketing: 3 main types
Creating an e-mail marketing campaign is certainly not easy: it requires careful planning, including defining the target audience on the one hand, and the goals to be achieved on the other. Basically, depending on your purposes, you can send 3 types of e-mails:
- promotional e-mails: they promote, with offers or discounts, products and services;
- informative e-mails: they update the public on the latest market trends;
- transactional e-mails: they notify the user of the action they have taken, such as confirming an order or receiving a payment.
All 3 types of e-mail can be sent:
- to a single user (one-to-one e-mail);
- to a targeted audience (DEM marketing);
- to specific users, based on the actions they perform (e-mail marketing automation).
Target and CRM: how important are they?
One of the most common mistakes in e-mail marketing is sending non-targeted communications to a generic list of contacts. For a DEM campaign to be successful, it’s therefore important to evaluate leads according to certain parameters, such as:
- demographic data: age, gender and geographical area;
- behavioural ones: purchases or interactions with products/services;
- preferences: purchasing or on certain product categories.
To catalogue your target audience, the best solution is CRM (customer relationship management), software that allows you to collect and manage leads/customers more easily. Sending an e-mail to an uninterested audience is a big mistake; if, on the other hand, you manage to intercept the right audience, you will achieve higher conversion rates.
Case Study: JO Consulting, how to propose the most suitable tender to the lead
Within Moka Adv we take care of leads for JO Consulting. Being able to offer leads the most relevant calls for tenders requires careful and precise scouting, which is not always easy.
Another important factor is audience segmentation, which is based on:
- demographic data such as age, gender, etc;
- type of entity (whether private or public);
- sector, i.e. the area in which the activity operates (industry, agriculture, manufacturing, etc.).
By using a CRM in the cloud, you will be able to quickly filter thousands of results, selecting only those that match your requirements. This somewhat holistic approach allows us to send targeted communications that increase open and conversion rates.
Metrics first
Metrics first. Analysing the results is an indispensable practice to understand the performance of your e-mail marketing campaigns and possibly adjust the focus.
Here are the main metrics we usually consider at Moka:
- open rate: indicates how many people opened the e-mail;
- click-through rate (CTR): indicates how many people clicked on the link(s) within the e-mail. It’s an indicator of the quality of the content and the chosen call to action (CTA);
- unsubscription rate: indicates the number of people who unsubscribed from the list. If it’s high, it means that the content is not performing or on target;
- bounce rate: percentage of undelivered e-mails due to errors in the recipient's e-mail address or server problems;
- spam reports: shows how many people or clients have reported the e-mail as spam (unwanted mail).
Being able to identify and read these metrics is an excellent starting point for understanding how to optimise your communication strategy.
Guiding customers through the sales funnel
By funnel marketing we mean a path designed by us to guide the user through the different stages of purchasing the product/service. e-mails make it better:
- brand awareness, which is essential for promoting products/services. e-mails, in practice, also serve to disseminate educational and informative contents;
- consideration: the ability to prompt the user to evaluate - and why not prefer - your products over those of others, by sending case studies, reviews or comparisons to show added value;
- conversion: the rate at which leads are converted into paying customers, to whom other targeted offers, discounts, promotions, etc. are sent over time;
- loyalty: the trust the customer places in you, involving them with updates, offers or after-sales support.
In some types of business, sales funnels also extend to instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp Business, which can increase the engagement rate of potential customers.
Instant messaging: how to use WhatsApp Business in marketing strategies
Using WhatsApp Business or other instant messaging apps instead of e-mail is an equally valid strategy.
4 benefits of using WhatsApp Business for marketing
- instant communication: WhatsApp Business guarantees fast, direct and immediate communication. Messages are read in a few minutes;
- higher open rates: compared to e-mail, people open WhatsApp chats much more frequently and read messages more quickly;
- unmediated interaction: the formal filter typical of e-mails is eliminated, making conversations looser and more natural;
- media sharing: WhatsApp makes it easier to send pictures, videos, links and documents than in classic e-mails, where each file must be attached.
4 disadvantages of using WhatsApp Business instead of DEM
- formatting limitations: WhatsApp messages are basic, i.e. there is no possibility to structure complex and graphically more effective layouts as with e-mails;
- limited space: the maximum limit of a WhatsApp Business message is 1024 characters, whereas the text of an e-mail is potentially infinite;
- perceptions of invasiveness: direct messaging is certainly more invasive, especially if there is not the right confidence or if one does not know the brand;
- tracking difficulties: obtaining precise metrics is a difficult task on WhatsApp Business, which makes it complex to monitor the performance of each chat, which is in fact more evaluated from a qualitative point of view.
How to write an e-mail with the help of AI
With the evolution of Large Language Models (LLM), writing an e-mail becomes easier. Numerous AI apps already exist, however it’s best to use only tried and tested tools for your e-mail marketing campaigns. Here is an overview of the best AI solutions for composing and managing e-mails:
- Copilot Pro: in Outlook it improves e-mail writing by offering AI-generated drafts, conversation summaries and tips that refine the tone of voice and structure of the entire message;
- Gemini: integrated in Gmail, it provides automatic e-mail summaries in the inbox and offers AI-generated drafts. It also helps users to more functionally manage the flow of conversations or to access relevant information via Google Search;
- ChatGPT: is often used as an integration of Gmail and Outlook. It’s capable of creating and customising e-mails in seconds, generating drafts, replies and even suggestions.
Remember to use only certified AI services that comply with privacy regulations, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Privacy and data management
Whether it’s e-mail marketing or WhatsApp Business, respecting privacy remains a knot to unravel. Thanks to the introduction of the GDPR, for example, all companies are obliged to adopt privacy protection policies that provide users with more security.
How to get consent for the use of personal data
Before sending a marketing e-mail, make sure you have the explicit consent of the users; you can do this in several different ways:
- registration form: this is a form that explains, in a clear and transparent manner, which communications the user will receive or how their data will be used;
- double opt-in: this is a confirmation procedure divided into two stages. In the first, the user receives an e-mail to confirm their registration, in the second, they receive the actual e-mail for marketing purposes;
- privacy policy: clear privacy policy explaining how data is collected and stored.
How to manage personal data
Once you have the data, it must be managed securely and transparently. Here are some key points to note:
- secure storage: personal data should always be stored within secure platforms, protected from unwanted access. Encryption systems, as an advanced security measure, serve the purpose;
- updating and correction: users must be able to access, update and correct their data at any time;
- deletion on request: in accordance with the GDPR, users will have the right to request the deletion of their data (right to be forgotten), so they must be given the possibility of a quick and complete deletion.
Regulatory compliance
Here are some key principles of the current privacy and data protection regulations:
- transparency: every user must be informed, in full, about how their data will be used and for what purpose;
- data minimization: only data strictly necessary for the stated purposes should be collected;
- consent management: consents recorded and stored must be revocable at any time.
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Try e-mail marketing! Choose Moka Adv
Are you excited by what you read, but think it’s just words, words, words… just words? We at Moka Adv will show you that it is not. Creating an effective e-mail marketing campaign is not about sending e-mails. True e-mail marketing is strategic planning, creating engaging content and analysing performance after the fact to straighten things out.
With a valuable team of digital marketers, we will support you along the way, from template creation to lead management with tools such as CRM, making sure you reach your goal.
Choose Moka Adv if you want to achieve concrete results and build authentic relationships with your customers over time. For a free specialist consultation, you can write to us on WhatsApp, fill in the contact form below or call us on +390950935481.
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