Email Marketing System Archives - RSI Concepts - Top IT Solution Provider Company in Dubai, UAE

November 3, 2023

Email Marketing Automation: Simplifying Campaign Management and Results

The email marketing campaigns are one of the most cost-effective method to reach out and connect with your targeted audience and customers. The email marketing is still the most cost-effective tool with highest ROI, according to studies a business can yield $40 against each $1 spent on email marketing. However, it is a common misconception that the making and executing email marketing campaign is difficult, and that too is true at some extent. Businesses often spend hours on their email marketing campaigns. However, things are changing rapidly, same like any other business process where the modern technology, digital systems and software have introduced automation and digitalization, the email marketing automation have completely revolutionized the email marketing. With the specialized email marketing systems and software tools one can send thousands of email within a few clicks. You can personalized your emails for better interaction and you can manage responses as well in a fully or semi-automated way. Businesses can schedule campaigns, they can automate communication and they can use it for brand awareness and much more. In this blog we will discuss how email marketing automation can simplify email campaign management and help improving the results.

What is Email Marketing Automation?

In simple words the email marketing automation is to create right email message, send it to right audience and at the right time without ever repeating all the process. In fact you just have to create a message once, the system will take care of everything, it knows what to send, when to send and to whom. You can also schedule your email marketing campaigns so your audience can hear regularly, which is a great way to nurture relationships. The email marketing automation tools will also help you to compose multiple copies and it will take instructions from your to understand which copy has to be sent to whom and when. Relevant copy and right timing can greatly improve your email marketing campaign’s results. The automation is achieved by a dedicated email marketing system or email management system which is a software tool with specialized features to manage and automate email marketing campaigns. A standard email marketing system or email management system have in-built email composer which allow both plain and HTML based templates along with other designing tools. It also have contacts management tool and allow businesses to segregate audience in different groups to send them most relevant information and communication. Modern email marketing systems can also be integrated with other systems, such as CRM, ERP, customer databases and central information center.

How Email Marketing Automation can Simplify Campaign Management and Results?

The email is one of the most automated marketing channel, more than 60% of marketers all around the world prefer email marketing automation and even more, around 70% of B2B email marketing is managed using automation tools. Here are some key advantages of email marketing campaign automation which help businesses maximize the impact of their campaigns and also drive efficiency by reducing human labor and manual work.

Email Marketing Automation: Audience Management

The audience management is one of the most crucial part of any email marketing campaign. You should always have to be proactive in collecting more email addresses and increasing your subscriber bank in order to make your email marketing more impactful. One of the major source of email contacts is your existing customers, you should collect emails from all your customers, and you can also utilize digital channels to collect email addresses. Businesses can also collect contacts from their corporate websites, social media or other sources. Businesses can also create subscription forms to collect email contacts. For that lead magnets are used, a lead magnet is some kind of incentive which is used to encourage users to share their email address. Furthermore the email marketing campaign automation tool or email marketing system also help businesses to segment their audience, which is extremely important. In order to execute a successful email marketing campaign you should be able to segment audience based on various criterions to personalize communication and share most relevant information which will strengthen your relationship, help you nurture leads and raise loyalty among existing customers.

Email Marketing Automation: Email Campaigns Management

The very important step in any email marketing campaign is to create an eye-catchy and engaging email template. Whether it is a regular communication or a promotional newsletter, the template design and the email copy are the most important aspect of any email campaign. The email marketing automation tools or any email marketing system comes with in-built email composer tools. These tools allow you to include various visual elements, fonts, styles, images, links and even forms. The email template have strong initial impact on the viewer, it can attract them and intrigue them to interact with the email or read it through. That is why it is important that you have a great email composing tool. Furthermore businesses tend to use various email copies for different sets of audience and at different stages of customer journey. The email marketing automation enables you to create and manage various different email copies and templates which can be automatically sent to the targeted audience groups as per pre-defined strategy. Furthermore the personalized content is tend to be more persuasive, the email marketing automation tools help you personalized each email to improve customer engagements.

Email Marketing Automation: Workflows and Automation Rules

Ability to setup workflows, rules and triggers is a key to email marketing automation. It might sound difficult but it is very simple, think of all the events or times when you have to send an email, for example, as soon as a new customer signups or a customer made an in-store purchase, you are sending them a welcome email. The email marketing automation tool allow you to completely automate this workflow. You can compose and store a welcome email template which is automatically sent to new entry in the customer database. This is possible with the help of third-party system integration or API integration. The API integration is a technique to enable a communication between two independent systems. For example, as soon as a new customer signs-up in the relevant system (ERP, CRM, POS, Sales Tool, Website, etc.) sends a trigger to email marketing system and it sends a pre-composed welcome email to the customer. Similarly businesses can incorporate various workflows, such as after a customer had a service center visit or after an online interaction with support staff, or if a customer abandoned the cart halfway through customer journey. That is not all, instead of setting up one email, you can also setup a series of emails and workflows based on user behavior, actions and various other important factors.

Email Marketing Automation: Insights and Analytics

Tracking and analyzing key metrics such as open-rate, click through rate, conversions, form submissions, bounce backs, and unsubscribe rate are vital to understand the performance of your email marketing campaign. With traditional and manual email marketing methods, it is either extremely difficult to collect that kind of insight or it is completely beyond reach. Which is why the email marketing automation tool is used, it can collect various insights and help businesses identifying the areas of improvements to make good changes. A modern email marketing automation tool or email marketing system will help you collect valuable insight which can be very helpful in understanding the user behavior, trends and patterns and customer data which will help you take informed decisions to further improve your email marketing campaign. Furthermore you can also easily conduct A/B testing to analyze two or multiple copies of your email, its design templates, subject line and call-to-action (CTA) button and various other aspects, which coupled with analytical data and insight can greatly improve the performance of your email marketing campaigns.

Why Email Marketing Automation is Essential for Modern Businesses?

The email marketing automation has become absolutely essential for modern businesses, the email communication has become increasingly popular and modern businesses heavily rely on it. It is not just communication, in fact the email marketing has become center point of brand awareness and promotional efforts. Here are some key benefits of email marketing automation:

Save Time and Resource: Managing email campaigns, follow ups and communication can take countless hours and a lot of human resource with traditional manual practices. However, email marketing automation can greatly reduce your efforts and make it super-efficient.
Increase Productivity: The email marketing automation can automate several aspects of your email campaign. The ability to setup workflows, triggers and automated emails can greatly improve the productivity.
Boost Sales and Conversions: When you have an email marketing automation framework in place, your sales team can automate a complete sequence of multiple emails. It helps them to take customers through customer journey without spending hours on crafting personalized messages.
Raise Brand Awareness: Brand awareness campaigns are vital for any business’s growth, it is extremely easier to send bulk emails with email marketing automation tool. Businesses can conduct A/B testing, they can send different copies to different audience groups and much more.
Increase Customer Engagements: Customer engagements can be increased by connecting with them at the right time and sharing the right information they need at that time. This whole processes can be automatically managed by email marketing automation software.
Improve Customer Retention: The email marketing automation enables businesses to schedule email campaigns and communication for months and in upfront, this means your customers will receive continuous news, updates, promotional content and much more which will keep them interested and it will also give them a sense of community and connection which increase customer retention and also help reducing customer churn rate.

An effective email campaign can greatly improve customer retention and help businesses achieve their goals. The email marketing and various email campaigns can generate greater results and at a very cost-effective rate. This is the reason the email marketing is always considered to be the most cost-effective digital marketing channel.

Why Email Marketing Automation is Essential for Modern Businesses?

Conclusion

This is the era where digitalization and technology is dominating each and every aspect of our lives whether it is personal or work life, we are heavily relying on technology. The digitalization and technology bring automation and help businesses and individuals to achieve great with very little efforts. This not only improve productivity but also save time and cost. When it comes to the digital marketing the email marketing is one of the oldest, yet most successful medium. Businesses are heavily relying on emails for their communication and marketing needs. However, sending thousands of emails, managing responses and ensuring your email communication and marketing is achieving its goal is not as that easy. Even if you are a small business you should invest a lot of time and human resources to manage your day-to-day email communication and marketing needs. However, the email marketing automation is a key to all those problems, it not only greatly minimize the efforts and expenses of sending emails but it also greatly improve the results and help businesses achieve their goals. In this blog we have discussed what email marketing automation is and how businesses can leverage an email marketing system to gain great many benefits. If you want to learn more or if you want our help to design a customized email marketing automation tool for your business’s unique needs, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

October 16, 2023October 17, 2023

How to Create Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

It is a common misconception that the email marketing is not as that effective anymore, however, studies have revealed that the email marketing is still one of the best digital marketing tool which could return up to $40 against each $1 spent. The problem is that this misconception is widespread, and the reason behind it is that most of the businesses doesn’t know how to create an effective email marketing campaigns and how to fully leverage a modern email marketing system and automation, which lead to their disbelief in email marketing. There is nothing wrong with the email marketing it is still the most effective and impactful digital marketing and communication tool, the problem is that most of the businesses are unable to leverage it at its full potential. The emails are not only used for digital marketing, but an effective email marketing campaign can be used for brand awareness, customer relationship building and nurturing leads to convert them in to sales. This makes email marketing one of the most powerful marketing and communication medium and Building a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System was never easier before. The email marketing campaigns are usually used for pushing personalized content, boosting customer engagements, improving communication, generating traffic for your website, collecting customer feedbacks, generating and nurturing leads and much more. In this blog we will discuss how a business can create an effective and successful email marketing campaign to achieve their objectives.

What is the different between email marketing and email communication?

There is a striking difference between email marketing and email communication. Both have different goals and objectives and technically both are part of a modern day digital marketing campaign. The email marketing in simple words is a marketing strategy where the emails are used as the primary medium to promote products/services and share your brand’s value to existing customers and prospects. The prime objective of email marketing campaign is to boost sales, improve lead generation and lead conversion and engage existing customers. Whereas the email communication is simply sending emails, reminders, acknowledgments, announcements, etc. to the existing customers. Now a day’s the difference between email communication and email marketing is shrinking, especially when your target is customer engagement but one distinguishing difference between email marketing and email communication is that the email marketing campaign is usually sent to mass audience which includes both customers and non-customers, but the email communication is usually only for existing customers and the email communication could be for individual customers as well as a group of customers or it could be aimed for the entire customer data.

How to Design an Effective Email Marketing Campaign?

Before we discuss different aspects of email marketing campaign it is important to consider and understand how these emails are perceived by your audience. According to a research article published in The Telegraph, humans have shorter attention span than a goldfish!, the research was conducted by experts from Microsoft and the reason behind this phenomenon is the intensive use of smartphone. Now a day’s the human attention span is roughly about 8 seconds which was about 12 seconds in the year 2000, whereas a goldfish have an attention span of almost 9 seconds. This phenomenon is crucial to understand as your email will get only somewhere from 5 to 8 seconds of attention and during that short span of time your email should incite the interest of the user to compel them to read it further and if you succeed in attraction readers, they might convert too.

Here are important things to consider while preparing your email marketing campaigns:

Effective Email Marketing Campaign: From Name

What is the first thing you notice when you receive an email? The sender name or from name. That is the very first thing everyone notice when they receive an email. Hence the ‘from name’ is the most important element to work at while preparing your email campaign. And that is the reason why in many desktop and mobile email clients display the sender’s name in larger, bolder and more prominent text than anything else. Therefore a majority of your audience’s decision of opening the email will solely base on the ‘from name’ or ‘sender name’. For any successful email marketing campaign it is crucial to optimize this factor and the best way to do it is by using a familiar ‘from name’ or sender name. Think from the reader’s prospective, would you rather open an email from an unknown sender or from a businesses or person you know or at least heard of. Obviously people will prefer to open an email from a familiar sender therefore it is important to use a familiar sender name or simply put your business name in the ‘from name’, the goal here is to make is as much familiar to your audience as possible.

Effective Email Marketing Campaign: Subject Line

After the sender name the second most important thing is the subject line or simply the ‘subject’ of your email. Poorly written subject lines are mostly ignored and people doesn’t open such emails. Most of the email clients and devices also highlight email subject with a bolder, larger and darker text. Almost everyone notices it. Both the sender name or ‘from name’ and the email subject line can have huge effect on your emails’ open rate. If these two factors are not properly optimized your most of the emails will go unopened. The first and most important thing to consider while optimizing the email subject is that it should be short and it should also convey value, or highlight the benefit user can get which will compel the reader to open up the email and see how this can be beneficial for them. The second thing to consider is the length of the subject line, although the advisable length is 30 characters, however, it can also be longer than that. According to many experts the email subject line’s length doesn’t have much impact, but in most of the devices and platforms only first 30 characters would be visible, so your message should be conveyed in first 30 characters. These tips will help you optimize your subject line which can greatly increase the open rate.

Effective Email Marketing Campaign: Preheader Text

The preheader text is the short summary which followed by the subject line. This short summary or preheader text is placed just underneath the subject line in the inbox, therefore it can also have significant influence in compelling the readers to open the email. Optimizing the preheader text can greatly improve the email open rate. It the preheader text is not properly optimized, doesn’t convey any message or is incoherent from the subject or sender name, the chances are more than 70% of your audience will never going to open your emails. There are three major elements, the from name, subject line and then the preheader text, all three should be synchronized completely and should be able to convey a message which is appealing enough to compel your reader to open your email campaign. The preheader text, subject line and the ‘from name’ will help you boost your open rate, which is the first step towards success of your email marketing campaign. Another most important thing to consider is that your email content and all these three factors should be properly customized for the targeted audience, the generic subject and preheader text doesn’t compel most of the audience which is one of the main cause of the failure.

See Also: Importance of Digital Marketing

Effective Email Marketing Campaign: Preheader Text

Effective Email Marketing Campaign: Email Body or Body Content

As you have completely understood how to drive email opens using the sender name, subject line and an appealing preheader text, it is time to optimize the click through rate and generate the real value from your email campaign. Once a reader opened your email now it is all about the body content, if that is content succeed to deliver the right message, you are most likely to achieve your campaign goals. There is not set of rules or a successful template which can offer you a magical body copy. The best way to prepare your email body content is to make it short, simple, easy-to-understand and convey the genuine benefits of what your product/service or solution can bring to your customers. Do not brag about your features, make it short and to the point, don’t fill your email body with paragraphs upon paragraphs and images or links, just keep it simple, short and clean. Just remember two things while writing your email copy:

What your product or service does?
What benefits reader can get if they acquire your solutions?

You can also highlight what problems your product or service can solve but it is extremely important to keep your email copy shot and to the point.

See Also: Branding and Online Marketing

Effective Email Marketing Campaign: Email Body or Body Content

Here are some important elements that you can use in your email body copy to make it more appealing and effective:

Instruction: Include a relevant article or blog-post which describes more about your product or service and how to use it.
Engagement: The email body copy must be engaging and interesting, it shouldn’t use any technical or legal language, instead it should use simple and easy to understand language.
Targeted Content: You should segment your email data into most relevant targeted groups and then direct your communication to align it with their interests.
Nurture Relationship: A successful email marketing campaign requires to slowly build and nurture relationships with your prospects which will eventually help you convert them to customers.
Simple Design: Keep your design simple with a combination of both plain text and HTML, it will also help you to pass from most of the email filters or security systems.
Offer Service: It is important to focus on what you can offer instead of focusing on what you want your reader to do to make them convert.
Add Links: It is important to include useful links for blogs, articles, portfolio or knowledge base but do not overdo it. Use fewer links possible as it will distract your readers.
Contact Details: It is extremely important to put your address, contact number and even emails in your email, as it not only help reader to connect with your business but also build trust.

It is important that your email campaign is planned in upfront, all your messages should be planned to take the reader from the sales funnel and eventually convert them into loyal customers. A well-thought email copy or body content can boost your chances of success by up to 60%.

A well-thought email copy or body content can boost your chances of success by up to 60%

Effective Email Marketing Campaign: CTA Button

The CTA Button (call-to-action) plays a crucial role in success of an email marketing campaign. It is an extremely important and influential element of your email. The message you put on it the color scheme you use for it and even the text style and size also matters and have tangible effect on your click through rate (CTR) and conversion rate. Most of the time businesses done CTA buttons wrong and undermine the overall performance of their email campaign. However, setting up your CTA button is a very simple thing, the key here is to make it relevant and clarify what it will do for the reader. For example, you can label it as “book a free appointment/demo for [product name]”. The key here is that your CTA button should be aligned with the rest of the email and it should enforce the same message/benefit you are emphasizing on throughout your entire email. This will not only increase the click through rate but it will also eliminate any perceived obstacles that the reader might have in their minds. It is also important to avoid commonly used friction words. A friction word perceived as an action which most of the time reader doesn’t want to do, for example, download brochure, apply now, order now or submit, etc. These words doesn’t clarify the action in adequate details and could be misleading. A well-crafted CTA button can greatly increase the chances of success of your email marketing campaign.

How to Avoid Email Filters and Improve Deliverability?

If you follow all of the above steps, invest both time and efforts and create an excellent email marketing campaign, but at the end your emails are filtered-out by spam filters and security systems, your all hard work will be wasted. With every passing day the security and safety concerns are rising, this is compelling security solution providers to tighten their policies and develop systems which effectively prevent spammers to reach out to a common email user. Where this is great from the reader’s prospective it could become problematic for a common marketer who is not much familiar with these complex and sophisticated security systems. According to Wikipedia, almost 180 billion spams are sent every day, yes, you read it right it is ‘billion’, 180 billion. However, if you are sending a genuine message it is very simple to avoid these spam filters.

Avoid using “buy” or “free” too many times in your email copy
Request your readers to whitelist you or add you to their contacts
Customize your communication for the targeted audience groups
Use a real reply-to and sender email addresses (use business domain)
Avoid infusing too much HTML code in your emails
Keep your email’s size as small as possible
Do not include too many links in your email
Use organically-generated contact lists
Avoid using purchased or rented email databases
Chose a good and well-reputed email hosting/email server provider

It is important that you make sure your emails doesn’t caught up in spam filters and are designed exclusively for the targeted audience. Because if you are doing a mass email shootout then your email would be unwanted for most of your audience, and most of these users are likely to mark you as spam which will eventually blacklist you among connected networks and prevent your emails from reaching to even to your targeted audience as well. Furthermore, using your business domain email address for your email marketing campaigns not only increase deliverability but it also help building trust and give your audience confidence to open your message.

How to Avoid Email Filters and Improve Deliverability?

Conclusion

The email marketing campaigns are still one of the most cost-effective digital marketing tool with a potential of generating $40 at every $1 spent on email marketing. However, most of the businesses are failed to leverage it. There are several reasons of failure of an email marketing campaigns, such as, your emails are failing to pass spam filter, even if they land in the inbox it is not appealing enough to compel a user to click on it and open it. Let say if your subject line and preheader text is optimized even then if your email copy is not engaging enough or failed to present the value proposition, your campaign will fail. Therefore if you are creating an email marketing campaign you should properly optimize each and every element from sender name, subject line and preheader text to the email server you are using and everything in between should be up-to-the mark if you want to achieve your goals. In this email we have briefly discussed all crucial elements of an email marketing campaign. If you follow the above listed steps and tips you can easily create an effective email marketing campaign which can greatly help you achieve your business goals. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help with your email marketing campaigns, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

September 11, 2023

Building a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System

Businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all across UAE have witnessed huge rise in conversion by implementing successful email marketing funnels with advanced email marketing system. There is a common misconception about the email marketing and email marketing systems, that there is a universal or standard framework which every business can follow to get the desired results. However, that mindset is the biggest cause of failure of email marketing strategies. According to several global studies, the CTR (click through rate), Open Rate and the conversion are consistently increasing since past 5 years. Here it is also important to understand that not all emails are intended to make a sale, most of the email that businesses send to their customers are to build and nurture relationships or for communication. When we talk specifically about the email marketing, it is considered the most cost-efficient marketing channel with almost $40 USD generated against every $1 USD spent on email marketing. That is staggering, but for different industries the benchmarks are different. Furthermore each business have a different personality, a different audience and a completely different preferences and goals. That is why an email marketing system is essential for managing building modern email marketing funnels.

Building a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System

What is an Email Marketing Funnel?

The email marketing funnel is basically an email campaign consists of a series of different emails designed specifically to mature a lead into conversion by nurturing it and communication the right message according to the targeted audience throughout the entire customer journey. In fact it is a tactics to effectively manage customer journey. The funnels are designed not only to convert but to retain and make them loyal customers. That is why it is a long-term strategy consisting of following stages:

Brand Awareness – Present your products/services and the value you offer
Consideration/Engagement – Identify the problems and position your products/services as the right solution
Conversion – Nurturing relationship and facilitating onboarding
Loyalty – Ensuring your customers are satisfied with your brand
Retention/Advocacy – Strengthen relationship, make improvements, offer new solutions

The email marketing funnel is not a standard framework with a set of rules and standard practices. It is in fact different from each business, based on the targeted audience, business type, and even brand personality, the email marketing funnel could be built to maximize the outcome. Every business need to set their goals and acquire insight to understand their targeted audience before setting up their email marketing funnel. Furthermore there is always a room for the improvements. That is why an exclusive email marketing system is essential for designing a successful email marketing funnel. The email marketing system will help businesses quickly set up and execute their campaigns, it also help automating several repetitive tasks and can automatically handle different audience segments. The email marketing system is a great tool to quickly tweak and fine-tune your email marketing funnel to maximize the results.

What is an Email Marketing Funnel?

How to Build a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System?

The email marketing funnels can be built easily with an effective email marketing system. The email marketing software help businesses to easily laydown and execute their plans and derive strategies which returns maximum ROI. Furthermore the email marketing systems are based on a powerful software which can be integrated with various internal systems and process. The integration allow management to easily execute their strategies and measure the effects. Without a proper email marketing system it is extremely difficult to build an effective email marketing funnel. Here are a few simple steps to build a successful email marketing funnel while using an effective email marketing software:

Email Marketing Funnel: Research and Planning

For any successful strategy the planning is a must, and for planning you need proper research. For email marketing funnel the very first step is acquiring insights, doing research and understanding your needs. The research and planning should include:

Acquiring Insight: Starting with acquiring insight, gathering data and understanding customer needs and expectations. It is important to build a comprehensive record of changing customer preferences over the time and then plan your communication accordingly.
Customer Segmentation: You cannot simply send a single email to all of your customers. You should segment them on the bases of their demographics, product/service preferences and also geographical data. Segmentation will help you catering to the needs of your targeted audience.
Customer Journey Mapping: The customer journey mapping is extremely important. Usually businesses doesn’t pay much attention on building customer journey maps. The customer journey map is simply a visual and simplified representation of the steps that your customers had to take form the very first interaction or brand awareness stage to converting into a sale. Different customer segments usually have different needs and also take different route to convert.
Building Email Lists: For any successful email marketing campaign the absolute essential is the right email list. Every business should build an email list. For that you can build opt-in forms, subscription forms, and lead capturing forms. This will help you with segmentation too.
Setting up Goals: It is extremely important that your goals align with the high-level organizational goals and objectives. If your goal is to generate more sales your emails should communicate the value proposition, if you want to build loyalty, your email marketing funnel should be able to engage with customers to increase their satisfaction and gain trust.

Building a successful email marketing funnel requires targeting different customer segments and catering them a variety of different products, services and communication materials as per their needs. Which is only possible if you have an effective email marketing system in place.

How to Build a Successful Email Marketing Funnel with Email Marketing System?

Email Marketing Funnel: Chose the Right Email Marketing Tool

The success of any email marketing funnel depends on how you target the audience, what message you send to them and the right message at the right time is the key to success. This is nearly impossible without using a fully or semi-automated email marketing system. When it comes to email marketing tools there are tons of options available in UAE. Businesses often rely on cloud based services as well, however, there are several factors that you should consider while choosing a right email marketing tool for your business. It is extremely important that you use a very effective email marketing tool to build you email marketing funnel. Here are the most important factors that you should consider while choosing a right email marketing tool for your marketing funnel:

Features
Price (Initial and Operational Cost)
Integration
Customization
Security and Privacy

When it comes to the features of an email marketing tool, the most important features are the tools to create the email template and the automation tools. Usually all email marketing systems comes with two basic content creation tools, a text editor, and an HTML customizer. Some email marketing tools also comes with a drag-and-drop type content customizer. It all depends on your needs, the HTML editor is the most preferred and commonly used template creation tool.

The success of any email marketing funnel depends on how you target the audience

The integration is one of the most important features, which could have different challenges with different off-the-shelf email marketing tools. The integration helps automating the email campaigns. For example if you are planning to send post-sale emails with follow up surveys or any content, you can integrate your email marketing system with your ERP, or customer database and sales management system which will send a trigger when a new sales is made and the email marketing tool will automatically sends a pre-set email template to the customer. You can personalize emails for customers and automate the entire funnel, you can send occasional greetings, newsletters and follow up emails, automatically. The customization is another important factor which allow you to keep up with the market trends and enables you to adopt to new practices and add features that suits your needs down the road. Most of the off-the-shelf solutions doesn’t allow any customization and the ones who allow it, offer very little and very expensive customization. If you are using a third-party email marketing tool or a cloud-based solution your data and content is hosted with service provider, you will have limited control and authority over it.

The integration is one of the most important features, which could have different challenges with different off-the-shelf email marketing tools

However, if you are using a customized email marketing system you can avoid all these problems, you can customize is as per you needs, you don’t have to pay hefty fees for upgrades or customization. You are not bound to a single service provider, you can host your data and content with yourself and as you may please. The custom email marketing system is a software which is exclusively designed for your business needs. You can acquire the services of a custom software development agency in Dubai like RSI Concepts or you can have in-house team to develop the custom email marketing tool as per your needs. The ownership rights belongs to you your business, you are not bound to service provider for anything, you can have another team to maintain, manage and customize your bespoke email marketing system. The final and most important thing is the cost. The cost of a ready-made email marketing system is usually higher, as they are providing you the platform and also the email server which you are using to send email. If you are a small business, you might not require a separate email server. If you are a mid-sized or large enterprise you can easily acquire a third-party email server to utilize with your custom email marketing tool. Altogether the ROI of a custom email marketing system is much higher than a commercial off-the-shelf or cloud-based email marketing tool.

A custom email marketing system is a software which is exclusively designed for your business needs

Email Marketing Funnel: Brand Awareness and Building Lists

Now that you have a clear goal and right tech in place, it is time to start implementing your strategy and plans. The very first step of any email marketing funnel starts with brand awareness stage. At this stage you communicate your brand message, acquire subscribers and build lists. The prime objective of brand awareness campaign is to get as much contacts of your prospects as possible. If you communicate your brand values and produce enough appeal in your content, you will get higher conversion rate at this stage. There are different tools and channels which can be used for brand awareness campaign. You can embed email subscription in your website and mobile apps. You can set up pop-up forms to collect lead data and you can run adverts on digital platforms to collect as many leads as possible. Because on later stages you will be nurturing these leads to generate sales. You should use lead magnets in your digital campaigns, whether it is a landing page, YouTube display ad, Google search ad, Facebook Ad or Instagram Reel, the lead magnet strategy will help you to collect more leads. A lead magnet is simple an incentive or appeal to attract prospects and to compel them to take time to fill in the lead form or to provide you their email address. Once you got that start with the welcome series emails where you introduce your brand, different solutions you are offering and present the value your products and services can provide.

The very first step of any email marketing funnel starts with brand awareness stage

Email Marketing Funnel: Consideration – Nurturing Your Leads

With a successful brand awareness campaign now is the time when your prospects are seriously considering your brand and comparing it with their existing brands and any other available solutions they can avail. This is a very crucial stage. At this stage you should build trust by positioning your products, services and solutions as the ideal solution for your prospects’ problems and needs. This is the time when your emails will tell your prospects the true value of your products, services and solutions and what made your brand and your solutions unique and better from other competitors. Your emails should communicate your value proposition, unique selling point and ROI of your solutions. At this stage your communication should build a sense of urgency to encourage your leads to quickly convert, and also address the most obvious concerns they could have. Ensure your prospects you will provide them good support and service. Studies have revealed that more than 80% of the prospects genuinely consider the rating and reviews of the other customers and this can greatly influence their decision. That is why it is important to include user-generated content, testimonials, customer rating, case-studies and even some free resources which will help you building gaining their trust. You should also include comparisons of your products and services with your leading competitors to give confidence to your prospects.

At this stage you should build trust by positioning your products, services and solutions as the ideal solution for your prospects’ problems and needs

Email Marketing Funnel: Conversion and Onboarding

The most important stage in customer journey is the conversion and onboarding, because that can also be counted as the first comprehensive experience your customers will have with your brand. This is where you should be able to utilize the advance customization and template creation tools of your email marketing system. It is extremely important to make your onboarding simpler and quicker. You should also design a series of emails which share promotions, offers and you can bundle them with freebies and special discounts to encourage your prospects to convert. Here an important thing to consider is that if your emails are too much pushy then it will repel your customers. It is better to use professional language, eye-catchy graphics with an adequate topping of urgency. Creating urgency is crucial, it will help you keeping your customers focused and not leaving them enough room to do comprehensive research which might change their mind. The onboarding process should be simpler, do not include long forms and complex steps in the onboarding process. Your email should be able to provide a clear and easy-to-follow path to conversion with adequate information and resources which can help your customers to convert conveniently. Any obstacle or complication at this stage will cost you a potential customer.

It is extremely important to make your onboarding simpler and quicker

Email Marketing Funnel: Building Loyalty

The customer journey doesn’t end at conversion, in fact a marketing funnel must include a comprehensive series of emails which are designed to keep your customers engaged. It is important to have a proper loyalty program in place. Your email marketing funnel will help you to achieve more customer loyalty with your loyalty program. You can share regular promotions, exclusive offers for customers, personalized communication, and loyalty rewards to obtain your customers’ loyalty. At this stage your communication should keep your customers engaged for example, you can create and share content which help your customers to effectively utilize the features of your products, services or solutions. At this stage collecting customer feedback, encouraging them to participate in polls contests and draws will increase their engagement. The customer engagement drives customer loyalty and help strengthening the relationship between a brand and its customers. Your emails should convey the message that you value your customers and how important they are for your business, you can do so by appreciating their loyalty, offering discounts or special deals, etc. An email marketing system will help you set-up scheduled campaigns and it will also help you personalizing your emails which are more effective than generic emails.

You can share regular promotions, exclusive offers for customers, personalized communication, and loyalty rewards to obtain your customers’ loyalty

Email Marketing Funnel: Increasing Retention

Customer retention is somewhat similar to building loyalty. However, the core difference between the two is that in your customer retention campaigns you include both your new customers and existing customers as well. The customer loyalty is an ongoing process, you will have to keep nurturing your relationship with your customers in order to retain them and get repeated business from them. The customer retention is not only important for getting repeated business, but it will also help you establish a strong and positive brand identity. The customer retention campaigns will help you maximizing the customer lifecycle which will maximize your ROI. The customer retention campaign is also more targeted, you must segment your customers on the bases of their purchases/subscription, their preferences, interests and demographic data. A good email marketing tool will help you setup multiple email templates for multiple customer segments. You should also focus on the active customers rather than each and every contact is your list. When you will focus only on active customers the chances to get another sale are very high. The customer feedback also plays very important role in customer retention. You can integrate your email marketing system with a customer feedback system and execute a closed-loop customer feedback campaign which will further help you strengthening the relationship with your customers. When you increase customer engagement, share useful information, offer them personalized and exclusive deals/discounts, and keep them up to date your customer retention increases.

The customer retention campaigns will help you maximizing the customer lifecycle which will maximize your ROI

Conclusion

The email marketing is one of the oldest digital marketing method and still it is one of the best digital marketing method. According to studies a business can generate up to $40 USD on each $1 USD spend on email marketing. However, simply just sending emails to your customers or prospects is not enough. The business operating in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi or anywhere in UAE are actively utilizing emails to communicate with their customers. However, most of the businesses are unaware of the impact of a successful email marketing funnel. In this blog we have discussed what an email marketing funnel is and how businesses can easily build a successful email marketing funnel with the help of an effective email marketing system. The email marketing system is a very powerful software tool, which is used to streamline email communication and marketing for a business. The email marketing tools help automating email campaigns and also enable businesses to send hyper-personalized emails to maximize the impact and ROI.

There are two types of email marketing tools, the commercial off-the-shelf tools and the customized email marketing systems. The custom email marketing tools is much superior as it will be designed exclusively for your business and according to your needs. You can also start with a cloud-based system and build your email marketing funnel. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design and develop a customized email marketing system for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.