Recent research shows that email marketing is alive and well, and is much more important than most perceive it to be. It is considered the most effective marketing channel – with some marketers believing it to be more powerful than social media and SEO. On top of that, email marketing is the easiest way to build relationships with new, old or prospective customers.

Email marketing can be used for a range of things including building loyalty, growing awareness of new products/services, expanding awareness of your brand to subscribers’ networks, re-engaging abandoned carts and staying top-of-mind.

There are many different types of EDMs and email marketing that can be implemented. Two main types that are highly beneficial are newsletters and abandoned cart emails.

Newsletters are informational emails that are used to show stories or articles that may interest your audience and keep them up to date with your business, products and services. These types of emails generally perform well when presented in a visually appealing way with images and icons that can attract the reader without sending a lengthy email. 

An abandoned cart email is a message that follows up with customers who don’t complete a purchase on your site. Data shows that over 75% of people abandon their carts online. However, some of this population can be salvaged through an abandoned cart email. Remind your customer of the product that they have left behind and convince them to go through with the purchase, as well as offering them other product ideas that might entice them to purchase even if they are no longer interested in the initial add to cart. 

When looking for an email marketing software, you will need to consider the types of emails you intend to send, how many recipients you have as well as the number and experience level of administrators. There are a number of different email marketing software available but it’s important to select one that is cost effective but also meets the needs of your emails and suits the editors (or administrators) who will be using it. If you’re unsure which is best for you, we welcome you to have a chat to us. We’ve used a number of different software programs so can provide some insights into the pros and cons of these based on your business needs.

There are three main ways to create an email template. Some email software platforms have basic templates that are available for their customers to utilise for free. These are the most basic of templates and don’t allow for much customisation or creativity in the design. A step up from there is purchasing an email template design and having a developer or marketer sufficient with HTML to customise the design with colours, buttons, imagery sizes, fonts and more. The final way to create a template is a full custom design. In this instance, you have full control over what elements are on the template, the design, fonts, colours and more. The process for a full custom design involves as initial discussion on what you want the email to include, a mock up of the email followed by a full design (reviewed on both desktop and mobile). Once approved, the design is then built by a developer, usually to be responsive and in most cases, to include modules that can be added or deleted; allowing for freedom of content in the future.