Email Marketing Basics
Email has become an important part of our daily lives, with many of us checking our inboxes multiple times a day. This makes email marketing a powerful tool for businesses looking to reach and engage customers effectively. While Facebook and X also play a role in customer outreach, email marketing often provides a more direct and personal way to connect.
However, mastering email marketing involves more than just sending out mass emails and hoping for the best. The real challenge lies in crafting messages that resonate with your audience and creates a sense of trust and engagement. It's not just about growing your subscriber list, but it’s also about nurturing a community of followers who are interested in your content and are also enthusiastic about sharing it with others.
To do this, your professional emails need to be thoughtful and well-targeted. They should offer real value, whether through insightful information, exclusive deals, or personal stories that connect on an emotional level. Remember, the goal of your mailing list is to build a network of subscribers who look forward to your emails and feel a genuine connection to your brand.
Requirements
Email marketing has often been misused which leads to a widespread perception that it lacks rules and boundaries. Thankfully, that isn't the case now that we have laws to regulate what can and can't be emailed to the masses. As a U.S.-based company, our user agreement requires our customers to follow the rules in the CAN-SPAM Act, which applies to any email sent for the primary purpose of advertising or promoting a product, service, or website—even business-to-business email. Most countries have similar laws, so if you live outside the U.S., you'll also need to comply with any local email laws.
Our basic mailing list requirements, largely based on the most common anti-spam laws, are listed below. These aren't just good suggestions—they're requirements.
| Features | Functions |
| Confirmed Opt-In | Also known as Double Opt-In or Verified Opt-In, it is meant to ensure only people who want to receive your information are subscribed to your mailing list. When enabled, new subscribers will be sent a confirmation email with a link they must click in order to be added to your mailing list. Constant Contact and other email marketing services can do this for you. |
| One-Click Unsubscribe | A one-click unsubscribe link must be included in every email. The link should be easy to find, so the recipient doesn't resort to marking the message as spam. |
| Identify Advertisements | A commercial email that promotes a business or paid service must be clearly identified as an advertisement. |
| Clear, Concise Subjects | The email subject line must accurately reflect the content of the email. It is better to be simple and direct in your approach rather than catchy and misleading. If the content of your email is worth opening, then the subject line should write itself. |
| Identify Yourself | Use accurate "From," "To," and "Reply-To" information in your email headers, so your recipients know it's you. In addition, your contact information must be included in every promotional email that you send, including a physical mailing address or PO Box where you can receive mail. |
| Don't Use Purchased Lists | Using a purchased, rented, or scraped mailing list is not only against our Terms of Service. It's a huge waste of money! These second-hand lists are notorious for providing bad addresses that lead to high bounce rates and blacklisting. Good email addresses aren't for sale. |
Email Marketing Done Right
Email marketing is unique in its ability to shape a business's online image. When done right, it will grow your customer base and promote your cause. Sadly, we can all think of examples of businesses who've done it wrong, ranging from uninteresting content to outright spam. So let's make your readers happy by doing it right!
| Features | Functions |
| Relate to Your Audience | Understand why they've come to you and use your content to show how your product or service makes their life easier. |
| Balance Content and Promotion | Plan ahead to determine how much of your campaign will include advertisements and how much will be interesting and useful content used to engage your readers. You could try the 80/20 rule: 80% content, 20% promotion. |
| Collect Subscribers | Create an opt-in campaign on your website that offers an incentive to sign up—perhaps a contest or exclusive email deal. Encourage your users to share your content with "forward to a friend" buttons and "share on social media" links. |
| Utilize List Segmentation | The segment, or divide, your subscribers into groups based on their interests, demographics, and preferences on products or services. You can easily do this by including additional fields in your subscription form. Your email campaigns will have increased response and engagement rates by treating your subscribers as distinct groups with distinct needs. |
| Proofread, Proofread, Proofread! | Fix any grammatical, factual, and other errors before your readers find them! Read your message aloud, spell check it, and read it again before sending it. |
| Preview on Multiple Devices | Does your email look as good on smartphones and tablets as it does on a computer screen? Mobile apps have slowly replaced desktop email. Today, the majority of email is initially opened on a mobile device. If your emails don't look good on mobile devices, you're neglecting a fair portion of your audience. |
Constant Contact
We want you to be successful with your email marketing campaigns, so we've partnered with Constant Contact to give you the best email marketing tools available. Take a look at these fantastic features:
| Features | Functions |
| Customizable Templates | You don't have to be a professional web designer to make a beautiful email campaign. Just select one of their professional templates and customize it to your preferences using their drag-and-drop editor. It's that simple! |
| Automate Campaigns | Customize automated campaigns so you can send the right message at the right time. Automatically remind customers of the products they've left in their cart or follow up with customers after they've completed a purchase to recommend other products they'll love. |
| List-Building Tools | Easily grow your list in-person and online with trusted-partner apps that sync to your Constant Contact account, customizable sign-up forms for your website, and custom texts or QR codes that let people subscribe to your emails from their mobile device. |
| Ensure Delivery | Constant Contact has the highest delivery rates in the business because they provide you with the tools you need to be successful, including confirmed opt-in and one-click unsubscribe to help keep your emails compliant with anti-spam laws, so your emails go to your subscriber's inbox, not their spam folders. |
| See What Works | Use email tracking tools and detailed analytics to track your marketing success. Check your mobile email open rates, clickthrough rates, and bounce rates; measure audience engagement; track how much revenue you've generated, and more. You can even set up A/B testing to see which campaigns work better. The more you know, the easier it'll be to make your next campaign even more successful. |
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You may also refer to our Knowledge Base articles to help answer common questions and guide you through various setup, configuration, and troubleshooting steps.