Email Marketing getting started check-list

Before you get started with email marketing you should have a brainstorm to think what content is going to be in your email campaigns. You could even sketch a rough plan of how much content you will need and how you’d expect it to be laid out.

Just by starting off with this you should know how your campaign will start to look and how much content you will need per campaign.

If you are stuck for inspiration then search our gallery or take a look at our email types page to see emails categorized by the type of campaign they are.

Frequency

Look at how often you can commit to sending out email campaigns, because you might not be able to get these campaigns out when you say you can. At first you may think it would be good to send out campaigns every 2 weeks, but after leaving say a week to plan and create the campaign as well as testing – you might not be able to turn this around in time, whilst having other work commitments too.

Instead of rushing, take your time and test all aspects of your campaign, by creating your first campaign this way you can time yourself how long it takes and then decide how often your emails will go out. Make sure you let your subscribers know how often these go out on the page where they subscribe.

Most other companies conform to the monthly or bi weekly email campaigns with more for special email campaign’s for holidays.

Email Provider

When you are picking an email provider it needs to take some thought; always look at features as well as pricing to see what is best for YOUR business.

Think of what features you need, for example some of the free accounts are a fantastic starter for new businesses, but you do not have all of the features as paid accounts do like auto-responders, email inbox preview testing, free templates or scheduling emails in advance.

Some of the most popular email service providers are Mailchimp, Aweber and dotMailer, as well as other UK based companies like Campaign Monitor and Pure360 just to name a few.

Email vendor selection is a great site if you need to read reviews and compare features. Most email marketing providers give out free demo’s of their system so you can try before you buy!

Email Template

An email template is a necessity to use for your email marketing to progress. By having a bespoke template designed you can then just add your content each time you wish to create a campaign. This template can then also be used for any auto-responders you need to setup like a Welcome email or thanking your customer for a recent purchase. These template’s will usually cost extra for to get designed but there is another option.

Most email service providers will supply free templates in your account for you to customise yourself, this can then be saved as a template for you to use over and over again.

Sign up forms

You just have to have a signup form on your website so potential customers can subscribe for updates of news and special offers from your business.

I use two methods; a form with first name and email fields in too right hand side bar or my website. Also at the bottom of my website in the footer I have an email only option.

99% of all email marketing providers have their own data capture forms for you to use, some have even created plugins for WordPress. This makes it easier for you to design your sign up form and embed this on your website to start collecting data.

Summary

All of this may seem a bit too much even before you start your email marketing however, if you use these points I have made, this will allow you to get more out of your email marketing strategy.