What is email marketing in 2024? Definition, benefits & strategies

Email marketing is a powerful tool for online businesses and individuals. It allows them to reach their target audience with relevant content and information that, over time, can help to develop meaningful connections. So, what is email marketing?

Though it might not seem like a new tool, compared to social media marketing and other forms of marketing, it can be an incredibly powerful one. With email marketing, online platforms can deliver personalised messages that drive brand loyalty and revenue.

In this article, we’ll explore what email marketing is, the benefits it offers, and some of the key strategies you should consider.

Email marketing definition

Email marketing is a form of digital marketing strategy that involves sending messages, updates and promotional content.

It allows businesses and individuals to communicate with existing and potential customers in a direct and personalised way. Typically, an email marketing campaign will involve the sending of newsletters, product announcements, exclusive offers or event invitations.

Like other forms of website marketing, email marketing normally contains a mixture of commercial and non-commercial content. In fact, the best email marketing strategies will rely on both.

Email marketing benefits

There are a range of benefits to email marketing that can make a huge difference to any business.

Take a look at the sections below to find out more.

Widen your reach

With billions of people using email worldwide, this form of marketing could help you to unlock an enormous customer base.

It’s worth remembering that rules might dictate how wide this audience can be. In the UK, legal codes like GDPR can impact your reach, with similar rules in Europe and the US.

Email marketing and GDPR

If you’re operating in Europe, you will probably know about GDPR. If you don’t, then you should.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was put into effect by the EU in 2018. Essentially, it’s a series of rules that govern how data and personal information can be informed, including things like email addresses and customer information.

For business, GDPR is an important legal consideration. Not following the rules can lead to hefty penalties.

Some quick things to bear in mind:

The way you process information must be fair, lawful and transparent.
You must only use data for specific purposes, and these purposes need to be agreed by your customers when their data is collected.
Data must processed safely to ensure that it is secured appropriately and confidentially.

In short, ensuring that you follow GDPR best practices is vital. If you’re not sure about how to proceed, you should refer to government guidelines and other, reputable sources.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is an equivalent set of guidelines in the US that you’ll need to be aware if operating in the United States.

Personalisation

Email marketing allows businesses to tailor their messages to individual recipients so that they can deliver personalised content that is based on their preferences, purchase history or demographic information.

When done well, this personalised approach can improve customer engagement metrics, as well as conversion rates when relevant.

Cost-effective

Compared to traditional forms of marketing, such as television or radio broadcasting, email marketing can be highly cost-effective.

It eliminates the costs of printing and postage while allowing you to target your message specifically to the people who will be reading it. Similar to something like social media marketing, email marketing enables you to specify who you want to receive your message, meaning that it doesn’t need to be sent to the users who might not find it interesting or useful.

Increased conversions

By leveraging the tools available with email marketing platforms, such as targeted sending, personalised messaging and effective call-to-action (CTA) options, businesses can engage potential customers and guide them through the sales funnel.

Measurable results and data

Email marketing platforms offer valuable analytics tools that can provide insights into how well campaigns have performed. You can track metrics such as open rate, click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CR) to see what has worked and what hasn’t.

With this data, you can begin testing and iterating to make informed decisions about what sort of messaging works with different audiences.

Email marketing strategies

There are a range of strategies to consider when you start email marketing, and once you’ve been doing it for a while.

Take a look at the sections below to find out more.

Build a quality subscriber list

The first step in email marketing is to build a quality list of subscribers. Often, this does not begin in email but can be driven through other means.

A strong SEO strategy, for example, will drive users to your site. These users can become subscribers with the right tools on your website.

You should encourage users to subscribe to your email marketing by offering them incentives. This might be exclusive content, discounts or free resources, depending on what sort of website you operate.

Segment and personalise emails

Once you have an email database, you should do work to divide that list into segments based on a range of factors. These factors might be demographic, based on customers’ age, gender or location; or they could be based on purchase history or user behaviour, for example.

Creating these segments will allow you to personalise content to make sure you are sending the right messaging to the right people.

Create engaging content

You should aim to craft high-quality content every time you send emails.

Make sure you are providing valuable information, engaging stories and eye-catching visuals to keep readers reading, and to avoid having them unsubscribe from your database.

Device optimisation

A huge number of people access their emails using devices other than their desktops or laptops. It is essential that the messages you send are optimised for these devices.

You should make sure that your emails are responsive and that they display correctly on a range of screen sizes to make sure that user experience does not suffer on any.

Test and optimise

Using the data provided by your email dashboard, you can monitor the various elements of your email campaigns to make sure they are as effective as possible.

This can include things like subject lines, in-email content, CTA placement and even the time of day that your emails are sent. Monitor the results, keep an eye on key metrics, and make sure that you respond appropriately.

What is email marketing: Final thoughts

Email marketing is a highly effective tool for businesses and individuals who are looking to communicate directly with their audience.

By making use of all of the tools available to you, you can build stronger relationships with your customers, and potential customers, while improving brand loyalty and your return on investment.

Bryn Glover

Bryn is the founder and editor of WebsiteJumpStart. He has worked in the digital field for over a decade and was editor for Startups.co.uk - the UK's leading small business website - and for NerdWallet UK before launching WebsiteJumpStart to help people and businesses get online with ease.

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