Email marketing is a direct marketing strategy that uses email to communicate with current and potential customers. Its primary purpose is to promote products or services, build customer loyalty, and share company updates. By sending targeted messages, businesses can nurture leads, drive sales, and maintain relationships with their audience.
Always prioritize permission-based marketing by building your email list organically instead of purchasing one. This ensures you're contacting an engaged audience. Segment your list to send highly relevant content, which boosts engagement and builds trust with your subscribers.
Craft compelling subject lines and keep your design simple and mobile-friendly. Structure your message to be easily scannable with a clear call to action. Continuously monitor your analytics and use A/B testing to refine your strategy and improve performance over time.
Email marketing platforms, often called Email Service Providers (ESPs), are essential for managing campaigns efficiently. These tools provide a suite of features to streamline the process of creating, sending, and analyzing email communications at scale. They help automate workflows and ensure messages are targeted and compliant.
While related, email marketing and digital marketing serve distinct strategic functions for businesses.
Measuring the success of your email campaigns is crucial for understanding what resonates with your audience and optimizing future efforts. By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), you can make data-driven decisions to improve engagement and ROI.
Navigating the complexities of email marketing involves overcoming several persistent hurdles to ensure campaign success.
How often should I email my list?
There's no magic number. Frequency depends on your audience's expectations and the value you provide. Test different cadences, from daily to monthly, and monitor engagement metrics like open rates and unsubscribes to find the sweet spot for your specific segments.
How can I improve my email deliverability?
Focus on list hygiene by regularly removing inactive subscribers. Use a reputable email service provider, authenticate your domain with SPF and DKIM, and avoid spammy subject lines. Consistent sending volume and high engagement also signal trustworthiness to inbox providers.
What's more important: open rate or click-through rate?
While open rates indicate subject line effectiveness, click-through rate (CTR) is a stronger measure of engagement and content relevance. A high CTR shows your message resonated enough to inspire action, which is a more direct indicator of campaign success.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
Firmographics are descriptive attributes of organizations, used to segment companies by characteristics like industry, size, and location.
Account-Based Sales (ABS) is a focused B2B strategy where sales and marketing teams treat high-value accounts as individual markets of one.
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A Content Management System (CMS) is software for creating, managing, and modifying website content without needing specialized technical skills.
Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all of a company's relationships and interactions with its customers.
Persona-based marketing uses fictional customer profiles, or personas, to create targeted messaging for specific audience segments.
Cohort analysis is a behavioral analytics tool that groups users with common traits to track their actions and engagement over time.
A qualified lead is a prospect vetted as a good fit for your product. They match your ideal customer profile and show genuine interest.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a focused B2B strategy where marketing and sales collaborate to target and convert high-value accounts.
Pipeline coverage is a key sales metric. It's the ratio of your total open pipeline value to your sales quota for a specific period.
Lead generation is the process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business's products or services.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) software helps teams coordinate personalized marketing and sales efforts to land high-value customer accounts.
An elevator pitch is a short, memorable summary of what you do, designed to be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator.
A sales call is a real-time conversation between a salesperson and a prospect, aiming to persuade them to purchase a product or service.
Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.
Sales workflows are a set of automated actions that streamline the sales process, helping teams engage leads consistently and close deals faster.
CRM integration connects your CRM software with other tools, creating a unified system for all your customer data and business processes.
Triggers are predefined conditions that, when met, automatically launch a workflow or action, ensuring timely and relevant outreach.
GPCTBA/C&I is a sales qualification framework for understanding a prospect's goals, plans, challenges, timeline, budget, and authority.
Learn about bounce rate, including understanding bounce rate implications, key factors affecting bounce rate, & reducing your bounce rate effectively.
Demand generation is the process of creating awareness and interest in your products to build a pipeline of qualified leads for your sales team.
Learn about B2C2B, including how B2C2B transforms sales, key strategies for B2C2B success, & differences between B2C2B and B2B2C.
A Marketing Qualified Account (MQA) is a target company that has shown significant engagement, indicating it's ready for the sales team to pursue.
Stress testing is a type of software testing that determines a system's robustness by pushing it beyond its normal operational capacity.
Cold emailing is sending unsolicited emails to potential customers you haven't contacted before, aiming to start a business conversation.
ABM orchestration aligns marketing and sales actions across channels to deliver seamless, personalized experiences to high-value accounts.
Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.
Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.
An Account Development Representative (ADR) identifies and qualifies new business opportunities, creating a pipeline for account executives.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a system of integrated software that businesses use to manage and automate their core day-to-day processes.
An Operational CRM is a system that automates and improves customer-facing business processes like sales, marketing, and customer service.
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Trigger marketing uses customer actions or events to automatically send highly relevant, personalized messages at the perfect moment.
Network monitoring is the continuous process of tracking a computer network's performance and health to detect and resolve issues proactively.
Responsive design is an approach where a website's layout adapts to the user's screen size, providing an optimal experience on any device.
Ramp-up time is the period a new hire takes to get fully up to speed and become a productive member of your go-to-market team.
Channel partners are third-party firms that help market and sell a company's products or services, acting as an indirect sales force.
A channel partner is a company that works with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell their products, software, or services to customers.
A lead list is a curated database of potential customers (leads) with contact information and other key data for sales and marketing outreach.
Account mapping is comparing your customer list with a partner's to find common prospects and unlock new sales opportunities.
Hadoop is an open-source framework designed for the distributed storage and processing of extremely large data sets across clusters of computers.
A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.
Account-Based Selling is a B2B strategy where sales and marketing treat high-value accounts as markets of one, using personalized outreach.
Sales prospecting software automates the process of finding, contacting, and tracking potential customers to help sales teams build their pipeline.
Sales development is the process of identifying and qualifying potential customers to create a pipeline of sales-ready leads for closers.
Warm outbound is a sales strategy for contacting prospects who've shown interest in your brand through prior engagement, like website visits.
A talk track is a script that guides sales reps during calls. It ensures they cover key points and maintain a consistent message with prospects.
Contact data is the set of details, like names, emails, and phone numbers, used to get in touch with a person or business for outreach.
Sales objections are reasons or concerns raised by a potential customer as to why they are hesitant or unwilling to make a purchase.
NoSQL ("Not only SQL") databases offer a flexible alternative to relational models, excelling at managing large and unstructured data sets.
Mobile compatibility ensures your site or app works flawlessly on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for a seamless user experience.
Sales and marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing performance data to maximize effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).
Docker is a tool that packages applications and their dependencies into isolated environments called containers for easy deployment and scaling.
A commission is a service charge paid to an agent for a transaction. It's typically a percentage of the sale, rewarding performance directly.
Demand is the economic principle describing a consumer's desire and willingness to purchase a specific good or service at a particular price.
A RESTful API is a web service interface that uses HTTP requests to access and use data, adhering to the constraints of REST architecture.
A marketing attribution model is a framework for assigning credit to the marketing touchpoints that lead a customer to convert.
HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform with tools for marketing, sales, and service, all aimed at helping businesses grow.
Learn about B2B data, including sources and types of B2B data, leveraging B2B data for sales success, & ensuring the accuracy of B2B data.
A Salesforce Administrator is a certified professional who manages and customizes the Salesforce platform to meet a company's specific business needs.
Warm outreach is contacting prospects with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact, making your message more personal and effective.
Integration testing is a software testing phase where individual modules are combined and tested together to verify their interaction.
Sales automation uses software to streamline and automate repetitive, manual sales tasks, freeing up reps to focus on selling.
Programmatic advertising uses AI and real-time bidding to automate the buying and selling of digital ad space, targeting specific audiences.
Sales metrics are quantifiable data points that track and measure a sales team's performance against specific goals and objectives.
Content Rights Management involves controlling the use and distribution of copyrighted digital media to protect intellectual property.
Sales enablement content refers to the materials and tools that empower your sales team to engage prospects and close deals more efficiently.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are websites that look and feel like native mobile apps, offering features like offline access and push notifications.
Psychographics categorizes people by their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, revealing the 'why' behind their purchasing decisions.
Account-Based Everything (ABE) is a strategy aligning sales, marketing, and success teams to focus on a specific set of high-value accounts.
The awareness stage is the first step in the buyer's journey, where a potential customer realizes they have a problem or an opportunity to explore.
Inside sales is a remote sales process where reps sell products or services via phone, email, and other digital tools instead of in person.
Logo retention is a key B2B metric that measures a company's ability to retain its customers, or 'logos,' over a specific period.
The lead qualification process is how you determine which prospects are most likely to become customers by evaluating them against specific criteria.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results.
Learn about buyer intent, including understanding buyer intent signals, strategies to capture buyer intent, & buyer intent vs. customer interest.
Learn about behavioral analytics, including implementing behavioral analytics successfully, & key metrics in behavioral analytics.
The Dark Funnel describes customer buying activities that are untrackable by companies, such as private chats and word-of-mouth referrals.
An enterprise is a large-scale organization, often a corporation, defined by its complex structure and substantial number of employees.
Revenue forecasting is the process of estimating a company's future revenue, using historical data and market trends to guide strategic planning.
Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is the portion of the market your business can realistically serve with its current products and sales channels.
Accounts Payable (AP) is the money a company owes its suppliers for goods or services bought on credit. It's listed as a current liability.
A buying committee is a group of stakeholders within an organization who are jointly responsible for making major purchasing decisions.
Customer retention refers to the strategies and activities a company uses to prevent customer churn and encourage them to continue buying.
Email personalization uses subscriber data—like their name, interests, or past behavior—to create highly relevant and targeted email campaigns.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.
Buying intent is the collection of online cues and behaviors that signal a prospect is actively researching and moving toward a purchase decision.
A User Interface (UI) is the point where humans and computers interact. It encompasses all visual elements like screens, icons, and buttons.
Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation.
Total Addressable Market (TAM) represents the maximum revenue a company can earn by selling its product or service in a specific market.
Firmographic data is information used to classify firms. It includes attributes like industry, employee count, location, and annual revenue.
A Request for Information (RFI) is a formal process for gathering information from potential suppliers before issuing a more detailed proposal.
Learn about brag book, including crafting your outstanding brag book, essential components of a brag book, & brag book vs. resume: unveiling the differences.
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.
A custom API integration is a bespoke connection between software, enabling them to communicate and share data to meet unique business requirements.
Shipping solutions are services or software that streamline the logistics of getting products to customers, from label printing to final delivery.
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that manages your entire hiring and recruitment process from a single dashboard.
A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API is a web service that uses XML to exchange structured information between different applications.