What is an email campaign?
Simply put, an email campaign is a series of marketing emails with a specific goal—such as to promote a product, service, or event—sent out to a specific audience.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: Is there more than one type of this type of campaign?
Yes, there is more than one type of email campaign: promotional and informational. The type you send out would ultimately depend on where the recipient is on the buyer’s journey.
But what exactly is the difference between the two? Let us take a look:
Promotional email campaigns, as the name suggests, are specifically designed to promote something. It can be a product, service, event, or anything else that a marketer wants to get the word out on.
Informational email campaigns, on the other hand, are specifically designed to educate the recipient in some way. Examples include:
- Online course-related email campaigns
- Onboarding email campaigns
- Announcement email campaigns
Let us take a closer look at each one:
First, online course-related email campaigns involve sending out a series of course-related emails—such as progress reports or actual course material—over a predetermined period or based on each student’s real-time progress.
Second, onboarding email campaigns are designed to help new users get the hang of using a product or service.
Finally, announcement email campaigns, as you may have already guessed, are meant to disseminate announcements about a particular product, service, event, or topic.
Question #2: What are the benefits of running an email campaign?
The biggest benefits of running an email campaign include:
- Time savings
- Reach
- Engaged audience
Let us take a look at each one in more detail:
First, since email campaigns are almost always fully automated, all you have to do is set everything up once and let your chosen email marketing platform handle the rest. There is no need to spend any more time on it, regardless of how big your email list gets. Once you have your automation set up, they will just keep working until you turn them off.
Second, email campaigns allow you to reach thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of people in one go instead of manually reaching out to each prospect.
Finally, email campaigns allow you to talk directly to people who are already expecting to hear from you—as shown by them signing up to receive your marketing emails—instead of trying to get the attention of people who do not know you or are not expecting communication from you.
Here’s another useful article from HubSpot on the benefits of an email campaign.
Question #3: What are the downsides to running an email campaign?
The biggest downside to running an email campaign is that it is extremely easy to get wrong, and when you do, you stand to lose not only your prospects, but your existing customers as well.
But what exactly does ‘getting it wrong’ mean? Below are some examples:
- Running a campaign with absolutely no personalisation
- Running a non-targeted campaign
- Sending the wrong type of emails
- Sending too many emails
Let us take a closer look at each one:
First, sending out emails that have zero personalisation (i.e., no names, no relevant details, and no personalised message and/or offer) can make your recipients feel as if you see them as just one more person to sell to.
Second, running a non-targeted campaign means a lot of your recipients would receive emails that are not exactly relevant to them, which has pretty much the same effect as sending out non-personalised emails.
Third, sending the wrong type of emails simply means you are providing people who are already looking to buy with information and selling to people who are still doing their research.
Finally, sending out too many emails will not only annoy your recipients and cause them to unsubscribe, but also put you at risk of ending up on an email blocklist.
Question #4: How do I make it more effective?
To make your email campaign more effective, simply do the opposite of what we talked about in the previous section:
- Personalise your emails
- Do proper targeting
- Send the right type of emails to the right people
- Regulate the number of emails you send out