Bulk emails and email marketing are two strategies under the same umbrella. However, these are very different techniques that have distinct uses and, sometimes, risks. In this article, we’ll define bulk email and email marketing as we walk you through the process of deciding which is best for your business.
WHAT IS BULK EMAIL?
Bulk email, also known as mass email or email blasts, refers to the practice of sending a one-time advertisement message to a large group of people at once. To send bulk emails, you need an email marketing platform and a list of opted-in subscribers (you should not be blind copying people in your Gmail or Outlook). Beware: if you purchase an email list or you use an old list from a company you used to work at, this will likely get you in trouble. To effectively use bulk email you must have the recipient’s consent first. Numerous email platforms allow you to send bulk emails, and it’s best to select one that makes the creation, sending, and deliverability of your emails as simple as possible. Keep in mind that you must have permission to send a bulk email, otherwise, your email will be marked as spam, and you may face a hefty fine under the CAN-SPAM Act.
Simple methods to get permission to send commercial emails:
- Include a sign-up form on each page of your website.
- Include an email sign-up form at the end of each transaction.
- Collect registration forms at trade shows and other events.
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WHAT ARE EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS?
An email marketing campaign is a targeted, segmented sequence of emails that a marketer sends to their subscribers. These emails aim to help a brand or company accomplish a specific objective. Common goals could be to increase conversions, educate audiences about a new product or service, or reach out to nurture relationships with them. In general, campaigns are sent to a larger audience with the expectation that they take action toward your objective. Prospects should remain in your campaign list until they take action. To get the most out of your email campaign, segment your list based on specific traits like gender, location, activity, lifetime value, purchase frequency, or life cycle status. Based on this information, you can create unique email content for each segment. This personalization increases open rates, click through and deliverability for all of your emails.
BENEFITS OF USING BULK EMAIL MARKETING
Bulk email marketing is the most secure technique for any business to engage with current and prospective customers in the least amount of time. This marketing strategy enables a marketer to create marketing messages effortlessly. All that is required is the use of the existing tools and workflows. With bulk email marketing, what would have formerly taken weeks to execute can now be completed in a few hours by a single person. However, these aren’t the only benefits of bulk email marketing. Here are some additional benefits of incorporating bulk email marketing into your marketing strategy:
AFFORDABLE MARKETING STRATEGY
One of the primary benefits of using bulk email is that you can send your message to a large number of people quickly and cheaply. With bulk email, there is no need to hire marketing analysts, designers, or a large number of employees to help you complete your campaign. A good bulk email involves an active email marketing provider, such as Mailchimp, and a competent marketer that can include appropriate offers, information, and graphics to meet your clients’ needs.. So far, no marketing medium provides a higher ROI than email marketing.
ENABLES SALES TRACKING
A bulk email helps you to easily track leads and conversions so that you can understand what’s working and what’s not. When you send a mass email, you can see how many people opened it, how many clicked a link inside it, how many complained or marked the email as spam, how many unsubscribes there were, and whether the email reached the recipient’s mailbox at all. You can then use this data to track sales and create a conversion report for your business.
FOSTER RELATIONSHIPS WITH CONSTANT COMMUNICATION
You can build a strong relationship with your customers by communicating with them frequently. Sending weekly offers to potential and existing consumers is a great way to do this. If you want to send out marketing emails much more frequently, you can do that as well, but fair warning:.it is not advisable to send clients bulk emails more than once a week.
PERSONALIZED EMAILS
With bulk email marketing, you can send tailored emails with the names of your consumers right in the greeting. You can also personalize information such as purchase history. As a result, rather than sending emails to random recipients, you can easily reach out to people with whom you already have a good relationship.
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HOW TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR BULK EMAIL?
To improve your performance you should adopt the best practices of email marketing. This includes using a behavioral approach that segments and personalized emails for each user. Though this may cause the send size to decrease, your conversions, clicks and opens should increase.
1. SEGMENT YOUR LIST
List segmentation is the process of categorizing email addresses depending on audience demographics, interests, or intent. It ensures that emails are sent to the audience whose interests best align with your products or services. Additionally, you’ll be able to tailor your marketing message according to the prospect’s position within the marketing. All of these decisions can help increase conversions by making the recipient feel like you are communicating directly with them.
2. WRITE AN ENGAGING SUBJECT LINE
One of the most crucial things you can do to ensure that people open your email is to have a compelling subject line – something that will entice them to open your email. You may have sent a terrific email that is full of value and relevance for your readers. But, if you don’t have a compelling subject line, it is very likely that users will delete or move your email to spam without reading it. Here are a few tips for making your subject lines more appealing:
- Ask an open-ended question
- Clearly state the benefit you’re about to provide
- Don’t use exclamation points
- Stay away from “FREE” or “SALE”, and definitely avoid using all caps
- Keep it as short as possible so it can be read on a phone
- Do not use “RE:” or “FW:” when it’s not a reply or forward
3. CHECK SPAM TRIGGERS BEFORE YOU HIT SEND
Spam triggers are words or phrases that email providers (i.e. Google, Outlook, etc.) flag as spam. If these spam triggers appear in your email subject line or body, your email will be branded as spam, or at the very least, a promotional email. Furthermore, keep in mind that it is not limited to content, too many links or media files might cause your email to be labeled as spam. Using the word FREE or typing anything in all caps is a sure-fire way of getting flagged.
4. CONFIGURE YOUR SENDING DOMAIN TO COME FROM YOU
To increase deliverability it is paramount that you set up a dedicated domain. This requires you to edit your CNAME and TXT records to prove that the email provider is sending on your behalf. It’s an excellent way to add authority to your domain and get more clicks and conversions. However, if you use bulk email improperly this could hurt your overall domain’s reputation.
5. USE A RESPONSIVE EMAIL TEMPLATE
With more and more people opening emails on their smartphones, investing in mobile-responsive templates is important than ever before. Whether you create your own template or buy it from someone else, ensure that it appears the same on all devices. In addition to design, you should also create mobile-friendly content. For example, to give the best possible user experience, write a concise subject line and pre-header and strategically insert CTAs throughout your email.
6. MONITOR THE DATA
It is vital to track email statistics on a frequent basis and make changes as needed. You should begin by focusing on three key metrics:
- Open rate – Number of recipients who actually open your email.
- Response rate – The fraction of subscribers who responded to the email.
- Unsubscribe rate – The number of individuals who unsubscribed from an email after receiving it.
These metrics, taken together, can help you assess the success of your bulk email campaign. It can tell you whether the email was sent to the appropriate target audience or how interested they are in your product. You can compare these numbers to industry benchmarks to get a sense of how they should be performing. You should also experiment with different send times, templates, and techniques to see what works best for your company.
NEED HELP WITH AN EMAIL CAMPAIGN?
Whether you choose to use bulk email or email marketing, having an expert email marketing agency can help speed things up. Getting help from an email marketing services provider will also give you the expertise that will be difficult to find if you hire internally. If you need help with bulk emails or setting up new email marketing campaigns, our team is here to help you win. Get in touch with us today to schedule a free, no-obligation discovery meeting.