What is email marketing, and where did it begin?

As part of this email marketing strategy and tips for successful campaigns, we should first make a distinction between predictive personalisation software (PPS) – which runs in addition to typical email marketing service providers, like Mailchimp, Emarsys or DotDigital etc.

PPS automatically identifies products that are imminent buying opportunities respectively, for each consumer that subscribes to your mailing list. It does not replace promotional software. This article explains the wider

remit, offering objective assistance and opinions. This article is to assist with the start of a journey for those embarking on their first forays.

The first email, sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971 or 1978 depending on your source, marked the beginning of the modern communication era. The message was nothing special, a series of numbers and letters that looked more like a password than a message, but its significance was profound. The email was sent from one computer to another, travelling through a network of machines, not unlike the internet we know today. Tomlinson also introduced the “@” symbol in email addresses to the world.

Gary Thuerk, a Marketing Manager at Digital Equipment Corp, sent the first commercial email years later, where the message reached a list of email addresses. And voila, email marketing was born. There were only a few hundred people on the list, but that was enough for Thuerk to claim the mantle, “Father of Spam.” Today, we’re inundated with email marketing, and yes, some of it still feels spammy, but there’s no denying the impact a well-crafted message can have on your customers—not to mention CRM and lead nurturing. Indeed Swift only send emails to consumers who have asked to be mailed.

Email marketing helps you connect with your audience to promote your brand and increase sales. You can do a lot of things with emails, like sell products, share some news, or tell a story.

Does email marketing work?

When you want to communicate something about your brand or sell your stuff, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to do so.

A 2015 study by the DMA found that for every $1 spent, email has an average $38 return on investment (ROI). When shoppers are ready to buy something, they often look for emails from their favourite stores. Further verification is offered free by us with published stats, regularly updated, here. Indeed the average number of new subscribers, less the number of unsubscribers, that we experience across our entire client base is an increase of 26% year on year. This is directly proportionate to how proactive and purposefully targetted your marketing efforts are, and we hope to focus those efforts for you below.

How do I get an email list?

You’ll see the highest ROI when you build and maintain an engaged subscriber list, made up of people who want to receive your messages (and who opted in on purpose). Although building a clean list can take more work at the outset of your email marketing strategy, there are many opportunities for you to seize such as those listed here and here.

There are lots of ways to find people who’ll look forward to getting your emails, but we’ve rounded up a few that work best.

To create an email list:

• Create a signup form on your website. When people come to your website for the first time and like what they see, they’ll want a way to stay in-the-know about your brand. Create a form for newsletter signups and install a pop-up for first-time visitors.
• Use a good old-fashioned signup sheet. Whether it’s at your brick and mortar store, or an event that you’re hosting or attending, when you’re surrounded by people who are into what you do, provide a place for them to sign up and learn more.
• Drive signups through social media. If you don’t have a substantial email list (or you’d just like to see it grow), but you’ve got an engaged social media following, tap into that resource. Share your signup form on your social channels.
• To be able to make a purchase, your customers must have to tick a box confirming their agreement to your terms and condition. In which, it must clearly state that they agree for you to retain their details, and most importantly to receive emails. You do not have to distinguish as to what type of email they are. After all, how can you send them an email confirmation of order if they won’t let you? So now you can add you average annual order volume of new customers to the growth rate of your database, allowing for deducting unsubscribers of course. New retailers should be aware that when first introducing emails to their marketing other than order confirmation ones, you will see a higher unsubscription rate in the first month alone, than ever thereafter. You should not be overly concerned but when first introducing emails, 10% of your database will unsubscribe. That is good because it means the rest are in it for the long haul, and you can begin to calculate their lifetime value, see here.

• Host a contest or offer a discount. We’re big fans of giving people an incentive to sign up for your email list—and we know that contests work. Try offering a prize for some lucky new subscriber or a discount code for a first purchase.
• Make your emails easy to share. When you create beautiful, compelling emails, people will want to share them.
• Build a landing page. Landing pages offer one more way to grow your email list. Using your best imagery and content, landing pages give people a clear call to action and drive email signups way, way up.
• Offer a pop-up call to action for new visitors to your site. Your developer will know how to create a cookie so this doesn’t irritate regular visitors, but the idea is asking them to sign up to your newsletter, and you can offer a voucher incentive should you wish.

Can I buy an email list?

No. You should never buy an email list as this is now illegal for those selling direct to the public under the new GDPR.

Purchased lists are ineffective, and they impact everyone else who uses them badly, too. If you send emails to a list of people whose contact info you bought, many of the emails will get identified as spam and your company gets blacklisted. Some spam filters will flag a campaign if anyone with the same IP has sent spam in the past. When you use Mailchimp, your email is delivered through their servers, so if one person sends spam, it could prevent other users’ emails from reaching inboxes.

There are 3 primary rules you should follow are:

• Don’t use third-party lists. This includes purchased or rented lists, and lists scraped from third-party sources, including public websites.
• Get permission. Everyone on your list should have opted in to receive emails from you, and their permission should be express and verifiable. If you use one of our signup form options, we track this permission for you. This is now law!
• Include an unsubscribe link. All SwiftERM emails have this option. In the US Federal anti-spam laws require you to give people a way to unsubscribe from your list in every campaign you send. In the EU under GDPR Regs, inc post-Brexit UK, this is a legal stipulation.

I’m ready for email marketing, but which platform should I use?

Whether you’re starting your first email campaign or you’re a seasoned email pro, SwiftERM is a total automatic solution you can install and run straight-away. With a wide array of features that do everything automatically identifying imminent consumer purchases from watching buying history and consumer nurturing from captured signals from live impressions from that individual’s visit to your website. Perfect product selection to tracking and perpetually refining your emails, we’ve got you covered from start to finish. As well as a free trial until the attributed sales are 4x the potential cost, the system remains free to use. there is no onerous contract, users are free to come and go at leisure without notice. SwiftERM is the only 100% automatic system in the world. SwiftERM is also the only system in the world authorised the send your Trustpilot product ratings in your outbound emails, which is a free facility included for those using that facility.

he choice of your promotional email software is a little trickier, and we would be delighted to discuss the perfect solution for you, not just among our many partners.

OK, but how much does it cost?

When you create a SwiftERM account, you have begun your journey. SwiftERM is FREE to try for a month with full use, and it stays free until it makes you at least 4x the potential cost – that’s a win-win solution. There is no need for training or learning how to make work, it does it all for you. So if you’re just getting off the ground, you have enough to concentrate on everywhere else, with one headache less, so you can grow faster. The pricing structure swiftERM offer either simply 10% of attributed sales or as dictated by your database size, published here.

As your audience continues to grow, our pricing plans also scale alongside your needs.

Plus, we empower you with lots of good recommendations (and fun tips!) about how to act on data from your contacts so you can supplement your marketing with tried and tested recommendations from an array of professional and experienced sources for the perpetual growth of your company.

I’m new to email marketing, and I might need a little help.

We’re here when you need us. During your first 30 days with SwiftERM, we offer world-class support for free so that you get the most out of your account. Your free trial only begins after the plugin is installed and working perfectly. If you’d like to keep in touch with our support team we are always here to help, and there is someone typically available 24/7.

Email Marketing Field Guide

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business, whether your goal is to build your brand or sell more stuff. Learn how to create an email marketing plan, background on the design of the stylesheets for your emails here. Then discover the power of automation and how to measure the success of your emails.

Can I see my emails before starting?

Of course, you can! You have your control panel, once registered, where a sample of your email is available to review, before switching the system on.