Email marketing is an important and proven weapon for online marketers. It is a cornerstone for engaging with customers. Selecting the right email marketing platform becomes crucial. However, it can be a daunting task amid a plethora of available options. Let us explore here the various types of email platforms, importance of using an email marketing platform and also some of the key steps to help you understand how to choose the best platform for your needs.
Understanding Customer Emails
Email marketing encompasses several customer interactions. It is broadly categorized into marketing and transactional emails. Marketing emails are such designed that these can promote business through special offers, newsletters and event invitations. The emails are sent to a large list of recipients and should comply with GDPR regulations. It means that the recipients should have opted-in. Each email should also contain an unsubscribe link.
Transactional emails support customer transactions and include order confirmations, delivery notifications as well as account-related activities such as password resets. It is not like the marketing emails and do not require opt-in consent as these are important part of the service provided.
Why Need an Email Marketing Platform
Using a dedicated email marketing platform is crucial for various reasons. Standard email services are not designed for sending bulk emails. Risk of suspension of account prevails if the limits are exceeded. Moreover, recipients may block your email address if they find the emails unwanted. This can prevent from sending important transactional emails to them. Email marketing platforms provide detailed analytics like open rates, click-through rates and other such key metrics. The analytics help in improving future campaigns. The platforms also offer tools to help in designing professional-looking emails.
Automating transactional emails becomes necessary with the growth of the business to manage increased volumes effectively. Email marketing platforms support such automations. The platforms can streamline the communication processes. Simultaneously, the platform helps in ensuring compliance with GDPR.
Steps to Choose the Best Platform
Choosing the right email marketing platform requires a few key steps to follow. The first step is to determine if you need to send both transactional and marketing emails and especially if you need integration with your eCommerce site or other systems. The next step is to estimate the number of emails you expect to send to choose a suitable pricing plan. Thirdly, it is suggested to evaluate the technical features to ensure that the platform offers necessary functions like segmentation, personalization, A/B testing and automation. Finally, consider how easy the platform is to use on daily basis.
Defining Key Requirements
If your business involves online sales, you better need to send transactional emails. It is important here to ensure that the platform supports both transactional and marketing emails as well as can integrate with your website. Check if the platform offers an API and SMTP integration.
Moreover, it is suggested to consider if you need to send SMS notifications alongside emails. Some platforms offer SMS integration. It can be sometimes beneficial for sending order confirmations or delivery updates to the smartphones of customers.
Integrating Customer Data
Effective email marketing relies on accurate as well as relevant customer data. It can be achieved by using the email platform as a central system for managing customer information or by integrating the platform with existing CRM or eCommerce system.
Estimating Email Volumes
It is important to estimate the number of emails you expect to send monthly before choosing a platform. Consider number of emails sent per transaction and the projected sales volume of course for transactional emails. If it is for marketing emails, assess the size of subscriber list and also the frequency of your campaigns. All these will help in choosing a pricing plan that fits budget as well as needs.
Evaluating Technical Features
Most email marketing platforms offer rich features such as segmentation and personalization. These features are highly helpful for targeting specific customer groups. Segmentation helps in tailoring email content based on customer interests, purchase history and engagement levels. Personalization enhances relevance of emails. It increases open and click-through rates.
A/B testing is another valuable feature. It enables to test email variations and understand better which emails are performing best. Automation tools can streamline email marketing efforts. These tools can allow in setting up automated campaigns for welcome emails, birthday offers and cart abandonment reminders as well.
Ease of Use
Ease of use of an email marketing platform is usually critical for small businesses. Hence, it is suggested to look for platforms that offer intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces for email designing and creating templates. It is better to access stock images and pre-designed templates. This will save time and effort.
Look whether the platform allows creating custom landing pages and offers social media integrating feature. Such features enhance the overall marketing strategy and simultaneously improve customer engagement.
Support and Compliance
It is highly important to ensure that the platform offers adequate customer support such as onboarding resources, online knowledge base and access to live support through phone, email or chat. Also, make sure that the platform helps in complying with GDPR regulations. Look for features that allow to manage opt-in forms, track subscriber consent and easily delete or anonymize customer data upon request.
