How to Create an Email Marketing Campaign

Want to just get started? Click here to sign up for Constant Contact and start creating your campaign today. 

Email marketing is so valuable that the average ROI is $36 for every $1 spent. But when it comes to email marketing campaigns, most people don’t know what to write, or how to structure one. 

If you DO know how to set the right goals and send emails to the right people, campaigns can be an evergreen way to make sales and connect with your subscribers. 

Once you learn how to create a great email campaign, you’ll be able to convert subscribers into customers or followers on autopilot and get invaluable insights into your target audience. 

Plus, you’ll be able to reuse your campaign over and over and keep improving it to get better results every time. 

The Top-Rated Email Marketing Platforms to Help you Create Great Email Campaigns 

If you want to create and send out successful email campaigns, you’ll need to have a reliable email marketing service to help you. Here are our top recommendations: 

• Constant Contact — Best overall
• Sendinblue — Best for growing your customer base
• MailerLite — Best for the essentials at an affordable price
• Omnisend —Best email and SMS marketing combo
• Moosend — Best for ecommerce
• AWeber — Best value for low subscriber count
• GetResponse — Best for automated lead generation
• HubSpot — Best for automated email marketing
• Drip — Best for new ecommerce businesses
• ConvertKit — Best for influencers, bloggers, and creators

You can read our full review of these email marketing platform here. 

6 Steps To Creating a Great Email Campaign 

Following the right steps will help you create campaigns that get you results and that your audience actually wants to receive. 

We’ve put together a list of the most important things you need to do when crafting your next campaign:

1. Set a Goal 
2. Plot Out Your Email Campaign 
3. Write the Content 
4. Set up the Campaign 
5. Add Automations 
6. Test Your Campaign 

The Easy Parts of Creating an Email Marketing Campaign 

The easiest parts of creating an email marketing campaign are the technical aspects. 

They may be time-consuming, but actually plugging in the content, choosing who to send it to, and deciding on send times are a lot easier than getting the content right. Especially with all the great email marketing software out there, you can have all the technical stuff done for you in less than a day. 

Our top recommendation for an email marketing platform is Constant Contact because it makes this setup process so easy. Not only does it include plenty of templates, but it also comes with automation and segmentation features to make it easy to manage email campaigns. 

It also comes with A/B testing features, which make it easy to monitor whether your campaigns are working and improve them as you go. 

The Difficult Parts of Creating an Email Marketing Campaign 

One of the most difficult steps you’ll face is creating content that converts your subscribers to paying customers. You’ll have to write powerful copy if you want to see results, and that’s not as easy as it sounds. 

Another part of creating an email campaign that can be hard for many is analyzing the results to create a better campaign. There are so many pieces of the email marketing puzzle that it can be difficult to tell which one(s) to change to get better results and which ones to leave alone. 

Even email marketing experts struggle to know how to improve open rates and sales at times! You may want to rely on the help of an email marketing professional and/or good email marketing software to help you navigate these pitfalls, especially if you don’t have much experience in email marketing. 

Step 1: Set a Goal 

Before you can even think about creating your campaign, you need to know why you’re doing it. 

What do you want your campaign to achieve? Do you want more sales? Do you want people to sign up for your next event? You need to have a clear vision of this before you start creating your campaign, otherwise, you’re wasting your time. 

Decide on Your Why 

Email campaigns usually have a big goal for the end, and are designed to move people through a conversion journey to achieve that goal. Perhaps you want to welcome people to your list or to sell a new product. 

Think about what you would like to convince people to do by the end of your campaign. This will determine what kind of campaign you choose and how you structure your copy. 

Choose Your Type of Campaign 

Now that you know the goal of your campaign, you can decide on the type. 

Do you want to convince new subscribers to buy your course? Then you need a welcome sequence that moves them from unaware to product aware. 

Do you want to offer a discount to people who have abandoned a cart? Then you might want to send a re-targeting email. 

You should research some of the different types of campaigns out there and try to choose the one that will best help you achieve your goal. Here are some of the most common ones:

• Welcome Series 
• Re-Targeting Sequences 
• Abandoned Cart Sequences 
• New Launch Campaigns 
• Seasonal Campaigns 
• New User Drip Campaigns 
• Promotion Campaigns 
• Re-Engagement Campaigns 

You can also subscribe to some other lists from people you admire to get inspiration for structuring your campaign. 

Choose a Section of Your List to Send To

Once you know what campaign you’re creating and why, you can decide on who will receive the campaign emails. 

You can choose a small section of your list to receive the campaign. For example, you could send only the most engaged subscribers a campaign to sell them your new ebook. 

Or you can trigger an automation to send a campaign to users after they take a certain action, like joining your list or leaving your landing page. 

Constant Contact includes plenty of segmentation and automation tools to make this really easy. You can choose who you send your email to and when, and set up rules to make this easy to repeat with each new subscriber. You can also trigger specific campaigns like welcome emails or holiday sequences using their library of templates. 

You can get started with Constant Contact here for free. 

Step 2: Plan Your Campaign 

Once you have the groundwork done, you can start planning the campaign. 

Here’s what you’ll need to consider when you’re putting together an outline: 

Decide on How Many Emails You’ll Send

Most campaigns have between 4-7 emails. 

How many you need will really depend on how many you think it will take to achieve your goals. This will depend on how warm your audience is and what stage of their journey they are on. 

If you are just creating a campaign to get people to attend a free event, it will take fewer emails than convincing people to buy a high-ticket product. 

Choose One Goal for Each Email 

For the best results, your emails should just do one thing. Email marketers like to refer to this as “the rule of one.” 

You want to make it as easy as possible for your subscribers to complete each task or move from email to email without becoming overwhelmed.

If you set a clear goal for them in each email in the campaign, you make it easy for them to move through their journey. Otherwise, they can be overcome by too many choices and won’t take action at all.  

Step 3: Write The Content 

This is one of the most challenging parts of creating an email campaign. Especially if you are selling anything, it will take real skill to get the copy on point to see results. 

The best way to make this work is to hire an email copywriter, but you can also try writing your emails yourself. Here’s what you’ll need to do to have compelling content: 

Use Templates 

If you want to write the copy yourself, it’s a good idea to use templates. You’ll get editable copy that is primed to psychologically move your subscribers through the campaign journey and uses marketing tricks to convert better. 

Just make sure that if you use templates, you have permission. Do NOT try and copy emails others send to your inbox—it’s not worth getting caught!

Write the Subject Lines 

Surprisingly, subject lines are the hardest part of the email to write. 

You are competing with all the other emails appearing in someone else’s inbox, so you need to stand out, without resorting to clickbait. 

There’s a fine line between catching someone’s attention and tricking them, so think long and hard about what would get someone to open an email, but that still reflects exactly what’s inside the email. 

You can also find suggestions and templates online for subject lines that consistently perform well. You may also be able to find suggestions directly from your email marketing platform of choice. 

Use an Email Marketing Service 

Not all email marketing software tools have templates, but many do. 

They’ll be able to give you an idea of where to add content, how to structure your emails, and what to include to get results. You can use them to help you structure your campaigns, add CTA’s in the right places, and improve your chances of getting your emails opened. 

Hire a Copywriter 

If you really want to boost your chances of getting your emails opened, you should hire a copywriter. 

Email copywriters will know how to write subject lines that get clicked, and how to write content that gets people to take action. They’ll be able to use marketing formulas and the right language to get you results. 

It’s a skilled job for a reason—it takes a lot of learning and practice to write a good email campaign. If you want to see good ROI for your emails, this is the best way to go. 

Step 4: Set up the Campaign 

Once you have your content, you’re ready to actually add it to your email marketing software. 

If you are using the right software, this should be easy. You’ll just need to add in your text, play with the formatting, and decide on the elements you want to add. 

Here’s what you’ll need to set up: 

Add the Copy to the Emails 

With some email marketing platforms, this is as easy as just copying and pasting your content into your email marketing platform. 

With other platforms, you’ll then have to reformat things like italics, links, bullet points, and bolded texts. 

You should check everything carefully to make sure it’s spelled correctly, and send yourself a test email to check for any errors. 

Add any Images or Extra Features 

Images aren’t necessary (and honestly, will just raise spam rates for most emails)

However, sometimes adding a meme or a screenshot can be useful – like a screenshot of a client testimonial. Most email marketing platforms let you easily add in images, gifs, or even emojis. 

Try playing around with what feels right and what fits your brand. Just remember that the more photos or large images in your emails, the more likely you will end up in the spam folder. 

You should also add buttons here to help make your CTAs clearer and easier to find.

Add Any Links or Downloads 

The next thing you’ll want to do is check that any links or downloads are working. 

You can add these directly through the email editor. Again, remember to send yourself a test email when you’ve finished editing to check all the links work and go to the right places. 

Add the Recipients 

You’ll also want to choose and add recipients to your campaign. 

If you’ll be setting up a triggered automation based on behavior, skip to the next step. But if you want to send it to a segment already on your list, now’s the time to select them and get them set up to receive it. 

How you do this will depend on your email marketing software. If you’re lost, you can usually reach out to most email marketing platforms directly for support or read their FAQs. 

Usually, though, you can select Send To and then choose the list or the tag you want your campaign to be sent to. 

Step 5: Add Automations

If you want to get the most out of an email campaign, you should try to set up automation. 

This just means that your subscribers will be tagged based on how they interact with your emails. You can then use this to trigger more emails, or just understand your audience better. 

Here are things you should think about setting up: 

Automate Who Gets the Emails 

If you’re sending out emails to a specific segment of your list, you can automate anyone with a specific tag to receive emails. If you want everyone who behaves a certain way to receive an email, you should automate your email to be triggered by behavior, such as subscribing to your list. 

This helps you save time and makes sure no one misses an email. If you’re sending all your emails manually, it’s easier to make a mistake or forget one of your subscribers. 

Segment Based on Action 

Something else you can do with your email campaigns is to use them to segment your list. 

Segmentation of your list allows you to send more relevant emails to your subscribers, which boosts conversions and brings down spam rates. 

You can segment them with things like Interested in Free Training if they click the link, or VIP Subscribers if they open every email. This might not help you get sales or achieve your campaign goal immediately, but it will help you have more successful campaigns in the future. 

Trigger Emails Based on Behavior 

Another way you can automate your campaign is by triggering emails or actions based on how they interact with your campaign. 

For instance, if someone clicks through a link to buy your course, then clicks away without purchasing, you can automate them to receive a retargeting email. 

Step 6: Test Your Campaign 

To get the most out of a campaign and make it as successful as possible, you should test and analyze it to see if it’s working. 

When you test your campaign and try different things, you should hopefully be able to boost your open rates and tweak your campaign until it’s as successful as possible. This includes changing subject lines, CTAs, or even images. 

The great thing about email campaigns is, unlike newsletters, you can send them out multiple times and keep seeing results. So, it’s important to optimize them as much as possible so that every time you send them out, they convert better. 

Analyze the Results 

The first step to testing your emails is to assess how well they are working. 

This includes looking at open rates, click-through rates, how far through the sequence people are getting before they stop opening emails, and looking at unsubscribe rates. 

It’s a good idea to research the normal rates for your industry, so you have a benchmark to measure whether your emails are underperforming or overperforming. You can also look at each email in the campaign and see which ones are getting more opens and which ones aren’t.

Try A/B Testing 

Once you have an idea of what’s working and what isn’t, you can start testing different things to try and improve your results. 

A/B testing is available on most email marketing platforms, and just means trying one thing with half your subscribers and another with the other half. After you’ve sent out enough emails to see whether option A or B works best, you can start using the most successful one with all your subscribers. 

This is a good way to look for patterns, and you can use it with everything, including CTAs, subject lines, and formatting. 

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