Email Marketing for Agencies & Campaign Best Practices

Have you recently started an agency? If so, email marketing might just be the smartest thing you could possibly do to drive growth, increase retention, and spread the word about your business.

That’s not an empty-shelled assumption: According to Statista’s E-mail marketing revenue worldwide from 2020 to 2027 report, the revenue is set to cross $10.8 billion in 2023, showing that email is very much alive and kicking.

But how can you tap into this channel and run successful email marketing campaigns for your agency? Let’s take a look at examples and best practices.

What is email marketing for agencies?

Email marketing is a type of direct marketing that uses email as the primary medium for communicating with leads or existing customers. It involves sending emails to targeted audiences, usually encouraging them to take action—like signing up for an event, downloading content, subscribing to an email newsletter, or completing a purchase.

Despite numbers showing otherwise, many people are quick to dismiss email marketing as inefficient and outdated. With social media taking over the world, it’s easy to see why so many would be tempted to believe that.

Yet, email marketing comes with a long list of benefits.

It’s cost-effective

The return on investment (ROI) of email marketing is really good: for every $1 you spend on email, you get more than $40 in return. By comparison, the ROI of other channels—like social media and pay-per-click—is much lower.

Even if you take lead generation copywriting and email marketing costs into consideration, email is still one of the most affordable communication channels.

It can be hyper-targeted

With email marketing, you can segment your audience and personalize messages to send your customers exactly what they need. The more segmented your email list is, the more targeted your messages will be—and the more likely people will engage. This helps create deeper engagement and retention as you make the communication relevant and timely.

It’s easy to measure

Email marketing comes with built-in tracking metrics that show you how well your campaigns are performing. Thanks to powerful reporting capabilities of email marketing software, you can measure open rates, click-through rates, and other vital indicators to keep tabs on your progress and adjust your strategy accordingly.

It keeps your clients engaged

Rather than waiting for your clients to come to you, email marketing helps you stay top of mind by regularly sending them information and updates. This can help you build stronger relationships and encourage engagement.

It’s a versatile channel

Email can be used for a variety of purposes: to announce a new product, promote an event, send newsletters, onboard new clients, and more. This makes email one of the most flexible channel to market your agency.

It’s scalable

Because emails are automated and can be sent to thousands of people in one go, it’s easy to scale your email marketing campaigns. This allows you to reach a much bigger audience in less time.

Choosing the right email marketing software

Picking the right email marketing software is essential to running successful campaigns.

The right software should be user-friendly, offer a range of customization options, and provide strong analytics capabilities so you can track your progress and tweak your strategy accordingly. With the right tool in place, you can quickly and easily create powerful email campaigns that effectively reach your target audience.

Here’s what you need to know about selecting an email marketing software that work with the marketing strategies you’ve designed.

Must-have features

Email segmentation

Segmentation is important for personalizing your messages. Without it, you won’t be able to send relevant emails to the right people. Make sure your chosen email marketing tool allows you to segment your audience as minutely as possible, so you can send highly targeted campaigns.

Automation

Automation is key for running successful email campaigns. Look for software that offers an intuitive automation builder, so you can quickly and easily create automated workflows.

A/B Testing

Not sure which type of subject line performs best? A/B testing can help you determine which option is best for your specific target audience, so you can double down your efforts on that and get better results. Research email marketing software that offers A/B testing capabilities.

Email templates

Good email templates are essential for creating attractive, effective emails. Search for software that offers customizable and responsive templates, so you don’t have to design your emails from scratch.

Integrations with other tools

Email marketing doesn’t work in a vacuum. It’s important to have software that integrates with other tools like social media, analytics, and eCommerce platforms. This will enable you to access additional data points and create more powerful campaigns.

Deliverability

Deliverability is crucial for successful email marketing. Make sure your software has strong deliverability rates and a good reputation with ISPs, so your emails reach the inboxes of your target audience.

Customer service

It’s important to have a customer service team who can help you set up your email campaigns quickly and answer any questions you may have. Make sure the software you choose offers a knowledgeable customer service team which can help you make the most of your campaigns.

Cost

Finally, consider the cost of the software. While you don’t want to go too cheap, you also don’t want to overspend. Find a tool that offers all the features and support you need at a price that fits your budget.

By choosing an email marketing software with these must-have features, you can ensure your campaigns reach their full potential and drive engagement with your target audience. With the right software, you can maximize ROI and create powerful, effective email marketing campaigns.

Successful email marketing for agencies step-by-step

No matter which email marketing tool you may choose, there are certain best practices you should follow to ensure success.

1) Set your goals

You can’t measure success if you don’t have goals. Start by defining your email marketing goals, then break them down into smaller, achievable objectives.

Your goals for email marketing campaigns could include:

• increasing website visits

• building your email list

• increasing conversions

• improving engagement

• educating your potential customers

• onboarding & upselling existing clients

2) Consider the buyer’s journey

With your goals established, consider the buyer’s journey funnel. How do your leads become clients? Identify the different stages your leads go through and determine where you can incorporate email marketing.

For example, if you aim to increase sales during Christmas, create a funnel that generates interest before the holiday season. Be sure to mention upcoming discounts, additional services, or other incentives based on the buyer journey stages.

Remember, personalization is essential in the buyer’s journey. Your leads or clients expect personalized emails that build a strong relationship or lay the groundwork for one.

3) Build an email list

With your goals set, it’s time to get people to sign up for your email list. The best way to do that is with an optin form, which you can embed in blog posts or landing pages. Ensure that you’re not tricking people into signing up, but promise them value-based emails delivered at certain intervals to their inbox.

Building a list of subscribers who are not interested in your content will lead to low open rates that are not beneficial. Instead, you want highly engaged subscribers that make lead nurturing easy. In order to maintain a valuable email list, send a welcome email that introduces them to your services, but also tells them what to expect next.

4) Segment your audience

Audience segmentation is one of the most important steps in email marketing. The more you know about your potential customers, the better you segment your audience, and the more you can tailor messages to them.

This matters because even if you only have one buyer persona, people are at different stages of their buying cycle:

• Some have just signed up for your blog newsletter;

• others landed in your newsletter list from a lead generation asset;

• a few have already been on your website and read some of your content; and

• others are already buying customers.

All of these segments should receive different email campaigns. Batching all of them together basically means you speak in terms that are too general, so people can very easily lose interest. Segmenting them, however, helps you make email inboxes similar to meeting up with a friend—you are on the same page regarding the context.

One way you can segment your audience successfully is by integrating your email marketing tool with other software applications. For example, if you use SPP, you can segment your email based on purchases made, for instance. Likewise, if you run a newsletter signup form, you can segment those readers based on their interests.

5) Grow your list

Your email list is never big enough, and here’s why: people subscribe to email lists relatively easily (particularly if there’s an incentive involved). Engaging them, however, is an entirely different animal. Some may be busy, so your email will collect dust at the bottom of the inbox. Others may save it for later—only to never return to it.

If email marketing is one of your main growth channels, you need to consistently work on growing your email list. The more people there are in your list, the more likely it is that more of them will engage with your content (and eventually buy from you too).

Sure, you should work on trying to increase your open rates, click-through-rates, and conversion rates. But you should also never stop growing your list.

6) Choose your email design

Just like in fashion, less is more in email design too. A simpler email design makes it all feel more conversational, removes distractions from your readers, and makes it easier for them to recognize the message. What’s more, simpler email design can help you move past the spam filters, thus improving your email deliverability.

The reason this happens is because spammers used to send images via email, to bypass spam security checks. Modern spam detector algorithms consider an abnormal image-to-text ratio spammy. Therefore, too many images can throw your email campaigns into the recipient’s spam.

Another important thing to consider is making sure your email looks good on all devices. Complex or not, your email designs should be usable, clickable, and easy to read, regardless of whether it’s opened on a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop.

7) Automate your funnels

One of the main benefits of email marketing is automation. When done correctly, you can use automation to create personalized campaigns triggered when someone takes a specific action (like subscribing to your list or buying a service).

The main benefit of email automation is that you can set up workflows that send the right message at the right time, for instance with autoresponders. Tools such as MailChimp, GetResponse or ActiveCampaign all include autoresponders that make it easier to reply to targeted clients.

While autoresponders are fairly basic, you can also build complex workflows that are much more complex. A simple workflow you can build is an abandoned cart email that asks cuatomers to complete their checkout.

8) Create lead magnets and incentives

On average, we receive more than 130 business emails per day. Let’s assume it takes on average three minutes to read one email. That means we’d spend 6.5 hours reading emails every day.

These numbers may feel like an exaggeration, but the idea is we’re being bombarded with emails from every corner of the internet. People rarely want to subscribe to yet another email in their inbox, just for the sake of it.

So, to get more people into your email list (and thus, receive your emails), you should build lead magnets and offer incentives. These offers are hard to resist and help you overcome the noise in someone’s inbox. They could be anything from free content pieces (ebooks, cheat sheets) to discounts for subscribing or even an invitation for a webinar. Incentives are not only great for increasing engagement with your emails but also for boosting conversions too.

9) Nurture your leads

One of the best ways to use email marketing for your agency is by lead nurturing. Lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship with your potential customers even before they purchase from you.

To be successful, you need to provide valuable content and insights without asking for anything in return (just yet). This way, when they’re ready to buy, they’ll be more likely to turn to you rather than a competitor.

Lead nurturing emails can include blog posts, tips and tricks, case studies, newsletters or other relevant content sent straight to the reader’s email inbox. One of the recent approaches is that you can even add a QR Code to you emails to increase interaction and track your email campaign better. The goal is to move the reader through their buying cycle until they take action and become paying customers.

10) Test, iterate, and measure

When it comes to email marketing, testing different elements can help you optimize performance significantly. Use A/B testing to test different elements, such as the subject line, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, or preheader text. The major benefit of A/B testing is that you can check which elements are performing better, than choose the winner, and use it in your future campaigns.

Of course, even after running tests, it’s essential to keep track of data like open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribes and bounces. Luckily, modern email software has powerful dashboards that make it easy to understand the data, and evaluate the data against your key performance indicators.

Another thing you have to evaluate is the segmentation of your email list. Have you segmented your subscribers correctly, or could you further split them into more groups? Should you tag them based on behavior or interests?

Summary

Email marketing is an essential tool for any digital agency today and could be a great way to drive more leads and sales for your business. It’s not magic, but then again, no other marketing channel is.

You have to:

• work hard to build a list

• make sure you adhere to data privacy regulations (like GDPR and CCPA)

• create attractive and easy-to-use designs

• automate campaigns

• offer incentives and lead magnets

• nurture leads

• track data

• run data management regularly

That’s a lot of work—but the results are well worth it. Social media channels come and go, advertising can easily drain budgets without results, and algorithms change. But if there’s something that’ll always be yours, it’s your email list.

Work on it. Treasure it. Keep it engaged.