If there is one arena where buzzwords seem to crop up every second, it’s marketing. Inbound email marketing is one of those seemingly-common buzzwords everyone discusses. But, what does inbound marketing actually mean? And what does it do for your business, anyway? 

• Inbound email marketing is the act of getting people to sign up for email blasts.
• In many parts of the world, inbound email marketing is the only legal type of mass email marketing you can do.
• When done properly, general inbound email marketing can give you a 4200 percent return on investment on average. 

Inbound marketing is one of those things that you need to actually to take into account when you first get your business established. Here’s what you need to know…

What is inbound email marketing?

Let’s start with the very basics. Inbound marketing is defined as any type of marketing that makes people discover your company and reach out. In other words, it’s any type of marketing that does not involve sales personnel reaching out to clients directly. 

Some of the more common types of inbound marketing include…

• Content marketing
• Advertising
• Public relations
• Event marketing
• SEO
• Social media marketing

Keeping that same pattern going on, inbound email marketing is the practice of sending emails to people who have already found your site. 

Are all emails inbound?

In the most modern sense of marketing, it’s considered to be bad form to try to do an email marketing campaign that isn’t inbound. In fact, it may not even be legal in some cases. After all, inbound is the only way you can legitimately show that you have consent from clients. 

Is there such a thing as outbound marketing in email?

Yes, there is such a thing as outbound email marketing. Most people call it “spam,” but it’s also possible to let this be known as “cold email marketing.” 

This is often done when you want to get outreach for an individual client, or when you are trying to reach out to someone you met at a networking event. If you are trying to do this, make sure that it’s a move that’s expected. Otherwise, you’re going to end up in a majorly awkward situation. 

What are the benefits of inbound email marketing?

Inbound marketing is one of the smartest ways to ensure that you are going to be able to get the leads you want at a rate that you’re going to appreciate. These benefits are the reasons why this works so well:

Inbound marketing always means that people are interested in your work. Even if it’s just mildly interested, it’s a warm starting point. It effectively increases trust and brand loyalty. Adoric notes that 81 percent of marketers use email marketing as their primary inbound method. This is because it increases brand loyalty and also makes people believe in your brand. 

• People feel like it nurtures your connection with them. That makes all the difference for some clients. 
• Inbound email marketing is cost-effective. It’s one of the most effective ROIs for the money you pay into it, with a 4200 percent ROI.
• Unlike other forms of marketing, it’s also sustainable. People love email marketing because it’s always going to be in style. As long as they are subscribed to your emails, they keep getting information. 

How do you start your own inbound email marketing campaign?

Oh, well that’s a million-dollar question, isn’t it? It’s actually pretty simple when you look at the basic steps of it. However, putting it into practice is labor-intensive. Let’s get the basic gist of it below:

1. Start by getting a platform for your email service. 

We’re going to assume that you have a website already. If you don’t, work on that first! You should try to find good email marketing software before you start everything up. 

We suggest using MailChimp or something similar to start with. Ideally, you’ll do a little research before you get into it. Scalability is crucial.

2. Now, outfit a couple of emails to start with and put together your template.

You should set up email templates before you start mailing stuff out. Make sure that the email newsletters that you design will look good and that they have ample whitespace. Otherwise, people might opt out. 

It’s also a good idea to have a couple of quick emails confirming that they signed up as well as offering up interesting tips and news for people to have. This way, if you have to do work on something else, you’ll have that to fall back on. 

3. Start collecting email addresses. 

This is going to be the biggest crux of the issue. You have to find a way to get people to opt-in for  your campaign. There are a couple of cool options you can use. Ideally, you’ll use more than one. These below are the most common:

• Use a splash page encouraging people to sign up for your email. Offering a quick discount code is a good way to make sure that people want to sign up. On a similar note, you might want to mention teasing out tips and tricks if you are a service business.
• Have a small signup box on the checkout page of your site. This is a quick way to get people to opt in after their first purchase with your company. 
• Consider using in-person signup requests. That’s a good way to ensure that you get people who are otherwise hard to reach online. 

4. Send out email breaks on a regular schedule. 

Each email should have a purpose, whether it’s announcing a sale or giving people advice on how they can better use your product. Inbound marketing is going to involve a regular schedule of emails, ideally to help nurture your bond with customers. 

During this time, you should work on your market segmentation and tracking your success.

5. Track your ROI and marketing success.

Any software worth its salt will track your click-through rate, your subscription rate, and your sales rate. Your job here is to figure out what you need to do with your emails to increase the number of clicks you get. Everything from how often you send out emails to the number of words you use as a title can change things. That's why it's a good idea to do A/B testing, see how custom campaigns work, and more. 

Wait, what about market segmentation?

So, the basics of inbound email marketing is pretty straightforward. I covered it above, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t more stuff that you need to be aware of. One of the most important things that you need to be aware of is market segmentation. 

Market segmentation is an important part of proper email marketing. This is the act of splitting up your email campaigns into different customer bases. These examples below will help you understand why it is important to segment your market:

• You will need to send different types of emails for people of different ages. A party business wouldn’t send a “Sweet 16” party email to a family without children. An insurance company might send early driver insurance ads to a family that has kids under 18 though. 
• A company that has a special email series for new signups will need a different segment. They may also automatically send one segment into another after their introductory emails are wrapped up. 
• Companies that have client bases from different nations will have to have multiple segments for language differences. Unless you are okay with sending emails in English to clients in Japan, you need this. 

Why is market segmentation important?

You need to custom-tailor your emails to the clients that you want to have. The issue is, most of us have more than one type of client. Market segmentation is the best way to ensure that you have the most effective, relatable emails for your clients. 

How do you do market segmentation for your emails?

Honestly, this can be hard to do, but having the right email marketing platform can help. You can usually pick different market segments and automate inclusion into different segments directly from each platform. These tips can help:

• Consider using a platform that does automatic segmentation based on country. This will make it easier to automatically send emails using the right language. 
• You might also want to have separate email sign up prompts. For example, you might want to have two options that say “Yes, I want to get discounts on daily use items” and another that says, “Yes, I want to learn about how to use these items quick.”
• Some online ordering and email platforms also allow you to market segment based on what clients order. This usually requires to make your clients create an account. Even so, it’s useful. 
• Certain platforms are better for this than others. ActiveCampaign works well for this, by the way. 

What kind of emails should you send?

Honestlly, it's up to you. There seems to be several types that work well in email marketing...

• Company updates. Did your company recently do a major overhaul of its site? Giving clients a heads up is an important idea. 
• Sale alerts. Yes, sales alerts always convert. It's true. On a similar note, having alerts for specific items that come back in stock can also help your company succeed. 
• Happy birthday! If you have a birthday tracker, this is a good way to encourage a relationship with your company.
• Tips and tricks. These emails are particularly useful if you ware selling a service or a specific expertise. 

Should you hire someone to do your inbound email marketing?

In a lot of cases, that is the wisest move that you can make. Inbound email marketing is highly evolved, and in many cases, it can take months or even years to set stuff up on your own properly. 

If you don’t have the time to learn how to do this, we strongly recommend going to a digital marketing agency for email marketing. Heck, there are even some agencies that specialize entirely in email marketing. So, you absolutely can check them out if you need to. 

How much does professional email marketing cost?

Believe me when I say that most professional email marketing services are fairly cheap. It’s possible to get good marketing done for as little as $80 to $250 per month. 

If you have no copywriters and graphic designers on staff, you might have to pay up to $800 per month in some cases. 

The next steps

Doing your own inbound email marketing can be rough, but it’s absolutely doable. Here’s what you should consider doing next:

• Choose your email marketing platform
• Figure out if you want to hire a professional to do your inbound email marketing for you
• Get email addresses and send, send, send!

Not sure which platform to use, or where to start? Keep reading up about email marketing on SavvySME.