How to Learn Email Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide

Email marketing is an important component of your digital marketing strategy. It can increase your reach and brand awareness, drive traffic to your website or store, and convert said traffic to sales. Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing, with a current market value of $12 billion and experts expecting it to grow to $18.9 billion by 2028 [1].

Explore ways to learn email marketing by understanding the basics, discovering appropriate tools, developing your skills, and deciding how to create your campaign.

Understand the fundamentals of email marketing

Email marketing is a marketing technique using email as the medium to reach existing and potential customers who have signed up for your mailing list. Email marketing starts with encouraging people to subscribe to your email marketing list to hear about new products and services. This allows you to build relationships with existing customers, promote your brand, and introduce discounts and sales.

Building an email list is a key component and crucial first step of email marketing. Once people are on your list, you can email them newsletters and promotional emails and include them in your seasonal marketing campaigns. To make your marketing efforts more personalized, you may segment your list of subscribers into categories that align with your campaign. For example, possible segments might include new subscribers, existing customers, and those who have abandoned their online shopping carts. In this way, you can target your campaign to each audience. You can automate email marketing sequences, especially when you have numerous ongoing campaigns for different list segments.

How to learn email marketing: Step-by-step

To use email marketing effectively, you can follow several steps to start learning what you need to know. These include mastering the terminology, choosing the right tools for your campaign, and keeping up with trends and industry regulations.

1. Understand the terminology.

Once you know the fundamentals, the first step to learning about email marketing is to grasp each element of building an e-marketing campaign. Start by developing your understanding of the terminology. You may come across the following:

• Email list: A collection of email addresses from people who agree to receive your content via email.

• Lead magnet: A freebie, discount, or incentive you give people in exchange for signing up for your email marketing list.

• Subscriber: Someone who willingly signs up to your email list to receive your emails. 

• Opt-in form: The form a person completes to subscribe to your email marketing list. 

• Automation: Using software to automate email sequences so they are sent to the segments of your email list that they apply to most.

• Conversion: Someone who takes an action after reading an email from you, such as buying a product.

2. Learn about your audience.

To learn about email marketing, you must first understand your audience and what you want to achieve. It’s important that you know how to write for your specific audience. Consider who you want to reach, your goals, and your objectives. This will inform the tools you choose and the content you create. Take time to explore successful email marketing campaigns, particularly those in your niche, to see what is successful and to learn tips for your campaigns. 

3. Choose the right tools.

Tools are essential when it comes to e-marketing to make sure you produce effective campaigns and to save you time and resources. You’ll find a range of platforms to choose from for building your email list, segmenting and automation, and creating your emails. Check out the features of each and learn about what they all mean to find one that works for you. Examples include:

• Mailchimp

• Constant Contact

• MailerLite

• Moosend

• ActiveCampaign

Features and tools to look out for in e-marketing platforms include:

• Automation

• Analytics

• A/B testing 

• Template designs

4. Develop your email marketing skills.

To develop your understanding and to further grasp the intricacies of email marketing and audience engagement, consider some self-study:

• Online courses: Online courses and Professional Certificates are an excellent and often cost-effective way of developing your learning around email marketing. You’ll find courses online from various companies, including email marketing providers offering specific guidance on their tools. You’ll also find email marketing courses listed on Coursera, such as the Google Think Outside the Inbox: Email Marketing course, part of the Google Digital Marketing and E-commerce Professional Certificate.

• Reading: You can research and read up on email marketing by reading books and online resources, plus watching how-to videos on YouTube.

• Communities and forums: Learn from others by joining email marketing forums and groups on social media and finding online communities on the subject. Ask questions and gain insight from what others are doing.

5. Learn about email design and content creation.

To build a successful email marketing campaign, you must hone your copywriting and design techniques. If people on your email list enjoy your content, they will likely remain subscribed and look forward to receiving your emails.

Make sure your copy is engaging and relevant. Start with your subject line to draw the reader in, and always include a call to action (CTA). Your CTA is how you achieve your goals, such as the customer clicking on a link to your website and buying a product. Customize your content by segmenting your list.

In addition to making sure your email content is effective, focus on creating visually appealing emails and optimizing them for mobile devices. Pictures, logos, and text layout are important. Consider taking a content writing or design course, such as the Strategy of Content Marketing delivered by UC Davis, or use books and internet content.

6. Understand email regulations and compliance.

You must have a good understanding of email marketing laws and regulations. In the US, the main law to be aware of is the CAN-SPAM Act, which prohibits spamming and using unauthorized email addresses to send mail. This is why it is essential to ensure everyone on your email list has opted in and agreed to receive your business content. You must also provide a means for the reader to unsubscribe anytime. 

If you have customers based in Europe, you’ll need to consider General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws concerning the handling and privacy of data.

7. Analyze and optimize your email campaigns.

To succeed with your email marketing strategy, you’ll need to learn how to optimize your email campaigns. It’s vital you understand how well a campaign has performed so you know what your audience responds to and its impact on your goals. Key metrics to track include open rates, click-through rates (CTRs), and conversion rates. You can then use your findings to optimize your emails. 

Learn about techniques to improve the performance of your campaign, such as A/B testing. With A/B testing, you may create variations of your email content to send to a small section of your audience to see how they receive it. This allows you to see which emails perform better.

8. Keep up with email marketing trends.

As with any industry, email marketing has evolving trends that you need to monitor to stay current and keep your readers engaged with your content. A good way to do this is to follow influential marketing experts on social media and sign up for their email lists. Watch webinars, listen to podcasts, and find how-to videos on YouTube to learn more about trends. Consider maintaining this level of research so your content is always current.

Develop your email marketing skills with Coursera

Email marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. If you’re thinking about how to learn email marketing, consider an online course or Professional Certificate. You might consider the Google Digital Marketing and E-commerce Professional Certificate. Another option is the Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate, which can help you learn to use analytics to test the impact of your marketing campaigns. Both are available on Coursera.