What is an Email Campaign? A Beginner's Guide

October 20, 2023
Table of Contents
Table of Contents

Email campaigns are a fundamental component of marketing strategies, allowing businesses to communicate directly with their target audience through email. 

If you’re in the dark about the intricacies of email campaigns, this guide is for you. Here, we’ll cover everything from what is an email campaign, why they’re important, how much they cost, to how to run one. We’ll also talk about tools that will enable you to run email campaigns without breaking a sweat. 

What is an email marketing campaign?

An email marketing campaign is a strategic effort to reach your target audience with a specific message or objective. Depending on the goal, there can be many different types of campaigns. 

For example, product launch, re-engagement, follow-up, outreach, and otherwise are all email campaigns with different objectives or the type of action they want to inspire from the audience. By the way, you can check out specific guides to a lot of these on the YAMM blog.

A campaign involves sending a series of carefully planned emails that are often spaced apart. Email marketing emails must also have alluring subject lines and enticing email content that resonates with the audience. 

Why email campaigns are important

Customer’s inboxes are personal. If you’re a small business, an email campaign gives you a direct line of communication with your audience. Compared to other marketing endeavors, it’s more exclusive.  

Email campaigns also allow you to segment your audience based on many factors, like demographics, purchase history, and even how they engage with your emails. Segmentation lets you tailor your message, leading to increased relevance and engagement.

Further, compared to other marketing methods, email marketing is highly cost-effective and allows you to understand your audience in a more nuanced manner. 

Read more about the other benefits of email marketing for small businesses

How much does an email campaign cost?

The cost of an email campaign varies widely depending on several factors. Firstly, it depends on the size and quality of your email list. Many email marketing platforms charge based on the number of subscribers you have.

Secondly, the complexity of your campaign and email content also matters. Creating a simple newsletter will be less expensive than an expertly designed automated drip campaign. 

Lastly, the choice of email marketing tool plays a significant role. Usually, for small businesses, free or basic plans are enough. Larger enterprises may benefit from premium solutions with more advanced features. Such plans can cost a few hundred to even thousands of dollars monthly.

How can you track an email campaign?

One of the best features of email campaigns is that they can be tracked and optimized for success. A good email marketing tool is a must to be able to do this effectively. 

There are several metrics in an email campaign: open rates, click-through rates, subscribes rates, and more. Knowing which metrics to track and which to ignore is critical, as it’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed by data. 

This is where a good tool like YAMM comes in. It allows you to track the most vital metrics of your campaign in an easy-to-use manner right in your Google Sheets. Sometimes, ease of access can mean success. 

How to run an email campaign easily

Decide what kind of email campaign you want to run

The first thing to do is decide the email campaign’s purpose. As there are many different types of email campaigns, your purpose will define the type of email campaign you need. This step is crucial for success. 

Your choice of email campaign will shape its content, strategy, and timing. As a rule of thumb, each email campaign should have a singular goal so that everything from the subject line to the CTA can be aligned and optimized accordingly. 

If you’ve never run an email campaign before or are unsure of what your next campaign should be about, check out a few different email campaigns for inspiration. 

Follow email marketing campaign best practices

An email marketing campaign has three crucial components: content, sending strategies, and metrics. If you’re starting, following email marketing best practices for each is a good idea. Here a few:

  • Craft compelling subject lines and personalize your message
  • Ensure emails are mobile-responsive for easy viewing across devices 
  • Think carefully about the frequency of emails and how you segment your list
  • Use metrics to optimize your campaigns for future success 

Decide what platform you want to send it from

The final but most important consideration of how to run an email campaign is the platform you will use. Your chosen tool can amplify or nullify your email marketing efforts. 

If the platform interface is too complicated, the learning curve might be too steep, and you might get discouraged. Also, successful email campaigns often require regularly checking metrics, so you must consider which metrics the platform gives you and how they’re presented.

This is why we recommend YAMM. YAMM lets you create email campaigns from the familiarity of your favorite email platform: Gmail. Learn how you can make an email campaign in Gmail with YAMM

Running a Gmail email campaign? YAMM can help

Now you know everything there is to learn about email campaigns. If you’re about to start an email campaign, consider trying YAMM. 

YAMM is a simple and easy-to-use email marketing platform that makes sending email campaigns a breeze. It offers all the makings of a successful email marketing campaign, like personalization, email templates, mail scheduling, and more. The best part is how with YAMM, you can view your campaign’s critical metrics right from your Google Sheets. 

No more spending precious time learning a complicated new platform interface. Check out YAMM today!

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