How to start email marketing for beginners: step-by-step guide
Email marketing means sending messages to your audience by email. It helps you connect with people interested in your brand, share news or special deals, and grow your relationship with them over time.
Email lets you reach people right in their inbox. Since they choose to sign up, you are speaking to an audience that wants to hear from you. This makes email one of the best ways to communicate and encourage action.
Types of email marketing
Beginners should know about a few main types of email marketing. Each type has its own purpose, but all help you connect with your audience and offer something valuable.
- Newsletters: These are regular emails that update your audience about your business, industry news, tips, or useful content. They help you build relationships over time.
- Promotional emails: These highlight offers, discounts, or new products. They encourage people to take action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a webinar.
- Welcome emails: These are sent to new subscribers to introduce your brand, explain what to expect, and begin building trust.
- Transactional emails: These messages are sent after a user takes an action, such as making a purchase, receiving a receipt, or resetting a password. They keep communication clear and professional.
- Lifecycle or automated emails: These are sent automatically based on what your customer does or where they are in their journey, such as abandoned cart reminders or reengagement messages. They save you time and keep your audience engaged.
Knowing these types gives you a simple framework for planning your first Campaign. Don’t feel like you have to do everything right away. Start with what feels manageable.
Tips for better email deliverability
Once you’ve sent your first emails, the next step is to make sure your messages really reach your subscribers’ inboxes. This is called deliverability, and it matters if you want your emails to be seen instead of going to spam or promotions folders.
Here are a few ways you can improve email deliverability:
- Use a reputable email marketing platform, like Dotdigital, which handles the technical setup for you
- Email people who opted in – permission-based emails keep your list healthy and protect your sender reputation
- Keep your list clean – remove inactive subscribers and fix invalid addresses over time
- Avoid spammy content – steer clear of overly salesy language, all-caps subject lines, or too many links
- Verify your emails are genuine – most platforms do this for you, but it’s good to check settings like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
- Use BIMI to show your brand logo in inboxes that support it, which helps build trust and makes your emails easier to recognize
The benefits of a good email marketing strategy.
With social media, SEO, video, podcasts, and so many other marketing channels fragmenting audiences and competing for attention — and with email campaigns competing against each other for views and clicks — it’s fair to wonder if email marketing still works.
Make no mistake — email marketing continues to be enormously influential.
Email marketing can generate an incredible 3,600% return on investment. (Schultz, 2023) Even with the growth of social, SEO, and other channels, email remains one of the most effective marketing strategies because most people have email and use it often, including on their mobile devices.
There are many benefits of good email marketing, including:
- Increased conversions and deals by offering exclusive discounts or sending abandoned cart emails
- Improved awareness by reappearing in your audience’s inbox at regular (but not incessant) intervals
- Better customer relationships, primarily through personalization and marketing automation
- Prompting readers to take another action, such as visiting your website or blog, shopping for products, or something else
- Results can be easily and objectively measured, providing a clearer picture of the impact of your efforts.
The global value of email marketing was $8.3 billion in 2023, according to Statista, and the market is projected to increase to $18.9 billion by 2028. (Email marketing revenue worldwide 2022-2032, 2024) Likewise, daily email users are expected to rise by 500 million by 2027. (Email Statistics Report, 2023–2027 – Executive Summary, n.d.)
The way to make effective use of email marketing.
1. Define your audience.
The first thing you should do to reach customers by email is find out who they are. It’s important to get to know your customers because it helps you create relevant email content.
What should you do about the demographics of your ideal customers? Consider aspects such as age, location, gender, occupation, and interests. The more thoroughly you understand your customers and who is most likely to be interested in your product or service, the more successful your email campaign will be.
For instance, since your company manufactures organic baby food, you could focus on young working mothers who are interested in environmentally friendly products and nutrition; teenage boys, however, are very unlikely to be interested in your product.
To focus your efforts, avoid contacting people who don’t want to hear from you, since the people most likely to buy your product should be the ones you target with your email marketing.
2. Set goals.
To set goals, you need a purpose for each email, since this will help you stay focused and prevent your emails from becoming spam. The goals you set should be measurable and should help you evaluate your overall results, which we will look at in a later step. You can work out your goals by considering what your business needs.
For instance, should you have a large number of new members as a result of a successful social media campaign, you might consider setting up an email marketing campaign to welcome them and assist them in getting used to your website, product, or subscription service.
3. Select an email marketing platform.
A strong email marketing platform will help you achieve the objectives you’ve set for your campaigns; it lets you send emails more efficiently, evaluate campaign effectiveness, and keep all relevant information in one place.
When selecting a platform, ensure it is powerful enough for your business size and provides the support you need. You should also decide which features are important to your business. One way to do this is to read reviews of popular email marketing platforms to find one that suits a business similar to yours.
4. Determine campaign type.
Your email marketing campaign must have a single, clear call to action for your customers and should also use a series of targeted emails designed to engage them over a set period.
The campaign type you choose matters because it lets you focus on the method that will most effectively reach the audience you’ve established. If you are deciding which type of email marketing campaign to launch, you should also consider your objectives and your audience. Your call to action should help you achieve your goals.
Some campaign types include:
- Newsletter
- Promotional or announcement
- Reengagement
- Content or blog updates
- Autoresponders like welcome emails, transactional emails, and more
For instance, if you want your audience to feel a sense of community with your business, a newsletter is an excellent way to keep them engaged and informed.
5. Make an email list.
When you’re creating an email list, you’re essentially building your target audience. Although it may seem like the simpler option, it’s essential not to buy an email list, since one obtained this way will likely waste your time because the people on it are not part of your target audience. The best way to build your email list is to take an organic approach.
These are a few things you can use to build an email list organically:
- Existing email lists from your company
- Customer relationship management software
- Requests for new emails via social media or your website
- Gated content and promotion. Keep in touch with customers by asking for their email addresses so interested people can easily provide their contact details. Ensure that it is as simple as possible for customers on your website or social media to opt in to receive emails, for example by using a popup window that gives them a discount when they enter their email address. Alternatively, your social media chatbots could ask for customers’ emails for promotional purposes. Ensure the emails on your list are from customers who have agreed to receive your communications; if they have not, do not include them on your list. Your list.
How to build an email list
Your email list is your most powerful marketing tool, but its true value comes from building it the right way: earn each subscriber’s trust with genuine opt-ins, not shortcuts or purchased lists.
Create a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is a valuable offer you exchange for someone’s email address. The best lead magnets solve a specific problem for your audience and deliver instant value.
Effective lead magnets include:
- Free resources: Ebooks, guides, templates, checklists, worksheets
- Exclusive content: Industry reports, case studies, research findings
- Discounts and offers: 10% off first purchase, free shipping, exclusive access
- Tools and calculators: ROI calculators, assessment tools, interactive resources
- Educational content: Video tutorials, webinars, email courses
Choose a lead magnet that fits your business perfectly, so you attract the right subscribers who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
Add opt-in forms to your website.
Place your signup forms where visitors naturally look: in the website header or footer, the hero section of your homepage, your blog’s sidebar, exit-intent popups, and on dedicated landing pages for specific lead magnets.
Keep it simple. Ask only for what you need—usually just an email address and first name. The fewer fields, the higher your signup rate. You can always learn more about your subscribers over time.
Promote your email list.
Drive signups by promoting your list across all marketing channels:
- Social media posts and bio links directing to signup pages
- Blog post CTAs and content upgrades (bonus content in exchange for email)
- YouTube video descriptions and end screens
- Guest posts and podcast appearances
- In-store signage and receipts (for retail businesses)
- Referral programs encouraging subscribers to share
