Getting Started With Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the highest converting forms of promotion. There's no more targeted, efficient way to turn your leads into customers. In this article, I'll be covering the basic things you need to know to get started with the WebStarts Email Marketing Application.

Activating the Email Marketing Application for your website.

You can find the Email Marketing Application panel in the dashboard view of each site. When your Email Marketing Application appears gray in color it means it's not yet activated. You'll need to click on it in order to activate it.

Choosing an Email Marketing plan.

In order to activate Email Marketing, you must choose an Email Marketing subscription plan. Plans are sorted by the number of emails you expect to send in a given month.

Once you've paid for your Email Marketing subscription the Email Marketing panel will change from gray to blue. Blue indicates the Email Marketing Application is active. 

Click on the panel and it will open the Email Lists view. 

Subscriber Lists

The Email Marketing Application segments your email subscribers into lists. It's good practice to segment your lists. This will help you send the right message to the right people. For example, You might want to send a different email message to people who've already made a purchase from you than a list of people who've only inquired about making a purchase.

When you enable your Email Marketing Application there will be two lists already created. One is named Default while the other is named Contacts. 

To add a new list click on the Add List button located in the top right of the Lists view. You will then be required to give the list a name as well as enter a from name and email address. The from name and email address should be the name and email address of where you'd like replies to be sent.

Subscribers

Each email list is made up of Subscribers. Each subscriber is compiled of a number of fields. Fields are used to gather information from forms like the subscriber's name, email address, phone number, and so on. You can create custom fields for each subscriber by clicking the Add Field link at the bottom of a subscriber record. Subscriber fields are linked to the WebStarts form app. This allows you to add fields to your form in order to populate the subscriber record.

You can manually add a subscriber to a list by clicking on a subscriber and then clicking the Add Subscriber button that appears in the top right of the Subscribers view.

Subscribers can also be imported. Imported subscribers will be sent a confirmation email prior to being added to the list. Subscribers must be in a CSV file format in order to be imported. To begin importing subscribers click on the Import CSV button. You will then be required to upload your CSV file to the file manager. Next, you'll select the CSV file from the file manager. Finally, the importer will ask you to confirm the field names you're attempting to import.

In addition to importing lists, you can export them as well. To export, a list of your subscribers search for the subscribers you want to export and then click the Export button just under Add Subscribers.

Compose

The second tab you'll see when in the Email Marketing Application is the Compose tab. Click on this tab will allow you to compose a new email. When you compose an email you'll select the list you want to send to and when you want to send it.

The email composer can be used to send text emails as well as HTML emails. If you've created an HTML email outside of the composer you can paste the source code by clicking Tools > Source Code.

Drafts

Once an email has been scheduled for delivery it can be viewed by clicking on the Schedule tab. This is also where you'll find any email that has been saved.

Sent

After an email has been sent you can find it under the History tab. This can be helpful if you had an email you'd like to alter and send again. In that case, simply click the edit icon to the right of the sent email and go back through the send and schedule process.

Campaigns

You can schedule emails to be sent to subscribers at specified times. This is known as a drip campaign and helps people who've subscribed to your lists keep you top of mind. To schedule an autoresponse select the list, subject line, and the interval when you'd like the subscriber to receive it.

Settings

Under the settings tab, you can specify the from email address, name, and choose whether to require email subscribers to confirm before being added to a list.

Email Marketing Glossary

Subscriber List - A segmented list of email addresses.
Subscriber - A person who belongs to an email list.
Subscriber Field - A place where a subscriber provides a specific data input.
Broadcast - An email sent all at the same time to a specific list.
Campaign - A string of emails sent out over a specified time period.
Substitution Code - A shortcode that can be swapped with a specified subscriber field.