How to Use HubSpot for Email Marketing

Email marketing remains a highly effective method of marketing to a dedicated audience, especially within B2B. 81% of B2B marketers use email newsletters as their most used form of marketing. Email marketing may not hold the allure of newer channels, such as social media, but its ROI is still high and worth the effort.

Deciding when to use email marketing is vital. There is a balance between overusing emails and potentially losing a subscriber, but if used right- email marketing can build a relationship with the prospect and be used as a profit-building tool. 

Within this blog, we will explore the HubSpot marketing tool, and provide valuable insights on enhancing your email marketing campaign.

Email Marketing Benefits 

There are many ways to use email marketing to your advantage: 

1. Email marketing copy and content can be highly personalised to your audience's needs, which helps to build relationships and connections.  
2. Help increase brand awareness by keeping your product and services at the top of the mind of the prospect. 99% of consumers check their email every day, and it remains the preferred way to receive updates from brands.
3. Email marketing influences purchasing decisions. A HubSpot survey showed 59% of the respondents said marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.  
4. Generate leads and entice subscribers to provide their email addresses and personal information in exchange to receive an asset that will bring them value.  
5. Nurture leads by delighting your customers with content that is informative, interesting, valuable and thought-provoking.  
6. 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI- helping to improve sales.  
7. Generate traffic to your site with CTA’s.  

HubSpot Email Marketing 

HubSpot Email Marketing Features and Capabilities 

HubSpot offers a range of features that help make email marketing efficient. From personalisation, design and email analytics to ensure the email campaigns' success.  

1. Create Email Designs Easily
   
   HubSpot has a range of goal-oriented email templates available, or explore the HubSpot marketplace, which offers proven conversion-focused options. Then, utilising the drag-and-drop editor, customise the layout, calls-to-action, and branding according to your company preference. 
   
   
2. Personalisation Helps Drive-up Engagement
   
   By tailoring the email to each reader, you benefit from higher open rates and click-throughs. One of the most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns is message personalisation.
    
   By using the information collected, HubSpot allows you to automatically deliver the most relevant subject lines, links, attachments, and CTAs. Furthermore, schedule emails to be delivered to the recipient’s inbox at the optimal time, regardless of their time zone.
   
   
3. Optimisation Through A/B Testing and Analytics
   
   Quality assurance, A/B, and spam testing your emails lead to higher ROI. Emails that are tested tend to offer a 28% higher return on investment. Utilising HubSpot analytics, identify which subject lines and content generates the most email opens. Armed with these insights, you can design new email marketing campaigns that convert. 

Best Practices for Engaging Email Campaigns 

1. Compelling Subject Lines and Clear CTA’s:
   
   A well-crafted subject line drives curiosity, creates urgency, or offers a clear benefit to the recipient and is personalised to the recipient’s interests, (HubSpot). Experiment with different approaches and monitor open rates to refine your subject line strategies.
   
   Create visually appealing and professional email templates that align with your brand's identity. Ensure your templates have clear and prominent calls-to-action (CTAs) that guide recipients towards desired actions. Use contrasting colours, bold typography, and intuitive design elements to make CTAs stand out and encourage engagement. 
   
   Split-test your subject lines and calls to action. If you can't seem to increase your email's open and click-through rates, there is room for improvement. To start, conduct an A/B test. A/B testing splits an email recipient into two groups. The first receives email A with no variations, while the second group receives email B with a specific variation. Depending on how each version of your email performs over a period, the tool picks a winning version to send to the rest of your recipient's list.  
   
   For example, you might change the colour of your CTA from red to green to see if your email's clickthrough rate increases. If it does, the test indicates that you should change your emails' CTA colour to green from now on.
    
2. Personalisation Techniques: 
   
   Tailor your email content to individual subscribers through personalisation techniques. Incorporate their names, past purchase history, or other specific preferences in the email content and subject lines to create a sense of relevance with each recipient. The reader is more likely to engage with a personalised email.
   
   
3. Segmentation Strategies: 
   
   Segment your email list based on various criteria such as demographics, interests, purchase behaviour, or engagement level. By sending targeted and relevant messages to specific segments, you can increase the likelihood of engagement and conversion. Segmenting your list allows you to create personalised and targeted content that interests the group.  
   
   
4. Mobile Optimisation: 
   
   Optimise your emails for mobile devices as a significant portion of recipients access emails on their smartphones or tablets. The HubSpot email design tool creates emails that a responsive across mobile, tablet and desktop. Pay attention to font sizes, button sizes, and overall formatting to guarantee a seamless experience for mobile users. 
   
   
5. Valuable and Engaging Content: 
   
   Deliver valuable and engaging content that provides real value to your audience. Offer educational resources, exclusive insights, special promotions, or industry updates that are interesting to the reader. Focus on providing content that helps them solve problems or stay informed. Valuable content builds trust, and brand loyalty, and encourages recipients to take action. 
   
   
6. Clean your mailing list regularly 
   
   Regularly clean your mailing list to ensure optimal email campaign performance. Prospects that continuously do not engage are harming your open rate, and campaign quality and are affecting your ability to collect accurate data. Focus on maintaining an engaged audience. 
   
   By reviewing your list periodically, you maintain an accurate email open rate and your campaigns target prospects who are genuinely interested in your content. Implement a workflow to gradually move inactive subscribers to less frequent email lists based on their activity. 
   
   
7. Conduct a five-second test.
   
   This tip from HubSpot is great. Send a copy of the email to a friend or business associate to assess if they can quickly tell what the purpose of the email is and what the call-to-action is within five seconds. If not, the email copy and design needs continued work. Refer to the data you have at hand with HubSpot analytics, and create new emails based on past emails that have high engagements.

Real Example of an Email Campaign 

HubSpot explores the case study of "Dropbox". This re-engagement campaign is a prime example of a company that reached out to past clients with professional, polite, and actionable messaging, and an impossible-to-miss call-to-action with links to template libraries.  

Furthermore, the email was short and non-intrusive — it just wants to remind the recipient that Dropbox Paper exists, and why it could be helpful.  

When sending these types of emails, you might include an incentive for recipients to try out one of your specific products, like a limited-time coupon or a free trial.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, email marketing holds tremendous potential for nurturing leads, engaging subscribers, and fostering customer loyalty. By implementing the best practices discussed earlier, you can create compelling campaigns that drive sales and deliver a significant return on investment.  The HubSpot email marketing tool enables you to centralise and organise all your campaigns in one place, ensuring seamless coordination and strategic execution.