Let’s get started! Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to create your email marketing strategy. Here are the five most important steps. This is just the foundation, so feel free to dive deeper if you want a more thorough strategy. Plus, your email marketing strategy should be integrated into your overall marketing plan. You can find a detailed guide not just for your email marketing strategy but for your entire online marketing strategy in the Online Marketing Strategy Planner.

Set Goals

If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t get there. That’s why you should start by setting your email marketing goals. After all, you wouldn’t start driving without knowing your destination.

Your goals should be as specific as possible. A popular framework is SMART goals. If you’re a fan of this method, feel free to structure your email goals this way.

If you’re not familiar with SMART goals or don’t find them helpful, just make sure your goals meet the following criteria:

• Specific
• As detailed as possible
• Measurable
• Motivating
• Ambitious yet realistic
• Goals that you can influence

Know Your Audience

Next, create your customer avatar. This helps you speak directly to your ideal customers. With a clear customer avatar in mind, crafting your strategy becomes much easier. You’ll know exactly what topics interest your audience, how often they want to hear from you, which content resonates the most, and so on. Unfortunately, many people skip this step because they’re unsure how to create a meaningful customer avatar. Don’t make that mistake! A well-defined avatar puts you ahead of most of your competitors.

Create an Email Marketing Plan

Now that you know what you want to achieve and what resonates with your audience, it’s time to turn that into a concrete marketing plan. Your email marketing plan should outline when you’ll send which emails. It’s crucial to plan holidays and campaigns well in advance so you’re ready for key moments like Black Friday.

Also, don’t forget company-specific events. If you’re launching a course or introducing a new product, make sure to include it in your email marketing plan. This way, you stay organized and can strategically plan these events.

Send Your Newsletter

Now for the main event: sending your emails. Once you’ve created your marketing plan, all that’s left is to follow it. It’s best to prepare your emails at least a week before sending them. Take your time to craft engaging content, write compelling subject lines, and proofread everything. Send yourself a test email to check the appearance and all links. Once you’re happy with it, hit send!

Analyze & Optimize Your Email Marketing

Out of sight, out of mind? Not with email marketing. If you want to improve and ensure your strategy is working, you should regularly analyze your emails. Most newsletter tools offer great analytics features—use them!

Depending on how often you send newsletters, set aside at least an hour each week or month to review your email marketing. Look at metrics like your open rate, click-through rate, hard and soft bounces, unsubscribes, and so on, and document them. I use an Excel or Google spreadsheet for this. These numbers will help you understand what’s working and what isn’t. Create an action plan with specific things you want to optimize.

Streaming platforms are a vast alternative to social media marketing. This topic is so extensive that I could write an entire series of blog posts on it. I’ll briefly introduce you to three examples of marketing on streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, and Twitch. With the rise of various streaming platforms, newcomers and established businesses can generate significant reach much more easily than through traditional marketing channels.

For the first two platforms, the magic word is playlist marketing. Many companies use this very successfully. If you manage to appear in one of the big playlists, you automatically reach the ears of listeners and gain massive exposure. On Spotify, for example, there are playlists with over 10 million followers. Although placement in these playlists comes at a price, strategic segmentation (by genre, country, topic) allows you to get closer to your potential fans than ever before.

Another option is the streaming platform Twitch. Twitch is a live-streaming platform primarily focused on video games, esports, and creative content, where users can stream videos in real-time and interact with their audience. Twitch is interesting for marketing because brands can reach an engaged and often hard-to-reach audience through influencer partnerships, sponsored content, and direct viewer interaction.