But first, some fun facts. Although email was invented in 1971, it was first used as a marketing tool in 1978 by Gary Thurek. There is still debate about whether his first email campaign can be considered spam rather than email marketing. He sent an email to 400 uk business fax list users about his product and claimed to have generated $13 million in sales – along with a ton of complaints!
Later, in 1999, Seth Godin proposed a more ethical way of using email for email marketing . His proposal earned him expulsion from the Direct Marketing Association. Yes, email marketing was too radical an idea! But the story ended well: Godin is now one of the stars of the association's hall of fame.
Today, there are 3.9 billion email users worldwide . And Godin’s insights paid off: 90% of marketers consider email engagement to be the primary performance measure of their content. From a customer perspective, 59% of customers say email influences their purchasing decisions, and 80% of marketers agree that email impacts customer retention numbers .
There's no doubt that email campaigns can yield extraordinary results if you implement them correctly. But how exactly do you do that? In this article, we'll explain absolutely everything you need to know to implement an effective email marketing strategy. Get ready!
