Email marketing 101: A beginner’s guide

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Today’s marketers are busy posting, scrolling, and chasing likes. Meanwhile, email is quietly outperforming flashy social media. If you’re just starting your marketing journey, there’s no better place to begin than with email marketing.

Email marketing for beginners is one of the most effective ways to build and maintain lasting customer relationships.

It enables you to communicate directly with your audience, create lasting relationships, and increase conversions and sales. 

This email marketing guide will walk you through the basics of email marketing for beginners. By the end, you’ll learn how to create effective campaigns that yield results and drive business growth.

Here’s a video that breaks down the basics of email marketing:

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing method that involves communicating to a group of people (subscribers, customers, or leads) via email. 

When used correctly, email marketing is a must-have tool for ecommerce businesses. It can help you increase brand awareness, recover abandoned cart sales, encourage repeat purchases and loyalty, and grow your store’s revenue. 

All you need to do is consistently deliver targeted, valuable information and relevant offers to your audience.

There are different types of email marketing emails depending on your goal. Some of the most popular include:

• Welcome emails
• Promotional emails
• Abandoned cart emails
• Newsletters

Here’s an example of a promotional email from Omnisend:

Does email marketing work? (Yes — here’s proof)

As a beginner, you’re probably wondering if email marketing delivers real results. We can confidently say that it’s one of the most lucrative marketing channels, and we have the data to back this up.

Omnisend’s latest report reveals a 27.6% increase in click-to-conversion rates for email campaigns executed in 2024. Subscribers not only click on emails but also complete desired actions, such as making purchases.

Approximately 50% of customers bought a product directly from an email in 2024. This is an impressive conversion rate compared to the 21% and 43% recorded for banner ads and social media posts, respectively. 

Meanwhile, automated emails, making up just 2% of email volume, drove an impressive 37% of email-generated sales according to Omnisend. This means one in three subscribers who clicked on an automated email in 2025 completed a purchase. 

As for ROI, ecommerce businesses in the US that use Omnisend generate an impressive $68 for each $1 spent. That’s an incredible return that only a few marketing channels can match.

“We’ve seen customers consistently increase revenue using automated email sequences like abandoned‑cart and welcome flows,” says Evaldas Mockus, VP of Growth. “It’s enough proof that smart email marketing strategies are the key to driving business growth.”

“Every year, we see the same pattern,” says Evaldas. “Brands that use dynamic content, segmentation, and automation to personalize emails build stronger customer loyalty and see higher repeat purchase rates.”

Email marketing 101: What beginners need to know

Understanding essential email marketing basics helps you create an effective strategy, avoid making costly mistakes, and send impactful campaigns right from the get-go. 

Here are some of the most crucial components to understand in this guide to email marketing for beginners: 

Signup forms

One of the first things you’ll need is a way to collect email addresses and grow your list. This is where you’ll need signup forms. These forms invite your website visitors to subscribe to your emails. 

You’ll need to strategically place your signup forms. The placement directly affects the number of leads you’ll gain. You can place them across various touchpoints of your website, such as the homepage, in the footer, within blog posts, or during checkout. They’re also effective as popups that appear after a certain time or action. 

You can choose from different types of signup forms, including:

• Embedded forms: Static forms that blend into your webpage content
• Popups: Dynamic forms that appear based on user behavior, such as scrolling or exit intent
• Gamified forms: Interactive forms like Omnisend’s Wheel of Fortune add a fun element to the signup process, effectively increasing conversions

When designing your form, only ask for essential information. Usually, a first name and email address are enough. If you ask for too much, this makes the signup process unnecessarily tedious and could drive people away. 

Here’s a great example of a high-converting signup form from Omnisend with multiple steps:

Your email list

A high-quality email list lays the foundation of a successful email marketing strategy. While it’s tempting to purchase a ready-made list, this shortcut is risky and can backfire. 

Purchased lists may contain outdated, inactive, or spam-trap email addresses. As a result, you could have high bounce rates, low engagement, and a damaged sender reputation. Besides, purchased contacts haven’t consented to receiving your emails, which can lead to privacy violations and legal trouble.

Instead, build your email list from scratch. Even if you start with just 10 subscribers, your list can grow over time. Segment your list properly to ensure you send relevant, personalized emails that resonate deeply with specific audiences. 

You can segment your email list based on: 

• Demographics like age, gender, job, and geographic location
• Customer lifecycle, such as new customer, repeat buyer, or at-risk of churning
• Purchase behavior, such as new vs. returning customers
• Signup sources

Campaigns

An email campaign is a one-time email sent to your subscribers for a specific purpose. 

It can be a message announcing a sale, welcoming new subscribers, launching a new product, or sharing your latest newsletter. Email campaigns must be well-crafted and timed to grab your audience’s attention. 

If you’re just getting started, here are some of the best email marketing campaign types to consider:

• Welcome email: Immediately thank your subscribers for signing up while introducing them to your brand
• Promotional campaign: Announce flash sales, discounts, seasonal deals, or exclusive offers
• Newsletter: Keep your audience in the loop with updates, tips, blogs, or behind-the-scenes content
• Product spotlight: Share new arrivals and bestsellers, emphasizing product features and benefits with compelling images and messaging

For email marketing for beginners, you can start by sending one email per week while you gauge your audience’s response and preferences. Once you learn what resonates with your subscribers, you can adjust frequency and test different formats. The key here is being consistent without overwhelming subscribers with too many emails. 

Here’s a great example of an email campaign sent using Omnisend to promote bestsellers:

Automations

While campaigns are one-time sends, email automations run in the background 24/7. This sequence of pre-programmed emails is triggered by specific actions taken by subscribers, such as signing up for your emails or abandoning a cart.

Email marketing for beginners involves prioritizing these essential automations:

• Welcome series: Automate a sequence of emails to welcome new subscribers and guide them through your brand and offerings
• Abandoned cart emails: Automatically remind customers about items left in their cart to recover lost sales
• Order and shipping confirmations: Update customers about the status of their orders post-purchase

Tools like Omnisend allow you to set up these automations hassle-free, so you can deliver reliable, personalized communication. The best part? Automations reduce manual intervention. This saves time and frees you up to focus on other crucial tasks for your business. 

On top of that, email automation delivers crucial messages at the right time, resulting in more conversions and a higher ROI.

Metrics that matter

After sending your first email campaign, how do you determine if it was successful or not? Well, email marketing for beginners involves knowing the right metrics to track. 

Some of the most important email marketing metrics to monitor include:

• Open rate: Measures the percentage of recipients who opened your email. A high open rate means your subject lines are compelling, encouraging subscribers to read your emails.
• Click-through rate (CTR): Tracks the number of people who clicked on links within your email. A high CTR indicates that your email content is engaging and CTAs are effective.
• Unsubscribe rate: Monitors the percentage of subscribers who opted out of receiving your emails. A few unsubscribes are normal, but a spike may indicate issues you need to address right away.
• Conversion rate: Evaluates the number of recipients who completed a desired action. It reflects your campaign’s effectiveness in achieving your business goals.
• Bounce rate: The percentage of emails that aren’t successfully delivered to a recipient’s inbox. A high bounce rate signals an outdated email list with invalid addresses.

How to start email marketing in five simple steps

It’s easy to make mistakes that derail your email marketing campaigns when you don’t know where to begin. Having a clear, step-by-step approach is the best way to prevent setbacks and common errors.

To begin email marketing for beginners, we’ve broken down the process into the following five easy steps: 

1. Choose an email marketing platform

This is a step you should pay extra attention to in this email marketing guide for beginners.

A good platform helps you manage your subscriber list efficiently, automate campaigns, and track performance using detailed analytics. It also ensures your emails comply with data privacy laws and reach your subscribers’ inboxes.

Omnisend is a powerful all-in-one marketing solution loved by both email marketing newbies and experts. It offers a free plan with all the essential features you need to get started, such as an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and pre-built email automations.

2. Add your first signup form

Once you’ve chosen your platform, it’s time to start growing your list by adding your first signup form to your website. Our email marketing tips for beginners include designing your signup form well and placing it strategically. This will help you build your email list by capturing email addresses from website visitors.

Your form should be easy to spot. You can also provide incentives like a discount, exclusive updates, or early access to products in exchange for signups, and this value should be stated clearly in the form.

Choose between different types of forms, including:

• A prominent popup that appears based on user behavior, such as exit intent
• An embedded form to place on your homepage or footer
• A gamified form offering discounts or prizes in exchange for visitors’ emails

3. Create a welcome email

The next step in this email marketing tutorial is crafting your welcome email. It’s the most important email you’ll send, as it sets the tone for your relationship with a new subscriber.

The best welcome emails get the highest open rate. According to Omnisend’s report, it reached an impressive 34.7% in 2024. The key is to send it right after someone subscribes, since this is when they’re most interested in your brand.

Here’s how to make a great first impression with your welcome email:

• Express gratitude for subscribing
• Briefly introduce your brand
• Offer a discount or exclusive deal 
• Set expectations on what’s coming next

This welcome email template example from Omnisend should inspire you: 

4. Send your first campaign

Email marketing for beginners isn’t complete until you send your first campaign.

There are no email marketing guidelines for specific beginner campaigns. You can start with a simple product introduction, announcing one or two of your most popular items. Alternatively, you could offer an exclusive deal to encourage a first purchase.

Just ensure you consistently use your brand’s colors, fonts, logos, and tone of voice in every email. It helps reinforce brand recognition and cultivate trust with your audience. 

5. Review and improve

The final step in our email marketing for beginners guide is tracking campaign performance and refining your strategy. It’s a continuous process that helps you learn what your audience likes and dislikes, and how to do better next time.

You can use Omnisend’s analytics to monitor key metrics like open, click-through, unsubscribe, and conversion rates. Based on the results, adjust one or two areas for your next email.

For instance, if your open rate is low, consider A/B testing different subject lines to see which one performs better. You can also fix a low CTR by using more compelling CTAs.

6 email marketing campaign examples for beginners

One of the best ways to learn how to use email marketing is by looking at practical examples of successful campaigns. It gives you a head start in creating your own campaigns by illustrating what elements work best.

Here are a few real-life examples to help you better understand email marketing for beginners:

1. Revival — welcome email

Revival’s welcome email uses a friendly tone, simple design, and appealing offers. It instantly grabs subscribers’ attention with a prominent $40 discount on their first purchase. The “SHOP NOW” CTA is front and centert, making it easy for the recipient to spot and take action.

The email then warmly welcomes subscribers and emphasizes the value they’ll get by joining Revival’s email list:

2. AWAY — abandoned cart email

This abandoned cart email from AWAY is a great example used in email marketing for beginners. It’s straightforward yet friendly, which can be effective for recovering lost sales. 

The headline “Forgot something?” immediately piques the recipient’s curiosity. The product image and description further jog the customer’s memory. A compelling CTA then nudges the shopper to complete their order.

Sharing benefits like “Free shipping & returns” reassures customers and increases trust. It’s a great abandoned cart practice for converting hesitant shoppers into buyers:

3. Homes Alive Pets — post-purchase email

After someone makes a purchase, don’t go silent. A post-purchase email like this one from Homes Alive Pets is an excellent way to appreciate customers and encourage repeat business. 

The brand nails its post-purchase email with a warm thank-you message to make the customer feel valued. The email is concise, includes cute, attention-grabbing pet images, and provides order and contact details with clear CTAs. 

It also subtly encourages shoppers to purchase more products in the future:

4. Blu Dot — flash sale email

Flash sale emails use limited-time offers to drive immediate purchases. It emphasizes urgency and induces FOMO (fear of missing out), especially with effective flash sale subject lines.

This Blu Dot email nails these elements perfectly. The phrase “ends tomorrow” clearly communicates urgency, while “20% off” emphasizes cost savings. The compelling “SHOP SALE NOW” CTA is great for driving conversions:

5. Motif Beauty — new product email

When launching a new item, sending a product announcement email generates buzz and drives initial sales. Motif Beauty’s product launch email shows precisely what to include for effective email marketing for beginners.

It features the product with a high-quality image and a clear, enticing name. It then clearly lists the product’s benefits, along with a strong CTA to encourage readers to take action.

Finally, positive customer reviews are added for social proof, clearing any hesitations the subscriber may have before purchasing this product: 

6. Chewy — feedback request email

After a customer purchases your product, sending a feedback request email can help you gather insights. You can then use this data to make the customer experience better and establish credibility through social proof.

This product review email example from Chewy is ideal because it’s polite and direct to the point. It lists the purchased items, with clear images and CTAs, so the customer can easily leave a review for each product:

Why Omnisend is ideal for email marketing beginners

Getting started with email marketing for beginners calls for a platform that offers powerful features without a steep learning curve. Omnisend is an excellent choice not just for beginners but also for pros. Its intuitive tools make it accessible to marketers of all experience levels.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the features you’ll get with Omnisend:

• Pre-built welcome flows: Omnisend’s Welcome Automation Presets let you launch an engaging welcome series using ready-made templates for all business sizes

• Drag and-drop editor: With its intuitive drag-and-drop email builder, you can swiftly design emails by simply dragging text blocks, images, or buttons into your email layout

• Free plan: Start email marketing without any upfront costs using Omnisend’s free plan that offers all essential features, then upgrade to paid tiers as your list grows 
• Award-winning 24/7 customer support: Omnisend’s Stevie Award is a testament to its exemplary 24/7 customer support, available even on the free plan

Your first steps into email marketing start now

Email marketing is one of the most effective and affordable ways to connect with your audience, nurture leads, and drive revenue growth. And you don’t need years of experience to get started.

With the right tools and a few simple strategies, email marketing for beginners can be easy, rewarding, and insightful. You only need to start building your first list. Then, follow the rest of the steps in this email marketing for beginners guide to launch a successful campaign.

Omnisend supports you on this journey with pre-built workflows, a user-friendly editor, and responsive support. Try Omnisend for free today and see for yourself. 

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