How to Start Email Marketing

Shopespot
16 Jan 2026

How to Start Email Marketing (Beginner-Friendly Guide)

Email marketing remains one of the most profitable digital marketing channels, delivering consistent ROI for businesses of all sizes. If you’re wondering how to start email marketing, this guide walks you through every step from building your first email list to launching automated campaigns that convert.

Whether you’re a small business owner, online seller, or service provider, email marketing allows you to own your audience, drive repeat sales, and build long-term customer relationships.

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the process of sending targeted messages to a group of subscribers to promote products, services, updates, or offers. Unlike social media, where reach is limited by algorithms, email gives you direct access to your audience’s inbox.

This makes email marketing a powerful tool for nurturing leads, increasing customer retention, and driving consistent revenue.

Why Email Marketing Is Still Important

Before learning how to start, it’s important to understand why email marketing continues to work:

High return on investment (ROI)
Direct communication with customers
Works for ecommerce, service-based businesses, and B2B
Easy to automate and scale
Builds trust and long-term brand loyalty

Step 1: Choose the Right Email Marketing Platform

The first and most important step in starting email marketing is selecting a reliable email marketing platform.

A good platform should allow you to:

Create professional email campaigns
Manage and segment subscriber lists
Send bulk emails reliably
Automate follow-ups and workflows
Track opens, clicks, and conversions

Instead of juggling multiple tools, using an all-in-one email marketing solution makes the process easier — especially for beginners.

Create and manage email campaigns using Shopespot’s Email Marketing tools
Open a free email marketing account and start building campaigns in minutes

These tools are designed to help businesses launch, manage, and automate email marketing from one central dashboard, without technical skills.

Step 2: Build Your Email List (The Right Way)

You can’t start email marketing without subscribers. The key is to build a permission-based email list.

Best ways to collect emails:

Website signup forms
Checkout opt-ins
Free guides, discounts, or lead magnets
Contact forms
Loyalty or rewards programs

Never buy email lists. This harms deliverability, reduces engagement, and can get your domain blacklisted.

Step 3: Segment Your Audience

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is sending the same email to everyone.

Email list segmentation allows you to:

Send more relevant messages
Increase open and click-through rates
Improve conversions
Reduce unsubscribes

You can segment subscribers by:

Purchase history
Location
Interests
Signup source
Customer behaviour

Modern email marketing platforms make segmentation automatic and easy.

Step 4: Create Your First Email Campaign

Now that you have subscribers, it’s time to create your first email campaign.

A good email campaign includes:

A clear and compelling subject line
A personalised greeting
A short, focused message
One main call-to-action
Mobile-friendly design

Using a drag-and-drop email editor, you can design professional-looking emails without coding or design skills.

Step 5: Automate Your Email Marketing

Email automation is where real growth happens.

Instead of manually sending emails, automation allows you to:

Send welcome emails automatically
Follow up on abandoned carts
Re-engage inactive subscribers
Deliver drip or onboarding campaigns
Trigger emails based on customer actions

With the right platform, you can set up automated workflows once and let them run in the background.

Launch automated email marketing campaigns while you focus on growing your business

Step 6: Track Performance and Optimize

Successful email marketing is data-driven.

Key metrics to track:

Open rate
Click-through rate
Bounce rate
Unsubscribes
Conversions

Use these insights to:

Improve subject lines
Adjust sending times
Refine email content
Improve list segmentation

Common Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

If you’re just starting email marketing, avoid these common mistakes:

Sending emails without permission
Overloading emails with too many links
Ignoring mobile users
Not using automation
Sending campaigns inconsistently