Email marketing is hands-down THE best way to market to and reach your audience, but sometimes understanding the common terminology that comes along with email marketing can get a little…
Confusing?
Overwhelming?
Bottle-of-wine-to-the-face worthy?
Yeah… defffinitely the last one.
So, let’s break down some of the email marketing lingo into normal people speak, so we can all be confident Email Marketing Masters and put that email stress to bed, once and for all.
Today we’re going to talk about the two different types of emails you will use in email marketing: Broadcasts and Campaigns.
Broadcasts
A broadcast is a one-time email sent out to a list at a specific time.
Broadcasts can be something general like a newsletter sent out every Monday, or they can serve as a means of promoting or announcing something upcoming.
Broadcasts are your “real-time”, time-sensitive emails that all readers receive at the exact same time, regardless of when they joined your email list.
Examples of Broadcast emails:
- Weekly Newsletter
- Email promoting an upcoming live event
- Email promoting an upcoming sale or offering
- Other date and time-sensitive announcements
Campaigns
Campaigns are a bit more complicated, so bare with me as I explain…
An email campaign is an automated series of emails, delivered to the reader upon signing up for your email list.
Think of it like an automated, pre-planned set of emails.
Campaigns run on autopilot and their delivery dates vary depending on when someone signed up.
For example, if you sign up for someone’s “Free 5 Day Online Course” on mastering your own gourmet mac and cheese recipe (yes pleaseeee!), when YOU receive the emails will be different than someone who signed up a month ago.
One important thing to keep in mind is that email campaigns must be “evergreen”.
What does that mean?
Evergreen simply means that the content must always be relevant.
You don’t want to have time-specific information in an email campaign, like mentioning that you’re bringing your mac and cheese to Christmas next week, because that won’t make sense to people who sign up in July.
Examples of Email Campaigns:
- 5 Day Free Training Series on _________
- Automated delivery of a free gift that a reader signed up for. (This can be something like delivering the free content in the first email, and then sending another x–number of emails afterwards to educate them on other products/services you offer, or simply provide them with additional free, valuable content.)
- Campaign to nurture and upsell someone after they’ve made a purchase.
Terminology by Platform
As if the difference between broadcasts and campaigns wasn’t confusing enough, each of the top Email Marketing Platforms has decided to call them something completely different… ? (some of which are literally 100% backwards.. But that’s a topic for another day!)
Below I’ve outlined which terms are used by some of the top Email Marketing Platforms:
| Email Marketing Platform | Term used for a Broadcast | Term used for a Campaign |
|---|---|---|
| MailerLite | Campaign | Automation |
| MailChimp | Campaign - Regular Email | Campaign - Triggered Email |
| ConvertKit | Broadcast | Sequence |
| AWeber | Broadcast | Campaign |
| Constant Contact | Autoresponder |
Broadcasts vs. Campaigns
To summarize, let’s have one last example of each:
A broadcast would be something like:
“Hey I’m launching my newest course this coming Friday”… sent to everybody on Monday, September 19th at 9am.
A campaign would be something like:
“Here’s Day 1 of your 5 Day Training Series. Check your inbox tomorrow for Day 2”.
This is not time-dependent and will be sent whenever the person opts in.
Broadcast = one-time, everybody at once, possibly time-sensitive
Campaign = automated, delivers when reader signs up, evergreen
Make sense?
But remember – email marketing isn’t even possible in the first place, if you’re not building an email list. And one of THE best methods to do so is to have a strategic, conversion-focused website that drives your website visitors ONTO your email list. THEN, and only then, are you able to begin dipping into the magic of email marketing!
Need help picking an email marketing platform? Check out the Marketing section of my Business Tools page for my platform of choice!
