Why email marketing is indispensable for companies

Email is the only digital channel you have complete control over. Your list is yours – no social media algorithm can separate you from your target group. At the same time, email marketing allows for personalization and segmentation that is not possible on any other platform with such precision. You address people directly, at the right time, with the right content.

The basis for successful email marketing is a clear strategy: define goals, segment target groups, develop relevant content and use the right tools. If you implement this consistently, you have a sales channel that is continuously optimized and scales with the company.

For companies that want to structure their digital sales, it is advisable to take a look at the agency’s services – especially if email is to be embedded in a holistic marketing system.

Building a newsletter: From the list to the community

A newsletter is more than just a monthly newsletter. When implemented professionally, it becomes the central means of communication between the brand and the target group. The structure starts with the right lead generation: opt-in forms, lead magnets, content upgrades and landing pages that promise real added value.

The most important elements in the newsletter structure:

• Double opt-in: mandatory from a legal perspective (GDPR), but also crucial for list quality – only genuine prospects get through
• Welcome sequence: The first three to five emails after registration determine open rates and engagement over the next few months
• Segmentation right from the start: Differentiate by source (where did the lead come from?), interest (what topic attracted them?) and behavior (did they buy, click, open?)
• Content calendar: Regularity beats frequency – better every other Tuesday than irregular and hectic
• Test subject lines: A/B tests on subject, sender name and pre-header can improve the open rate by 20-40%

Anyone who brings performance marketing experience to the email strategy immediately understands that the newsletter is not an end in itself, but a conversion channel. Every email must have a clear goal, a clear call to action and a measurable success factor. You can find out more about how channels interact under Performance marketing: ROAS, conversion and strategy.

Agency tip: Don’t start with the perfect template, start with a strong welcome sequence. The first five emails after registration are by far the most frequently opened. Use this time window for onboarding, brand positioning and the first conversion attempt. An average newsletter later in the funnel rarely performs better than the initial phase.

Email automation: trigger emails and workflows

Email automation is the turbo in email marketing. Instead of sending emails manually, companies set up workflows that react automatically to user behavior. The result: higher relevance, better open rates and more conversions – with less manual effort.

The most important automation workflows for companies:

1. Welcome Series: 3-7 emails after registration – brand presentation, added value demonstration, first conversion
2. Abandoned Cart: User has added product to cart but not purchased – reminder after 1h, 24h, 72h
3. Post-purchase sequence: thank you mail, cross-sell, review request, loyalty offer
4. Re-Engagement Campaign: Reactivate inactive subscribers (no opening for 90+ days) or remove them from the list
5. Lead nurturing: guiding B2B leads through the sales funnel – white papers, webinars, case studies, demo requests
6. Birthday/Anniversary: Using personal occasions for highly relevant communication
7. Browse Abandonment: User has visited certain product page but not purchased – targeted follow-up email

The basic rule of automation: every trigger workflow is built once, then optimized. Split tests for timing (immediately vs. after 2 hours), subject and CTA gradually lead to better performance. Automation is not a set-and-forget, but a system that is continuously improved.

The article on social media marketing for SMEs describes how automation fits into an overarching social media strategy.

Email funnels: from lead to customer

An email funnel is a sequential series of emails that guides a contact through a purchase decision. In contrast to a newsletter, which provides content for existing customers, the funnel is aimed at new contacts and has a clear conversion target.

The typical funnel structure for companies:

• Top of Funnel (Awareness): Valuable content, no direct sales message – build trust
• Middle of Funnel (Consideration): Case studies, testimonials, product presentations, FAQs – offer decision support
• Bottom of Funnel (Decision): Concrete offers, discounts, time pressure, guarantees – trigger purchase
• Post-purchase (retention): Onboarding, upsell, cross-sell, loyalty program – ensure customer retention

An effective funnel works with segmentation: someone who goes through stage 1 without clicking gets a different sequence than someone who has clicked on links several times but has not yet bought. This behavior-based segmentation is the key difference between an average and a high-performing funnel.

The next step is to make the ROI of such funnels measurable. We explain how this works in Calculating social media ROI: Formula and examples.

A comparison of email marketing tools

Choosing the right tool determines how far you can get in email marketing. The following five platforms cover different requirements:

The decision for a tool depends less on the price and more on the use case: e-commerce stores are best served by Klaviyo, B2B companies with long sales cycles benefit from ActiveCampaign or HubSpot, and those who want GDPR compliance without effort are well served by Brevo. Mailchimp is the classic entry-level solution – solid, but quickly reaches its limits with complex requirements.

KPIs and measuring success in email marketing

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. The most important KPIs in email marketing are:

• Open rate: Industry average 18-22 %; below 15 % = need for action on subject, sender or sending time
• Click-through rate (CTR): 2-5% is good; 8-12% is also possible with segmented automation emails
• Click-to-open rate (CTOR): Ratio of clicks to opens – shows whether the content is relevant
• Conversion rate: percentage of recipients who perform the desired action after clicking (purchase, registration, download)
• Unsubscribe rate: Below 0.5% is normal; above indicates too high frequency or irrelevant content
• Bounce rate (hard + soft): Hard bounces (invalid addresses) must be removed immediately – they damage the sender’s reputation
• Spam complaint rate: Over 0.1% leads to delivery problems with Gmail and Outlook
• List build rate: New subscribers per month minus unsubscribes – shows whether the list is growing or shrinking

Each of these metrics is a lever. A low open rate indicates problems with the subject or sender. A low CTR shows that the content is not relevant enough. A high unsubscribe rate signals frequency or relevance problems. The interaction of all KPIs provides the complete picture of the email strategy.

If you want to delve deeper into the topic of reach measurement across all channels, you can find the direct route to us under Contact and advice.

Legal requirements: GDPR and email marketing

Email marketing is strictly regulated in Germany and the EU. The GDPR requires clear, documented consent before sending commercial emails. This means in practice:

• Double opt-in (DOI) is mandatory: A simple registration is not enough – consent must be verified via a confirmation link
• Documentation of the consent: IP address, timestamp and source of registration must be saved
• Clear unsubscribe right: every email must contain a functioning unsubscribe link
• No purchasing of email lists: Sending to purchased lists is illegal in the EU and severely damages the sender’s reputation
• Data processing agreement (DPA): Must be concluded with the email tool provider (Brevo and Mailchimp EU offer this as standard)
• Transparency about data processing: privacy policy must explain newsletter operation

Violations of the GDPR in email marketing can result in fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of annual global turnover. Choosing an EU-based email provider (e.g. Brevo with a server in Germany/Belgium) simplifies compliance considerably.

More on the topic: Funnel marketing – Newsletter marketing – Generating leads – Performance marketing – Webpush notifications

Related articles

• Social media agency – services and contact
• Performance marketing: ROAS, conversion and strategy for companies
• Social media marketing for SMEs: strategy and budget
• Calculate social media ROI: Formula and examples
• Contact us: Request a free initial consultation

Landing Page: What is it?

A landing page is a specially designed web page that users visit after clicking on an online advertisement. It is usually used to draw users’ attention to certain actions and get them to perform a specific action, such as filling out a form or clicking a buy button. Landing pages are often used as part of online marketing campaigns to convert users, i.e. turn them into customers or leads. They can also be used as part of cross-media campaigns, for example by advertising them in classic print ads or TV commercials.

Home Page / Landing Page: Difference

A homepage is usually the main page of a website and serves as the entry page for users. It usually provides an overview of the company or brand and links to other pages on the site.

A landing page, on the other hand, is a specially designed web page that users visit after clicking on an online advertisement. It is usually used to draw users’ attention to certain actions and get them to perform a specific action, such as filling out a form or clicking a buy button. Landing pages are often used as part of online marketing campaigns to convert users, i.e. turn them into customers or leads.

Unlike a homepage, which usually provides a general overview of the company or brand, a landing page is focused on a specific goal and is designed to get users to take a specific action.

What makes a landing page?

A landing page should be tailored to the user’s goals and needs and offer them a clear benefit. It should therefore contain the following elements:

• A clear headline that clarifies the offer or benefit of the product or service
• A call-to-action button that prompts users to take a specific action (e.g., “Buy Now,” “Sign Up,” “Learn More”)
• A form where users can leave their contact information to get more information or request a quote
• A connection to the company’s social networks to increase brand awareness and provide an opportunity for users to share the landing page
• An overview of the offer or service that is tailored to the needs of the users
• Testimonials from satisfied customers that strengthen trust in the company or brand
• A mobile responsive design so that the landing page displays well on mobile devices

There are many more elements that a landing page can contain, and the choice depends on the goals and target audience of a campaign.

Landing Page in Email Funnel Marketing

So to collect leads, a landing page is a powerful tool. In the process, the landing page always stands between 1) advertising and 3) the lead (entry in the email list).

Social Ad, Landing Page, Email Marketing: Crossmedia

Cross-media marketing – Cross-media marketing spreads a marketing message via online advertising, e-mail marketing, SMS and messenger services, out-of-home advertising, events, sponsoring, in-store marketing, radio, TV or even print media. Depending on size and scale, this has the great advantage of directly advertising to target groups in an all-encompassing way, rather than through a single channel and with one agency at a time. Learn more about the strategy here:

• Crossmedia marketing

What is an email / sales funnel?

With our agency you have the right sparring partner for your ideas. Success at work, happiness in life, dating, relationship, nutrition or even solar systems, house construction and real estate investment – the variety of topics is large.

First of all, the great advantage of an email funnel: automated emails

Especially for coachings, trainings, advanced trainings, which take place digitally, but also for live events, email funnels can be used excellently to turn prospects into buyers. Not only buyers, through further strategies like cross-selling and up-selling, similar products can be sold (cross) and higher priced products (up).

The second major advantage of an email funnel is that once a user has registered with their contact details(opt-in), you can send them information again and again. Automated, segmented and personalized, of course.

Email Funnel Guide: Here’s what you learn

This guide will help you:

• Understanding email marketing
• Understand the email funnel structure
• Examples of automated emails
• Sales of digital products and events

In few sales areas, we can virtually promise success, but in email marketing, especially for coaches, we have first-class references. Not only once, our clients and ourselves were surprised by the results of individual email marketing campaigns. Let’s start with the basics:

Funnel = “optimized sales funnel

An email funnel is an optimized “sales funnel” into which leads (i.e. qualified traffic via social ads or Google Ads, for example) are initiated. Leads can be collected via various sources:

• Internal, for example own website
• External, leads from third parties (such as affiliate partners)

Funnel means that users are first collected with little information, e.g. only their email address, so that the barrier to entry is as low as possible. Through segmentation and personalization, they get to know each individual user (data based) better and better and can accordingly design the offers more and more precisely. You will get to know exactly how this works in a moment!

Infographic: How the funnel works

The “sales funnel”:

• Funnel = funnel
• Traffic = Incoming visitors
• Leads = Successful entries (Opt-In)
• Touchpoints = Individual emails
• Sales = closing or product sale

Advantage Funnel: Direct, automated and personalized

Many people think that email marketing no longer brings the success it once did. But email marketing today is just as effective, even more effective, than ever before, thanks to data tracking.

Click tracking, opening rate: who does what?

Tracking and user data – Especially through technical enhancements, new functions and data analysis (who is doing what), a lot of details can be evaluated nowadays, of which one had no knowledge before. A simple example: Is a link, in a sent e-mail a) clicked or b) not? Every click is registered and the data stored.

The more data they collect about the individual user, the better!

Depending on the action, the email funnel can adapt.

• Email opened with topic X?
• Link to topic X clicked?
• …

10,000 + leads and all automated

No matter if you have 10 leads in your “newsletter list”, 100 leads, 1.000 or even 10.000 leads, the work will not be more, because you work with automated emails. Through the analytics, e.g. click tracking, as just learned, different target groups can be segmented and the address, or even the coaching products offered, increasingly personalized.

Immediately on smartphone and notebook

Emails reach your users directly on their smartphone, tablet or notebook.

This makes email marketing so immediate, who blocks push notifications from their email program on their cell phone? This in turn ensures that the return on investment (ROI) is above average compared to other online marketing measures. This is also shown by our various cases and references in email marketing, for coaches and digital products.

Tip! You don’t want to wait long, but gain more customers directly? Get in touch with our contact persons:

• Contact

Advantages at a glance: 5 convincing facts

Let’s recap your email marketing advantages:

1. Automated: Email marketing
2. Relevant: Segmentation
3. Personal: Personalization
4. Direct: Newsletters are direct
5. Particularly high ROI

And this is how it works:

Create email funnel: Basics

You’ve now learned a lot about how to use email funnels and email marketing as a coach for your digital products and events.

Whether high pricing or low budget for the masses. In the following, we would like to show you schematically how such an email funnel works, with its automated emails and processes.

How does a funnel work? The email “machine

As soon as users have registered in your email funnel(opt-in), the “machine” starts. For example, by immediately sending the person a welcome email, perhaps even with a link to a small survey! In the survey, the first segmentation takes place, for example based on areas of interest, so that our user really only gets the messages he or she is interested in!

Right from the beginning, this starts the process of automated emails.

From opt-in to personalization:

1. Double Opt-In -> Data Protection Compliant
2. Survey -> Segmentation
3. Start -> Automated emails
4. Personalization -> Tracking and analysis

Infographic: Email Funnel + AIDA Model

How do you get leads to become customers?

A method goes according to the AIDA model that goes from 1) attention to 2) interest. After that, 3) interest is aroused / desire is awakened and the lead executes 4) the conclusion and / or purchase.

The next step is to move on to up-sells and cross-sells (more on this later).

AIDA model in the email funnel:

Segmentation: After the opt-in

Opt-in means “to enter”. Already in this first step the segmentation of the user can take place.

For example, through the aforementioned links placed within an email and tracked through tracking methods. Another example was the survey tool just mentioned, with which you can get segmentation information directly after registration, such as interests or goals.

Query even more data? That makes sense for your coaching prospects (leads)! Because this way they only get information on the topics that really interest them.

• Segmentation through link tracking
• Segmentation through email open tracking
• Segmentation through survey tool
• …

The goal:

• Does user X like topic Y – yes / no?
• If so, more input on topic Y
• If not, no input on topic Y

Automated emails: pre-planned content and timeframes

After that, you start sending your automated emails. With the first welcome email, but also with all the other prepared emails that are sent again and again in the same rhythm to new leads in the funnel.

The paths of the individual users, the so-called “customer journey,” is planned in advance.

This methodology of automated emails is also great for scaling your coaching products. After you create your email funnel, as described, it doesn’t matter to you if 1 lead has signed up, 100 or 10,000 leads. the path is always the same and leads from your first welcome email to the coaching product (see: infographic sales funnel).

Tips! Later, 3 more example and strategies for automated emails.

Personalization: Segmentation through touchpoints

How an email funnel is personalized little by little, step by step, you have already learned in the course of the article, in segmentation.

This personalization is extremely important, because with each new piece of information, you can go new ways with the individual user. Therefore, such a newsletter funnel does not “only” consist of 20 always the same emails, but of an extensive planning, which takes into account all ways and possibilities. So user X doesn’t like product A, but is perhaps interested in product B. Every single email provides another, so-called “touchpoint”, where you can collect data on the lead.

Practical example: Real estate coaching.

A customer in the field of real estate marketing, has different groups of interested parties. There are so-called 1) “owner-occupiers”, i.e. those who are looking for their dream house, there are 2) “capital investors” who would like to rent out a property but have little equity capital, yet others 3) have inherited and have quickly come into the possession of a lot of money and so on. Depending on this, the approach differs! So if our client knows analysis and reporting, in which status or living environment a person is, emails can be adapted more and more precisely.

The more precisely the approach, the content and also the products offered match a person and their wishes, the higher the chance of closing a sale.

Personalized emails:

Sales: Sell more with cross-sell and up-sell

You also collect information through deals, such as sales.

Users were willing to spend money on a specific coaching topic. No matter whether it was an entry-level product, for example in the form of a PDF or a webinar. A coaching for advanced users, for example in a longer online coaching or even the high-price ticket at live events. The question: What else could interest your buyer? The segmentation and personalization process continues.

Because after the sale, the cross-sell and up-sell begins.

• Sales information flows into personalization
• Cross-sell (similar) begins
• Up-sell (high price) begins

Cross-sell – Cross-selling is the selling of related or complementary products or services based on the products the customer has already purchased (or in which he or she is interested).

Up-sell – Up-selling is the additional offering of higher value products or higher value services.

Extra tip: Sales abort in the shopping cart, what to do?

Reactivation is the magic word when it comes to sales dropouts.

Customers often decide to buy a product, but then abandon it shortly before payment. If they can store, analyze and evaluate such information, it’s worth its weight in gold! After all, a user was already close to buying a product.

We focus on such sales cancellations in particular, since we also serve customers as an e-commerce agency. Let’s say the shopping cart abandonment rate is 12% and can be reduced by 7% by reactivating customers because the email address has already been deposited. This would have a significant effect on direct sales and also on further cross-selling and up-selling products.

Conclusion: Email Funnel for Coaching

We hope that we could bring you closer to the strategies of our agency!

Thus, we attract new customers by actively placingads (Social Ads, Google Ads, Native Ads but also organic SEO), thereby winning Leeds for your funnel and converting them into customers through automated and increasingly personalized emails. Through additional up-sells and cross-sells, the sales, in addition to the actual coaching product, are further increased.

That’s why so many of the great coaches rely on email funnels for lead generation, customer generation, and additional product sales.

Last but not least, we’d like to share three ways you can target key, overarching customer groups through automated emails.

Prospects, new customers and inactive customers

You have already learned a lot about email funnel marketing. Here we would like to show you once again three automated paths, from leads to new customers who have purchased the first product and just met inactive customers who have not yet purchased a second product or have abandoned in the shopping cart. Hot Leads!

1. Interested parties (new leads)
2. New customers (just purchased)
3. Inactive customers (win back)

Automated emails for customer groups, 3 strategies presented:

• 3 Email Funnel Strategies

Cases and references: Agency Services

Do you like the potential of email marketing for coaching, e-learning and coaching events? Then we look forward to receiving your e-mail or your call.

Tip. We design your coaching product

You want a product that really sells?

Whether it’s personality, healing, design thinking, leadership 2.0 for executives or any other area, we work with our clients to develop coaching products that sell! Especially when it comes to the product line, meaning not only the actual core product, but also the entire up-sells around a product, planning is extremely important. Often a coaching product is thought of, but not the entire world around it, especially with higher priced products that can be sold afterwards.

With our agency you have the right sparring partner for your ideas.

Contact and contact person

Here you can find our contact persons and email marketing experts.

• Contact

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