DEM / Direct Email Marketing

What is DEM / Direct Email Marketing?

Almost every online marketer uses email marketing. It is a powerful and conversion driven tool for running marketing campaigns, whether through newsletters to retain customers or promotional emails to sell products and services.

As an organisation, you are only allowed to send emails to people if you have a legitimate interest or if they have given explicit consent (opt in), as required under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In practice, this means that direct email marketing is often used only for existing or past customers. However, by strategically collecting opt ins, you can build a high quality mailing list with future customers, provided that your emails match the preferences they agreed to.

How Does Email Marketing Work?

There are many aspects that DEM / Direct Email Marketing covers. Here are a few examples:

Email marketing system

To send professional emails to a large audience, you need a dedicated email marketing system. There are many available, both free and paid.

You can choose between a comprehensive Marketing Cloud platform, which integrates email marketing with CRM, automation, and analytics, or a simpler email sending system focused only on delivering emails. The right choice depends on your business needs, budget, and the level of automation you require.

Drag & drop or coding

If you are skilled in HTML and CSS, you can design your own email template, giving you the flexibility to fully customize every detail. This can be a great advantage if you want complete control over the design and functionality of your emails.

If you do not have these skills, it is very helpful to use an email marketing system with a drag and drop editor. These platforms allow you to easily build emails by clicking together different elements, without needing any coding knowledge. This makes it much easier to create and send professional emails quickly and efficiently.

Target your e-mails

To send targeted emails, you need to export data from your CRM, website, or another system that stores customer information. If your CRM and email platform can be integrated, that is ideal, as it allows for real time updates and automation. This way, you can segment your audience more effectively and send personalized content based on user behavior and preferences.

If integration is not possible, a simple CSV file import works just fine. By regularly updating and cleaning your email lists, you can ensure that you are reaching the right people with relevant messages, improving engagement and conversion rates.

Automated sending

Most email marketing systems offer automation workflows, making it easier to send emails at the right time without manual effort.

With automation, you can:
✅ Send a welcome email to every new subscriber, making a good first impression
✅ Automatically follow up after a purchase or inquiry
✅ Schedule simple email sequences, such as onboarding or reminders

Even for small businesses, automation helps maintain engagement while keeping email marketing efficient and manageable.

How to use Direct Email Marketing effectively?

Understand the regulations

Email marketing is subject to privacy laws, but interpretations can vary. Many so called GDPR experts claim to know the rules, yet their advice is often inaccurate or overly strict. It is important to understand the key principles yourself so you can make informed decisions. It is not as complex as it may seem. 😉

The impact of unsubscribes

Ask yourself: Would you prefer an email with high sales and more unsubscribes, or an email with fewer unsubscribes but lower sales? There is no right or wrong answer, but it is worth considering.

Define your key goals

Before measuring success, it is important to define the goal of your email. Are you aiming to drive sales, generate leads, or strengthen customer relationships? Each objective requires a different approach and set of metrics.

Important: Open rates are no longer reliable due to browser restrictions and email privacy updates, so it is best to ignore open rate statistics.

Test your assumptions

Do not rely only on gut feelings. Test your ideas to see what actually works. Use A/B testing to compare subject lines, email content, or calls to action. If you want deeper insights, try multi variation testing to see how different elements affect performance.

This is part of a broader field known as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). By testing and analyzing results, you can improve your email marketing and get better outcomes.

Want to learn more?

DEM / Direct Email Marketing is a broad topic with endless possibilities. If you would like advice or need help implementing it in your organisation, feel free to reach out via the form below
or call +31 651378397.