Disclosure: CyberNaira content is reader-supported. This means if you make purchases through our affiliate links, we may earned commission but at no additional cost to you. 

Are you thinking of using email blasts but wondering if it’s an ethical business practice, especially now that internet users are more aware and intelligent? 

There’s no clear-cut answer; it’s the typical “it depends.”

It depends on the individual marketer’s needs, audience, offer, business goals, etc. 

In this article, I will explain everything you need about email blasts or bulk email sending. 

From what is email blast, the difference between an email campaign and an email blast to how to do it correctly, you will learn a lot in this guide.

Without wasting more time, let’s dive in. 

What is Email Blast

Email blasts, or bulk email or mass mailing, are when you send a single or one-time email message to a large number of email recipients simultaneously. 

Marketers often use it to send one-time marketing messages to a broad audience or unsegmented lists with promotional, launch, updates, or company announcements.  

It is intended to reach many people, with less regard for the quality or audience engagement level. And even the email content relevancy to the audience is of less essential factor.

While email blasts were all the rage some years ago, marketers have shifted focus to email campaigns with more granular targeting, segmentation, and personalized content to subscribers. 

A consistently focused email campaign built on relevancy and targeted list segmentation often generates higher click-through rates, better engagement levels, and more sales, improving overall business value. 

But does all this make email blasts a thing of the past, less effective, or unethical marketing practices?

Not exactly. Let’s discuss the difference between an email campaign and an email blast. This will allow you to understand when to use email blasts and how it might suit your business strategies. 

Email Blast vs. Email Campaign – What’s The difference?

There are some key differences between email blasts and email campaigns, even though they are email marketing and sent to a contact list.

Here we will explore some key differences, which should help you understand why one might be better. And which one should you leverage for your marketing? And in what situation?

Marketing Purpose

The marketing goal is one of the main differences between email blasts and email campaigns. 

As I said earlier, the primary purpose of an email blast is to send one-time email messages to large email recipients. 

On the other hand, email marketing aims to establish a long-term relationship with customers that brings value to the business. 

Source of Audience.

Another significant difference is the source of your email list. 

Email blast lists are mostly not built organically; they are bought, rented, or unethically built. 

Though there are exceptions to this, such as governments, companies, or organization email lists, mostly, these contact lists are people who work for the organizations, so it is never bought or rented. 

Email campaigns are mostly built organically. 

It is against most countries’ existing laws to buy email lists, rent, or send marketing content to contact lists without their consent. 

This is why marketers use signup forms to collect subscribers’ email addresses in exchange for opt-in offers. 

Personalization

Personalization is a crucial difference.

It’s almost impossible to personalize the content of an email blast since most people on the list didn’t subscribe via a signup form with input fields like first name, last name, gender, etc.

Again, there may be exceptions to this, especially if you had built your email list organically to send a one-time email blast.

Most email blasts lack personalization features, making addressing recipients by name almost impossible.

On the other hand, personalization is one of the key features of email campaigns. 

You can collect as many details as possible about your subscribers at the point of signup to your newsletter. 

From the first name, last name, phone, location, age, gender, monthly spending, and interest to whatever your business requires, you can collect all this information about your customers with email marketing software like Getresponse. 

Sent Frequency

Sending frequency is one of the primary differences between email blasts and email campaigns. 

An email blast is a one-off email marketing effort to reach your list with content, announcement, promotion, updates, or marketing offers.

It is common to send one email blast today and never send it again for the next three or six months. 

For example, a company might need to send an announcement of the upcoming annual general meeting, or you need to announce the launch of your new SaaS product to a large audience. 

In either case, the purpose is to get the message across once.

Email campaigns require consistent marketing efforts and strategic planning to engage an audience you’ve built over a period.

It requires conscious efforts and marketing tactics to engage subscribers through regular email messages at different stages of their online journey. 

Email campaigns are not a one-time thing; it requires numerous emails with specific marketing goals, such as demonstrating your expertise, getting personal with your subscribers, nurturing, promoting offers, making affiliate recommendations, etc.

Building Relationship

Due to its one-time nature, email blast makes it almost impossible to build relationships with the contact list. 

Just like in the real world, it takes time to get to know a person, build a relationship, and trust the person; all these require some time.

You can’t possibly achieve these things with a one-off bulk email sent to a random list of people. 

However, with email campaigns, you can introduce yourself to your subscribers, show them how to help them, build trust, and establish a long-lasting relationship.

You can get more personal with your subscribers through email campaigns, ask questions, get feedback, engage in meaningful discussions, recommend products and services, etc.

An email campaign gives you so much control, and opportunities never exist with email blasts.

How to do Email Blast Correctly

Now that you clearly understand email blasts or bulk email sending let’s dive into how to do email blasts the right way. 

Step 1 – Set Your Goals

This is the ultimate determinant factor between the success and failure of your email blast. 

The clearer you get on your end goal, the easier it is to complete your email content and send it to your audience.

Know what you want your audience to do after reading your content. Your call to action must match your email marketing goal. 

What do you want? Here is a couple of marketing or business goal to help you:

  • Click on an eternal website for more information.
  • Buy your products.
  • Proceed to the download page.
  • Make an announcement.
  • Complete a survey.
  • And lots more

Step 2 – Choose Your Audience.

If you already have a contact list, this step becomes more effortless; otherwise, you must build from scratch.

As I said above, buying or renting an email list isn’t a good marketing practice; you could get into serious legal trouble and be fined up to $50,120 with the CAN-SPAM Act law. 

If you don’t want to risk your brand or clients’ reputation, learn how to build an email list by reading this post.  

However, if you have a list you want to send to, you can select to send to the entire list or segments your list to reach. But since this is a bulk email sending, I don’t know why you would want to segment your list. 

Many email marketing service providers (EMSP) let you send one-time unlimited email blasts to your list. You can check Brevo, Moosend, or Getresponse to see which option fits your bill and needs.

Step 3 – Select Your Email Blast Solution

You need an email blast service to send your message to your list. 

You should contact the sales rep of your email blast service before subscribing to a paid plan. 

Ask questions relevant to your email marketing needs, such as if they allow unlimited email sending, available plans for one-off email services, pay-as-you-go plans, available features, etc.

Some email service providers don’t have email packages for such needs. So, it’s best to inquire before opening an account with any service provider.

Here are some email service providers you can try for bulk email services – Getresponse, Moosend, Brevo, Mailerlite, and Mailchimp.

Step 4 – Design Your Email Blast Templates.

After completing the signup process, you must design your email blast templates. 

This is where your task begins. 

Based on your marketing goals, your email blast templates should help you reach your goals effortlessly. 

For example, if your goal is to sell a product, your email blast templates should allow product showcase, effortlessly adding CTA buttons, images, and logos. 

Look at the email blast design below; it’s an excellent example of well-designed email templates showcasing products and special offers. 

Email design templates examples

However, email marketing providers are different regarding email design templates. 

Some email software providers, such as Getresponse, have many design templates and web forms for every industry and marketing goal, while others have limited design libraries.

This is part of the reason I said above you need to do your due diligence before signup with a potential email blast provider.  

Step 5 – Check Spam Score

After completing the above process and being ready to send, check the spam and email delivery score before hitting the sending button.

These steps are essential to protect against spam complaints, bounce emails, unsubscribe rates, low engagements, etc. 

Doing this will also help you identify if your email displays correctly on mobile devices and how it renders across different screen resolutions and devices. 

Most email marketing software providers have this feature enabled by default; it’s an essential email feature everyone should use. 

Step 6 – Send Email Preview Test

Again, before hitting the send button, you need to send a test email preview to yourself or any other email address you can access. 

This will allow you to preview the email as a user and have a second review of your design templates, email content, links, CTA, etc. 

You can even leave it for a while to review later or have another person look at your email content differently. Marketers mainly ignore this exercise, but it will help you spot errors in your email content you won’t possibly notice initially.

Here is an example of sending an email preview feature in Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Email send test preview button in Brevo

Step 7 – Send or Schedule Your Blast

If you’re satisfied with your email blast content, the next thing is to blast your email list by clicking the send button. 

You can schedule or send your email message at the right time if you don’t want the email blast to go out immediately.  

Most email service providers have this feature to allow email messages to be scheduled or sent at perfect timing. 

Some email service solutions also have a feature that lets you automate resending email messages to people who do not open previous messages. This will improve open rates and engagements.

You can check Moosend or Getresponse if you require these features.

Pros and Cons of Email Blast

You need to know some of the advantages and disadvantages of email blasts, and here are a few I can think of at writing this post.

Pros of Email Blast

  • It’s a quick and effective way to reach a large audience email list with your message.
  • It is suitable for sending one-off announcements and time-sensitive promotions.
  • Email blast is suitable for a pay-as-you-go plan for marketers.
  • The process is cost-effective.
  • Easy to set up.

Cons of Email Blast

  • Your audience needs to be segmented, making sending tailored content almost impossible.
  • You’re breaking the CAN-SPAM Act law, which goes against sending commercial marketing messages to people without their permission. 
  • Email blasts lack personalization and audience targeting.
  • Lower engagement, click-through, and higher unsubscribe rates. 
  • Lack of opportunities to nurture leads and build relationships guiding customers through a marketing journey.
  • The ROI of email blasts is unpredictable. 
  • Your audience is not expecting to receive your message, which directly translates to poor engagement.

FAQ About Email Blasts

If you have questions about email blasts not answered in the post, comment below or review this section.

Do Email Blasts Still Work?

An email blast still works, assuming you approach it correctly and plan before executions. However, its effectiveness as an email marketing tool has diminished over time due to the rise of email campaigns, which allow for more personalization and better targeting.

Another Name for Email Blast

Email blasts can also be referred to as bulk emails, mass email messages, email campaign blasts, blast email campaigns, mass email communications, etc. These names are often used interchangeably with email blasts. 

How do I create an Email Blast?

There are several steps to create effective email blasts, which I have discussed above, but for a quick recap, here is what you need to know:

Define your marketing goals.
Build your email blast list – if you don’t have one.
Select your email service provider – I have a few recommendations in this article.
Pick your email design templates and craft your email content. Add your CTA and other vital details.
Send an email test preview to ensure everything is okay.
Send your email blast to your recipients.

What is the Best Time to Send out an Email Blast?

The best time to send a commercial email blast is Thursday between eight a:m and 3 p:m. The other best time is on Tuesday and Wednesday within the same hours. Email sent on Sundays and Saturdays usually experience little to no engagement rates.

What Are Good Email Blast Best Practices?

Send email blasts to only those who consented to receive your marketing content. 

While this is only sometimes possible with email blasts, ensuring your email message is personalized can improve the open rate and help your content do well. Also, remember to write a compelling email subject line and track your email performance. 

Conclusion 

Email blasts may not be the best email marketing tactics today, still, there could be situations where it makes sense to use them.

But if you’re into marketing for the long term and hoping to build a business that replaces your full-time job, doing email marketing correctly is the best approach.

I have given you many reasons to embrace email campaigns, which give more access to tools and opportunities to nurture email subscribers, establish relationships, build trust, and ethically promote your business.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.