When you think email marketing the first thing that jumps into your head is probably the word 'email newsletter'.

Email newsletters have been the bread-and-butter of the industry since the late 1990s. Traditionally email marketing has consisted of uploading a list of customers, doing a little basic segmentation (if any) and hitting send.

This works well: it can make you a lot of money however customers are getting savvier and businesses are starting to respond by investing time in what is known as 'lifecycle' marketing.

There are two key types of email you should build into your marketing strategy:

• Newsletters: These are the traditional emails you might send each week or month with product updates, sale notifications or similar.
• Automated campaigns: These are campaigns triggered by some form of customer behaviour. Examples include cart abandonment (following up on customers that don't complete a purchase), post-purchase emails, welcome emails after sign up and other similar campaigns.

You should spend time planning for both of these types of emails in order to maximise customer satisfaction and, in turn, conversions.