“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable personal touches at scale.”
David Newman, Founder, Do It! Marketing
Marketers are still talking about email marketing and using it in their everyday marketing practices for a reason. Email continues to be one of the most effective ways to generate leads and convert prospects. Emails are one of the first touchpoints that introduces your brand to your customers and for sure, one of the greatest ROI drivers for your business.
Emails are challenged every year as a marketing channel and yet, somehow, the digits related to it appear stronger than ever. After all, there are nearly 4.26 billion users worldwide and as many as 96% of them check their emails daily.
However, creating an email that is both effective and interactive is not easy. It takes data-driven decisions and reflective touch—A perfect mix of intelligence and emotion.
We have created a full list of 50 best email marketing practices that will help you score leads and knock ROI out of the park.
50 Best Email Marketing Practices
Creating an email takes a heavy toll on your time and resources but can be extremely rewarding when done correctly. Here are a few email marketing practices that will help you, whether you are just beginning your email marketing journey or are knee-deep into it.
1. Segment Your Audience
Every single marketer working with emails is aware that segmentation is the number one rule when it comes to email marketing. Since your contacts may be in different stages of their customer journey, segmenting them can be really helpful. You need to feed them information accordingly.
Try creating groups based on their demographic, interests, and purchase history. Segmentation can help increase open rate results, customer retention, and also click-through rates.
2. Refrain from Purchasing Contact Lists
Email campaigns depend heavily on a healthy open rate. Considering you are contacting people whose information you bought online, rather than earned from a previous interaction. It is no surprise that you would soon see your email performance drop. According to set rules and regulations you need each recipient’s consent to contact them and a purchased email list does not come with that consent.
3. Create a Calendar
You need a planning calendar if you want to be certain that your email marketing will be effective. It is in your best interest that you set goals, define parameters and agree upon a specific time and date you want to send emails to your customers.
4. Set Customer-focused Goals
Once you have understood what your emails are going to do for you, set realistic customer focused goals. Explain your clear intentions to drive more value to your customers’ emails. You can also aim to add the ability to reach customer service with just one click within all of your digital marketing over the next few months. It could be anything designed to benefit that special individual opening your email.
5. Use Tried and Tested Tactics
Create a yardstick for success. gather information about earlier emails programs to check previous responses from subscribers — and areas where there is room for development. Were there periods of high engagement? Were there periods of mass unsubscribing? It is really important to understand your email marketing history and the results it brought.
6. Recognize Your Objectives
You need to recognize your objectives. Try asking a few questions like— What targets does your email program need to hit? What is the percentage increase in the customer base? Is there a reduction in the number of unsubscribes? If you don’t know, you could eventually end up over-sending emails just for the immediate conversions. Also sending too many emails without established goals could annoy your customers and hamper their customer lifecycle.
7. Avoid Using ‘No Reply’ in the Sender’s Email Address
You should not use ‘no reply’ or phrases similar to it in your email senders address like noreply@yourcompanyname. No reply in an email restricts customers from responding to your email or to even opt out of receiving communications further. To rectify this, you can have your automated emails come from a first name instead. Your customers are more likely to open up your email and read it if they knew it was written by a human being. Moreover it keeps you compliant with the email regulations.
8. Align Your Goals with Your Marketing Organization
Conflicts of business interest between your teams can give rise to challenging situations as your email program grows. It can become difficult to measure your email program’s success without proper alignment between creative, content, and development departments in your organization. Collaboration should be second nature and it is important for you to establish expectations for cross-functional teams to agree on workflows.
9. Filter Your Email List Regularly
Some of your contacts might not unsubscribe to your emails but on the other hand, might never open them. It might be tempting to send out as many emails as possible to reach more prospects, but unopened emails sitting in your least engaging customers’ inbox can hamper your open rate drastically.
It is important that you review your list of recipients regularly, and remove subscribers who haven’t engaged for a long time. This would give you a more realistic insight into your email open rate.
10. Personalize Your Email Content
There is no doubt that personalized emails can work wonders for your business. According to marketing research, marketers say that they typically see a 20% rise in their sales revenue when the emails are personalized. So go beyond just personalizing your email subject line and salutation: study the best time to send your emails, when your customer is most likely to open it. Consider investing in user personas to be sure what kind of content your users interact with the most.
11. Place the Main Message and CTA Above the Fold
“Above the fold” is the content that the reader may see before scrolling down. Above-the-fold material still attracts the attention, despite new data suggesting that consumers scroll more than they ever did due to social media and vertical timelines.
Therefore, try to place your message and CTA above the fold. It will increase the chance for your conversion rate because it will be the first thing your subscribers see when they open your email. You can also run an A/B test first to validate this and check if it works for your emails.
12. Get Creative with Your Subject Line
Your email’s subject line has a significant impact on the open rate, despite how simple it may seem. Keeping things brief is the first rule. Although it may be challenging at first, keep in mind that your subject line should not exceed 50 characters. Be specific and include the recipient’s name. Consider using a phrase like “Only today” or “Last minute offer” to create a sense of urgency and get your customer to open the email.
Make your lines appealing to draw in customers. The topic line should be engaging while also being ambiguous. Consider the advantages your consumer might receive from your email.
13. Throw Some Magic into the Design
Select your fonts, template, and layout with care. Avoid using fonts that are excessively small or challenging to read. Avoid using colors that are too vivid, but don’t overlook contrast. Contrasting colors will draw the reader’s eye to your layout and make it stand out.
14. Use the Preheader
Simply because your customer already knows what to expect when they open the email, preheaders or preview texts do enhance your open rates. Make the most of the preheader, which is especially visible on mobile devices and serves as a brief overview of the message. Again, keep it succinct and memorable. a maximum of 50 characters.
15. Include Your Logo
When it comes to emails, logos are essential. more-leads. Both email engagement and brand memory are positively impacted by logos. It may seem apparent, but the design of your email greatly depends on your logo. The emblem will serve to remind your reader of the company that is behind the email and may keep them from immediately deleting your newsletter. Keep it there, as people naturally scan the upper left corner of emails for logos, according to the most recent eye tracking studies.
16. Stick to Fewer Than Three Typefaces
The less cluttered your email is, the chances for conversions get increased. It is better to not junk up your email with more than two typefaces and fonts as that can ruin the visual appeal for your readers. Moreover, you would want to use web-safe fonts and usually within the size range of 10 point and 12 point. This ensures that your email will be very well legible to your customers.
17. Insert Links to Your Text
Adding external links can increase the opportunity for your business to increase engagement. Add links to the different pages of your website in your email text to make it stand out. But remember not to over do it as internet service providers (ISPs) might mark your emails as spam.
18. Add Audio to Your Emails
Audio should be used extremely strategically, just like videos and animated gifs. Be imaginative, keep it brief, amuse and astonish your audience. The use of audio samples is a terrific technique to get people to spread the word. Again, if you believe that your consumer won’t be able to hear the audio because his email provider does not support it, think about sending a link to a landing page and urging them to visit there so they can do so.
19. Insert Videos and GIFs
Gifs can also bring more results. If you’re still not sure of how to properly use videos or if you feel insecure about your customer’s email provider supporting videos use gifs. Videos and gifs aren’t used very often So give it a try as it can be a great email marketing best practice.
20. Insert SEO Keywords
You should place your strategic keywords in your email marketing campaigns. The entire text of your email, from the subject line to the body, should be optimized for search engines. Your open rates will likely rise as a result of this.
21. Keep the Width of Your Emails from 500 to 650 Pixels
Your email will appear distorted if your users move horizontally and the pixel size is more than 650. Not only is this annoying but can also leave a negative impact on your conversions. Your template will be liked by users and will lead to more conversions if you stick in between the standard structure.
22. Design Your Template
After analyzing the messages you are sending, develop a design framework for those dialogues. Your concept might be realized the simplest way possible with a modular structure. Consider a polished layout for the email content. You need to check the demands, whether or not a single template would be enough or you need to generate different templates for each communication style.
23. Use Humor in Your Emails
Humor instantly forges a personal bond with the reader. It is best to add some fun elements to your campaigns: it entertains your users and might also hike up your share rates.
24. Enable Your Customers to Sign-up to Your Newsletter
You might be wondering that if they are receiving communications from you they might already be your subscriber. Yes. adding a subscribe button does not help with your customers who have already subscribed to your newsletter. But great content is shareable content, so in case they share your emails with their friends or colleagues, you would want them to subscribe too.
Include a brief but prominent CTA asking the reader to subscribe to the newsletter if they obtained this email from another source. However, bear in mind that your email should already be enticing readers to do another action, such as downloading an ebook or joining a community, so be careful that this “Subscribe” button doesn’t divert or deceive visitors, compromising your main campaign purpose in the process.
25. Utilize Auto-Responders for Opt-ins
Be ready for your readers to forget that they opted in to receive emails from you. Create an auto-responder to remind individuals they chose to be included to your email database.. Each auto-responder email should also contain bonus content or more reading to thank the reader for signing up for the newsletter; otherwise, your readers could feel under no obligation to sign up.
26. Keep Track of Your Competitors
Subscribe to the newsletters of your competitors to learn what they are up to. Find your own competitive advantages by analyzing their approach, benefits, and disadvantages. To ensure your job is as effective as it can be, check their frequency, content, mobile optimization, and other information.
27. Create Your Emails Mobile-friendly
Ensure that your emails look good and professional on every device your customers might open them on. Ensure a classy mobile experience starting with the first welcoming message you sent. Include any webpages and links you may have. As the world becomes more mobile-first, these points do count.
28. Tie Your Emails to Landing Pages
Your landing page should match the content, email headline, and subject line. The look and feel of your landing page should also be consistent with that of email. Consistency goes a long way in keeping your customers interested and engaged with your business. It is always a good idea to use tracking and analytics tools to check what emails and landing pages are performing the best. This way you can send only the content which is working best for your customers.
29. A/B Test CTAs and Subject Lines
You should use A/B tests to virtually make any improvement to your content for digital marketing. This experiment divides your email recipients into two groups: Group A gets the standard newsletter, while Group B gets the newsletter with a certain change. This variation tests to see if your audience would be more or less likely to take an action based on that element.
This A/B testing demonstrates how subscribers react to key email components, such as personalized content or subject lines with different lengths. Choose the winner but never be hesitant to conduct further tests.
30. Never Spam Your Customers’ Inbox
To be sure that your emails are not ending up in the spam folder, always learn the rule of spamming within the country you are sending your emails to. A few simple mistakes to avoid include utilizing more than three links in the body text, spammy terms (such free leads, no investment, cash bonus, free installation, etc.), using too many icons or all caps, or using too many photos.
31. Resend Unopened emails
Resending unread emails might be a smart idea. You can try again since your consumer might have been too busy the first time to open it. Altering your subject line is the first thing you should do. To make it more enticing, you may include terms like “reminder” or “last chance,” for instance.
You can also change the timing by looking at the time you sent the email the first time. For example, if you sent the email in the morning but weren’t open when you sent it the first time, try sending it at night. Giving the content a makeover to make it more engaging is another smart move. Update some data and make sure that you only resend the email to people that didn´t
32. Leverage User-Generated Content
Your email approach can benefit from user-generated content. Request interesting content from your audience to use in your email marketing messages. There are several methods to achieve it, such as holding contests, requesting product-related photos or videos, text or video testimonials, etc. To display the information, combine it with your social media profiles, and increase subscriptions, you can design special emails..
33. Tell a Story Through Your Emails
Not only is storytelling popular, but it’s also a highly successful method of reaching out to your audience. People enjoy hearing stories. Telling a compelling story might improve a customer’s willingness to buy your products or service. When narrating stories, try to focus on the problems that your product or service will prove as a solution for your customers.
34. Clean and Update Your Email List
Your results will increase if you maintain a clean and current mailing list. Get rid of problematic email addresses to protect your reputation from the effects of your bounce rate, delete inactive subscribers frequently, and lower your risk of being blocked by ISPs.
35. Track and Analyze Your Results
Are people opening your emails? Are they being read by your customers? What is the rate of conversion? Are you recording your results? You won’t know what you are doing well, how to enhance your email marketing approach, or how to increase lead conversions if you don’t monitor your results
36. Create Data Framework
Map out your data by everything you have today, you need tomorrow, and anything else you might need in the future. Categorizing your data this way can help you know what you can act on short term. This can also breakout conversations for working across departments to share company-wide data and information.
37. Map Your Customers Lifecycle Journey
List the most frequent consumer interactions with your brand. Consider how clients interact with you, when they hear from you, and when they like you to speak with you. then decide what messages are best for these circumstances.
38. Try Transactional Messaging
Transactional emails like e-receipts can bring in higher engagement rates than any other content. It is advised to apply all the designs and delivery best practices to your transactional sends. You can use these emails to introduce your complementary products or services to your customers.
39. Conduct a Five Second Test
Send a copy of your email to your friends or a business colleague. Can they check and understand what your call-to-action is in your email? If yes, then your email is perfect to go.
40. Determine Your KPIs
Understanding your success criteria in advance will affect how you develop and send emails. You may be confident you will receive the data feedback you require by using established KPIs (such as click rate by link over time). For more concrete information on conversions and customer lifetime value, you can even delve deeper: Set up your program to track list expansion.
41. Recalibrate Your Decisions
Indicate areas for improvement using the facts and information you gather. Think about the modifications you can make to achieve your goals. Focus on the methods and techniques that have proven most effective. Delete or revise any that didn’t live up to expectations. Create a detailed plan to take advantage of your chances and difficulties.
42. Track Your Progress
Review the effectiveness of your emails on a regular basis. Search far and wide, at a top-level aggregate, in categorized campaigns, and in individual email sends. Take a look at which ones are promoting the most engagement. Add successful strategies to other campaigns. Comparing your results to the standards established in phase two Share your knowledge with other partners in the organization.
43. Choose Quality Over Quantity
More important than the quantity of subscribers is the caliber of those that you have. Do whatever is necessary to understand their perspective. Afterward, make sure that everyone has granted their consent to receive emails. If you don’t know the origins of an email address, don’t send messages to it.
44. Make Unsubscribing Easy
Although email marketers hate to say goodbye, a customer’s goodbye should be brief and simple. Make it simple to unsubscribe, while also providing controls to manage preferences like frequency and content categories. A cancellation is preferable to a spam complaint.
45. Send Email to New Subscribers Within 24 Hours
Take advantage of your new subscribers by sending them an email within the first 24 hours. They will have your brand name on their mind and you can create a good impression this way.
46. Let Your Customers Get Comfortable with Your IP Address
Don’t be hasty in sending emails right away to your customers, it will spam or raise red flags for spam monitors in their inbox. To establish a name for yourself, start with your best lists. The first week, keep volume correspondingly low. You can identify problems with initial before any more emails fail to deliver. Next, devise a strategy for boosting transmitting volumes till you attain your objective.
47. Personalize Your Content
You have the customer information. Your audience is well known to you.
With the advent of personalization, anything is now possible, from simple first names to elaborate messages tailored to each user. In either case, personalization doesn’t have to be difficult. With what you now have, start out simply and build from there.
48. Take Help of Automation
The type of your product or service, along with information from your campaign analytics, might help you decide how many emails are too many or too few. Tools for marketing automation can help you accomplish this balance. They can be used to decide what to do based on factors such as timing and prospect behavior.
49. Watch Out for Industry Trends
No matter what you are working with, you should always be updated with the latest industry trends. Same goes for email marketing. New trend might come in handy in solving an old problem that you might be facing.
50. Pay Attention to Behavioral Cues
Be prepared to respond to the diverse actions of certain customers.
Automated messages can be sent to customers who abandon their purchases. (Messages about abandoned carts are a nice illustration of this.) Based on subscriber data such as purchase cycles, consumer behavior, and other information, decide on message frequency and content.
51. Opt-in for an Email Marketing Service
To get rid of the hassle of designing world class email marketing campaigns and strategies, you can always choose an efficient email marketing service. They can help you track results, segment your lists, personalize your emails, and send autoresponders.
Conclusion
With these 50 tips and tricks for effective email marketing, you can create one of a kind email marketing campaigns and increase your conversions and click through rates. Consider implementing only a few of these strategies at first and at a reasonable pace so that you can track the results and permanently make certain changes to your campaigns.
That being said, if you are looking for an email marketing service, you are at the right place. Growth Natives can be your best friend in driving higher ROI while crafting creative yet communicative emails for your customers. If you have any concerns talk to us at info@growthnatives.com