Did you see another dismal open and click-through rates report on your email send-outs?
Don't give up on email marketing just yet!
You can turn your emails into powerful marketing tools that drive accurate results with the right strategies.
Welcome to this fantastic guide!
This guide is for anyone looking to improve their email marketing. It is packed with practical advice, expert insights, and real-life examples.
Learn how to craft attention-grabbing subject lines, personalize your emails for maximum impact, segment your audience effectively, and much more.
Read on for our top 70 email marketing tips and best practices guaranteed to drive results.
Why Email Marketing?
By 2025, approximately 4.6 billion individuals will utilize email, uniting more than half of the world's population.
Email marketing is a primary component of customer acquisition programs for companies across all industries.
It is incredibly effective and cost-efficient for connecting and engaging with customers. It also lets companies personalize their content, track campaign performance, and build long-term relationships with subscribers.
Suppose you oversee the operational aspects of your company's email marketing campaign. In that case, there are numerous elements that you must manage effectively to ensure the success of your email campaign.
To assist you, we've selected our most excellent email marketing recommendations to empower and inspire you to develop your best email marketing campaigns ever.
Read on to learn more!
Top Email Marketing Tips and Best Practices
Although email marketing differs by industry, some tactics apply to any email marketing strategy.
Regardless of the best practices you focus on, whether email design or subject line, remember that your ultimate objective is to provide meaningful and relevant content to your audience.
This method increases the chances of people connecting with you and becoming customers or subscribers.
Let's explore the 70 best email marketing practices:
Use Double Opt-In Email Sign-Up
Sending information and offers via email is known as permission marketing, a concept introduced by Seth Godin in his book Permission Marketing.
According to Godin, the most effective (and respectful) strategy for converting observers into buyers is to give customers a choice to opt into marketing and decide when, where, and how they receive promotional messages.
When a visitor, a potential customer, or a past consumer subscribes to your mailing list, they permit you to contact them.
Compared to single-opt-in email sign-up, double-opt-in email sign-up allows you to collect addresses with an additional confirmation step vital to ensuring that you have obtained consent to send them emails.
This approach avoids false sign-ups while ensuring compliance with anti-spam legislation and laws such as GDPR.
Here's an example:
- A website visitor completes a sign-up form on your landing page.
- They will receive an email verifying their subscription to your mailing list.
- They have officially become subscribers who have chosen to receive emails after confirming their subscription.
Send a Welcome Email
Send a welcome email to clients who have chosen to receive emails to establish an early relationship and prepare them for what is to come.
Welcome emails have a higher than 91% open rate and are highly worth taking advantage of.
Most email marketing services can send an automated welcome email after adding a new subscriber to your mailing list. Ensure your welcome email is up-to-date and helpful to newcomers.
Below are several suggestions to ensure that your initial email to a subscriber makes a significant impact:
- Introduce yourself and your company. A welcome email enhances brand affinity for your firm while striking an emotional chord with a subscriber.
- Send a selection of your greatest stuff. If offering relevant information and recommendations is part of your email marketing plan, new subscribers may not have access to the extensive archive of your previous content.
- Make a promotional or discount offer. Businesses sometimes incentivize website users to join an email mailing list by offering a promotional discount, such as 10% off their first sale.
Avoid Using a No-Reply Email Address
Avoid using a no-reply email address. Instead, use a legitimate email address to which subscribers may respond.
Here's the distinction between the two:
- Email address with no reply: This address does not receive incoming emails, as it is often formatted as noreply@company.com. It is an excellent choice for transactional emails, but avoid it for regular emails to subscribers
- The email address is correct: This address is configured to receive incoming emails. They're These are frequently styled with aliases like leslie@company.com or hello@company.com. This is an excellent alternative for sending frequent emails to subscribers.
Monitor your company's inbox for incoming emails and respond promptly.
Set up your inbox to filter out-of-office auto-responders and auto-forward subscriber messages to your customer care professionals as your company expands.
A customized email stimulates involvement and comments from your newsletter readers, which may help illuminate your business and improve your email delivery rates.
Create a Schedule
According to Smart Insights, 45% of businesses lack a defined marketing plan.
A prevalent challenge many organizations face in email marketing is the absence of a well-defined plan.
Using a content calendar to prepare your email content in advance is one of the simplest ways to keep it organized and strategic.
To create a comprehensive email marketing content calendar, consider including the following items:
- The dates you intend to launch your email campaigns
- A list of email marketing themes and any extra content
Use a Custom Domain
Do you wish to earn your target audience's credibility and trust?
The first step is ensuring email marketing campaigns are sent from a custom domain.
While using a free Gmail or Yahoo! email domain is more convenient, most mailbox providers refuse and filter marketing communications that cannot be identified or related to a company.
However, using a custom domain can establish a more substantial sender reputation and increase the likelihood of your emails reaching your subscribers' inboxes.
And the more people read your emails, the more likely your campaigns will provide a strong ROI.
Use a Professional Email Marketing Tool
Although you may be tempted to send email marketing campaigns using software such as Outlook or Apple Mail, we strongly advise against it.
They are free, but their limited service might harm your deliverability.
Email marketing tools such as GetResponse assist you in making your emails look great, creating and segmenting your email list, automating communication, and measuring your campaigns.
You can also use AI in email marketing for the best results!
The graphic below depicts how AI in email marketing significantly increases revenue and improves email marketing performance.
They also help you manage deliverability by automatically handling bounces, complaints, and unsubscribes and cooperating with ISPs to ensure the security of your marketing message.
Standardize the Dimensions
By standardizing the dimensions of email templates, businesses can ensure that their emails display correctly across different devices and email clients. This improves the readability and accessibility of email content, potentially resulting in higher engagement rates and conversions.
By streamlining the email design process, standardized dimensions can help businesses save time and resources.
Businesses can also quickly create professional-looking emails without starting from scratch by using pre-designed templates with standardized dimensions,
Have a "View in Browser" Link
You can use the link to allow email recipients to view the message easily in a web browser. This can be especially helpful for those encountering difficulties viewing the message within their email client.
By including a "View in Browser" link, you can improve the accessibility of their email content, which can increase engagement and conversions.
Additionally, this link can be helpful for those wanting to share the email with others or refer back to it later.
Incorporating a "View in Browser" link is a straightforward yet impactful method of enhancing the user experience of email campaigns and boosting their effectiveness.
Avoid Spam
Specific phrases, such as "free," "help," "percent off," and "reminder," might trigger spam filters.
Spam makes up around half of all emails sent.
Nobody will ever read your email if it is in the spam folder.
To avoid this, check your email subject line for phrases that might trigger spam filters. Consider presenting the message in a novel manner that captures its essence.
"Download your free ebook now!" might be changed to "Get your free book now!"
"10% off all shoes" can also be altered to "Looking for a new pair of sneakers?"
A minor change like this might significantly influence whether or not your email goes to your inbox.
Clean Up the Code
Having a clean code is a crucial tip for email marketing campaigns. This means removing unnecessary or outdated code, which can help ensure that emails load quickly.
Clean code can also help improve the deliverability of email campaigns and lower the likelihood of them being identified as spam.
Cleaning up email code can result in a more professional-looking email, better user experience, and increased engagement and conversions.
Compile a QA Sheet
Compiling a QA (Quality Assurance) sheet is a valuable tip for email marketing campaigns. This involves creating a checklist of items to review before sending emails to ensure they are error-free and meet the requirements.
The QA sheet can include checking for broken links, spelling, and grammar errors.
Businesses can use a QA sheet to improve the quality of their email campaigns and increase their chances of success.
Analyze and Compile Reports on Your Campaigns
Reporting on email campaigns is a crucial step in understanding their success and identifying areas for improvement. By evaluating the different indicators, businesses may learn what works well and what needs improvement in their email marketing efforts.
You can utilize this data to enhance future efforts and increase their effectiveness.
Regularly reporting on email campaigns is essential to a successful email marketing strategy.
Stay Up to Date
Email has been around for a considerable time, but that does not mean this communication medium is static. Best practices arise, legislation changes, and email marketing strategies come and go.
Conversely, staying updated with email's constant evolution can be challenging. Ensure you remain informed about the essential changes and latest features.
Diversify Your Channels
While email is a tried-and-true channel for reaching out to customers, it is not the only one.
According to a report, email remains the most favored medium among consumers, but SMS and social media are close behind.
Email, sms, and social media are the most favored medium among consumers.
Allow your audience to choose between receiving promotional messages via email and shipping notifications via SMS. Experiment with multiple channels and track your interactions to see what happens.
Follow a Pre-Send Checklist
To ensure success, create a checklist of all the critical actions you must consider before clicking "send" on your next email campaign.
One of the most condemning tasks is to test your email before sending it, which allows you to spot any rendering errors, typos, broken links, or possibly spammy aspects.
If your receivers cannot view or read your email, they will be unable to engage, which can have long-term ramifications, particularly for your sender's reputation.
Have a Plan for the Holidays
The holiday is the most joyous—and, sadly, spammy—time of year.
Subscribers are already expecting more discounts and bargains in the run-up to the Christmas season, so it's critical to be attentive and respectful in your messaging to prevent overloading your consumers.
During the holiday season, you should change your choice centers to include a check box that asks your subscribers whether they want to opt into festive email mailings. This effectively creates expectations with your readers while also assisting you in tailoring your holiday email content.
Decide on What Metrics to Track and Measure
What are your email marketing campaign objectives?
Is it the number of opens or the number of conversions?
Consider boosting your earnings with each email sent.
You must set proper objectives.
Consider the appropriate email key performance indicators (KPIs) to enhance your email campaigns.
What will you name them?
Your objective will determine it.
Email open rate is frequently seen as a vanity metric. The click-through rate is more actionable but does not show how much your campaigns have brought in.
It would help to educate yourself on the major email marketing KPIs and how to choose them based on your objectives.
Brands that use third-party analytics tools are far more likely to calculate the monetary value of their email marketing, such as revenue per subscriber, lifetime value, and ROI.
Focus on Quality Over Frequency
Email marketing may be vital for digital communication, but increasing your email frequency does not make your message more successful.
Sending too many emails to your recipients has the opposite effect.
If your email subscribers feel overwhelmed, they may unsubscribe or, worse yet, mark your message as spam.
Begin slowly and observe how your audience reacts to your email-sending frequency.
Reward Your VIPs
Your most essential brand advocates are your VIP recipients. Subscribers who consistently open and click (and even share) your emails deserve to be recognized for their loyalty and participation.
Your VIPs can provide you with helpful information.
Do you want to try out a fresh email template or CTA?
Starting with your VIP recipients is a fantastic idea.
Survey your VIPs to discover how you can improve your email program, and remember to thank them with special offers and discounts. Reward and keep your VIPs, and you will both benefit.
Review Your Landing Pages
Designing and producing text for your email campaigns will take time. However, it would help if you also considered where you send your recipients via links and buttons.
Send your receivers to relevant landing sites depending on your goals and email copy. You want the recipient's experience to be smooth.
For example, if you want to drive them to a specific product, send them to the product's landing page rather than your homepage or product line page.
Build Your Email List
Whether you started from zero or inherited a list of email addresses, ensuring that each name was added organically and with the individual's decision and agreement is critical.
Get rid of any email addresses you have rented or purchased as soon as possible.
Otherwise, you'll have low engagement and risk being blocked by major internet service providers (ISPs) (such as Gmail and Yahoo!).
Your email service provider (ESP) may potentially terminate your accounts. Organically acquiring recipients may not be the quickest approach to growing an extensive email list.
However, it is the only way to cultivate an engaged recipient base—and keep your email delivery rates as high as possible.
Write Engaging Email Copies
What is it about emails that entice people to click on them?
You'll indeed find some comparable topics in your favorite newsletters.
They provide fantastic merchandise, engaging stories, thought-provoking content, humorous videos, and other things.
When posed with the same question, subscribers will likely provide varied responses.
But what are some of the similarities?
Emails with video have higher than average click-through rates. The same goes for emails with images, customization, and preheaders.
However, you must review previous email campaigns to determine what worked well.
Incorporate Multimedia Elements
Eye-catching multimedia features may make all the difference when engaging your email subscribers. This may be as basic as utilizing a GIF to communicate emotion or exhibit various items.
Know How Many IP Addresses You Need
An IP address is a one-of-a-kind number block that identifies a device that uses the IP to interact across a specific network.
When it comes to email, the behavior of your IP address influences your sender's reputation and how ISPs evaluate your sending habits.
You can use shared IP pools or dedicated IP addresses with most ESPs.
When you transmit from a dedicated IP address, you are the only sender, and your reputation (and how it impacts deliverability) is solely yours.
Coordinate Cross-Channel Campaigns
Your email campaign may be the main attraction, but it may require some opening or supporting acts to get things rolling.
Consider executing pre-targeted campaigns on other websites and channels, such as Google Search, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This will raise awareness and allow you to test your messaging and announcements.
For example, you could discover that a specific CTA or message connects more with your target audience on LinkedIn, and that information might be used to shape your email subject lines.
Write Casually and Conversationally
As a business, you want to approach consumers in a polished and professional manner.
This can lead to rigid formality, making your communications appear cold and impersonal. Instead, use a casual and conversational tone.
- Avoid using complicated terminology. People frequently join email lists because they desire knowledge from experts. Keep your language plain and straightforward.
- Use contractions. To enhance the naturalness of writing, incorporate contractions like "who's" and "there's" instead of "who is" and "there is."
- Remove jargon and acronyms. Your prospects might not be conversant with jargon and acronyms. To avoid misunderstandings, spell out acronyms in full and utilize standard terminology.
- Speak as though you were a valued advisor or friend. Use the tone you would use when advising a friend. Be straight and honest but also humorous.
Keep Emails Short
A person receives 121 business emails daily.
An email you send to a subscriber is simply one in a never-ending digital pile.
Ensure your emails are concise and straightforward to enhance the likelihood of being read.
Avoid excessively long emails that cause readers to click away halfway through. Instead, get to the point and make the information you convey as clearly as possible.
Personalize Your Emails
Customizing your emails lets you connect with your subscribers and give them the most significant value possible.
Personalization in email marketing enhances open rate (82%), CTR (75%), and customer satisfaction (58%).
Nevertheless, this represents just one of several approaches to introducing personalization into your email communications.
Choose an email marketing platform with sophisticated automation tools to personalize each subscriber's email experience:
- Emails sent while viewing a website: If a visitor subscribes and opts into website cookies, you can send them emails tailored to their browsing history using an email marketing platform that interfaces with your website.
- Emails from abandoned shopping carts: Customers may reach the checkout but not complete their transaction. Automated abandoned cart, emails remind people to buy by sending a reminder to their inbox.
- Emails with birthday promotions: Collect birthdays on email subscription forms to deliver offer coupons as a celebration present on a subscriber's birthday.
Consider Your Preview Text
Optimizing the subject line and preview content is the best way to guarantee your consumer opens your email.
Because these are the first two items a recipient will see in their inbox, they must be engaging.
Regrettably, the researchers found that 94% of the campaigns sent from their platform do not utilize custom preview text.
Consequently, you can set yourself apart from competitors and convince readers that opening your email is worthwhile.
So, what is preview text?
The preview text is the short text shown in the inbox beneath your email's subject line. This is also known as the "preheader."
If you don't optimize your preview text, most email clients will automatically use the first few lines of your email's body copy as the preview text. This frequently results in low-quality or irrelevant preview text that does not adequately reflect the content of the email.
For example, if your email's opening line reads, "Email not displaying correctly?" It won't be easy to persuade someone to open it.
Have a Compelling CTA
Remember, many email readers will skim your email without reading the entire message.
It would be best to have a clear call-to-action (CTA) button that even the fastest email scanners can identify.
The image below shows that some CTAs are more effective than others.
Without a CTA button, you won't encourage your receivers to take any action that will benefit them - or your business's success.
Position your CTA prominently within the email, where it intuitively makes sense for recipients to click on it. For example, you may include a CTA to download a free ebook that outlines new ways to use your product.
Once you decide where your CTA will appear, it's time to create it.
A/B Test Your Content
A/B tests can help you understand even more about your subscribers.
Subject lines, body text, layout, CTA wording or button color, photos, and other elements should all be tested.
When conducting an A/B test, it is recommended that only one element be modified at a time. This approach allows for precise and conclusive insights from the test results.
Here are some subject line options if you're marketing a free guide on increasing traffic to your website:
- 10 Ways to Increase Website Traffic
- Could You Be Losing Website Traffic? 10 Simple Pointers
- 10 Ways to Increase Site Traffic [Free Guide]
This allows you to observe which terms (such as "download" or "guide") resonate with your readers and whether they prefer a prevention-based or goal-based tone.
Use Audience Segmentation
Email marketing offers an advantage over other marketing channels in delivering tailored messages through audience segmentation. This capability allows for creating more focused and specific campaigns, ensuring that the right message reaches the right audience.
You may send pertinent updates to various mailing list groups, such as four segments of 250 subscribers.
This can be accomplished by gathering essential information about subscribers during sign-up or by creating different email list segments or website activities rather than blasting emails to your whole list, such as one segment of 1,000 subscribers.
Marketers prioritize segmentation (20%), personalization (27%), and automation (18%) above everything else.
Make Your Emails Accessible
Color blindness and other visual impairments are more frequent than you believe.
By implementing certain adjustments, you can improve the accessibility of your content, including individuals with visual impairments and those who prefer to consume your material through e-readers.
While web accessibility (also known as a11y) is a broad topic, here are some tips to assist you in making your emails as accessible to as many people as possible:
- Use alt text for images. Images should include meaningful alt text.
- Use meaningful anchor text. When incorporating hyperlinks, avoid using generic anchor text like "click here" and instead utilize descriptive language.
- Make your emails only accessible via the keyboard. For readers who do not use a mouse, see if your email can be navigated using only a keyboard.
- Make use of dark typefaces. Font colors such as black and dark grey are the easiest to read.
- Use contrast. Test your color choices in an email using an online contrast checker to guarantee your information is easily discernible.
Optimize for Mobile
As more individuals use their mobile devices to read email and explore the web, more than ever, marketers must design their emails with mobile consumers in mind. Otherwise, their user base will suffer dramatically.
How?
Here's an illustration of what occurs when photos aren't optimized for mobile (first) and when they are (second):
Isn't the second image a far more pleasant user experience?
Below are some suggestions to optimize your emails for mobile devices:
- Decrease image file sizes to account for lower download rates on mobile devices.
- For the best user experience, ensure the CTA buttons and links are greater than 45-57 pixels in size.
- Purchase responsive email templates. Your skill level or time restrictions may prevent you from creating your responsive template. Sometimes, the most cost-effective solution is to license or purchase email templates from experts.
Be Consistent
Consistency is an essential tip for email marketing campaigns. This means maintaining a consistent tone, branding, and frequency of emails.
By implementing this strategy, businesses can build trust with their audience, enhancing the likelihood of higher email open rates and engagement.
Inconsistency can lead to confusion and disengagement from the audience.
Establishing and sticking to a consistent approach to email marketing is essential. Being consistent is a simple but effective way to increase the effectiveness of email campaigns.
Use Analytics
Utilize analytics to make informed decisions about your email marketing strategy based on your data.
You may improve reader engagement by paying attention to email marketing analytics across campaigns.
Compare your campaign data to email marketing benchmarks to evaluate how you compare and whether there is room for adjustment and development.
While being aware of these numbers is essential, don't overestimate their significance.
Automate Your Campaign
Automation streamlines email marketing, saves time and resources, and delivers targeted messages based on specific triggers.
A significant number of users consider marketing automation to be a valuable investment.
Email automation optimizes campaigns by sending messages at the right time and frequency based on audience behavior and preferences, increasing engagement and conversions.
Using automation tools is crucial to a successful email marketing strategy.
Include Share Options
As your link's visibility expands, the corresponding click-through rate will also increase. So, add social sharing buttons to your email to extend its life.
Many email tools include templates with built-in social sharing buttons, making it simple — enter the destination URL, and you're ready to go.
Use Lead Magnets
Building an email list is more difficult now that more competition exists.
This is partly because some marketers have exploited the opportunity of getting into their subscribers' inboxes. They've sent out far too many irrelevant, dull, or (worse) deceptive email campaigns.
As a result, website visitors may be hesitant to fill out a form. And they'll demand significantly more in exchange for their email address.
It isn't easy to demonstrate your newsletter's value in a simple online form. However, a lead magnet can be an excellent way to provide value immediately.
Studies indicate that adopting lead magnets results in a 50% increase in conversion rates among marketers.
That's why lead magnets—often incentives or freebies—are the most effective technique for overcoming people's reservations.
It may be a downloaded booklet, a unique industry report, a calendar, or other appealing freebies.
Regularly Clean Your Email List
While building an extensive email list can be beneficial, subscriber count is ultimately a vanity metric—a data metric that seems outstanding but has little influence on your firm's bottom line.
Conversely, email marketing indicators such as open rate, click-through rate, and conversions are far more revealing.
For example, a list of 5,000 subscribers with a 5% click-through rate will deliver more website traffic than a list of 10,000 members with a 1% click-through rate.
Furthermore, an active list can improve your delivery rate by lowering spam complaints and unsubscribes.
If a significant section of your list hasn't interacted with your material in months, it's worth trying to re-engage them or unsubscribe them.
Make It Easy To Unsubscribe
One of your primary goals as an email marketer is to expand your email list.
And, while you're spending a lot of time and money to get people to sign up for your emails, you should also be aware that they may unsubscribe at some point.
There might be several explanations for this. For instance, they might lose access to your services due to a change in their location or address.
Or they have already purchased a comparable product elsewhere. Whatever the cause, carrying a grudge and forcing them to stay on your list is pointless.
By making it tough to unsubscribe, you run the danger of:
- Best-case scenario: They ignore your emails or transfer them to a folder they never open.
- Worst-case scenario: They report your emails as spam. These scenarios result in poor deliverability and a reduced return on investment from your email marketing initiatives.
Do Not Buy Email Addresses
You are willing to take any measure necessary to attract attention to your company, aren't you?
Despite this, it's important to resist purchasing an email list.
Several email list purchasing methods exist, but none will aid your campaign.
Why?
Because the owners of these email addresses did not explicitly agree to receive content from you, it's impossible to know how interested they are — or if they're even a match for your offer.
A purchased email list also breaches the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), so it is never a good idea.
Follow the rules: GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) began to dominate email marketing discussions in 2018 and is expected to continue.
GDPR applies to any European Union (EU) or non-EU entity offering EU-related services or monitoring EU users' behavior that processes personal data about them.
If you send emails to European users, you must comprehend the rules and determine whether you need to change your software.
Finally, while GDPR applies only to the EU, everyone must follow the law.
Abide by Can-Spam Rules
CAN-SPAM allows recipients to request that businesses cease sending them emails and details the consequences for those who break the law.
To comply, your email communications must adhere to these guidelines, which may be found on the FTC's website. Here are a few highlights:
- Include your current physical mailing address in every email you send.
- Provide recipients with an easy mechanism to unsubscribe from every email you send.
- Use specific "from," "to," and "reply to" wording that appropriately portrays your identity.
- Avoid using "no-reply" or similar sender names, which make it impossible for subscribers to opt out of an email newsletter if they want to.
- Under no circumstances should you sell or transfer email addresses to another list.
Contact your company's legal counsel with any queries concerning CAN-SPAM compliance.
Use the Thank-You Page Strategically
Thank-you sites may be beneficial.
They can assist you with increasing deliverability and open rates.
They may also assist you in increasing traffic to your most crucial pages. Not to mention, they can boost your conversions.
Make Better Use of The Footer
Most email marketers use their email footers inefficiently.
They utilize it to offer legally essential information, such as an unsubscribe button or their firm address, and that's it.
However, there are numerous possibilities for leveraging the potential of your email footer. It may also assist you in increasing conversion.
Here are some examples of footers you could use:
- A client comment that serves as social proof
- The logos of the websites that have featured you
- Your distinct selling points include a money-back guarantee or international free returns
- You have the option of reviewing your message
- The results of your most recent newsletter giveaway
Make Your Emails Skimmable
We're all quite busy these days. Various things, people, and commercial messages are constantly sidetracking us.
Consequently, if you aim to enhance the conversion rate of your emails, express your point as soon as possible.
Arrange your information in a manner that facilitates effortless reading and comprehension.
Use bullet points, headings, lists, and preheader text to communicate your core idea clearly and quickly.
If you implement it correctly, you should notice increased email engagement metrics such as click-to-open rates.
Audit Your Communication Regularly
Automated email campaigns are sometimes marketed as "set and forget." That is not entirely correct.
What you put in your email correspondence will not always remain timeless.
Your terminology, the things you're referring to, and the imagery you employ may become outdated, disrespectful, or opportunistic.
You must be cautious about your message and how others will perceive it.
So, make it a habit to audit your automated email communication—something you do once every quarter or two.
In this manner, you can keep your messaging fresh, entertaining, and, most importantly, respectful.
Your audience will appreciate this and remain loyal to your brand.
Use Targeted Popups
Popup forms are among the most successful ways to create email lists, regardless of your feelings.
The average conversion rate for a popup is roughly 3%. But with little effort, you can target your audience with laser-focus precision and achieve 5% or even 10% conversion rates.
Popups are useful in increasing conversion rates.
Before you publish your web forms, ask yourself the following questions:
- When should the online form be visible?
- When should it be concealed?
- Should the same user be shown it again, and how frequently?
Because you don't want to irritate your users, only show your option forms when it makes sense.
Think about the Marketing Funnel
A single marketing channel cannot function independently.
If you want to succeed online, your business must have a well-defined target audience. You must create an email list to have an audience with whom to speak.
To achieve this, the initial step involves creating and directing visitors to a landing page. Once that is done, you must provide them with a lead magnet and nurture them once they have successfully signed up.
This process continues on and on, and it's easy to become disoriented along the way.
This is where marketing funnels come in.
They'll assist you in better using your marketing platforms, staying on track with your company goals, and increasing conversion rates.
Here's an example of the content that you may include in your marketing funnel:
While marketing funnels may appear scary initially, they are pretty straightforward to set up.
A program that helps you create them automatically can simplify things.
Email New Contacts Within 24 Hours
It is critical to capitalize on this window of opportunity while your brand is at the forefront of your prospects' minds.
For example, send your first email within the first 24 hours of someone subscribing to your newsletter or signing up for an offer.
Furthermore, this is an excellent opportunity for branding and setting expectations. You miss significant opportunities to nurture and engage your current contacts without automatic email workflows.
Send Your Emails From A Real Person
Your email open rate rises when you send emails from a genuine person.
It's as simple as that.
According to previous experiments, receivers are more inclined to believe a customized sender name and email address than a generic one.
People are so swamped with spam these days that they often hesitate to read emails from unknown senders.
Customizing the sender's name and email address increases trust among recipients compared to using a generic one.
Write Clear and Clickable Subject Lines
Your marketing emails face stiff competition in receivers' inboxes. The best approach to standing out is to write engaging subject lines that "can't help but click on this."
To attract readers to click, use subject lines that are:
- Clear and understandable.
- Less than 50 characters long so that mobile devices won't chop them off.
- Use language and messages that your target buyer persona understands and enjoys.
- Use verbs and action-oriented language to create urgency and excitement.
- Include a unique value proposition so customers know what they're getting.
- Avoid using spam triggers such as "Cash," "Quote," and "Save."
- Timely. (One of my favorite Warby Parker topic lines read: "Uh-oh, your prescription is about to expire").
- Occasionally, include their first names (which may increase click-through rates) or information about their location.
Add Alt Text to Your Image
Many email clients automatically block images. In some circumstances, images will not load unless the receiver clicks a button to see them or changes their default settings.
Including alt text in your email photographs helps readers grasp your message even if they can't view the images immediately.
Make the words in your alt text actionable, for example, "Click here to download the ultimate content creation kit." Every connected image with actionable alt text becomes another CTA.
So, even if someone doesn't see my latest offer's snazzy GIF, the alt text will entice them to click.
Hyperlink Your Email Images
Email marketing's main goal is to drive individuals to visit a website. Linking the photos in your email to the webpage matching the image's content is one technique to enhance click-through.
Assume you're inviting readers to download an ebook and include a picture of the ebook in the email. Don't just put a link next to the image that says, "Download it here." Include a link to the ebook's cover image as well.
People are more drawn to graphics than text, and you want to provide your email subscribers with as many ways to obtain your ebook as possible.
Avoid Background Images
This is especially significant if prospective customers utilize Outlook as their email client.
Microsoft Outlook doesn't recognize background photos at all. Since Outlook is the third most widely used email client, with a market share of 5%—and your company's general use may be far higher — it's best to avoid using background graphics completely.
Instead, utilize a backdrop color and other graphics in your email.
Include An Email Signature
Another email marketing design best practice that may help you stand out and develop trust with your audience is to create a personalized email signature.
An email signature is more than simply a name at the bottom; you may insert information about yourself, your work, contact information, and links to your social media sites.
A personalized email signature may also assist in marketing your company or product.
Here are some suggestions for your email signature:
- Brand name
- Contact information
- Social profile links and website
- Special offers or promotions
- Interesting or inspiring quote
- Customer service contact information
- Disclaimers or legal requirements
- Unsubscribe link
Re-Engage Inactive Subscribers
You can frequently re-engage a dormant client or reader with an appealing offer and the correct email wording.
Examine your data to identify the material they previously interacted with, then offer a new and enhanced version.
Or provide a discount!
Set Up Trigger Emails
A triggered email is automatically delivered once a consumer takes a specific action.
Since triggered emails are delivered to readers when they are actively engaged, they typically have a 70.5% higher open rate.
Triggered emails increase email open rates.
You might send the following:
- A reminder email shortly after they abandon their cart
- Feedback following the completion of their order
- A review request immediately after they make a purchase
- A welcome email after they sign up
Nurture Leads Into Customers
A new member of your email list may become an immediate customer for B2C firms and low-cost products.
However, for large-ticket purchases and B2B marketing, the decision requires more research and consideration.
With nurture emails, you send emails that progressively establish trust and present increasing offers. Your series should be as highlighted below.
Someone joins your mailing list and receives a welcome email. The following emails request that they:
- Download a pocket guide
- Download an ebook
- Attend a webinar
- Read a case study
- Book a consultation
Your content is high-quality and informative, and each "ask" is simply a minor step up from the previous one, so encouraging them to book a consultation increases the likelihood of their taking action.
Sending one email per week is ideal for nurturing your leads.
Use Emotion to Connect
Every client's complaint and request may be traced back to emotion.
If you're an accountant, your clients want to stop worrying about not finishing their taxes on time. They seek assurance that they will receive the highest possible return on their investment.
So, use emotional marketing copy in your emails to increase engagement.
Email is an excellent medium for emotional marketing, mainly because it allows you to target particular readers and experiment with A/B testing.
Showcase Your Values
Customers now have considerably higher expectations of businesses than a few years ago.
They want to contribute their money to organizations they believe in, whose goals connect with their fundamental beliefs, and who see them as more than simply a source of cash.
They also desire greater vulnerability and honesty.
You may demonstrate your values in various ways:
- Directly address them.
- Share achievements in your social responsibility projects, such as how many trees your product saved this year or how much of your profits were contributed to a charity you support.
- In each send, finish with an inspiring quote that speaks to your values.
Tell A Story
Whether three words or three hundred pages long, stories are memorable and engaging. Here are a few illustrations of how incorporating storytelling can enhance the outcomes of your email marketing efforts:
- Tell a short story about how your newest product or service came to be. Readers will be intrigued to see the final product and will be reminded why your goods are of the highest quality.
- Share a summary of a success story, followed by a link to the full story for more information.
- Even better, you might begin by presenting the customer's problem in a way that connects with your customers (think P-A-S formula). Conclude with noteworthy and measurable results, accompanied by a "How did we achieve this?" question and a call-to-action (CTA) encouraging readers to "Find out more" or "Learn more" by clicking the provided link.
- Use your imagination to tell your narrative.
Find the Right Email Sending Time
The optimal timing to send marketing emails is typically during daytime hours on weekdays, preferably not on Mondays, and typically midweek.
However, these are general guidelines, and your specific customers' needs may differ.
With the increased remote work due to the pandemic, people's schedules have changed, so reassessing is a good idea.
Email open rates are typically highest around 8 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and 3 a.m.
Run A/B tests and analyze your data to decide the best times to send marketing emails to your customers.
Use Dynamic Content
Another option to tailor your marketing is dynamic email content.
With this method, the content of your email changes automatically to accommodate your reader's gender, geographic area, purchase history, or site behavior.
Dynamic content refers to utilizing a single email template with varying images, offers, and calls-to-action (CTAs) customized for individual recipients.
This approach may include incorporating a countdown timer in your email or embedding a live feed from your blog or social media accounts.
Include Noticeable Text Links
In addition to the obvious and concentrated call-to-action button, link to your main offer in several locations.
Having additional connections enhances the likelihood of involvement. You can persuade your reader to click through.
Try out Plain Text Emails
You're probably thinking: plain text?
This, however, is not a typo.
Customers increasingly appreciate more simplistic content in the middle of dynamic visuals, complex designs, and contemporary aesthetics.
Plain text emails follow this trend. They are better suited for viewing on mobile devices such as smartphones, smartwatches, and voice-assisted devices, and they quickly pass past spam, security, and privacy filters.
Simplify Sharing with Ready-Made Posts
Simplifying things for individuals significantly increases the likelihood of them following your instructions.
By creating a " lazy tweet, " you can make it easier for receivers who are too lazy to tweet the fantastic content you provided them via email.
One straightforward method?
Using ClickToTweet, a free tool for creating personalized tweet links, go to ClickToTweet's primary tweet generator first. Then, enter your tweet, preferred (trackable) destination URL, and hashtags.
Then, click "Generate New Link" and copy that link. Connect it to your Twitter sharing button.
Alternatively, if you're segmenting your list based on attributes like "topic of recent conversion: social media," you may even include this information in the body of your email.
Add An Email Forwarding Option
Another method of prolonging your email's lifespan is to motivate your readers to forward the offer to others.
Litmus discovered that the most forwarded emails were 13 times more likely than the average email to have "Share With Your Network" calls to action.
Forwarded emails have more "Share with your network" CTA.
You encourage recipients to share by inserting forward-to-a-friend or social sharing links.
You can include a postscript at the end of your email, such as "Not in charge of your company's social media?" Please feel free to use social media marketing to share this booklet with a friend or colleague.
Connect the call-to-action to a pre-written email with a subject line and body content. That way, all someone needs to do is submit their information.
Preview Emails Before Sending
Before clicking the "Send" button, take a final moment to double-check and ensure that your email appears visually appealing.
If your email marketing program permits it, you should utilize the feature to preview how your email will display on different email clients and devices frequently used by your target audience.
It's also essential to send a test version of your email to confirm that it works correctly for all recipients on your email list before sending out the final version.
How To Use These Tips To Get Results
It may initially be difficult to follow these numerous email marketing best practices.
However, as your email marketing strategy becomes more established, many of these best practices will become second nature. And you already know everything about the benefits of email marketing.
You'll intuitively choose a skimmable email format and impulsively examine your email campaign stats, digging for insights to inspire your next send-out.
These principles can enhance the emails you send subscribers, making them more likely to read or visit your website.
When sent with a specific goal, every email becomes an opportunity to generate interest in your business.
Be an Email Marketing Rockstar with AI bees
The practices mentioned in this article can enhance your email marketing results, increase engagement, and drive conversions.
Need an extra edge?
AI bees is here to supercharge your efforts.
Our AI-powered solutions can:
- Personalize campaigns for maximum impact
- Automate timely, targeted messaging at scale
- Ensure your content reaches the right audience every time
Why settle for less when you can achieve much more?
Schedule a demo today and discover how we can transform your email marketing strategy!