30 Effective Email Marketing Tips

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the use of email to promote products or services while developing relationships with potential customers or clients. It is essentially direct mail done electronically instead of through the postal service.

Anytime a company sends out an email, aside from order confirmations and direct responses to customer questions, it could be considered a form of email marketing. Email marketing is one segment of internet marketing, which encompasses online marketing via websites, social media, blogs, and more.

Email marketing can include newsletters with updates on the company, or promotions of sales and exclusive deals for subscribers. Marketing emails may also seek to share a general message on the company's behalf, such as in the wake of a natural disaster or company scandal.

At its best, email marketing allows businesses to keep their customers informed and tailor their marketing messages to their audience. At its worst, this kind of marketing can drive customers away with persistently annoying spam emails.

Whatever emails you're sending, it's critical that you consider what you're trying to accomplish and structure your message and strategy accordingly.

Here a few tips that guarantee success:
 

1. Build the right subscriber list

Even if you’ve already have a list of subscriber emails or mobile numbers for clients and prospects, you should never stop adding new ones and updating the old ones. For example, make sure your list is always growing passively with a signup forms on your website. Subscription forms should be on your home page, blog page and everywhere else you can fit it without taking away from more important content.

If your customers span across multiple platforms, like if your shopping cart is on a different platform that your website, use your email marketing platform to integrate your e-commerce with your email marketing platform so that you can sync your customer information into where you do your digital marketings.
 

2. Make the emails personal

Whenever possible, add a personal element to your emails either in the actual body of the email or the email subject or even both. Most email tools allow you to enter tags that will be replaced with the recipient's name when the email is sent out.  Also you can segment your list to customize your messages to particular portions of your audience. If you have a business that works with multiple industries, consider sending out different versions of your email with each one providing information specific to each industry.
 

3. Send your emails at the right time

While many of the studies found varying results, here is how you can prioritize your send times based on data for the best results:

• 10 a.m.: While late-morning send times were the most popular in general, several concluded that the best time to send emails is at 10 a.m. Another notable time is 11 a.m.
   
• 8 p.m.-midnight: I bet you didn’t expect that one. It looks like emails generally receive more opens and clicks later in the evening. As Campaign Monitor notes, this is likely due to people checking their email before going to bed.
   
• 2 p.m.: It looks like you might be successful by sending your emails later in the day as people are checking out of work mode or looking for distractions.
   
• 6 a.m.: I guess this makes sense since 50% of you begin your day by emailing in bed. Before you even stand up, you’re opening emails. Good morning.

4. Encourage your subscribers to reply

Unlike direct mail, email marketing opens the door for meaningful conversations with real people interested in your business. Just throwing information to leads and clients is a waste of time, so make sure you always focus on these three aspect of your content:

1. Irresistible subject lines
2. An entertaining and distinctive voice
3. Targeted content

The focus of these points is to encourage recipients to respond. Sometimes that means they click on a link in your email, but whenever possible, encourage them to actually respond to your emails. That's a great way to show you’re interested and responsive to what your subscribers have to say.
 

5. Create a consistent email schedule

Once you figured out the best day/time for sending emails to your list, stick to it. Your customers will quickly get used to your schedule. If your list expects an email at 4.15 pm on a Wednesday, then send them an email campaign 15 minutes earlier! A consistent schedule leads to improvements in opens and click-throughs. An erratic schedule will do the opposite.  According to our data, the optimum frequency to send email campaigns is 2-5 campaigns per month. 

With this email marketing best practice, you will promote your email deliverability and minimize emails ending up in your subscribers’ trash or spam folders. Building up hype for your next campaign will make your audience appreciate you more and look forward to receiving your next big email campaign. If you have trouble scheduling your campaigns, you can try our email marketing platform to turn it into an automated drip campaign! 
 

6. Keep your emails out of spam folders

If your carefully constructed emails are flagged as spam, they’ll never see the light of day. Start off by making sure your recipients have opted into your emails so you aren't running afoul of any regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act.

Beyond that, avoid using all caps, too many exclamation marks, and hyperbolic phrases ("ACT NOW BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT!!!!"). Poorly formatted HTML in your emails can also hurt how they’re handled. Every spam filter is different, so an email might pass through one filter but get flagged by another.

Test your email for potential spam score with your email marketing software. And try to register your domain with your email marketing platform so that the SPF and the DMARK is property set up and your email gets signed properly for delivery.
 

7. Don’t bombard your subscribers with emails

So you want more traffic to your site and more sales, and you figure you should send out a ton of emails to your subscribers. The more, the merrier, right? Too many emails will see your engagement rates plummet and your unsubscribes go through the roof. A subscriber has given you a golden ticket: they’ve trusted you with their email address. So don’t abuse their inbox.

8. Make your emails look clean and crisp

This sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people send emails that look like amateur websites from the ’90s. If someone has opened your email because of an engaging heading, you want to keep their interest. This means:

• Using short paragraphs and ensuring that keywords and phrases relevant to your readers stand out.
• Including bullet points to help people skim the content and take in the vital points.
• Images should illustrate your message rather than replace your content. Some email providers block images or consider them an indicator of spam.
   

9. Give your subscribers what they want

According to recent email marketing statistics, the average office worker now receives 126 emails in their inbox. Every. Single. Day. So, if you want a better open and click-through rates, you should give your subscribers EXACTLY what they want. Because the fact is, most emails go unread. Another tip is that a great subject line will make a difference.

10. Offer your subscribers compelling reasons to click

The aim of most email marketing campaigns is to increase traffic to a site, sometimes a specific landing page. No clicks means no customers -- it's really that simple. Always try to include visually striking buttons with text that give readers more than one opportunity to interact and call to action. (e.g., Find out more! Download Now! etc.).  The more exciting the action you describe, the more enticing it will be to your audience.
 

11. Plan your campaign schedule in advance.

There are specific dates on the calendar that will be particularly important to your business. Christmas, Thanksgiving & Easter. There are so many opportunities to profit from and email is your best marketing channel to do it! Of course, if you're in the business of selling chocolates, then Valentine's day is going to be your biggest day.
 

12. Make it easy to unsubscribe

It may seem as though you are cutting off the "conversation" by giving clients the chance to opt out, but if a user wants to remove their name from your lists and can't do so easily, they’ll flag emails as spam, which will cause you problems in the future.
 

13. Make emails mobile-friendly

What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Many people reach for their phone. In fact, 66% of email opens occur on smartphones or tablets. If your emails aren’t optimized for viewing on these devices, you’re potentially missing out on a huge number of clicks.
 

14. Test, test & test

Never send any emails without making sure it looks proper. Double-check that your messages look the way you want them to be by sending them to employee accounts. Ideally, you will view them on Outlook.com, Gmail, and Yahoo, and on a variety of mobile devices before finalizing your drafts.
 

15. Track your data

Some results may have nothing to do with platforms and content. Keep a close eye on your data, like how many email addresses were undeliverable or what time of the day people opened your message. These tiny details will tell you a lot about your email campaign's performance.
 

16. Provide value

Successful email marketing ultimately comes down to giving your audience something that sticks with them - something that keeps your business on their mind, whether that’s educational information about your industry, operational messages about your service, or marketing messages about the products you offer. Otherwise, that message is just going to end up in the trash.
 

17. Target your last-minute buyers

While most people will be buying way in advance of a holiday, there will still be those who have left it all to the last minute. Also target people who are panicking and ready to buy anything.
 

18. Create an email drip campaign

If you feel like your email campaigns are not achieving your goals, then another solution is to create a smart drip campaign to convince your audience to act.

Often called drip campaigns but known by many other names—drip marketing, automated email campaign, lifecycle emails, auto responders and marketing automation—the concept is the same: they’re a set of marketing emails that will be sent out automatically on a schedule. Perhaps one email will go out as soon as someone signs up, another will go out 3 days later, with one more going out the next weekend. Or, the emails can be varied based on triggers, or actions the person has performed like signing up for your service or making a purchase, which is why they're also sometimes called behavioral emails.
 

18. Make your emails time-sensitive

There’s nothing like a bit of urgency to spur us into taking action. That fear of missing out has us reaching for our wallets quicker than a leopard on a skateboard. It works just as well on an email as it does in a shop window. Especially for the new subscribers who just landed on your website! Set a time limit for your customers to take action. You’ll see an increase in clicks and conversion rates.
 

19. Use the curiosity gap in your subject lines

Here's the fact, the email subject line makes a huge impact on where your email gets opened or not. As the saying goes "Treat your subject line like the movie trailer – give a preview so they know what to expect". So provide enough information to hook your audience. Make them ‘curious.’ But don’t provide enough information to satisfy that curiosity until they click.

Email newsletters with short subject lines (4-15 characters) have the highest average open rate (15.8%, longer subject lines resulted in lower open rates, though the effect on open rates diminished as the lengths increased. Click rates also peaked when subject lines were kept short. Subject lines of 4-15 characters had the highest click rate (2.6%). Very long subject lines—over 51 characters—had the lowest click rate (1.6%).

20. A/B test your email campaigns

Email A/B testing, is the process of sending one variation of your campaign to a subset of your subscribers and a different variation to another subset of subscribers, with the ultimate goal of working out which variation of the campaign garners the best results.

A/B testing can vary in complexity, and simple A/B tests can include sending multiple subject lines to test which one generates more opens, while more advanced A/B testing could include testing completely different email templates against each other to see which one generates more click-throughs.
 

21. Personalize your email campaigns

Email personalization, is the act of targeting an email campaign to a specific subscriber by leveraging the data and information you have about them. It could be information like their first name, the last product they bought, where they live, how many times they log into your app, or a number of other data points.

Personalization is a broad term, and it can vary in sophistication. Basic email personalization includes tactics like using a subscriber's name in the subject line, while more advanced tactics can include changing the content of the email based on a subscriber's gender, location, or other things you know about them.
 

22. Unlock the power of list segmentation

List segmentation allows you to send the right people the most pertinent content at the ideal time. You can segment your lists of contacts and leads by data collected on form submissions as well as the specific interactions they have with your marketing after they're already a lead in your database. These actions can be things like clicks on a specific CTA, tweets at your company's Twitter handle, or views on a specific page on your website -- they can all help you get even more specific with your segmentation.
 

23. Use emoji to make your subject lines stand out

Want a simple tip for helping your emails stand out in a crowded inbox? Use emoji. Research shows that using an emoji in the subject line can increase open rates by 4.2%. It’s a simple yet effective way to increase your opens.
 

24. Clean your email list

Sure, it’s good for the ego to look at a significant, raw number of email subscribers, but if most of those subscribers never engage, they are, at best, chewing up resources. And in some cases, they may be hurting your overall deliverability. After some time, lists pose severe issues if devoid of management. Clear your lists now and then to avoid email bounces from people who have changed their email addresses or professional companies. 
 

25. Reward your loyal subscribers

Loyal customers are the lifeblood of your business. They stay subscribed to your product and choose your store to make their purchases. So reward them for their loyalty. Maybe send them a promo code once in a while and thank them for being a loyal customer.
 

26. Make your content fool-proof

If your subscribers are always missing your beautifully designed CTA that blends seamlessly with your email design. Give your users a choice, and they will invariably take the wrong action. Or worse, get confused and frantically unsubscribe from your list because you hurt their brain with those three different CTAs.

Make it ridiculously clear what you want your subscribers to do. When it comes to CTAs, there’s no such thing as too obvious. Buttons work and you need to drive those leads to your landing page no matter what!
 

27. Integrate email marketing with social media

The most successful brands have a holistic view of their digital marketing strategy. The result is an integrated customer experience and strong brand image. According to Google, the average customer will come in contact with a brand about 10 times before making a purchase. By being present in as many places as possible, you’re making your journey to success easier.

Your followers and fans have already shown interest in your brand by joining your fanpages and they might also be more likely to join your email list. Use your social media wise and present your followers with the benefits of your newsletter.
 

28. Don’t schedule and ignore

Make sure to optimize your efforts by constantly measuring, readjusting, and reevaluating your automation rules, segmentation, as well as other settings. This holds for social media as well — pre-scheduled posts might be a lifesaver, but they can never replace real-time interactions, so try to remain vigilant of your online supporters' responses.
 

29. Set up a clear purpose

As you are all set to send the email campaign, by planning the right strategy and segmenting your list, the next step is to find the purpose. Always understand what you want to deliver to your target customer, like a promotional offer or a newsletter. A goal always makes the email blast more concise and will give a better result.
 

30. Focus on building relationships

Make it easier for your subscribers to contact your company. Prepare the contact section on the bottom of your newsletter which links to your social media profiles. This way, subscribers will be able to send you a social media message directly from the email they’ve just got from you. Such methods significantly remove an artificial customer-brand barrier and potentially shorten your path to conversion.