11 Essential Email Marketing Practices

However, despite all the new, powerful online marketing tactics available today, the humble, old-fashioned email is still one of the most successful. Although some might want to claim that email marketing is dead, this marketing method still produces a massive $44 per $1 spent, which means that it still offers the best ROI compared to any other marketing channel. Over seventy percent of marketers rate email marketing as an excellent medium choice.

It’s clear that email is still as relevant as ever and shouldn’t be ignored by marketers and business owners. However, in an era where our inboxes are repeatedly flooded with all kinds of marketing messages daily, it’s essential to follow best practices to ensure you get the most from your email marketing efforts.

Why You Need Best Email Marketing Practices

When sending marketing emails today, it’s important to consider the customer’s viewpoint and remember that individuals are getting hundreds of emails per day or week for marketing purposes. Because of this, email best practices are necessary to ensure that your messages don’t get ignored in the inbox. By following a set of tried and tested best practices for email marketing, you can build a better relationship with your customers and put the message out there in front of an engaged, interested audience that is more likely to take the desired action.

Find an Email Marketing Tool That Meets Your Needs

The first step is to find an email marketing tool that meets your needs. No matter how many subscribers you have on your mailing list, it is essential to find an effective email service provider that will allow you to effectively implement your email marketing strategies. However, when it comes to email marketing tools, hundreds of different options are available on the market.

With each offering different features, pricing structures, and more, choosing the right fit for your business is not always easy. When choosing the right email marketing tool, it’s important to consider your business’s needs. For example, consider if you need a segmentation option for your campaigns, if you’re planning to send automated emails based on recipient behaviour and if you want to use other marketing channels alongside email.

Use Interactive Signup Forms

Best practices for email marketing don’t start when you have subscribers but long before. How you build your subscriber list can significantly impact your success. Interactive forms perform best, with higher success rates than standard pop-ups. Gamified and interactive sign-up forms are less common and therefore attract more attention; they’re fun and engaging and provide value to the customer as there’s a chance for them to win a discount or prize.

Practice Good Email List Hygiene

When it comes to your email list, good management and hygiene are especially crucial to the success of your entire email marketing campaign. If you send emails to outdated, no longer in use, or incorrect addresses, you’re only going to waste money and potentially harm your sender score as lots of emails bounce back. Using an email list clean-up tool regularly is highly recommended to ensure that you’re only sending messages to active addresses that belong to people who want to hear from your brand.

Send Welcome Emails

Making the best first impression has never been as important as it is regarding email marketing, and eight out of ten customers say they expect to receive a welcome message when they subscribe to an email list. However, there are a lot of best practices that go into sending the right welcome message. Experts recommend coming up with three welcome emails that go beyond simply saying hello, to telling your brand story and engaging with your new subscribers.

Use Social Proof

Rates and reviews are some of the classic options for social proofing. Most people today will check the reviews first before they buy something online. It has become such a crucial part of shopping today that it’s hard to imagine what it might be like not to have reviews to check when shopping online. Responding to reviews and engaging with customers is a great way to encourage more social activity around your brand. However, video reviews are one of the best ways to improve email engagement. Adding links to unboxing or review videos in your marketing emails is a worthwhile option.

Tailor Emails to Subscribers

The most effective marketing emails are designed to reach the right person at the right time and with the right message. It is essential to keep this in mind even if you are sending out an email blast. Suppose you want to maximise marketing activities and results. In that case, the best approach is to segment your list so that you can tailor your communication according to subscriber activity. For example, this could look like sending a welcome email series once you get a new subscriber, sending reactivation emails when a subscriber hasn’t opened your emails for a while, sending thank you emails and rewards to your loyal customers, and sending cart abandonment emails when a subscriber has added a product to their basket without checking out.

Keep Copy Short and to the Point

Email is a very versatile marketing channel. However, when implementing best practices for sending marketing emails, it’s best to steer clear of lengthy blocks of text. The main aim of your marketing emails should be to capture the attention of your subscribers, which is best done when you keep your paragraphs short and concise. Ideally, you want your subscribers to understand the message quickly without having to scroll down the email, so make sure the primary focus of your email and your call to action are above the fold.

Keep the Design Simple

Along with keeping the copy, you use short and to the point, it’s also essential to keep your email design simple and easy. People are getting so many marketing and promotional emails that they don’t get read very often. Most marketing emails will be skimmed through quickly for any signs of interest, so it’s best to keep this in mind when planning your design. Stick to a clear email structure that highlights the most critical information. Research shows that the best-performing marketing emails are short and focused in a single-column layout. Bear in mind that any design you choose should always be mobile-friendly.

Automate as Much as Possible

When using email marketing as a way of reaching out to your customers, automation is a must for lots of reasons. Automation allows you to focus on what’s important and save time, as you don’t need to think about what to say in your messages. Each automated workflow has its own clear goal, which you can use to define and plan the content. Along with this, automation allows you to determine the best time to send your emails quickly and ensure that the content is personalised and always relevant to the recipient.

Pay Attention to Subject Lines

When it comes to writing subject lines, there’s no dedicated way to ensure that it’s effective, as this will depend greatly on your brand, the content, and the recipient. However, over time, A/B testing has proven to be the most effective way to ensure that you use the subject lines to deliver the best results. Spend time crafting the perfect subject line and ensure that it’s gaining the reader’s attention without giving too much away to encourage them to open the email. Once the message has been opened, it should follow naturally from the subject line – avoid using your subject line to make false promises or anything that could be interpreted as clickbait.

Include Interactive Content

Finally, embedding interactive content in emails you send is one of the best ways to increase engagement. Almost 70% of marketers say that using interactive content allows them to get greater engagement from their audience, as it provides real value and gives subscribers something in exchange for their information. Today there is a lot of interactive content you can use in marketing emails, from content that allows users to try products at home to surveys and other options for getting customer opinions and ideas.

No matter what brand, product or services your marketing emails promote, following these best practices will help you get better results and increase ROI.