Unlock the true potential of your email marketing with proven tips and strategies that drive results. Whether you’re just starting or looking to refine your approach, our insights come from real-world success with large email lists, achieving impressive open rates of over 55% and click-through rates between 5% and 12%.
In a digital landscape crowded with noise, the right email strategies can cut through and connect with your audience effectively. Get ready to elevate your campaigns and turn your emails into powerful tools for engagement and conversion. Let’s dive into tactics that not only resonate but also deliver measurable success!
Email marketing tips and strategies
Provide value
This is a pretty common-sense idea, as without providing value to prospective readers, you’ll never entice someone to want to spend the time reading your newsletter. When your subscribers sign up for your email list, they’re putting their faith in you to deliver a strong product and, more importantly, giving you their trust, so don’t violate it.
An excellent strategy to provide value is to figure out a problem that your prospective readers might have and focus on figuring out a solution for that. If they’re fantasy football players, maybe your email marketing topic is a statistical piece that tells them who to start and who to sit. Helpful tips, exclusive offers and personalized recommendations can all be content that adds value.
Make sure that you are fulfilling their expectations and serving their intent while simultaneously getting what you want out of the exercise as well.
Design your email with a purpose
One of the most significant pieces of advice we can give with email marketing is that you need to optimize your email for mobile devices. Limiting the highest quality on mobile devices and producing a bad user experience may drive away potential customers and harm your conversion rates. Mobile-optimized emails can provide a better user experience, increase engagement, and even improve deliverability.
You should also write and format your email with the goal of having as much scannability as possible. By writing short paragraphs, using images or info graphics to separate segments and including segments of varying lengths, readers will have a much more positive experience reading your email marketing campaign.
For images, a trick to remember is that using alt text inside images will boost accessibility, and if your email gets published on your website, this becomes even more important because it provides a way for people with visual impairments or those using assistive technologies to understand the content of the images.
On most email clients and apps, images are clickable, so be sure to take advantage of this by hyperlinking your website, or any relevant destination inside of the image, an additional opportunity to drive traffic to your website. This also helps you avoid the awkward situation that happens when a subscriber clicks on an image in your newsletter, and then the image just opens in a browser tab, a waste of a click.
Lastly, don’t forget that you should avoid using background images. Background images, which are the dissimilarity between objects and their surroundings in an image, are not recommended because firstly, not all email clients support them.
Other reasons include:
- They can create accessibility issues with people with visual impairments
- They can slow down load/open times
Subject lines and preview text
As the first impression a customer sees in their email inbox, subject lines and preview text are super important. They act as a gateway to your email content and can significantly influence whether or not they open your email at all.
A subject line isn’t simply a brief summary of the contents of an email that you see in your inbox, they’re a chance to hook your subscribers while setting the expectations for the content that they’re about to open.
With the small amount of attention that most people have, it’s more paramount than ever that you are able to hook your reader immediately with only 30-50 characters, and getting them interested with a catchy preview of your email is absolutely key.
Continuing on our fantasy football example, a subject line that could hook your readers would be something like “Could this star WR be on the move?” and the preview text would be “Trade talks are heating up…”
Automations
Email automation are a powerful marketing tool that lets you send the right message to the right people at the right times using automated workflows, which is highly effective for lead nurturing and driving sales from potential customers and existing ones.
Automations allow you to:
- Improve customer experience by building relationships and keeping customers engaged with the brand
- Generate better leads and improve the quality of leads passed to sales teams
- Help you find your audience and engage your customers with personalized emails
An example of email automation is a welcome flow. When you get a new subscriber to your newsletter or email marketing plan, an automation flow triggers to create a “welcome plan.”
There are three emails in this automation flow:
- Welcome Email
- Showcase
- Offer
The first email consists of a welcome email and sign-up confirmation. It asks the customer to move your email into their main inbox, out of the promo, so it does not get flagged as spam or something else. It can also ask them to reply to the email, which helps you by making the emails in the future more deliverable. Asking them a question to incentivize that reply is a good strategy, too.
The second email should be showcasing your content with a bonus offering and demonstrating value on content that they couldn’t otherwise get elsewhere. A good example of this is in our fantasy football example, a statistical tool that tracks how much each player is utilized, assigning specific value to each player.
The third email could be an offer email. At this point, the customer has most likely seen one or both of your previous emails so they are aware of the services you are offering. Now, you have to get the conversion by getting them to sign up for an offer.
A welcome flow is typically a strong automation flow for email marketing. According to Omnisend, welcome emails have an average open rate of 45%, which makes them solid options to entice potential customers. There is another type of automation flow that we’ll talk about later in this article called re-engagement.
Create segments for your subscribers
Email segmentation is the division of email marketing subscribers into smaller groups based on specific criteria and is a core marketing tactic used to deliver relevant content to your subscribers.
There are a couple of reasons why you should create different segments:
List management as well as targeted content.
For list management, we segment our subscribers into tiers.
Our example for this is as follows:
- Tier 1
- 50%+ open rate & 5.5%+ CTR
- Tier 2
- 40%+ open rate & 4%-5.5% CTR
- Tier 3
- 30%+ open rate & 2%-4% CTR
- Tier 4
- Haven’t opened an email in X amount of days
In reality, most businesses don’t sell to one customer. Email marketing is very similar. If you are running a fantasy football newsletter, you might have a subscriber who loves every piece of content you read, plus he subscribes to the premium-level content on your website as well and in addition, watches video content for fantasy football on your YouTube channel.
Another subscriber, however, may just read your newsletter for the start-sit recommendations, and that’s entirely it. It’s important to segment those two target customers into different categories so you aren’t over/under-saturating them with content.
You should also segment your subscribers based on acquisition, which basically means where and how they signed up. This allows you to compare the quality of your users based on acquisition source.
Also, targeted content is very important here. Examples of targeted content are bonus content pieces for your top subscribers and content based on interests gathered at sign-up.
Monitor list health
Ever tried to send an email blast out to your subscribers and it simply does not go according to plan? Your email list health may not be great, and this is something you should routinely keep an eye on to make sure you can reliably and efficiently engage with subscribers.
You should not be afraid to churn people from your email list. Churning is removing people or them unsubscribing from your list, and while people can see that and think it’s not great to lose people, it’s actually a good thing because you’re improving the quality and general health of your email list. If that comes at the cost of removing inactive subscribers, that’s worth it.
The quality of your email subscribers matters much more than the quantity, because what good are your 10,000 subscribers if only 100 of them open up your email? I’d rather have 1,000 subscribers that 60% of them open up and engage with my content than 5,000 that only 20% of them engage.
The larger that your email list becomes, the more you have to worry about email deliverability. You want an active and engaged list, and sending emails to inactive subscribers can hurt your deliverability and open rates.
However, you shouldn’t just go and remove your inactive and worst-performing subscribers.. Try to re-engage with them!
Re-engage out-of-touch subscribers
Before removing inactive subscribers from your email list, you should attempt to save your connection with them by re-engaging with them. You should create an automation flow for this; although you can do this manually by reaching out personally with each email.
When a subscriber reaches a certain level of inactivity, the automation should trigger and the attempts to re-engage will begin. Some examples of what that can look like are:
- A message saying “You haven’t opened our email in three months, is everything okay?”
- A “We miss you!” email
- An offer email: “If you click on this click, you can get access to 15% off on your next purchase!”
- Asking why they stopped being active, ask for feedback
Attempting to re-engage with inactive subscribers can be important because it can help you gain valuable feedback on whether you are doing something wrong that you need to address, boost engagement rates, and can overall drive more traffic for you.
Don’t just personalize, be personable
Don’t forget to personalize your emails. You should use personal touches, like addressing them by name (not just Dear Email Customer) and including content that you know will resonate with that particular user as well as the segment that they belong to.
It’s important to remember that emails are sent over the Internet and that we aren’t talking to our subscribers and customers face-to-face. It seems very common sense to include that, but it falls on us as email marketers to make sure that while we should still personalize things for subscribers, you also have to be personable with them.
The difference between being personalized and personable is that while something being personalized means that it’s specific to you and that’s a trait of being personable, being personable also speaks to the ability to make connections with other people, and that’s the goal here.
You should always have your email sent from a human address, not a company. For example:
Yes: sam@creatorclinic.com
No: creatorclinic@creatorclinic.com
Why is this?
Well, generally speaking, people are more likely to respond to a human (or an email that looks like it was sent from a human) than a company. People have relationships with YOU, not your company.
Learning about your subscribers is very important to figuring out what is best for each one. A lot of email marketers will collect data at signup, which is important because it gives you a ton of info:
- What segment they should be placed in
- What targeted content may be right for them
- Ability to personalize emails for them
- Customer lifecycle marketing: tailoring emails to each stage of their customer journey
Also, sending surveys to your subscribers will enable them to give you feedback about what they would like to see from you, especially from your super users who engage with your content the most. What can you do better to gain more engagement from them and attract new subscribers?
Email is a two-way communication method.
You should be building rapport will your subscribers who respond to your emails by responding to them. An employer of mine once told me “I send my daily newsletter using my own personal email address. It results in a deluge of emails back from customers, but I respond to as many as I can so they know that there’s a human behind it and not just some automated system. It builds their trust in me as a guide and allows me to keep my finger on the pulse.”
This allows you to make sure that you are available to fix things if something goes wrong with that customer, but if all goes right, you can turn that subscriber into a super fan of your content.
UGC, or user-generated content, also should be used. It saves you time and resources compared to creating your own, and it has been proven to be more effective in persuading your audience to take action by opening up conversations between you and the consumer, allowing for a stronger relationship. It also serves as a strong community basis, as your subscribers love when the content they do gets mentioned or used in your email.
Use a pre-send checklist
A pre-send checklist standardizes the proofing process and helps you thoroughly check your email before sending it.
Here is the checklist that we recommend:
- Proofread for spelling and grammar: If you can’t understand your own writing, your customers won’t be able to, and they will click out of your email very quickly.
- Check your images: Are your images all working properly and in the right places? Do they separate your content effectively?
- Using the correct images: Are the file types correct? Do your images list the correct CTA (20% instead of 30% off)?
- Are your Images hyperlinked?: Have you added hyperlinks to the inside of your images so there is another space where customers can be directed to your website?
- Link check: Are your links working properly? Are they linked correctly? Make sure none are broken or linking to the wrong website.
- Ad check (sponsorships): Are you running the correct ad in your newsletter? Has the ad copy message and imagery been approved? What about your UTM link?
- Send a test email: Send a test email to yourself or your team to make sure that the email is sent in full, the images are correctly showing, and that you can do a final read-through on it before you send it out.
Have clear CTAs
In order to be successful with your email campaigns, they need to be built with clear CTAs, or calls-to-action. Not only will they take your readers and potential subscribers down the specific path that you want them to take, but they make the user experience better as well.
An example of a clear CTA in this instance would be one that directly tells you what to do. For instance, if you have a sale: “Get up to 50% off by clicking right here!” is a perfect example. It tells you why you’re meant to click, what you get if you do click, and where you need to click.
Clear CTAs can significantly impact your conversion rates. Without a CTA to drive your readers to a specific action, you risk prospects getting stuck in the funnel and not moving forward as consistently or quickly as they could otherwise. According to RevBoss, research has found that emails with a single, effective CTA earn 371% more clicks than those with multiple CTAs or no CTA at all.
Despite the importance of clear CTAs, you should be careful not to add too many calls-to-action inside your email. In the simplest terms, too many options for your readers will lead to them being confused about which CTA to click on and in the end, may lead to them not clicking on one at all.
Send your emails at the right time
Depending on your audience and the content in the emails, you should be sending at different times. Beehiiv did a study on this to determine when you should be sending newsletters.
Based on this data, the best time to send email marketing campaigns tends to be in the 9 AM-12 PM window on Tuesdays and Thursdays, due to people getting to work around those times and them being in the middle of the week, which correlates with the days that you feel most motivated.
This aligns with the natural workflow of the average professional, where people typically open emails in the morning once they get settled at work and then dive into them later in the day, usually after lunch.
It’s not as simple as just that, though, as there are nuances as to when you should send professional content and leisure content. People are more likely to read professional content, like business or finance newsletters, on weekdays during the day. In contrast, leisure content like a fantasy football newsletter is enjoyed more often on weekends and at night.
You should utilize A/B testing to see when the best time to send your email marketing campaign is, because your readers may respond at different times. A/B testing is when you compare the performance of two versions of content to see which one appeals more to visitors/viewers. In this case, you send one email at 9 AM and another at 12 PM to see which one gives you better open and engagement rates.
It’s important to remember that for all of the A/B testing we do, sending the best emails that provide the most value is more important than the time that you send them, as it was with the best time for posting TikToks.
A/B testing is not a one-off tool, in that you can test it once and just automatically rely on that data. You should continue to test the hypothesis that you have in order to get the best snapshot of what is best for potential subscribers. Remember, you’re creating content for them, not just yourself.
Track the right metrics
Lastly, you have to make sure that after implementing all of the tips and strategies we’ve provided, you see how things are working out for your emails! Metrics like the following are important standards you want to track to see your email marketing campaign’s performance.
- Click-through rate
- Open rate
- List growth rate
Click-through rate, which is very important after iOS privacy changes introduced Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), will show you how often a reader is clicking through to the end of your email. You should have a number in mind to shoot for with CTR, but a good CTR is anywhere between 2-5%.
Open rate has not continued to be as important a metric as it used to be due to MPP’s implementation, but it is still something to keep in mind due to it measuring how often someone is literally opening your email. A great tip for improving your open rate is doing A/B testing on your subject line and preview text to see how subscribers react to different previews.
List growth rate is the metric to track the rate at which your email list is growing. It assesses the vitality of your email marketing strategy and based on the segments that you create for your subscribers like we talked about above, you are able to tell whether your email list is growing at a solid enough rate.
Final thoughts
Using effective email marketing strategies is essential for connecting with your audience and driving engagement. Our tips are rooted in real-world success, offering practical insights for both newcomers and seasoned marketers.
By focusing on providing value, optimizing for mobile, and crafting compelling subject lines, you can enhance the user experience and improve your open and click-through rates. Segmenting your audience allows for targeted content, ensuring that your messages resonate. Automating emails can streamline your campaigns while maintaining a personal touch.
Additionally, monitoring your email list’s health and re-engaging inactive subscribers can significantly boost your results. Implementing clear calls-to-action and analyzing performance metrics will further refine your approach. With these strategies, you can transform your email marketing into a powerful tool for growth and connection.
