In this article hopefully, you’ll get some tips for email marketing that could get you better results from your efforts.
No, email marketing is not dead, it’s still kicking hard.
In fact, if we look at Hubspot email marketing stats, you can see that 99 % of consumers check their email accounts every day.
And 59 % of email marketers say that email marketing has the biggest ROI for their company. The source is again Hubspot.
In the same research, we can find that 59 % of people say that email marketing is actually influencing their buying decision.
Still, believe that email marketing doesn’t work anymore?
I thought not.
Let’s explore the tips that I have in store for you today, so you can improve your email marketing efforts.
1. To Send Emails You Need an Email List
So the first thing you need to do is to start building your email list.
An email list is one of the most important and valuable pieces of business leverage you can have.
To start, create content upgrades and implement some pop-ups to enable your visitors to subscribe to your email list.
Content upgrades can be a simple checklist, or an e-book, that you give to a person that subscribes to your email list.
These forms will help you capture your leads that can become your clients or customers.
Just make sure you include a little GDPR text so you get their consensus.
Make sure your content upgrades are to the point and they can clearly see what they’ll get and what they are subscribing to.
2. Offer Sign-up Form Wherever You Can (But Don’t Over Do It)
You may be asking yourself now… What do you mean?
Well, while it’s good to encourage sign-ups wherever possible, don’t push it.
Be polite and don’t make your site just a one big offer bombing place.
They came to read your posts and see what you have to offer, they don’t want the pop-up to be in their face every second.
If you asked them once don’t show them another sign-up form in 10 seconds. Wait for a week or a month.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t offer your content upgrades on your posts, just don’t ruin your website user experience.
Plan it out something like this:
- 1 pop-up
- Content upgrades in your posts
- Sign-up form in your footer
- Homepage banner to sign-up
- If you have an E-commerce website include a tick box for newsletter subscription in your checkout
This is a little checklist to have more sign-ups and will still help you not to annoy your visitors.
3. Improve Your Emails Deliverability
There are 3 things to have in mind here.
One is to make sure you ask your subscribers to whitelist you in their email service.
Especially in Gmail services. Gmail can be a tough cookie.
Also don’t forget to tell them, that if they missed your emails to check in the promotions tab.
This second one is on you.
Make sure that you do everything in your power to verify to email providers that it is you who is sending these emails.
This means that you set up your email verification on your own server.
The first one is to send emails from your domain.
The next step is to add MX records on your server, or it won’t send your emails (if you use a different email provider than hosting).
It’s important to add DKIM records to your server and also don’t forget to set the SPF record.
The DKIM record will help you validate your domain name through cryptographic authentication.
Find a useful guide here.
The SPF protection helps you protect your domain from phishing and spoofing attacks. When protected it’s also less likely to be targeted.
The main thing is that with SPF protection your emails are less likely to end up in spam folders or being listed as spam.
More about SPF can be found here.
4. Clean Your Email List Regularly
What does this mean?
It’s simple and kind of connected to the first tip.
To ensure your email keeps a clean record, you should make sure your emails are delivered and opened.
You can help do that by keeping your list fresh and only have subscribers that want to be on it and want to receive your emails.
By cleaning your email list, you’ll weed out your competition and hard bounces. This will help you reduce spam complaints and keep your domain clean.
Also, it will help you keep your emails out of spam folders.
5. Personalize your onboarding
This means that you start the segmentation of your email marketing list early.
If you don’t know what I mean, try to subscribe to a Hubspot email list.
You’ll see that you are presented with categories that might interest you, so you choose the fields that are of interest to you.
his way you don’t send emails to your subscribers that they won’t be interested in.
Instead, they get emails that are tailored for them and you improve engagement.
6. Segment Your Email List Based on Your Subscribers Behavior
Basically, you segment your subscribers based on what they do on your website.
You send emails that are tied to what they are doing, so it’s relevant to them.
If you have an E-commerce store, and they have put an item in the cart but then left, you could send them an email about that and try to get them to buy or offer more info about how to conduct a buying process.
It can be even done for people that have been on your service or product page but left.
Send them an email that has the purpose of building trust.
Like testimonials or how it works and how it can help them better. Ask questions.
Send emails to your existing customers on how to use the product or service, to get the most out of it.
But make sure you do it in line with the new GDPR guidelines.
7. Plan Out What Kind of Emails You Want to Send
Meaning that you know in advance what kind of email you are going to send to your email subscribers.
Make a list of possible types of emails:
- Promotional emails
- Seasonal or holidays emails
- E-commerce emails (receipts, bills, appointments)
- Informational emails (new blog post)
- Educational emails (new guides, e-books,…)
Knowing this will make it easier for you to plan out your schedule and the above-mentioned segmentation.
8. Don’t Focus Your Email Marketing Just on Promotions
Yes, of course, the main goal of your email marketing efforts are growing your business and bringing in new leads and clients.
But, think about your self for a minute.
Do you like to bombarded with promotional emails, that don’t bring any value to you, but just want to sell you the next product?
Of course not.
So make sure you build up a relationship, trust and provide value.
Make your emails about content.
Let the email marketing be a helping hand to your content marketing.
9. Leverage Email Marketing Automation
No, I don’t mean you should stop caring for your subscribers and be all robotic
If done right, email marketing automation can help you do more and provide your subscribers with extra value.
You should use it because it will help you do more and be more efficient.
Automation will help you increase conversion rates and scale your email marketing efforts.
I have to mention, that you should use automation tightly with the next tip on my list.
10. Use Personalization
The easiest way of stepping in the right direction of personalization can be just by putting the name of the recipient of your email.
But that’s just a small step.
As I mentioned above you need to connect the dots.
You should include automatization and most importantly the segmentation.
This is where the magic happens.
You know what their interests are, what they are doing on your website.
This way you are relevant, your emails are timed perfectly and you are addressing your subscriber’s needs.
11. Focus on Making Your Subscribers Engaged
We have briefly gone over the fact, that you shouldn’t make your email marketing about promotions.
But I really want you to remember this one.
As people join your list, they don’t want another sales pitch.
They want to get to know you and your business.
How you can help them get better at what they do.
They don’t sign up to your email list because they are already eager to buy.
Bring value to them and you’ll get value back.
12. Pay Attention to Your Sender Information
You know who is the one that is sending them emails.
It usually works better if they get it from a person and not from a company.
So use your full name and list a job.
In some cases, it’s even better if the sender is the owner or founder of the company.
It makes it more personal and it makes the receiver feel important and appreciated.
And whatever you do, don’t send your emails from Gmail, Yahoo or services like that.
It will make you more professional.
13. Your Subject Lines Are Important
This is one of the tips that can really make or break your email marketing campaigns.
First of all, I want to emphasize, that you avoid false promises in your subject lines.
No one and I really mean, no one wants to get an email with the subject line that isn’t representing the content of the email.
The second thing is to keep your subject lines short, descriptive and exciting at the same time.
Stick to around 50 characters.
Use A/B testing to see what works best for your audience.
To make your subject lines interesting and captivating, use numbers, emojis, and symbols.
Personalization in subject lines is also an awesome idea.
If you offer a discount show it with a number and what they can buy with it.
Make sure it’s CLICKABLE and not a CLICKBAIT.
14. Craft the Right Kind of CTA Buttons
This means that your click to action doesn’t just say “click here”.
As the term says “call to action”, give them the encouragement to do something.
It can be simple as “GET TO KNOW XYZ BUSINESS”
Or “BROWSE OUR PRODUCTS”, or “READ MORE IN OUR ARTICLE”.
Just show them what you would like them to do.
Be their guide.
Make sure it’s easily recognizable.
Because most of the recipients will only scan your email and move forward.
You want your email CTA to stand out.
Oh… and don’t forget to add alt text to your CTA’s if you use images as CTA buttons.
Otherwise, they may not see it, as many email clients block images from loading.
15. Be Sure to Check Your Preview Text
What is a preview text?
This is the text that you can see after the subject line in your email inbox or email client.
You don’t have a lot of characters to work with, so make it count.
As seen in the image above, the length of the preview text in Gmail is based on the length of the subject line.
Email clients on phones are usually a bit more generous with the length.
Make sure it states some kind of a hook and that it complements the subject line., so your subscribers will be eager to open your email.
16. Your Message Should Be Short
By keeping your email short and sweet you have more chances to land in the main tab of your subscribers inbox (primary tab).
Now, you should know that there is no definitive evidence for this.
But the thing is that people are flooded with emails and the shorter the email the more likely they’ll read it.
And by being in front of them open it.
17. Build Your Emails to Transition Your Subscribes to Your Landing Page
Most email marketers worry about open rates of sent email, you should also pay attention to click-through rate.
To get the best results you should get your subscribers to visit your website.
Be it a new post or a new giveaway or a new offer.
The main thing should always happen on your website, so make sure you get your visitors to click those links.
This will also give you a chance to retarget the ones that opened your email but failed to reach your landing page.
18. Make Sure You Send an Email To Your New Subscriber in 24 Hours
You may be asking why?
But this comes from the perspective that at the time of subscription you and your brand is at the top of their mind.
So it’s a good idea to take advantage of that and stay in their minds.
And yes, you probably will send out an email that will ask them to confirm their subscription, but that’s not the point.
Have an email ready that will welcome them to your list and company.
You know a welcome email.
19. Use the Above the Fold For at Least One Call To Action
It’s a good idea to increase your chances for your links to get clicked, by placing at least 1 above the fold.
Many don’t scroll down the whole email if the message is too long.
Myself included.
So make sure that after a few lines of text there is a clickable element, so they can get to your landing page.
This will prove helpful for your mobile users.
20. If Possible, Don’t Use Background Images
For one, and this is my opinion it looks bad in emails.
It can be distracting.
Not all email clients recognize background images.
Plain text with background colors and images placed as an img element for a better understanding of the message is a lot better.
Also as you want to be short and to the point it’s better to not stretch the message.
21. Use Dynamic Design
You see, the personalization is not limited to adding name tags.
There is also the option to show every subscriber the one thing they would be interested in.
This can be done by segmentation.
You wonder what I mean by dynamic design.
I mean that one subscriber might get an offer for a shoe and the other for the pants.
Based on their interests.
Your email will stay the same, you will just have to decide what elements will change.
22. Show Them What They Can Gain From Reading Your Email
We talked about not making your email just about promotion.
So this is the next step.
Show them what your email will give them.
How they can benefit from reading it.
Don’t talk about your product or even a post.
Tell them a story of how they can use it.
How they can turn it into their advantage.
You see it’s not about features, it’s about benefits and a story behind it.
23. Build-in Some Interactivity
This will increase your email engagement, which is always good.
It will be more fun for the readers.
You’ll improve user experience and because your readers are being more involved, you’ll get more eyes on your landing page.
You can include stuff like scratch tickets, or accordion, so the text reveals only if they interact with it.
Make it fun.
Check this post for some more tips on how to increase interactivity in your emails.
Neil Patel has some awesome ideas and tools to do it right.
24. Add Links to Your Images
We talked about the fact that you want your email subscribers to reach your landing page.
So this one is important.
Make sure your images are clickable and are leading to your website.
For example, you have a downloadable asset that you want them to download, make sure you include an image that is clickable.
Don’t just link the text, images are more powerful and most of us are trying to click it.
25. Include Social Sharing Buttons
Well, you want as many people as possible to see what you have shared with your email list.
This will help you increase the number of subscribers, and also the number of eyes on your content.
Potentially increasing your sales and income.
To do this, you should include social sharing buttons.
But it’s an email you say, right?
Yes, it is, but in most tools for mass emailing you have an option to view this email on the web.
So this is the URL that will be shared.
You just have set it up.
Also, most of the tools have the social sharing buttons included in their templates for you to simply use.
26. Simplify Your Sharing to Twitter With Pre-created Tweets
Yes, this can be done as well.
You can create the message for your readers in advance, so they can simply tweet about it.
This can be done with a tool called Click to Tweet.
Just sign in with your Twitter account and set it up.
Or you can use the Sumo tool for it.
Both tools are free to use.
27. Make Your Emails Mobile Friendly
It’s important to have your emails mobile-friendly, the same as it goes for your website.
If we look at the research done by Litmus, we find out that in 2018, that 46 % of emails were opened on mobile devices.
If we look at the infographic from Social Media Today, we can see an even higher percentage of 53 % of emails being opened on mobile devices.
To make the point even clearer, 75 % of Gmail users check their email via mobile.
Now you see, you have to make your emails mobile-friendly.
It’s not even debatable.
So make sure you use templates or build your email marketing campaigns with mobile in mind.
To create emails that are easily opened on mobile, reduce the size of the images, use big enough CTA buttons (around 50 px) and make your email templates responsive.
The last one shouldn’t be that hard as most email marketing tools offer them.
28. Ask Your Subscribers to Add You to Their Contact List
This means that when you send a welcome email to your new subscribers, ask them to add you as a contact, so your emails will be delivered into the primary inbox and not under the promotions tab.
This can help you increase the number of opened emails and also your conversion.
If they do this, they are basically telling their email provider they want to receive your emails.
29. Send a Test Email to Yourself Before Sending Out a Campaign
If you test your email, you’ll make sure there are no mistakes in your email.
You’ll have a look at what it will look like on desktop and mobile and in different apps.
This way you’ll make sure everything is as it should be and increase your chances of getting it opened by your subscribers.
30. Use A/B testing For Your Email Content
We talked about A/B testing for subject lines, but you can do this for your message as well.
And you should.
This way you’ll be able to what works best for your audience.
You’ll see what kind of words selection works, which images are better for you to use.
What length of emails works better.
31. Send Your Emails Consistently
Decide your time frame for sending out emails and stick to it.
Be it daily, weekly or monthly.
Make sure you stay in your subscribers mind.
This way you’ll be able to have more success and your open rates and conversions will be higher.
Just to flood them with your emails.
If you can offer them a choice so, they can choose how often they receive emails.
32. Unsubscription Should Be Easy
Make it easy for them to unsubscribe.
Don’t make the look, as they will get frustrated and you’ll get more spam reports.
Simply put an unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email or even tell them where to click if they want to leave.
Sometimes it’s better for both sides.
You want engaged users.
It’s better to have 100 engaged subscribers than 1000’s that don’t want to receive your emails.
33. Keep an Eye on Your Email Stats
Monitor and track your success.
Together with A/B testing, you’ll be able to see which emails are working on which one don’t.
Use these data to your advantage and send out more of what your email list wants and what makes it more engaged.
Pay attention to:
- Open rate
- Bounce rate
- Opt-out rate
- Click-through rate
Conclusion
Now that you know all of these tips for email marketing, it’s time to use them in practice. In my opinion, we have gone through all of the important tips about email marketing to make your next campaign a success.
Of course, like everything else, it takes practice and testing.
So monitor your data closely and adjust your strategy accordingly.
If you like the article, share it with your friends and check out some of my other pieces of content.
Until next time a lot of success with email marketing.
SEO specialist and Founder of Nomiscom WebDesign. Here to help you grow your business with the strategic approach to designing your business website and growing it to become the tool that is increasing your revenue.