11 Tips to Achieve Better Email Marketing Results

Be it for generating leads for your business, converting your leads into prospects, or simply building credibility for your brand, email marketing can deliver it all for your business. While many would argue that this channel of communication does not enjoy the kind of attention some other newer channels enjoy in today’s digital age, email marketing has been consistently helping businesses to take their story to their audience effectively. Did you know that with over 99% of users checking their email at least once a day, email is still the best channel for marketing?

A powerful form of direct marketing, you can use email marketing services not just to promote your offerings and boost direct sales, but also to keep your customers engaged. Email marketing campaigns can also play a pivotal role in educating your audience about who you are and what your brand really stands for. With a little effort into email marketing, you can enjoy the returns that some of the best email marketing campaigns have delivered for various brands around the globe. 

11 Best Email Marketing Tips to Follow

If you are looking for ways to get better results from email marketing, here are 11 best practices to follow. 

1. The quality of your email copy matters 

Look at some of the most powerful email marketing campaigns, and the one common factor among them all would be the quality of the email copy. Your email copy can literally make or break your campaign. If you do not focus on your copy, no matter how many customers you reach out to, the results will usually be dismal. One of the fundamentals of good copy is to center it on the user. Some of the best practices to do so include the following:

• Make your copy such that it is easy for the user to get the message simply by scanning the copy. Adding headings and subheadings, using bullet points, and inserting images ways to enable easy comprehension. 
• Keep it short, clean, and simple. Choose a layout that suits your goals best. 
• Personalize the message as much as possible. As far as possible, keep the language simple and personal. 
• Sell less. Instead, talk more about the benefits the user would actually experience. This will make your email more relatable to the user.
• Remember to add the right number of CTAs. The whole exercise of sending an email is to entice the customer to take action, and a CTA helps you get closer to the step you would like the customer to take. 
• You can even seek help from email writing services available online.

2. Craft the subject line cleverly 

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Did you know that almost 69% of emails get marked as spam based on the subject line content alone? The subject line plays a critical role in not just enticing the recipient to open your email, but also in the success of your overall email marketing campaign. An email subject line should be crafted such that it is able to trigger the curiosity of the reader. However, when crafting a subject line for bulk email marketing services, take care not to give away all the information, for there will remain no reason for the recipient to open the email. 

A common trend is to keep it short and simple. Adding a touch of personalization is another great strategy when it comes to creating a catchy subject line, as this helps make the email more relatable to the reader. Some of the best email marketing subject lines even encourage action as a strategy to entice the reader to open their email. 

In order to make an email subject line enticing and attractive for a reader, all you need is attention to detail and some creativity. Another tried-and-tested strategy is to A/B test your subject line by sending two different subject lines to different sets of customers and, based on their responses, gauging which one works best. When creating a subject line for your email campaign, try and speak according to the brand’s ideology and identity for the best results. 

3. Make the preview text count

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In the above image, the text on the right-hand side (the non-bold text) is the email preview text. Also referred to as preheader text, email preview text plays a critical role in influencing the recipient to open and read the email. This text is also referred to as a supporting subject line by some. 

Since this text is visible to the recipients without them even opening the email, it is important to optimize this content. This content should not only complement your subject line but also be catchy to the reader. By default, the first few lines of the email get auto-pulled to form the email preview text. So, it is important to be thoughtful while crafting them. 

4. Pay attention to your landing page

You have put your heart and soul into the content for your email marketing. You have also strategically positioned just the right number of CTAs. All your efforts, however, would add up to nothing if the landing pages the customers are led to are not created properly. 

Landing pages are standalone web pages that brands can lead the users to upon clicking on a CTA on an email marketing campaign, advertisement, or any other promotion. Also referred to as “lead capture pages,” landing pages play an important part in building a brand’s credibility. When executed well, not only do these pages help with a seamless transition from a CTA, but they also help build trust in the user’s eyes.

As these landing pages are usually aligned with a particular campaign, it is important that they are relevant to the content being shared in the email campaign. As these pages are typically part of a specific marketing campaign, it is critical to measure their performance using various tools easily available in the digital space.

5. Build an email list organically 

The success of any email marketing campaign is measured largely on the open rates of the campaign. You can enjoy a healthy open rate only when you send out relevant information to customers who are interested in your product or service in the first place. Sending out bulk emails to a purchased email list is preparing yourself for failure. 

Building your own list means you have a majority of recipients who are not only a profiled customer base for your business but also those who have already provided you with their consent to send them your email marketing content. It will also help increase your engagement rates. In the long run, it is more beneficial to build your own list rather than purchase one. While building such a list can be time-consuming, you can take advantage of the many lead magnets, such as free giveaways, reports, or ebooks, to encourage your prospective customers to subscribe. 

It also helps to scrub your email list once in a while to remove inactive subscribers. This not only helps you utilize your resources better but also helps reduce spam, thereby increasing your click-through rates (CTR). 

6. Segment your email lists

You may have the right email marketing content, but it would all be a waste if you do not send it to the right audience. Segmenting or dividing your email list according to predefined customer characteristics, such as gender, interests, profession, etc., helps improve your open rates as well as CTR. 

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By segmenting your email list into various groups, you enable your marketing communication to be more personalized and targeted. It not only helps in better engagement with the recipients, but it also helps in decreasing unsubscribes. 

Customer segmentation is a powerful tool that every company should capitalize on. In fact, be conscious of gathering as much information about the user as you can, without being too pushy or intrusive. Your segmentation can start even when you are asking the customer to subscribe to your channel or newsletter.

7. Capitalize on special days 

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Special occasions and festivals, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Diwali, New Year, etc., make for brilliant marketing opportunities for businesses. These days are a special marketing opportunity because users, too, do not mind the extra communication. Email communication typically makes for the most preferred mode of communication for most readers and customers. If you can grab the attention of the reader with these special occasion emails, you automatically set yourself for a win. That is why it pays to plan your communication in advance for festivals and special occasions. 

By planning in advance for these special occasions, you provide yourself with ample time to come up with the most attractive offer to attract users. You also give yourself time to work through all the nuances involved in email campaigns, thus setting yourself up for success. This technique also helps build anticipation about what you are going to do next.

8. Drip campaigns really work 

We spoke about sending out teasers to your users to build anticipation for an upcoming email campaign. Similarly, you can strategically nurture new customers to become regulars with your business. Drip campaigns are the ideal solution to automate engagement, leading to conversion without the risk of sounding spammy. 

In today’s digital world, there are many automation tools available for drip campaigns, wherein the system automatically sends out a series of emails depending on the action you would like the reader to take. You can even decide how many emails you would like to send out and at what frequency. With drip campaigns, you can also personalize your communication based on what action the user has previously taken and entice them to take the next step with a personalized offer. When done right, drip campaigns can work wonders for your email marketing.   

9. The frequency of emails matters too 

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A quick look at the chart above, and you will notice a drastic drop in both the open and click-through rates as you keep increasing the number of emails in the week. When it comes to email marketing, these numbers play a significant role. 

This is why most marketing experts would recommend sending out about two to five emails per month to achieve success in your email campaigns. Not only will your readers appreciate you more for not spamming their inboxes, but you will also end up improving your email marketing campaign analytics drastically. 

What’s also critical when determining the frequency of your emails is to set a pattern for sending out these emails. This will help you churn out communication with your users on a regular basis. It will also allow the users to get used to the pattern, thus helping in building anticipation for the next email from you. You can also look at automating your email communications if you have a frequency and pattern in place. 

10. Time your delivery right 

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Equally important is the day and time to send out the content to the recipients. While many marketing pundits would recommend a particular day and time in the week to send out these blasts, one thing to keep in mind is that what works for someone else may not necessarily work for you. 

The above chart is a graphical representation of the days when most companies preferred to send out emails to their users in 2021. A look at the chart above, and you will clearly see that most companies prefer to send out their email marketing content to users on weekdays. Based on the data points gathered, it is safe to say that while there was more or less a standard distribution of emails being sent out from Monday to Friday, there was a slight preference for Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Like the day in the week, you can also identify the exact time in the day when these bulk email marketing blasts can go out. Statistics from last year’s data in the study above showed the best results when the emails were sent out at 10:00 am. While studies may highlight a particular trend for sending emails, it is not always necessary that those slots will work for you too. For best results, please study the specific trends for your emails, and based on the data points gathered, identify the day and time in the week that best works for you.  

11. Get to know your subscribers’ tastes through split testing 

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One of the easiest and scientifically proven ways to understand what content works is to adopt split testing for your email marketing. Also commonly known as A/B testing, this technique can help you with almost every element of your email, from the subject line to the body to even the images and artwork used in your marketing collateral. Based on this result, you not only can decide which elements to retain and which ones to drop but also refine the elements that previously worked to maximize your campaign’s success.

With an ROI of 4200%, email marketing is still regarded as one of the best when it comes to influencing your users. Maximize the returns from your email marketing efforts by combining them with the various automation solutions available today. Patience, creative thinking, and relentless execution will go a long way in maximizing your returns from email marketing.

Key Takeaways 

• With over 99% of users checking their emails every day, emails are still the best medium of communication in marketing.
• Email marketing can be used to increase conversion and sales, and can also be used for just educating and engaging the users
• In email marketing, getting your content right, together with a strong subject line, is important.
• Landing pages that are well-aligned with the email content help build trust in the eyes of the user. 
• Using A/B testing helps you refine your communication as per your audience’s preferences.
• Set the frequency and schedule for your email marketing. Automate wherever possible.

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