A lot has changed in the past decade in how companies and people market themselves to each other. One thing that hasn’t changed is the popularity and effectiveness of email marketing campaigns.
Email marketing isn’t the only way to reach an audience in 2023, but it’s still one of the most effective ways to do it. Data shows that email marketing will generate $7.5 billion per year by 2027 in the U.S. alone.
There’s just one problem: you need to stand out if you’re going to send emails.
I created this list of can’t-miss email marketing tips from companies I’ve worked for and actual emails I’ve written for these businesses. Along the way, I learned a lot and picked up many tips.
Table of Contents
1. Think about what your reader wants
To create emails that appeal to your customers, you need to know about them.
What do your customers want? What do they like or want to avoid?
Your customers want emails that seem like they’re from a real person talking to them, not a nameless or faceless company.
Let’s say your email marketing strategy was to get new customers from the construction industry.
Sure, you might get more leads and website traffic with an email that details your construction software’s features.
But you’d probably get better results by following my email marketing tip of speaking to your customer’s pain points.
Bad example: Company X’s software features state-of-the-art tools that help your construction business.
Good example: Save over 40 hours every month with Company X’s payroll scheduling software.
2. Create your subject lines last
Many email marketers come into creating a great subject line with the best of intentions… and not-so-stellar results. But that’s okay. I’m about to help you solve this problem.
When I create email subject lines, I don’t write them first. Why? Because, at this point in the writing process, I’m not even sure what the email’s main message, header, or content will look like.
Instead of worrying about creating your title first, set this task aside and come back to it after everything else in your email is ready.
3. Keep your titles short and sweet
Ok, sounds good. But how do actually start creating these short and sweet subject lines?
One of my best email marketing tips is creating shorter subject lines. That’s because most email clients, including Google, Yahoo, Outlook, and many others won’t display your full email’s title.
So, if your subject line is something like “Open this email to receive an exclusive discount code for 50% off your next order.”
It might show up on mobile devices like “Open this email to receive an excl…”
If the cut-off version of your subject line is what a mobile user sees, they’re literally missing the message.
So, how could you solve this problem? With shorter subject lines! Shorten your email’s subject lines or put the most important part of your message first in subject lines. Then, you can reach everyone!
4. Split test
You’ll hear me talk a lot about split testing when mentioning email marketing tips. That’s because it works. Split or A/B testing is a way to slightly change part or all of your advertisement message, whatever it might be.
As you start coming up with ideas for emails, you’ll find images and come up with copy that could work well. But, eventually, you’ll have to narrow down your ideas to one final email, right? Nope!
With split testing, you can create multiple variations of your emails. Each of these emails goes out to segments of your subscribers. As your potential customers read your emails, you can get data that shows what is working well and what emails people aren’t engaging with.
5. Monitor the data behind every email marketing campaign
As you continue to send emails and put my email marketing tips to good use, you can find out how well your marketing efforts are going. Many email marketing programs like HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Sendinblue all let you know:
- Who opens your emails
- Who clicks on the links in your emails
- Your unsubscribe rate
Look at the data behind your email campaigns. Learning how your email subscribers behave can give you insight into what you need to do next.
6. Don’t spam people with endless emails
In the world of email marketing, more is…well, too much. If people want to learn about your company, you can definitely do that with a well-crafted series of welcome emails. More on that in the tip below…
Back to not spamming. Spamming is when your company sends out emails every hour or too many times per day. Not only do people not like clogged email inboxes, but doing this can automatically trigger spam filters.
As an email marketer or email sender, whatever you want to call yourself, spam folders are your worst enemy. Or, at least, your biggest blocker. That means you want to play nice and not spam people to avoid those pesky spam filters sending your marketing messages to the depths of spam folders.
7. Create a series of welcome emails
A great way to kick off any email campaign is with a new subscriber welcome sequence. In non-marketing terms, welcome emails are great ways to introduce yourself or your brand to your email readers.
The type of email you need to send can vary based on your company’s goals.
Some companies make their welcome email a cutesy introduction. Other companies with more serious audiences keep things to the point with little humor.
Find a welcome email message that matches how you want your company to appear to customers.
For example, a security company probably wouldn’t send out an email in Comic Sans font with a bunch of hearts and emojis.
Likewise, a company that hosts kids’ parties probably doesn’t want an email background that’s dark with red text that looks like something out of a horror movie!
8. Automate my email marketing tips with AI tools
From landing pages to emails, almost all types of marketing require content. And, sometimes, you’re going to struggle to come up with the right message in your emails. It happens to everyone.
When inspiration isn’t striking, an AI writer might be able to help you out. Regardless of what stuffy purists might tell you, there’s nothing wrong with using AI tools (especially if you have no copywriting experience)!
For instance, tools like Jasper or CopyAI are great for using marketing automation to create a killer subject line or inspiring ideas for the body of your email.
Most of these tools are super easy to use. Jasper and CopyAI currently offer trials to let you use their tools for free.
Start using these tools by providing a bit of basic information about what you need content for. For instance, these tools can put together subject line ideas or full emails.
Quick tip: AI copywriters can be great, but none of them are yet perfect. So, as you use these tools, double-checking what they create is a must.
9. Get help coming up with great subject lines
If I had a dime for every time I couldn’t come up with the next line of an email, I’d be taking a nap on my own private island. There’s nothing wrong with not being able to come up with the next line.
One way to fight back against writer’s block is by following my email marketing tips and using a good headline generator like this awesome tool from CoSchedule.
CoSchedule’s free email headline analyzer is easy to use. First, type in your current headline. Then, hit the ‘Score My Subject Line’ button.
Source: CoSchedule
You’ll see how good your headline is in only a few seconds. Best of all, CoSchedule gives you suggestions you can use to fine-tune your email messages.
10. Wrap things up with a call to action
As a bonus email marketing tip, every email you send should have some goal behind it. For instance, a welcome email has the goal of showing that a company cares. Welcome emails can also have the goal of sending over account information.
When you form your email marketing campaigns, think about the goal of each of your messages. That goal will be your email’s call to action.
Here are some quick email marketing tips to help you create a killer call-to-action:
- Use buttons: I’m a huge fan of using call-to-action buttons. Most types of email marketing software make it easy to create these buttons quickly.
- Keep it short: While this isn’t always the case, the most effective email messages are short. The same is true for a call to action. Aim for only two or three words in your CTA.
- Add an action word or two: Don’t be afraid to add in a “now” or “fast” at the end of your offer.
11. Send out test emails
Have you written the perfect landing page or blog post, only to find it contains mistakes after posting it? So have I. The feeling of seeing error-filled marketing messages can make any writer or marketer cringe, especially if they created the errors.
Fortunately, you can stop this problem with test emails. Create your test subject lines and body messages. Then, set up an email inbox or use one you already own and hit that send button.
Sending a test email lets you preview text and images as your audience will see them. Plus, you can easily solve email-related problems before any customer sees a missing image link or spelling error in your copy.
12. Bust out an emoji or two
These days, many people spend a lot of their time on a mobile device instead of a computer. As mobile and digital marketing blend together, it’s smart a few mobile-related tweaks to your emails.
Unless you’re working in a super serious industry, emojis appeal to most people. A recent study from Experian found that companies using emojis in their subject lines saw their open rates increase by 56% compared to emails that didn’t contain emojis.
Make sure you follow one of the most vital email marketing tips: don’t go overboard with your emojis. Throw one emoji into your subject line and see what happens to your open and clickthrough rates.
13. Use bold and italics to make your message easy on the eyes
One of my favorite email marketing tips is to make your messages easy to read. You have many ways to accomplish this goal. Some companies use block images to make things readable – other businesses leave plenty of white space.
Your email subscribers don’t want to read plain text emails. So, use bold or italics throughout your email messages. Many companies use this email marketing trick and get great results with it.
14. Don’t make it tough for people to unsubscribe
Before I wrap up this list of email marketing tips, I also wanted to mention a subject most marketers don’t want to think about: people unsubscribing.
Throughout my time spent in the world of email marketing, I’ve seen some companies stress over losing anyone and businesses that should probably care more. My point is that people are going to unsubscribe from your email list.
Important: People will unsubscribe from your emails. It’s a given. So, don’t worry when you see that people are occasionally unsubbing from your emails. If your unsubscribe rates suddenly skyrocket, that’s a sign of a potential problem that’s worth digging into.
And, learning someone wants to unsubscribe, don’t be like the companies that make you jump through hoops to get off an emailing list. Making it easy for subscribers to stop receiving your emails shows that you’re a confident business owner. Using all the tips in this article is a great way to start bringing back lost subscribers.
Thank you for checking out this list of email marketing tips. Follow my previously mentioned marketing strategies to engage your potential customers and stay out of the spam folder. Start using these tips in your email campaigns to see lots of new subscribers coming your way!
Alex Eagleton is a copywriter and digital marketer passionate about helping companies connect with customers. Throughout the past decade, he’s worked with companies including Referral Rock, Connecteam, and Ramsey Solutions. He’s a versatile writer who understands how to align with companies, truly matching their voices and tones.
When he’s not writing, he enjoys spending time with his dogs, reading, and playing guitar.
You can reach him by emailing alex@contentmarketinglife.com.