Boost Your Business With Email Marketing Best Practices

Since the time of inception, email marketing has evolved a lot. And the best part is it is still considered as one of the most important components of marketing. Being one of the most direct marketing tools to target the right audience, email marketing provides many opportunities to generate leads, convincing target audience and converting them to customers.

For every company, especially B2B companies, emails are the heart of the marketing. Emails have given them the opportunity to communicate with customers personally. As compared to social media, email marketing has a longer lifespan. In 2018, email marketing has marked its 40th anniversary.

Do you know that every day 205 billion emails are sending out by the businesses? According to the estimates of analysis firm “The Radicati Group”, by 2019, the number email users will increase above 2.9 billion globally. It proves that if an email is interesting and useful, it will be opened by the receiver.

When it comes to email marketing the first question that comes to mind is “How to ensure that the email will have higher open rates and the potential lead will convert into sales?” Well, luckily, we have a list of best practices that can help to craft the best email marketing strategy which may lead to an increase in the revenue of the business.

Here Is How You Can Boost Your Business with Email Marketing Best Practices?

01. Send Welcome E-Mail to Build Strong Relationship

A welcome e-mail is the first email you send to the subscriber for subscribing to your email list. It is the most important part of your email marketing as a welcome email gives you a great chance to build a strong relationship with the subscriber. According to the latest data, the open rate (85%) and click-through rate (77%) are higher on welcome email.

If you are not sending a welcome e-mail, you are missing a big opportunity. So, whenever someone subscribes to your e-mail list, it is advisable to send a welcome e-mail immediately. Your welcome e-mail should clearly communicate what to expect from your emails moving forward.

02. Send E-Mails at The Right Time

Every email marketer wants their emails to be at the top of the receiver’s inbox. After all, people like to first read those emails that not only have a catchy subject line but at the top of their list. So, what is the best time to send an email? It is one of the first things that come to the mind of every marketer while planning for an email marketing strategy. Well, it depends upon industry to industry. For instance, you are into selling online fashion clothing. In that case, you may like to send emails on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

According to various researches, Wednesdays can also be considered as a second option for sending emails. But if you are planning to send emails anywhere in between the week, then choose Tuesdays and Thursdays. Talking about the time, well, it will depend upon the type of target audience you have. Some people choose to read emails while travelling for office, some people read emails after office hours, and some check while going to bed. If you are not sure about that, you may choose to do A/B testing. It will help you in figuring out the right time.

03. Determine the Right Frequency for A Healthy and Engaged List

Another one of the email marketing best practices is to know how often you should contact your subscribers. And this can be little tricky. If a business or marketer is getting benefit from sending more emails, they would naturally like to do continue with the same strategy. But there is a risk in doing that. There will come a point where a subscriber will have had enough. 

So how will you determine the right frequency? Well, there is no silver bullet for that. But a little common sense will help. If you have something very interesting to say, send a mail. Otherwise, don’t.

04. Look at Your Deliverability and Avoid the Spam Folder

Email deliverability is the ability to send emails to the subscriber’s inbox. If your emails are not getting delivered or are being delivered in a spam folder, then email marketing is totally a waste of time. Sometimes even the best email marketing platform can have a deliverability issue. Here are some tips to improve your email deliverability: 

•      Build your IP credibility.
•      Register a sub-domain and use it for only for email activity.
•      Don’t buy email lists.
•      Segment your emails.
•      Simplify your opt-out process.
•      Have good quality content.
•      In case you are experiencing a problem in sending emails, check blacklists.

You can also use some of the best email marketing software to improve the email deliverability. Example: Mail tester (to check the spam scores), Blocklist Lookup (to check blacklists), Sender Score (to check the reputation of IP address).

05. Use A Memorable Sender Name

Whenever someone receives an email, the first thing they noticed is probably the sender name. The ‘Sender’ name helps the receiver in deciding whether to open an email or not. So, in the sender’s name, whether you are using the name of a company or a campaign name, make sure it makes sense to the recipient.

According to Convince and Convert, 43% of the readers mark the email as spam by just looking at the sender’s name. It shows why paying attention to the sender’s name is an email marketing best practice.

06. Don’t Use Noreply@address

Have you ever received a mail from some company and you genuinely want to reply to that email and then you see its written noreply @ address? How did you feel at that time? Irritated, right? Similarly, others also feel that way. The noreply@ address is little sarcastic. Most of the companies or marketers promise to take care of the customers by taking feedback from them. They also claim that customers are the center of the business.

But what they do? After winning their trust and convincing them to subscribe to their email marketing services, they use an email address noreply@address that straight-out says, ‘We don’t care’. They don’t understand that noreply emails can make a negative impression. Thus, another one of the email marketing best practices is to be genuine and avoid using noreply@ address. Let your customers share their feedbacks. It will not only make them feel valuable but also helps you in creating a corporate brand identity.

07. Write Compelling Subject Lines

In every email, subject line is one of the most important pieces of information. It quickly grabs the attention of the recipient. It also motivates the receiver whether to open an email or not. As per the statistics, 47% of readers open emails and 69% of readers reported email as spam based on subject lines. Here are a few tips to write compelling subject lines:

•      Create a sense of urgency.
•      Generate curiosity.
•      If you have planned to give something special to your customers, mention it on the subject line of an email.
•      Opt for personalized approach by using recipient’s first name or any other personal information.
•      Keep it short. It should not be more than 40 characters.
•      Try to use the keywords that are trending and have higher search volumes. Example: Cool colors for spring, anti-ageing skin care treatments, coolest apps, etc.

08. Create Engaging Body Content

By writing a compelling subject line, you may succeed in making the recipient in opening the email. But how will you convince them in performing the activity for which you have crafted an email? Through engaging content! No matter what type of marketing you choose to promote your business, content plays a very important role. By writing valuable and relevant content, you may convince the customer to make a purchase decision.

Writing compelling content may be quite challenging. Thus, it is important to be clear with the purpose of your email. It will help you in creating the content that can perfectly align with your goal. Make sure that the layout, tone, and language of the content should be in order to grab the attention of the reader.

09. Make It Mobile-Friendly

The mobile industry has grown quickly. By 2019, the number of Smartphone users is expected to increase by 2.5 billion globally. And in the U.S.A, by 2019, the numbers are estimated to grow 247.5 million. It has made many companies in developing apps and mobile site. When you draft an email, you may get to see things exactly the way you want.

For instance, if you have written a subject in 50 characters, you may get to see the whole sentence perfectly on desktop. But chances are few words or characters may get hide while checking the same email on mobile. Creating a responsive email may save you from the situation. Responsive designs automatically adjust according to the screen of the device. Here are a few tips to create mobile-friendly email:

•      Have a look at your subject line.
•      Use pre-header text.
•      Use a single-column template.
•      Keep your email under 600 pixels wide.
•      Use large fonts.
•      Display small images.
•      Don’t create call-to-action in the form of image.
•      Avoid menu bars.
•      Test on multiple devices.

10. Email Automation

Automation is another one of the important email marketing best practices to follow. It is a great way to put your emails campaigns work for you. All we have gone through in terms of segmentation and customization can further benefit from adding automation. If you are not doing email marketing automation, you will never get to know how smoothly things can be taken to the next level.

An automated email campaign runs based on the rules you give. For instance, if someone has subscribed to your email list, you can have an automated welcome email, thanking them for choosing your email marketing services.

11. Social Media Integration

If someone has shown interest in your brand by joining your social media page, chances are they are more likely to subscribe to your email list. By using social media, you can tell your followers the benefit of joining your newsletters.

For instance, by using Facebook call-to-action button, you can build your email list. Here are some benefits of integrating social media to email marketing:

•      Increased reach and frequency.
•      Increased credibility.
•      Increased customer engagement.
•      Quick response.
•      Improved Return on Investment

12. Add Alt Text to Images and Buttons

If you are thinking that Alt text are only for website images, then think again. You can also add them to your email images and buttons. Adding them will help recipient understand what they are reading, just in case HTML crashes or by default their email server doesn’t allow images to get open. Without Alt text, readers will simply get to see a blank space wherever there is a button or an image. Adding Alt text makes the readers understand where to click.

13. Use Email Signature for Authenticity

When it comes to email marketing, marketers know that everything on the email has a call-to-action. Here we are not talking about those emails that are designed especially for promoting specific product or services. We are here talking about those emails that we sent to our clients on a regular basis. An email signature is one of the most untapped tools that can help companies in branding and generating leads.

For instance, you have revamped your company logo. How will you tell your clients about your new business logo? One way is through your business website, as that is where everyone looks out for the latest updates. Another way is through your email signature.

Your client will believe that your email signature must have the latest logo. Apart from your name and phone number, your email signature must include your company logo, social media profiles, or special offers and promotions (if any). Are you planning to design a logo from the scratch? Use our AI-powered logo maker tool. The tool lest its users to create professional logos within minutes.

14. Offer an Unsubscribe Option

Do you know that as per the CAN-SPAM Act, 2003, it is illegal not to give unsubscribe option in your emails? Well, keeping the legal matter aside, giving unsubscribe option in much important than you think. Unsubscribe links let subscribers stop receiving your emails. You cannot force the subscribers to be there in your email list, right?

Losing even a single customer is quite disheartening, but you can convert the situation to your advantage. How? Create a simple, not too long questionnaire and ask the customers to fill it before unsubscribing. The data will help you in understanding why people are not finding your emails valuable. This way you can improve your email marketing.

15. Measure Email Performance

In order to measure the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign, it is very important to set up proper tracking. Tracking helps you in understanding how successful in your campaign. For example, when it comes to conversion, your campaign is not doing as great as you expected. And for that, there could be a lot of reasons.

It may be because your email campaign design is a little confusing, or the landing URL is not working. Acting without looking at the metrics would be equal to shoot in a dark. Although there are a lot of tools available in the market, Google Analytics is one of the best tools for tracking. Make sure you measure conversions, time spent on a page, bounce rate, and engagements on the page.

Wrapping Up…

When it comes to marketing, every entrepreneur has their own different goals. And to achieve those goals, every business opts for different methods. But email marketing is one such component of marketing that is being used by every business all over the world. By following the above universally applicable email marketing practices, you may not only boost the campaign performance but your business too.