15 Email Marketing Best Practices

Everyone has an email address, and the marketing world knows it. It’s a simple way to market your product or service to a wide audience of people all over the world. But not all email marketers are successful with their campaigns. Some fail because they don’t know there are best practices for doing it right. 

The following are Email Marketing Best Practices That Actually Drive Results:

1. Don’t Purchase Contact Lists

If you have the resources to purchase them, they are not that difficult to find and possibly cheaper than you think. The email addresses on your list have been purchased by someone else who sold them to you.

Email addresses can be bought and sometimes stolen, so your chances of ending up with a stolen list are very high. And once the list has been in circulation for a while, the addresses on it do not become cost-effective to maintain, so there’s no point in trying to buy it anymore.

2. Avoid Using ‘No-Reply’ in the Sender’s Email Address

This is not necessary. After all, you are sending messages to those people, who have dutifully opened your email and read it, and they need to be motivated to send a reply. Turn off the “no-reply” (or “auto-reply” as it is called).

3. Stick to Fewer Than Three Typefaces

This will improve your message presentation and the ease of reading. It also presents a more professional image to your recipients and makes it easier for them to identify you on sight. The ideal number of typefaces/fonts should be three. Number 1, 2 and 3.

4. Optimize the Email’s Preview Text

This is very important when sending emails. You can do this via email address book or by using a service such as Email-Reach. Email recipients can preview and confirm their replies in real time before sending them.

5. Include an Email Signature

No matter how your email is designed, ensure everyone on your list knows how to get in touch with you with a simple click.

This improves the reputation of your business and boosts brand awareness.

6. Clean Your Mailing List Regularly

You’re responsible for not only the email addresses on your list but also those that are no longer relevant. By regularly checking your list and purging the addresses of people who have not opened your messages in a while, you help reduce bulk mailings to people that no longer want to receive them. That way, you can focus on people still interested in what you have to say.

7. Keep the Main Message and Call-To-Action Above the Fold

Higher CTR depends on the number of emails in your campaign. That’s why you need to keep the main message above the fold. The fold is the portion of your message that gets displayed when a recipient has to scroll down through the email.

8. Personalize the Email Greeting

Use the recipient’s first name and company name in the email greeting. The use of salutation is a decent way to catch the reader’s attention. However, you have to make sure that it is not overused because it can be annoying if overdone.

9. Keep Your Email Between 500 and 650 Pixels Wide

The wider your email, the more your recipient has to scroll to see the whole thing. This can cause them to get impatient and click away before they have even read a few words. Just don’t feel constrained by the width of your image because sometimes it’s better to view the whole thing on a computer than on the phone.

10. Split Test Different Subject Lines and Calls-to-Action

Split testing is a great way to determine which subject lines and calls to action work best for each recipient. If you get the results, you were hoping for, stick with them. And if not, they’re easy to change. The goal is to get the most traffic possible from each email.

11.  Include Your Logo

Including your logo in any email marketing campaign is a good idea. Your logo is the most recognizable element of your business and is an important branding tool. Because it has been designed with your company’s identity in mind, including it in each email can help recipients identify the sender instantly.

12. Name the Offer in Your Subject Line

The subject line is how your recipients will find and select your email campaign. If the subject line is unclear, they are likely to move on to the next piece of email without looking at it in detail. A well-written subject line should include a clear request and offer, but avoid being promotional or overly promotional.

13. Allow Recipients to Subscribe to Your Newsletter

You can make it easy for potential customers to subscribe to your email newsletter. Just add a small box at the end of your email which contains your sign-up form. This way, readers can easily subscribe without leaving their inboxes.

14. Write Compelling (But Concise) Subject Lines

The subject line is the first thing people will see; it can make the difference between someone reading your email or deleting it. A brief subject line (though long enough to grasp the content of your email) will encourage recipients to open your message and read it.

15. Include a Call-to-Action in Your Email

It helps your readers to know what action you would like them to take after they’ve read your email message. You can urge them to call you, order your product or service, or join your mailing list. Your call to action is what drives the readers to take action. The call-to-action is also an important element for your email deliverability. 

Conclusion

Email marketing is very convenient for all marketers. It is personal and direct and can be used for all types of businesses. But with the number of emails people are bombarded with daily, it’s important to know how to stand out. 

Email marketing will help you connect directly with your audience and make them think about your business when they want to buy something – because you’re always on their minds through email marketing.