Email Marketing Guide

The average open rate for emails across all industries is 21.5%, with an average click-through rate (CTR) of 2.3%. according to Campaign Monitor. Which makes emails an important marketing tool and a significant traffic driver to our website. Here are some best practices for email marketing. Creating effective email marketing campaigns that engage your subscribers, drive conversions and boost email open rates:

1. Use double opt-in email sign-up: Helps you collect email addresses with an additional confirmation step that ensures you truly have someone’s permission to send them an email. This method prevents fake sign-ups and also helps ensure you’re compliant with anti-spam regulations and laws like GDPR.
2. Send a welcome email: After a customer has opted in to receiving emails, send them a welcome email to establish an early connection and prepare them for what’s to come. Welcome emails generally have an average open rate of over 86% and are worth taking advantage of.
   1. Introduce your business: A welcome email is a good opportunity to build brand affinity for your company and make an emotional connection with a subscriber.
   2. Include a list of your best content: Share useful and popular information and tips, new subscribers will miss out on the rich backlog of your previous content.
   3. Provide a discount or promotional offer: Provide subscribers with a discount code, like 10% off their first order, as a thank you for signing up.
3. Build a targeted email list: Ensure your email list is made up of people who are genuinely interested in your product or service.
4. Segment your list: Segment your email list based on demographics, past purchase behavior, and engagement level.
5. Personalize your emails: Use the subscriber’s name and other relevant information to personalize your email messages.
   1. Website browsing emails: If a website visitor becomes a subscriber and also opts in to website cookies, you can send them emails based on their browsing history on your website e.g. in the case of an webstore, an automated email can send them a few of the items they clicked on but didn’t buy. This is possible with an email marketing platform that integrates with your website.
   2. Abandoned cart emails: Sometimes customers get to checkout but don’t make a final purchase. Automated abandoned cart emails can send a reminder to their inbox, prompting them to buy.
   3. Product purchase education emails: After someone makes a specific purchase, send them emails that help them make the most of their latest buy.
   4. Birthday offer emails: Collect birthdays on email subscription forms to send offer codes on a subscriber’s birthday as a celebratory gift.
   5. Customer review emails: After someone makes a specific purchase, send them emails to ask them to publish their opinion on their new product/service on your website.
6. Create compelling subject lines: The subject line is the first thing the subscriber sees, so make it short, enticing and interesting.
7. Write casually and conversationally: In a way that feels polished and professional. A tone of voice in your emails that’s casual and conversational.
8. Easy to skim: A reader’s eyes skim for important details to get a broad idea of what a newsletter sendout is saying. Structure your emails to help readers quickly take in as much information as possible.
   1. Keep your paragraphs short: Use the “one idea per paragraph” rule and keep your message clear, concise, and to the point.
   2. Use bullet points: Breaking down information in bullet points and lists is more skimmable than sentences in a block of text.
   3. Use headers: For longer emails, use catchy and informative headers to divide up your email.
   4. Use graphics: Add relevant graphics or photographs, like snapshots of your products, to break up text and draw the reader’s eye.
   5. Bold copy: Make important information in bold.
   6. Use CTA buttons: Make the action you want the reader to take obvious with a colored CTA box and clear CTA text that stands out.
   7. Use white space: Breathing room between lines of text. Use white space strategically to make your email flow.
9. Keep your emails concise: People have limited attention spans, so keep your emails short and to the point.
10. Use a clear call-to-action: Make it clear what you want the subscriber to do, such as clicking a link or making a purchase.
11. Use mobile-friendly design: A large number of people check their emails on mobile devices, so ensure your emails are mobile-friendly.
12. Include share options: Add options that allow readers to share your emails.
13. Use lead magnets to get more subscribers: An effective strategy to encourage website visitors to subscribe to your email list. A lead magnet is a free resource offered to someone in exchange for their contact details e.g. book, white paper, guides, infographic, webinar, checklist, course, quiz etc.
14. Test and optimize: Continuously test and optimize your emails to improve open rates, click-through rates and conversions.
15. Analyze your results: Use analytics tools to track the success of your email campaigns and make data-driven decisions to drive your email marketing strategy.
16. Clean-up the email list: If a big portion of your list has not engaged with your content for months, it’s worth either attempting to re-engage them or unsubscribing them from your list in order to maintain an engaged list.
    1. Re-engage inactive subscribers: Create a drip email re-engagement campaign or send an email requesting that they express interest in staying on the list.
    2. Remove subscribers from your list: Remove email subscribers that remain inactive after attempting to re-engage them, or subscribers who don’t respond to an expressed interest prompt.
17. Ensure compliance with laws: Ensure your email marketing campaigns comply with laws such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR e.g. add a clear and visible unsubscribe link/button.
18. Send time: Mid-Week, Mid-day – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and in the middle of the day tends to do pretty well. General know-how suggests sending emails between 13:00-15:00 (09:00-11:00 is recommended as well).

Email Marketing Platforms

There are many email marketing platforms available in the market. Here are some of the popular ones:

• Mailchimp: A popular email marketing platform with a user-friendly interface, automation features, and analytics tracking.
• Constant Contact: An easy-to-use email marketing platform with a drag-and-drop editor, marketing automation, and analytics tracking.
• HubSpot: A complete marketing automation platform that offers email marketing, lead generation, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools.
• Campaign Monitor: Offers email marketing, automation, and analytics tracking tools, as well as a drag-and-drop email builder.
• ConvertKit: An email marketing platform designed for bloggers, podcasters, and other creators. It offers automation features, landing pages, and analytics tracking.
• ActiveCampaign: A marketing automation platform that offers email marketing, CRM, and sales automation tools.
• AWeber: An email marketing platform with a drag-and-drop editor, automation features, and analytics tracking.

When choosing an email marketing platform, consider your specific needs and budget. Most platforms offer a free trial period, so you can test the features and functionality before committing to a paid plan.

Email Marketing Metrics

The most important metric in email marketing is the open rate. This metric measures the percentage of people who opened the email compared to the total number of emails sent. It gives insight into how successful a campaign was in terms of reaching their target audience. Other important metrics include click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and unsubscribe rate:

• Deliverability rate: Shows the percentage of sent emails successfully delivered to a recipient. Aim for: 99%.
• Open Rate: Number of people who open your emails divided by total emails sent. Aim for: 20%.
• Click-Through Rate: Number of people who click on a link in your email divided by total emails sent. Aim for: 3.5%.
• Conversion Rate: Number of people who complete a desired action (such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter) divided by total emails sent. Aim for: 2% or more.
• Bounce Rate: Number of emails that are bounced back to the sender divided by total emails sent.
• Unsubscribe Rate: Number of people who unsubscribe from your emails divided by total emails sent. Aim for: 0.5% or less.
• List Growth Rate: Number of new subscribers added to your list divided by total emails sent.

Email Analytic Tools

Email analytic tools help you track the performance of your email campaigns and provide insights that can help you improve your future campaigns. Here are some email analytic tools:

• Google Analytics: A free analytics tool that allows you to track email campaign performance, including open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates.
• Litmus: An email testing and analytics tool that allows you to test your email campaigns across different email clients, devices, and browsers. It also provides analytics tracking for email performance.
• Mailchimp: An email marketing platform that provides analytics tracking for email campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. It also provides A/B testing features to help you optimize your campaigns.
• Campaign Monitor: Provides analytics tracking for email campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. It also provides A/B testing features to help you optimize your campaigns.
• HubSpot: A marketing automation platform that provides analytics tracking for email campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. It also provides A/B testing features and personalization tools to help you improve your campaigns.
• Sendinblue: An email marketing platform that provides analytics tracking for email campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. It also provides A/B testing features and automation tools to help you improve your campaigns.

These tools can help you understand how your email campaigns are performing and provide insights to drive your email marketing strategy.

Email Marketing Benchmarks

Email marketing benchmarks can vary depending on factors such as industry, audience, and campaign objectives. However, here are some general email marketing benchmarks to consider:

• Open rate: The average open rate across industries is around 21%, but some industries may have higher or lower rates. A good open rate is usually considered to be around 20-25%.
• Click-through rate (CTR): The average CTR across industries is around 2.5%. A good CTR is usually considered to be around 3-5%.
  Conversion rate: The average conversion rate for email campaigns is around 2.5%. However, this can vary greatly depending on the industry and type of campaign.
• Bounce rate: The average bounce rate for email campaigns is around 1-2%. A high bounce rate can indicate issues with email list quality or delivery.
• Unsubscribe rate: The average unsubscribe rate is around 0.1%. A high unsubscribe rate can indicate issues with email content or frequency.

It’s important to note that these benchmarks are not set in stone, and what is considered “good” can vary depending on your specific industry and audience. It’s always a good idea to track your own metrics and compare them to your past performance rather than focusing too heavily on industry averages.

Email Marketing Latest Trends

Here are some of the latest trends in email marketing:

• Interactive Emails: Use features such as animations, hover effects, and quizzes to engage subscribers and encourage them to take action.
• Personalization: Personalization continues to be a popular trend in email marketing, with businesses using data to provide personalized content and recommendations to their subscribers.
• Automation: Has become increasingly important in email marketing, with businesses using automated email campaigns to send targeted messages to subscribers at the right time.
• Segmentation: Involves dividing your email list into groups based on demographics, behavior, and other factors. This can help you send more targeted and relevant messages to your subscribers.
• User-Generated Content: Such as customer reviews and social media posts, can be a powerful tool in email marketing. Including user-generated content in your emails can help build trust with your subscribers and increase engagement.
• Mobile Optimization: With the majority of emails now being opened on mobile devices, optimizing your emails for mobile has become a necessity rather than an option.
• Privacy and Data Protection: With increased concerns around privacy and data protection, businesses are taking steps to ensure their email marketing is compliant with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.

These are just a few of the latest trends in email marketing. Staying up-to-date with the latest trends and incorporating them into your email marketing strategy can help you connect with your audience and achieve your business goals.

More Information

Mailchimp: Email Marketing Statistics and Benchmarks by Industry

HubSpot: The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2022

GetResponse: 2022 Email Marketing Benchmarks by GetResponse

Campaign Monitor: Ultimate Email Marketing Benchmarks for 2022: By Industry and Day