Despite my tendency to let my email inbox bloat with unanswered emails (I just got a warning from Gmail that my inbox is 90% full), I’m actually pretty well-versed in email marketing.<\/p>\n
I used to manage the email newsletter at a TV station as a journalist, and I most recently managed the HubSpot Daily Newsletter before it morphed into the Masters in Marketing<\/a> newsletter, which you should subscribe to if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Though the marketing landscape is constantly changing, email marketing remains an effective way for businesses to generate leads and convert more leads. That’s why local TV stations use them, your favorite brand likely has one, and HubSpot has a few!<\/p>\n According to our 2024 State of Marketing and Trends Report, about a third of marketers (33%) use email as a channel to connect to their audience. This makes email the second most used channel behind social media.<\/p>\n Email marketing isn’t going away soon, so you should incorporate it into your marketing strategy. Here are some best practices I live by that will help you get the most out of your email marketing strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n 3 Email Automation Best Practices<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n You can’t spell \u201cautomation\u201d without AI. I know the use of AI has garnered as much criticism as praise, but believe me when I tell you that all email marketers should be leveraging AI in their campaigns.<\/p>\n AI can streamline your workflows and processes, freeing time to focus on other tasks while ensuring your audience receives timely and engaging content.<\/p>\n In fact, our most recent newsletter survey found that 42% of email marketers saved between 30 minutes and two hours of work each week by using AI.<\/p>\n If that notion alone isn’t enough to convince you to implement AI, remember that while you may not be using AI, your competitors certainly are.<\/p>\n Our survey also found that almost a third of respondents (31%) use AI to edit newsletter content.<\/p>\n 28% use AI to generate newsletter headlines or format content and 22% use it to get suggestions for short-form newsletter content such as headlines and preview descriptions.<\/p>\n So, if you want to stay competitive and efficiently generate newsletter content your audience will read, you should look into ways to leverage AI to automate certain processes, such as ideation or segmentation.<\/p>\n If you\u2018re using AI to draft any sort of copy for your emails, always double-check for accuracy and legibility. AI can streamline processes and boost efficiency but also make mistakes.<\/p>\n You also want to ensure the copy doesn\u2019t read as being too robotic or impersonal.<\/p>\n Be prepared for your readers to forget they opted in.<\/p>\n Set up an automated email flow that reminds people they opted into your email database. The auto-responder should be sent out one day, five days, and 10 days after the person subscribes.<\/p>\n Each automated email should also include additional content or bonus material to reward the reader for opting into the newsletter. Otherwise, your readers might not feel they have enough incentive to actually stay on your list.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n This first tip should be no surprise, but given the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it bears repeating.<\/p>\n Email campaigns depend on a healthy open rate. If you’re contacting people whose information you bought rather than earned from a previous interaction, your emails\u2019 performance will quickly drop.<\/p>\n It also could turn off potential customers if they know you bought their information from another party.<\/p>\n For example, a couple of years ago, I made a big cross-country move and contacted a moving company for a quote on their services.<\/p>\n About a day after contacting them, I was bombarded with emails from other moving companies and services and added to newsletters I had never signed up for.<\/p>\n So, I unsubscribed and blocked many of those businesses that seemed to have received my information from the initial company I contacted. I also blocked that<\/em> company.<\/p>\n Moral of the story? Don’t buy your contacts, add people to lists without their permission, or share their information without their consent. It’s one way to leave a bad impression on potential consumers.<\/p>\n Remember that the GDPR also requires each European recipient’s consent before contacting them. Purchased email lists usually do not come with that consent.<\/p>\n To help reach your target audience, consider Versium Reach \u2014 a platform for B2B marketers that allows you to own data on your target audience across multiple marketing channels.<\/p>\n Have you heard of CAN-SPAM? This long-standing legislation is a popular and important guideline for all email marketers in the U.S.<\/p>\n One major rule in CAN-SPAM is to never use the words \u201cno reply \u201c or a similar phrase as the email sender’s name (for example, \u201dnoreply@yourcompany.com\u201d).<\/p>\n \u201cNo reply\u201d in an email message prevents recipients from responding and even opting out of further emails, which CAN-SPAM protects their right to do so at any time.<\/p>\n Instead, have your automated emails come from a first name (jamie@mycompany.com). Your customers are much more likely to open emails if they know a human being wrote them, and this keeps you compliant with email regulations.<\/p>\n\n Listen, I get it. When I managed the HubSpot Daily Email, I absolutely loved seeing thousands of people on our lists who would receive our emails. However, I eventually learned that the quantity of my email list wasn’t nearly as important as the quality.<\/p>\n Some of our email contacts may not have opted out of our email campaign but would still never open our emails. And those types of contacts simply were not helpful to our campaign goals.<\/p>\n People who never open emails make your campaign look worse since you\u2018re not analyzing the campaign\u2019s quality against your most loyal recipients.<\/p>\n That’s why I strongly suggest you review your list of subscribers who have not engaged with your emails over a certain period and remove them regularly.<\/p>\n This will give you a more accurate email open rate and keep your email campaign clean of people who are no longer interested in hearing from you.<\/p>\n You can also implement a workflow in which they\u2019re gradually moved to a less frequent email list based on activity.<\/p>\n For instance, say you have a daily newsletter. You could implement a workflow in which subscribers who do not open your email in two consecutive weeks are moved to the weekly email.<\/p>\n Then, if subscribers don’t open four consecutive emails, they could be moved to the monthly newsletter, and so on.<\/p>\n It prevents you from bombarding your subscribers with emails they\u2019re not interested in while keeping your list clean.<\/p>\n I know what you’re thinking: “Wait, if they received the email, to begin with, shouldn\u2019t they have already subscribed?”<\/em><\/p>\n Usually, yes. Therefore, adding a \u201cSubscribe\u201d button to your email doesn\u2019t help those who\u2019ve already agreed to receive your emails.<\/p>\n But great content is shareable content, and if your current subscribers are forwarding your emails to their friends and colleagues, you\u2019ll want to help them subscribe, too.<\/p>\n I\u2018m pretty much the queen of newsletters, which is partially why my inbox is so full. I\u2019m always forwarding newsletters to my friends when I think they might interest them. And oftentimes, they end up subscribing, too.<\/p>\n So, add a small but visible CTA that allows the recipient to subscribe to the newsletter if they received this email from someone else.<\/p>\n This email newsletter called Contentment<\/a> is a great example of how to include a sign-up CTA in your email without distracting from the rest of the content:<\/p>\n\n Image Source<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n But remember, because your newsletter should already be driving another action, such as downloading an ebook or signing up for a webinar, make sure this \u201cSubscribe\u201d button doesn’t distract or confuse users, weakening your main campaign goal in the process.<\/p>\n Speaking of CTAs, let\u2018s get into their value. I\u2019ve never sent out a newsletter without ensuring I’ve included a clear CTA. Your CTA directs the receiver to make another move.<\/p>\n When adding a CTA, consider what you want the receiver to do next. Should they set up a call or book a demo?<\/p>\n I\u2018m subscribed to a newsletter by one of my favorite local music venues to keep current on all the artists and musicians coming through my city. The venue\u2019s newsletter always has a CTA button directing me to Buy Tickets or use a code to get a discount or early bird special.<\/p>\n Do you see how the CTA is clear and simple? Sometimes, a little can go a long way for a quality CTA.<\/p>\n\n Sending an outbound email isn\u2019t too different from sending a marketing email. You should still be personal, but even more so when you know your email is only being read by the receiver.<\/p>\n Start by letting them know how you know them. Have you already connected on Twitter or in a Slack group? Is this a completely cold email? As my friends like to tell me (though not about emails), \u201cDefine the relationship!\u201d<\/p>\n Figure out where you stand so you can personalize the greeting and message.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re promoting a specific landing page in your email, the landing page<\/a> should match the email in terms of headline, copy, and content. I’ll even suggest that the color schemes be the same or similar.<\/p>\n The look and feel of your landing page should match the email to help create consistency, which goes a long way toward earning a customer’s trust. Also, make sure you\u2018re using tracking tools to see which emails and landing pages performed the best so you can keep sending what\u2019s working.<\/p>\n Send a copy of the email to a friend or colleague. Can they quickly tell what your CTA is? If so, you\u2019re ready to hit send. If not, figure out how you can tweak your subject line. Or, if there\u2019s a different landing page, you should link to it.<\/p>\n Follow up when necessary, but don\u2019t bombard the receiver with a million follow-up emails.<\/p>\n Be aware of the typical response time from people in your industry or people you contact. Two days to one week is a reasonable amount of time between sending your first email and sending a follow-up.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/p>\n The less clutter you have in your email, the more conversions you’ll get.<\/p>\n Don’t clutter your message with more than two fonts or typefaces; this can distract readers and ruin your email\u2019s visual appeal.<\/p>\n In the email example below from recruiting SaaS company Greenhouse, the company sticks to just two fonts.<\/p>\n This makes the email easy to read, and readers can focus on the context rather than get distracted by the styling.<\/p>\n\n Image Source<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n In addition, use web-safe fonts with sizes between 10 and 12 points. This ensures your email will be legible on all readers and devices.<\/p>\n You’ve probably seen emails like the one below with preview texts that say something like, \u201cEmail not displaying properly? Click here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n And, yeah, that\u2018s helpful, but I have a couple of gripes about it. For one, you should optimize your emails to display properly across various devices, but that\u2019s a conversation for later in this post.<\/p>\n My other issue is that the message in the preview header doesn’t tell your recipients what the email is even about. This lack of information and optimization can negatively affect your open rate.<\/p>\n Your preview text should supplement your subject line by adding details to capture your audience\u2019s attention and encourage them to open. By default, preview text pulls in the first several words of the email body and displays it next to the subject line before the person opens it.<\/p>\n The problem is that custom email templates often include conditional statements like \u201cCan’t see images?\u201d or \u201cNot displaying correctly?\u201d at the top banner, allowing the message to slip right into the preview when it goes out.<\/p>\n As a rule of thumb, always write a custom preheader that teases what your email will offer.<\/p>\n (If you’re having trouble writing your preview text or emails as a whole, this video can help you harness the power of AI for the purpose of email creation.)<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> HubSpot users can fix this problem by customizing the preview text themselves<\/a> in the backend of their email marketing newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even if your newsletter is technically being sent to your contacts on behalf of the company rather than an individual, the email should include the signature of a specific person.<\/p>\n Considering that every email sent on behalf of your company is another branding opportunity, it makes sense to include a signature.<\/p>\n Your email signature should include a CTA, whether a link to your website, social media, or a specific landing page.<\/p>\n\n Image Source<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Another reason you should include your email signature is because it\u2019s a touch of personalization.<\/p>\n People are naturally more inclined to read an email if they know it came from a human being, not just a collective marketing team. Your email signature is your ticket to their attention.<\/p>\n Want a quick way to make a beautiful email signature? Use HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator<\/a>. We also have an Out-of-Office Email Generator<\/a> to make your response to incoming messages just as delightful.<\/p>\n Above the fold refers to the information visible to the reader before they scroll down.<\/p>\n Even though recent research suggests that consumers scroll more than they used to because of social media and vertical timelines, above-the-fold content still gets the most attention, considering that people don\u2019t have long attention spans.<\/p>\n According to a recent report from Litmus<\/a>, people spend an average of nine seconds looking at an email.<\/p>\n With this in mind, place your main message and CTA above the fold. It\u2019s the first thing your recipients will see once they open your email, increasing your conversion rate.<\/p>\n You can also run an A\/B test first to validate the hypothesis and see if it works for your emails.<\/p>\n How often do you read emails that begin with \u201cDear Member?\u201d<\/p>\n You might segment your email audiences by their customer type (member, subscriber, user, etc.), but it shouldn’t be the first thing recipients see in your company messages.<\/p>\n Personalizing the greeting of your emails with your contacts\u2018 first names grabs each reader\u2019s attention. For HubSpot users, this is called a personalization token<\/a>, and creating one looks like this:<\/p>\n\n Image Source<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Then, the address line of your email would automatically produce the contact\u2018s first name by fetching this personalization token in the email\u2019s HTML, like this: Hi, !<\/p>\n Don\u2018t worry; personalizing an email\u2019s greeting line with 50 recipients\u2018 names doesn\u2019t mean you’ll have to manually write and send 50 different emails from now on.<\/p>\n Many email marketing tools<\/a> today allow you to configure the greeting of your email campaign so that it automatically sends with the name of the people on your contact list \u2014 so everyone is getting a personal version of the same message.<\/p>\n If your email template is wider than 650 pixels, it will not show up correctly and will require users to scroll horizontally to read the full message.<\/p>\n This is a pain, to say the least, and will likely affect your conversion, especially when many users read emails on mobile.<\/p>\n One of our most recent email newsletter surveys found that the majority of newsletter subscribers (61%) read them via mobile devices.<\/p>\n Having your template fit within the standard format will make for easier readability, better conversions, and an overall better user experience.<\/p>\n If you can\u2018t seem to increase your email\u2019s open and click-through rates, a couple of things might be wrong: You\u2018re not emailing the right people (if you\u2019re buying your contact list, see the first tip at the top of this blog post), or the content needs to be improved.<\/p>\n A\/B tests can be used to improve almost any of your digital marketing content.<\/p>\n This test splits your recipients into two groups in an email. Group A receives the regular newsletter, while Group B receives the newsletter with a specific variation. The variation can be anything from a different subject to another CTA.<\/p>\n This variation tests whether your audience would be more or less likely to take action based on that element.<\/p>\n
\n 9 Email Campaign Best Practices<\/a>
\n 10 Email Content Best Practices<\/a> <\/p>\n3 Email Automation Best Practices<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Implement AI wherever helpful.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n2. Look over, fact-check, and edit AI-generated content.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n3. Create automated emails for opt-ins.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n9 Email Campaign Best Practices<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Don’t purchase contact lists.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n2. Avoid using \u2018No-Reply\u2019 in the sender’s email address.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n3. Clean your mailing list regularly.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n4. Allow recipients to subscribe to your newsletter.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n5. Include a clear CTA.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n6. Make it personal.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n7. Closely tie emails to landing pages.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n8. Conduct a five-second test.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n9. Follow up.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n10 Email Content Best Practices<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Stick to fewer than three typefaces.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n2. Optimize the email’s preview text.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n3. Include an email signature.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n4. Keep the main message and call-to-action above the fold.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n5. Personalize the email greeting.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n6. Keep your email around 500 to 650 pixels wide.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n7. A\/B your subject lines and calls to action.<\/strong>
\n<\/h3>\n