Whether you’re nurturing leads, trying to win-back previous customers, or engaging with your most loyal followers, email marketing is the go-to marketing channel for customer engagement. But if you're just getting started, you may be feeling overwhelmed. There’s a lot of work that goes into sending valuable, engaging, and high-converting email content.
LAST UPDATED: April 18, 2024
This comprehensive email marketing guide will take you step-by-step through everything you need to know to get your email program up and running efficiently. Equipping yourself with best practices and tips will position you to run an efficient and effective email marketing program in the long run.
Email marketing is a digital marketing channel that uses an email service provider (ESP) to send large amounts of email to an email list. The goal of email marketing is to persuade the recipient to click or make purchases directly from that email. This action is also known as a conversion, and it is one of the most illuminating metrics of how successful your email program is.
Glancing over your email inbox and the sea of emails in there, you may be wondering: does email marketing work?
Yes. When executed thoughtfully and with best practices in mind, email marketing can convert prospects into customers at an impressive rate. Email marketing produces a high return on investment with a $38 return on every dollar spent.
Following the best practices outlined in this guide will help you avoid the common pitfalls and mistakes of email marketing and establish yourself as a valuable presence in your recipients’ inbox.
Understanding the difference between transactional and engagement marketing emails is key to guiding your overall email strategy. Transactional emails are sent on the request of the sender and include password resets, appointment confirmations, and shipping notifications. Marketing emails are promotional emails. Examples include sales promotions and special offers. Both forms of email are crucial to a successful communications channel.
Recipients will opt-in to receive types of promotional email, but they will specifically initiate a transactional email with a link to recover or reset their password.
Another important distinction to understand is the difference between email marketing vs email newsletters. The two emails are similar but shouldn’t be confused.
An email newsletter shares a collection of news, stories, or other business updates. The goal of an email newsletter is to maintain the relationship and engage recipients. Although this doesn’t mean newsletters don’t push to a harder sell of a product or service, it’s generally not the primary purpose of the email.
Email marketing can be considered more promotional than newsletters and typically has a primary goal of converting recipients into completing a specific action (for example applying a discount code, or visiting a landing page with the opportunity to make purchases). Marketing emails are also typically shorter than email newsletters and contain fewer CTAs throughout.
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Email marketing can sometimes be referred to as an email blast. While that term can carry a negative or spammy connotation, it can be used interchangeably for promotional email.
Email marketing is powerful and drives results, but that doesn't mean it needs to be complex and confusing. How it works is actually pretty straightforward. Here's how most email marketing programs work:
An ESP helps you create, send, and monitor your email campaigns. These platforms offer tools to build email lists, design email templates, automate campaigns, and track the effectiveness of your efforts. Key features to look for in an ESP include usability, automation capabilities, integration options, and detailed analytics.
Your email lists consists of email addresses gathered from customers and prospects who have opted to receive communications from you. Segmentation involves dividing your email list into smaller groups based on criteria such as demographics, purchase history, or engagement level. This allows for more targeted and relevant email campaigns.
Once your list is segmented, the next step is creating content that resonates with each segment. This involves crafting compelling subject lines, designing visually appealing email templates, and writing engaging and relevant content that provides value to the recipient. Whether promoting a product, sharing news, or providing useful tips, your content should be tailored to meet your audience's interests and needs.
Before launching your email campaign, it’s important to test different elements such as email layouts, call-to-action placements, and subject lines. A/B testing can be particularly effective here, allowing you to send slightly different versions of an email to segments of your email list and determine which version performs better.
After testing, you can send out your emails to the designated segments. Most ESPs offer scheduling features, enabling you to send emails at the time they are most likely to be opened.
Key metrics to track include open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. This data will provide insights into what’s working and what isn’t.
Successful email marketing doesn’t end with one campaign. It’s about continuously engaging with your subscribers over time through regular updates, newsletters, and personalized offers. Keep your content fresh and relevant to maintain interest and loyalty, driving long-term success for your email marketing efforts.
Before sending an email marketing campaign, first, take a step back and create an email marketing strategy. Although no two email strategies are identical, most include the following:
If you run a small business, email marketing is one of the most effective ways you can communicate with your community and customers. Email marketing for small businesses is an excellent idea for numerous reasons:
If you’re tight on time or resources, prioritizing email campaigns is a great step to getting the most out of your efforts.
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If you use an online point of sale system (such as Square) and a customer requests a purchase receipt via email, this DOES NOT mean they have opted-in to marketing emails. Sending them promotional messages will likely annoy them, and they may report your emails as spam.
Growing an email list full of engaged subscribers will be one of the most impactful components of your email program. Keep in mind, though, that the adage ‘more isn’t always better’ is especially true when it comes to your email list. A smaller list full of highly engaged recipients is far better than having a ginormous email list with only a few who actually open the email.
The most effective way to grow your email list is to provide clear, simple, and persuasive signup opportunities across your website (blog, thank you pages, etc.).
There are a few ways to create an email signup form and, depending on what ESP you are using, it may be available for you right within your dashboard (hint: SendGrid Signup Forms can help you do this).
Once you’ve decided how to build your opt-in form, keep the following best practices in mind:
Looking to dive in more on this concept? Read more tips to optimize your opt-in pages.
As you are working on building your email list, you will likely come across the opportunity or solicitation from a third party to buy email lists.
SHOULD YOU BUY AN EMAIL LIST?
The frank answer is no. Never should you ever buy, rent, or share any sort of email list.
Sending emails to purchased contacts is risky business. You may fall prey to a spam trap and become listed as a ‘denied’ sender by the ISPs, and then you can’t even email the legitimate people on your list. But just as importantly, buying email lists will rarely help you achieve your email marketing goals. So although you may be tempted to beef up your contact list, doing so will only do more harm than good.
Instead of purchasing an email list, think about how to create and use lead magnets to organically grow your email list. Lead magnets are some sort of incentive that you provide to acquire a lead (i.e. email address).
Some examples of lead magnets include:
1. Best practice guides, white-papers, or case studies
2. Data-rich infographics
3. Videos
4. Downloadable PDF checklists
5. Other sales incentives or promotional discounts
You could promote your lead magnets across your website, social media channels, or with display advertising. When creating and promoting lead magnets try to keep them super-specific and easy to act on. The more friction involved in the process (such as lengthy form fills), the more likely you will lose your audience’s attention.
After you’ve built your email list, think about how you can segment your email list to provide more personalized content and increase engagement. For example, you may want to create a segment of recipients who always open your email and consider sending them additional email campaigns with special offers or VIP experiences.
Some of the most efficient ways to segment your list include:
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Manage email list segments to ensure they are up to date.
After you’ve developed an email strategy, set goals, and started to grow your email list the right way, you’re ready to start building and creating your marketing email. Read on to learn more about creating the copy and design components of a marketing email, along with tips on how to optimize each so they work together.
Unless you have an in-house developer dedicated to building emails, using a template will likely the best choice for your program. Email templates allow you to pull together email campaigns quickly.
A template doesn’t have to be set in stone though. If you want to make some changes to a template, check out the blog post How to Customize an Email Marketing Template.
The from line, subject line, and pre-header text provide the first chance to make an impression on your recipient.
The from line is usually the brand name. Whatever you decide to use in this spot, it should be consistent so your recipients know exactly who the email is from and there is no surprise after opening.
Subject lines follow the sender name and are your first spot to leverage your creativity. We’ve found that shorter subject lines tend to perform better (think 3-5 words) than longer subject lines. A great A/B test you can run is trying out different subject lines to see which version gets a better open rate. Check out 29 super steller subject lines.
Pre-header text is the copy that follows the subject line. Many times, if there is no specified pre-header text, the ESP will pull body copy into this space. Instead, take advantage of the real estate and write in specialized copy that will unite the from name, subject line, and pre-header text together and persuade the recipient to open the email.
The body copy of an email allows you to go into the details of your promotion or story. While copy elements such as CTAs and subject lines need to be intriguing and persuasive, the body copy allows you to provide more pertinent details needed for the story or promotion. Learn more about making the most of your email copy with examples of some inspiring emails.
And for a deeper dive into email copywriting best practices, check out Data-Backed Strategies for More Effective Email Copy.
Images enhance your message and bring more life to your emails. Although you don’t want too many images, the right image can elevate and add color to your emails. You don’t have to shell out lots of money for a stock image library. There are plenty of free resources for images out there, check out some of our favorites.
A call to action (CTA) is going to be one of the most critical aspects of your email copy. In most cases, it will come at the end of your email copy. The CTA could be styled as a button or just be a linked piece of text, but it is the last chance you have to convince your recipient to click through the email nto your targeted web page.
Learn more about CTAs by heading over to a Q&A dedicated to answering your CTA answers.
Measuring email metrics helps you decide what changes you should make to your emails over time. Key email marketing metrics to start measuring include opens, clicks, unsubscribes/spam reports, and email list growth over time.
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Try waiting about 48 hours before tabulating email metrics. Doing so allows all recipients to see your email and accounts for those in other time zones.
The open rate for an email is calculated by dividing the number of people who opened an email by the total amount of emails sent.
Open rates vary across industries so it’s hard to provide one hard number to measure against. According to our 2018 Email Benchmark Report, which analyzed open rates across industries, the aggregate average open rate is 18%.
If you’re doing way better than that, nice work–keep at it! If your open rate is below that, it might be time to reevaluate your send frequency, content, and segmentation strategies.
Our email benchmark report found that the aggregate click rate for senders is 2%. Also consider tracking click-to-open rate which will give you a better view of the quality of content once somebody opens your email. The click-to-open rate is calculated by comparing the percentage of clicks compared to total open rates.
The higher your unsubscribe rate, the more likely you aren’t providing relevant and valuable content for your recipients. Some attrition is expected. But if unsubscribe rates start to spike, it may be worth reviewing your email content and making some strategy changes.
Learn more about interpreting your email metrics and what to do if they do start to slip.
Finally, it’s important to keep a close eye on your delivery metrics. These metrics include delivery rate (percent of emails that make it into the inbox), bounce rates, unsubscribes, and spam reports.
Each email campaign offers a new opportunity to make iterations and improve. Adding in A/B testing, automation, and integrating multi-channel marketing into your larger strategy are ways to do just that.
Performing A/B testing allows you to see what type of content or messaging is resonating best with your audience. Testing variables will likely fall into either content, design, or timing variables.
Content elements to test:
A/B testing design ideas:
Timing elements to test:
These ideas are just a starting point. As you start to send more email campaigns, you will likely come up with more testing ideas specific to your program.
Looking for additional ideas for what to A/B test? Read a post with email testing ideas from one of our in-house experts. And for a thorough Q&A to email testing read, Your Top Email AB Testing Questions Answered.
You may also be wondering when is the best time to send emails? The short answer is that it depends. Since no two email lists are the same, each will respond a bit differently to email campaign times.
Generally, if you send B2B emails, it’s probably better to send during working hours. But if you send e-commerce emails, your audience may be looking to do more online shopping during weekend hours. Testing will provide you with the best send time for your program.
Email marketing frequency is going to vary among senders and industries. But one thing is for sure, overdoing it with email is a fast way to lose subscribers. Much like send time, there is no one right answer to how often you should be emailing your subscribers. Start conservatively and test sending frequency until you’ve found the sweet spot for your brand.
Learn more about how to avoid emailing too much.
Keeping users engaged with your emails will keep your delivery rates high, but also translate into higher converting emails and more value to your brand. At the very highest level, you need to ensure that you are always sending wanted, desired, and valuable email.
If you’re already doing that, the following strategies will help keep users engaged:
Email marketing automation is the ability to send emails at a set time and cadence. The automations can be predetermined (also referred to as email drip campaigns) or they can be dynamic, based on recipient behavior.
Adding automation to your email marketing program is a great way to help you save time and send more relevant and personalized content to your users. If you’re just starting out, try a simple with a triggered campaign like a welcome email. It can be easy to get carried away with all the different types of workflows and possibilities. But if recipients find themselves on too many automated workflows, you risk losing them.
Learn about more email automation mistakes and how to avoid them. And for a deep dive into all things automation, check out our email marketing automation best practice guide.
You don’t always have to send promotions to your email list. Nurture email campaigns allow you to keep in touch with your email recipients without coming off as pushy or demanding. For example, you may want to set up a nurture series for new customers with educational information and tips on product use.
If you consistently send valuable content, your subscribers will come to know and trust that you’re not just sending sales emails.
Combining email marketing with the following channels optimizes the customer experiences and reaches them where they want to be reached.
Creating beautiful, engaging, and high-converting emails require a lot of moving parts and constant iterations. The more experience you gain sending email marketing campaigns, the more efficient all the related tasks will be.
Be sure to check out our additional email marketing resources to keep you going as you perfect your email program.