A wise person once noted, “It doesn’t get more metal than email marketing,” and the statement remains true. Email marketing is an excellent, budget-friendly way to increase engagement and drive conversions. In fact, it often boasts the lowest cost per conversion among marketing channels due to its position at the bottom of the funnel.

However, this doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park. Understanding the importance of email campaigns is entirely different from the actual process of designing and implementing them. To give your campaigns a strong start this year, here are some effective email marketing best practices:

1. Greet Your New Subscribers with a Warm Welcome

Begin by sending a welcome email to every new subscriber who joins your email list. It’s a gesture that acknowledges their interest in staying connected with your business. Many brands encourage website visitors to subscribe by offering incentives like a 10% discount. This strategy is highly effective for expanding your subscriber list and initiating engagement from the get-go. Automating this process through your email platform should be straightforward; just ensure you’ve set a frequent sending schedule—daily rather than weekly—to maintain timeliness. This welcome email from Ancestry, though not recent, still serves as a fantastic example.

Ancestry warmly welcomes you to their community and clearly outlines the steps you can take to start building your family tree. You can find inspiration for your own welcome email content in our collection of email templates designed for small businesses.

2. Prioritize Personalized Experiences

Similar to other marketing strategies, campaigns generally yield better results when they are pertinent and well-timed. Personalization is the cornerstone of relevance. The methods of personalizing your emails are plentiful, ranging from incorporating first names to segmenting your audience. When individuals subscribe to your emails, it’s a great practice to inquire about the type of information they’re interested in receiving. Are they on the lookout for sales notifications, restock updates, or newsletter content? Gather this valuable data and categorize your subscribers into distinct audiences based on their preferences. Recently, I received an email from Uber Eats with the subject line: “Mary, Enjoy $10 off your next Uber Eats orders.” Honestly, it was a generous offer! It included a promo code that appeared somewhat unique and was undoubtedly targeted at a segment of users who hadn’t placed an order recently (likely due to the unappealing prospect of paying $15 for a sweetgreen delivery to Brooklyn).

If you’re unsure about how to get started with personalization or if you’re eager to explore new avenues, we have a comprehensive guide on email segmentation that can provide further insights.

3. Plan in Advance and Create a Consistent Schedule

If you’re committed to sending a regular newsletter to your subscribers—whether it’s on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis (though that might be a tad excessive)—consistency is key. By sticking to a predictable schedule, you set expectations, allowing subscribers to anticipate your email in their inbox. It also enables you to plan your content well in advance, ensuring a smooth and satisfying experience for everyone. At nexus-security, we value our Performance Tip email. After experimenting with different sending times and days of the week, we discovered that the optimal time remained the original day and time. After all, we’re all creatures of habit.

However, if you have a major promotion in the pipeline (think Black Friday deals, Labor Day sales, or semi-annual clearances), it’s perfectly acceptable to deviate from your regular schedule. In these cases, make sure to incorporate a sending schedule that includes follow-up emails for those who didn’t open the initial email or click through. There’s nothing more frustrating for email marketers than last-minute additions to their already full plates. Boll and Branch provides an excellent example: they planned 12 days of Christmas specials, and this screenshot doesn’t even reveal the best part—it’s a GIF! The email creatively showcased the previous eight days’ specials in the center. Simply brilliant.

4. Maintain Consistent Brand Identity

Email serves as a direct and intimate channel to communicate with your audience; therefore, it’s crucial to consistently leverage your brand’s voice. Sending both formal updates and lighthearted promotions using the same branded template can create unnecessary confusion. To avoid this, try assigning specific colors, fonts, and email signatures to each type of communication. Even this triggered reminder email from Lord and Taylor, urging me to purchase those boots I’d browsed, maintains consistent branding! Notice the brand colors and typeface—an A+ for effort. The subject line read, “Why not give THIS Kensie item another look…”. Despite their best efforts, I’m still not sold on those boots.

5. Craft Compelling Subject Lines and Preview Text

Many marketers pour their hearts into crafting the perfect email content but completely overlook the importance of a strong subject line and preview text! Your subject line acts as a virtual handshake—the first impression your audience has of the email you’re hoping they’ll open. For newsletters, consider using a consistent subject line format, such as “Your Weekly Update from [Business Name].” The preview text then provides an opportunity to expand on the content, like, “The sky is falling, shoes are on sale, and more!” Personally, I’m a fan of subject lines that inject a bit of fun with emojis. This is a good resource for all the emojis you could want to include. The New Yorker consistently uses “This Week’s Issue:” as their subject line, and I instantly know I’m about to delve into the highlights of the magazine waiting for me in my mailbox. They even maintain a consistent header design, simply swapping out the cover image!

6. Standardize Dimensions for a Polished Look

This might seem basic, but it’s crucial to avoid sending emails that utilize vastly different template sizes each time. For your own sanity and your audience’s viewing pleasure, standardize the dimensions of your email templates. A general rule of thumb is to keep the width under 600 pixels. The length can be more flexible, but be mindful that overly long emails might get truncated by email service providers.

7. Include a “View in Browser” Link for Seamless Viewing

Speaking of truncated emails, incorporating a “view in browser” link at the top of your email is a great way to ensure that any rendering issues can be easily resolved by simply clicking through to a web browser. Most email service providers offer the option to include this type of link before you hit send—take advantage of it! Let’s take a look at this example from JetBlue.

Subject line: “Fares from $54 one-way? Time to sale away.” This email effectively showcases key information above the fold, creates a sense of urgency, and includes a convenient “view in browser” link.

8. Ensure Flawless Rendering Across Devices

As anyone involved in e-commerce knows, mobile is king. Consumers are increasingly shopping, browsing, and making purchases on their mobile devices. This also means they’re checking their emails on the go. It’s imperative to ensure that your email templates are optimized for mobile viewing and that any landing pages they link to are also mobile-friendly. While several programs are available to preview how your emails will appear across different email providers (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), the most effective and budget-friendly option is Email on Acid. It allows you to test deliverability (more on avoiding spam in a bit), fix broken links, and work through a pre-send checklist.

9. Avoid the Spam Folder at All Costs

Falling into spam traps is a nightmare scenario. Hitting enough spam traps can result in your entire email program being blocked, which is never a good thing. It damages your reputation, hinders your ability to send emails, and creates headaches for your email marketers who then have to fight to get your IP address whitelisted again. So, steer clear of spam! Some effective email marketing best practices for dodging spam include cleaning up your subject lines (avoid writing in all caps, using excessive dollar signs ($$$), or too many exclamation points (!!!)), always providing a working unsubscribe link, including a valid physical mailing address and a permission reminder (e.g., “You’re receiving this email because you subscribed HERE”), and being transparent about your “from” address (use your company’s official name instead of something like GeT HoT DeaLS). Every email should include a footer similar to this one from Urban Stems.

10. Ensure Your Emails are Desired

Another key to staying out of the spam folder is to maintain a clean subscriber list. This means avoiding the purchase of email addresses from questionable sources. It’s crucial to promptly unsubscribe individuals who request it, suppress bouncing email addresses, and avoid bombarding any particular segment of your audience with excessive emails. Here’s a strategy that comes across as both respectful and considerate: implement a double opt-in process. When someone submits their email address, ask them to confirm it in the first email you send (your welcome email!). A simple message like, “Subscribed by accident? We can fix that,” along with a clear option to unsubscribe, is far more welcoming than immediately hitting the spam button.

11. Position CTAs and Crucial Information Above the Fold

This point is crucial. For an email to be effective and drive conversions, you need to get straight to the point. Inboxes are inundated with promotional emails, so what makes yours stand out? Make sure you clearly articulate your main value proposition within the first section of your email and include a clear call to action without requiring any scrolling. This example from Brandless is particularly noteworthy because one might assume the primary purpose of the email is to express gratitude to subscribers (it was a Thanksgiving email with the subject line “Gratitude for our amazing community”). However, they cleverly placed a CTA right at the top, adjacent to their header, to encourage immediate action. The only way to improve this would have been to use an actual button.

12. Maintain Clean Code for Optimal Display

If you’re using a plug-and-play email solution, this point may not apply to you (perhaps you’re not delving into the intricacies of HTML and CSS in the backend). However, for those who are more technically inclined, strive for clean code in your email templates. Some of my personal favorites include: using padding=0 (padding often causes rendering issues in emails), setting border=0, and removing any unnecessary tables or rows (these can also disrupt rendering). A friendly reminder: Most email providers strip out JavaScript as a security measure, so it’s best to avoid using it altogether.

13. Create a QA Checklist for Error-Free Emails

I have a confession: I’m a list enthusiast. I love creating them, checking items off, and even keeping those crossed-out lists as a reminder of my productivity (and to jog my memory about what I accomplished on a given day). When you’re sending out a high volume of emails, it’s easy to miss spelling errors, broken links, or incorrect preview text. Creating a quality assurance checklist is crucial to maintaining a clean sending record. These lists can be customized to your liking, but here are some essentials to consider: I like this example from Campaign Monitor.

14. Embrace Testing to Uncover What Works Best for You

As with any marketing best practices, we can offer suggestions based on our experience and observations, but you are the ultimate authority on what resonates with your specific audience. Draw inspiration from the examples we’ve shared and explore other resources, such as Really Good Emails to broaden your horizons. However, the most crucial element is testing. Email marketing offers ample opportunities for split testing: subject lines, headers, CTAs, design elements, copy, segmentation, days of the week, times of day—you name it! Testing is the key to establishing your own set of email marketing best practices allowing you to confidently determine the optimal time of day for the highest open rates, the types of subject lines that resonate most with your audience, and the copy that generates the most clicks.

15. Measure Your Success Through Reporting

Lastly, for a truly successful email marketing program, you need to gauge its effectiveness. This is where reporting comes in—a task that might not be everyone’s favorite way to start a Monday morning. While the metrics you choose to focus on will vary depending on your goals, I recommend tracking opens, clicks, bounce rate, and unsubscribes. If you want to take it a step further, consider a platform that offers heat mapping, which visually represents where your audience is clicking within your emails. Lastly, include screenshots of your emails along with their subject lines and preview text in your reports to easily identify your top performers and areas for improvement. Important Note: With the release of iOS 15, A/B testing using open rates as a primary metric might not be as reliable. We’ve compiled 13 post-iOS 15 email marketing strategies that can help you adapt to these changes.

Email Marketing Best Practices: A Summary

If you’re familiar with the world of marketing, you know that best practices are abundant. However, these email marketing best practices are not merely suggestions to experiment with—they are fundamental principles for success. Here’s a quick recap:

1. Send engaging welcome emails.
2. Personalize whenever possible.
3. Plan your campaigns and stick to a consistent sending schedule.
4. Maintain a cohesive brand identity across all email communications.
5. Craft compelling subject lines and preview text.
6. Standardize your email dimensions.
7. Include a convenient “view in browser” link.
8. Optimize your emails for flawless rendering across devices.
9. Avoid spam at all costs.
10. Ensure your emails are desired and relevant.
11. Position CTAs and important information above the fold.
12. Keep your code clean for optimal display.
13. Create a comprehensive QA checklist to catch errors.
14. Test different elements to uncover what works best for your audience.
15. Track your results through reporting.