11 Pro Email Marketing Tips
New to email marketing? Get 11 expert email marketing tips compiled by Campaign Monitor, one of my favourite tools for email newsletters.
email marketing

Source: 11 Pro Email Marketing Tips by Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is one of my favourite services. I like that I can set up email marketing for clients and give different access permissions to different people depending on their role. I also find their blog and resources to be solid. This infographic is a recent edition. Let's have a closer look at the tips. 

1. Unsubscribes can be a good thing. @HennekeD

True story. You want to clean up your subscriber list so that you have a clearer idea of the engagement rate. Purge the list of people who have not opened the last 5-10 messages. You can send a re-engagement note to those folks saying that you're spring cleaning and happy to help them tidy up their inbox by removing yourself, but if that's a mistake and they're keen to stay in touch, then reply or click to continue, etc. 

Afraid to delete inactive subscribers? I'd be more concerned about keeping them because your sender reputation is at stake. ISPs block or place your email in the junk folder based on poor IP sending reputation. If your reputation is poor enough, all of your email could be blocked.

2. From name and subject are extremely important. @KevanLee

The title and subtitle of a book are as important as the author name. The same is true in email marketing. Focus on the subject line. If that doesn't hook the reader then it doesn't matter how brilliant your email message is because they won't open it.

Check out this good AI tool for writing better subject lines: https://phrasee.co/

Tip #9 is another element to consider. The Preheader field is what appears in people's inbox next to the from and subject line. It's the preview content. Make sure this copy is optimized to get the open. 

Tip #11 is the last priority, but equally important. Once you get the open, does the email perform? Email code is so far behind the code used for websites that it's laughable. Make sure you use a tool to test how your email appears in the common email clients. https://www.campaignmonitor.com/appstore/category/email-testing/

Tip #8 is test, test and test some more. Test the from and subject line, test the email rendering, and measure performance! Not sure what to measure? Avinash has your back with his best practice email metrics.

3. Send when you have something valuable to share. @copyhackers

At some point publishers decided that monthly newsletters were the best frequency. Why? Has anybody tested this? Don't go on gut instinct alone. A higher frequency, as long as you are adding value, is the way to go. See what CrazyEgg has to say about it.

Tips #6 and #10 relate to the above. The better you know your audience, the more relevant you can be. Make sure to gather useful demographic and behavioural data from your subscribers.

4. Use email marketing in all customer acquisition channels. @sujanpatel

Sujan grows companies so he's worth listening to on this one. Social media and other cool tools always get the props. But email solidly wins in terms of permission-based marketing and relationship building. The people who sign up for your email newsletter or alerts have more commercial intent than those you connect with on social media, meaning that email subscribers often convert at a higher rate than other website traffic. I would not overlook email. 

Tip #7 is relevant here too. Once you acquire a customer, don't think only about campaign performance. Look at the big picture and understand how to calculate customer lifetime value. 

I wish I was an email marketing overachiever. Maybe that will be my resolution for the next quarter.