13 Effective Email Marketing Tips for Driving Growth in 2023

There’s a form of marketing that can reach 4.3 billion people – half the world’s population – by 2023. Using this method can return $42 for every $1 spent. Currently, 90% of content marketers use this tactic. Four-fifths of small and medium companies use email marketing tips for customer acquisition and retention.

Most importantly, almost half of customers say they want more of this kind of marketing from their favorite brands. This opportunity is email marketing. It’s one of the most important ways to reach and retain customers.

Email marketing is one of the best opportunities for companies to seize, but it can be difficult to master. If your campaign isn’t succeeding, try out these email marketing tips.

1. Write a Great Subject Line

Your email’s subject line is one of the most important features. Similar to an article’s headline, an email’s subject line teases why the receiver will click, to begin with.

The best headlines are usually enticing because they preview what the audience will expect. Some examples include:

• “Don’t Miss Out On This Limited Opportunity”
• “Can This Trick Save You $1000?”
• “Our Top Stocks to Double Your Money This Year”
• “How This Woman Went From Barista to Entrepreneur”

These headlines give the reader just enough information to arouse curiosity. They have a vague idea about the content but must click to find out more.

2. Have Customers Opt-In Twice

If you only follow one of our email marketing tips, this might be the most important.

Have you ever visited a website or sent an email only to end up on a mailing list? It’s very common for users to unwittingly join mailing lists without consent. Plenty of email marketers will add you after you fill out a contact form.

Customers hate spam. They hate getting unsolicited emails from websites they never agreed to join.

This is why it’s important to get them to opt-in twice. First, have them fill out a form online that clearly tells them they’ll join your list. Then, have them confirm once they get another email in their inbox.

Disgruntled recipients will likely report your email as spam. Too many spam reports can negatively impact your sender reputation.

3. Personalize Your Email

The average email open rate is about 20%. However, personalized emails have an open rate of 50%.

Personalizing your email is quite simple. You just have to include a script that will add the customer’s name. Just replacing “To whom it may concern” with “Dear Jeremy” can dramatically improve your results.

Personalization helps make the reader feel included. It lets them know they’re not another random person on a mailing list.

4. Have a Call-to-Action

No list of email marketing advice would be complete without this tip: make sure your reader can support you further.

Your email isn’t just a letter that goes out to a bunch of readers. It’s another way of marketing your products or services. It provides something that the reader will want to act upon after viewing.

A call-to-action lets the reader know that they can still interact with your company. Perhaps it points them to your blog, store, or online course. Either way, it maximizes their attention.

Any email without a call-to-action is simply a missed opportunity to advertise to your audience.

5. Don’t Purchase an Email Marketing List

Buying a mailing list is the one thing that will torpedo your email marketing campaign instantly. Many new marketers try this to speed up their efforts, but it always ends in failure.

Nobody consents to have their email on a purchasable mailing list. If you buy one, you’ll send unsolicited mail to hundreds or thousands of unconsenting people. This could spell major trouble.

First, you’ll likely get reported for spam which will damage your campaign.

Second, the CAN-SPAM Act can fine you up to $16,000 per unwanted email. If you send unsolicited emails to hundreds or thousands of people, you’re looking at some hefty fines!

Always aim to build an organic mailing list and never take shortcuts.

6. Don’t Use “No-Reply” Emails

Speaking of things that will get you in trouble with the CAN-SPAM Act, here’s one more thing to avoid: using “no-reply” in your email addresses.

The problem is that “no-reply” addresses prevent readers from replying or even opting out. This goes against the CAN-SPAM rules which might penalize your business.

Plus, allowing replies can increase potential customer interaction. Your readers can message you to ask questions or leave comments.

The only downside is that you’re likely to get a lot of automated out-of-office replies. Luckily, you can use filters and rules to forward such emails to specific folders. That way you can keep out the junk but still interact with customers.

7. Clean Your Mailing List

Email list cleaning is important for better results. Getting rid of abandoned inboxes and uninterested customers only benefits you.

This way you’ll increase your open rate by eliminating low-quality subscribers and bounce rates. Plus, an inactive user is far more likely to mark your email as spam.

Invalid emails are quite commonplace. People will abandon their work email address when changing jobs. Plus, some emails might have typos that render them obsolete.

The more consistently you send emails, the more you should clean. If your email marketing campaign is weekly, aim for monthly cleaning. If you send monthly emails, try every three to six months.

Also, make sure to include an “unsubscribe” button in your email. If you don’t have one, you can get in serious trouble with the FTC.

8. Use A/B Testing

One of the most well-established techniques, A/B testing is a surefire way to optimize your email marketing campaign.

A/B testing means using two slightly different campaigns to see which one works best. For example, you might want to test if your call-to-action works better in red or green. You’ll send the red button to half your audience and the green to the other half.

Then, you’ll collect data and see which button received more clicks.

9. Consider Timing

Determining when to send emails can greatly impact your success. According to many studies, people check their email most often in the mornings or afternoon. Specifically, the best times in order are 10 am, 8 pm, 2 pm, and 6 am.

Data also shows that people open emails most often in the middle of the week.

Of course, you can experiment as much as you want. Use A/B testing to try sending at different times.

You should also consider time zones. Your audience is most likely scattered around the world, so focus on which ones are most common.

10. Make Your Emails Interactive

Your emails don’t need to be just another newsletter. Making your emails interactive will help drive up audience engagement levels.

According to a study from Martech Advisors, adding a video to your email can increase clickthrough rates by 300%. You can also include sliders, GIFs, or collapsable menus.

11. Optimize for Mobile

If you assume that everyone checks their email on a computer, you’re going to miss out on a large portion of your audience. Currently, mobile users account for about 46% of all email opens.

Test your email for mobile before launching your next campaign. Some ways to optimize include short sentences, large pictures, and legible fonts. Remember that their screens are much smaller so your email will inevitably look different.

Make it easy for yourself by finding a template that scales to screen size. Users will have devices of all shapes and sizes and you don’t want to leave any of them out. It’s also important to keep your subject headers small since mobile users might not be able to read the full title.

12. Double Send Your Emails

The idea is simple: if your customer hasn’t opened an email, you can send it again with a different headline. This technique might sound odd, but it’s very practical for reaching out to your audience. The reason is that 70% of customers won’t open an email the first time.

Simply re-sending an email with a different header won’t make them think you’re spamming them because they haven’t even seen the first email. Just make sure you wait 3-5 days before the second email.

13. Use the Five-Second Test

Send your email to a colleague and ask if they can identify the call-to-action in at least five seconds. If not, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Your average person won’t take time to carefully read through your messages. Attention is a fleeting thing, so you have to capture it as quickly as possible.

Email Marketing Tips Not Enough? Find Out How We Can Help Your Campaign

Are you ready to take your email marketing strategy to the next level? Email Oversight is here to help.

Our tools will help drive your campaign and increase conversions. We have a 99.5% accuracy rate to prove it!

Combine these email marketing tips with our top-notch tools to achieve incredible success. Contact us today to find out how we can help.