If you read our previous article on improving email deliverability, you know which factors impact the chance of your emails being delivered to Primary email folders. Let’s look now at the best practices of email marketing.
Firstly, what is considered a “successful” email? At a higher level, the success of the marketing campaign is determined by metrics such as open and click rates. If you want to analyse the campaign deeper, you need to look at how it has performed against your campaign objectives as well as the conversion rate (how many people took an action).
Today we are exploring how you can improve your email engagement rates and build long-term relationships with your members… all with the best email marketing practices!
Want to know how your association can send dramatically better emails?
Here is our simple guide!
Table of Contents
8 Best Email Marketing Practices
All elements of an email are important, but some more so than others.
In this article, we’ll focus on applying the best email practices to these main elements below:
1. Write a subject line your members can’t ignore
The subject line is the most important element of an email.
Studies show that up to 50% of subscribers open a message based solely on the subject line. And at the same time, 69% of subscribers report emails as spam based on the subject line too.
With one element having this much influence on how your members engage with your emails, you want to ensure that your subject line immediately grabs their attention.
So it’s absolutely essential to check your subject line before you send out your emails! We recommend checking it at least three times, while keeping these things in mind:
- Optimise your character/word count (the recommended length is 30-50 characters long, incl. spaces)
- Personalise (readers are 26% more likely to open emails with personalised subject lines)
- Play with emojis
- Be honest and deliver what you promised
- Deliver value
- Use the curiosity gap
- Add urgency
- Boost your subject line with the short concise pre-header text
It’s also a good idea to first run A/B testing with your emails to see what subject lines work specifically for your audience.
Tools to help
Email subject line tools can further help you ensure that your subject line won’t get ignored. They’re made to assist associations in optimising their email engagement – so play around with them!
The MailChimp built-in tool is a great example of a subject line tester that will provide you with some handy tips before you send out an email.
Other great examples of subject line testers include the ActiveCampain and CoSchedule tools!
2. Optimise your email design
We previously mentioned that your subject line should immediately grab your members’ attention. But this applies to your email design too!
Before your members start reading your email content, they first need to be able to navigate it and be encouraged to read it.
The way your email looks on your members’ devices is therefore crucial to your engagement rate! So here are some simple tips to optimise your email design:
- Keep your email 500 x 640 pixels wide
- Use plenty of white space to give your content some breathing room
- Check design in different browsers / devices
- Keep your email on brand
- Use high quality visuals (but be mindful of the file size!)
- Always include alt text for images
- Use simple, easy to read, web safe fonts (no more than 1-2)
- Limit the number of colours you use
- Don’t use a single image as your only source of text
- Include a digestible body copy and a clear CTA
3. Adapt your copywriting
We all want to share as much content with our members as we can. But remember, you’re writing an email. Not a brochure!
If your email is too long, some email providers (e.g. Gmail) may clip it. Clipped messages are bad for your campaign as they hide the full content of your email behind a “view entire message” link, leading to less engagement from your subscribers.
As a result of this hidden content, your association may be at risk of violating CAN-SPAM rules because your readers won’t be able to see the unsubscribe link. And they’ll simply report your email as spam instead!
Even if your emails aren’t being clipped, you should still assume that they’re competing with a time limit. Most people spend less than 15 seconds reading marketing emails!
So, there’s no other option than to keep your emails concise, and prioritise your content with the most important content featured first. Make it easy for your members to understand what your message is about. Comprehension is key to engagement!
If you need to convey more information in your emails, provide a ‘Read more’ button linked to your website instead (as a bonus, this will help with your website SEO!).
And keep these other things in mind too:
- Make your emails skimmable
- Use bullet points, headlines and lists to divide content into sections (it helps scanners and skimmers)
- Adjust your tone of voice
- Check Spelling/Grammar
4. Inspire action
Once you’ve grabbed your members’ attention and have encouraged them to read your content, it’s time to include a clear call to action (CTA) and inspire them to click!
So, how do you create a powerful CTA?
- Make your CTA a colour button that stands out from the rest of your email content.
- Keep buttons big enough for easy click-ability on mobile.
- Be specific and benefit-focused.
- Use active verbs to encourage action.
- Add your CTA at least 3 times in different forms (for example, a button, a linked text, and a linked image).
- Conduct a Five-Second-Test.
- Add UTM tracking code.
- Don’t overload your email with different CTAs.
5. Make better use of the footer
Email footers are often overlooked, but they can be a valuable asset to your overall email when used properly!
Here are some ideas to optimise your footer:
- Unsubscribe link
- Your business address
- Explanation why they receive this email
- Social media buttons
- Contact Us information
- Referral links, hashtags, etc
- Links to your Q&A page or frequently used links
- Links to main services (for example, membership, conference, awards)
6. Personalisation goes beyond adding the recipient name
Making your emails personal straight from the greeting line is paramount.
Not only will it help you stand out amongst every other email in your members’ inboxes, but it will improve your engagement rates!
Leverage segmentation and dynamic content (different types of content based on different segments) to deliver personalised and highly relevant content based on subscribers’ needs.
Segment based on:
- Location (local events and offers)
- Career stage (relevant training)
- Age (different tone of voice)
- Behaviour (previous event registrations, etc)
There are also small and simple techniques you can adopt to significantly improve how you personalise your members’ experiences. For example:
- Making sure you’re not sending emails about an event to those who have already registered.
- Or, if they’re registered for workshops for early career stages, marking them as young professionals in your database so they receive relevant information in the future.
7. A/B or multivariate testing
A/B testing is a powerful and widely used email testing method where associations send two groups (group A and group B) different emails to determine which performs better.
While A/B testing tests individual pieces of the email, multivariate testing tests multiple variables at once to find the best possible combination.
Whichever method of email testing you choose, both are crucial to sending dramatically better emails. It’s the best way to see what works with your audience!
Below is a list of some email items you can test:
- Subject line
- ‘From’ email address
- Hero image
- Different location of CTA buttons
- Different content
- Time of sending
But remember, don’t test all of them at the same time! We recommend testing only one factor, otherwise the results will be vague and you won’t know what exactly drives your engagement.
8. Nail your timing
Don’t rely on general industry reports. Analyse your email campaign data from previous years to determine the time that works for your audience.
- Test what day of the week works better
- Try sending your email not at the top of the hour. (@10:07am instead of 10 am).
- Schedule your campaign according to the user time zone.
- Use send- time optimisation algorithms provided by some software providers.
Our final words of advice
The more personal your emails, the higher the open rate will be!
Test your emails with yourself, with different subject lines, and what works with your audience and what doesn’t. And then adjust accordingly!
Often we don’t look back at the emails we send, but by doing so, it’ll give you the best idea of what works with your audience!
And before you hit the ‘Send’ button...
We’re certain that these best practices can help you dramatically improve your emails.
But we know it can still be less certaining when you’re just about to send them.
So, we’ve developed a checklist that you can use before you hit the ‘Send’ button.
If you want to never worry about pressing the ‘Send’ button again, download our Email Pre-Send Checklist!
