These Smart Email Marketing Best Practices Help You Get Ahead of the Competition
By Brett Farmiloe
What are the best email marketing trends that can help your business get ahead of the competition? From using a lead magnet to including user-generated content in your marketing efforts, 17 entrepreneurs and marketers share their favorite email practices.
1. Offer a proper lead magnet
"I'm a huge proponent of offering a proper lead magnet to drive email sign-ups. A lot of my clients shrug this idea off at first because they don't think they can offer anything of value to their customers for free, but I promise this is not true.
"Every business has something valuable they can offer this way—the key is simply to think about how you can offer customers an easy win by making their life easier. For example, a vitamin store could offer a free guide (or better yet, a quiz!) to help customers choose the best mix of vitamins for their needs, and a local coffee shop could offer a step-by-step guide on how to make their most popular drinks at home.
"The options here are endless—just get creative about how your business can add value. I promise this type of offer will do more to increase your email list than giving away a 10% discount. Just don't forget the second step, which is to set up a new customer nurture series for all those new leads that show up on your email list!"
—Amy Zwagerman, The Launch Box
2. Respect your customer’s privacy
"I think consumers are getting wary of how their information is being mined for marketing. In a recent global poll, 82% of internet users reported taking some type of action to protect their personal information while online. Businesses, therefore, are under increasing pressure to be open and honest with their customers in order to earn their confidence and loyalty. Marketers need to monitor developing tendencies in data privacy because of the implications for their work.
"When consumers adjust their privacy settings, it affects how businesses measure success, gather data, and interact with customers. Including an unsubscribe link in emails is a simple but effective method to ride the privacy-friendly wave. By giving recipients the option to remove themselves from mailing lists, unsubscribe buttons empower consumers and aid businesses in keeping contact information up-to-date."
—Gerrid Smith, Joy Organics
3. Try animated email messages
" More than half of marketers use animated GIFs in their email promotions. These kinds of visuals are much more interesting to the reader than a wall of boring text alone.
"This trend is worth trying if you want to see a rise in subscriber participation. If you need to emphasize a message or illustrate a complicated topic, this is the way to go. When designing your email, animated GIFs allow you to be as imaginative as you like. It's important to keep accessibility in mind while doing this. Like most email marketing initiatives, conduct a test run first to determine the optimal file size, load time, and transparency."
—Edward Mellett, WikiJob
4. Hire a niche email service provider
"Many small businesses use large email service providers (ESPs), however the marketing trend that many are leaning on in order to get ahead of their competition is specialized or niche ESPs that can provide services that cater to them. Large ESPs, such as Mailchimp, can offer quality generalized services, but the needs of small businesses often require specialties that are unique to their requirements.
"ESPs such as
Flodesk and Substack have capitalized on this gap by offering e-commerce solutions, newsletter services, and even programs to target content creators. These niche services provide small businesses with some extra help and a way to get the jump on their competitors in the email marketing world, and will trend into 2023 and beyond."
—David Derigiotis, Embroker
5. Personalize your content
"This hyper-personalized email marketing trend is a great way to stand out in a crowded marketplace by making customers feel more valued. Customers prefer to engage with more personalized email messages, so this can help small businesses increase their perceived value compared with competitors.
"Marketers have shown that emails containing personalized content lead to an impressive
27% higher click rate and an 11% boost in open rates. So, hyper-personalized email is a great way to boost customer loyalty and drive engagement at a low cost. Critical factors to consider:
- Offering services or products by audience segment
- Sending email messages by remembering important dates of users (birthday, anniversary together, etc.)
- Sending emails from the real person from the team instead of the company.
"It will also help small businesses tailor their experience based on intended data.
—Aygul Mehdiyeva, Booknetic
6. Include videos
"Inserting short-form and value-based videos are gaining popularity within email marketing. Videos help attract prospects’ attention instantly by providing to-the-point insight in minimum time, and improve conversion by engaging the target audience effectively with less hassle. The key is to add statistics/data in the email text, and align and explain how your solution will provide value."
—Yoav Marder, Sonary
7. Adopt zero-party data usage
"One email marketing trend small businesses could really benefit from adopting is the use of zero-party data to deliver the most personalized emails possible to each recipient. Zero-party data is specific pieces of information received directly from customers and subscribers using strategies, such as surveys and quizzes. These tools allow brands to learn a lot more about customers and prospects, and then segment their email lists in very granular ways based on the data.
"A real-world example could be a skin-care e-commerce brand building a quiz or survey about skin types and conditions. Customers complete the quiz, answering five to 10 questions, then give their email addresses to see their results and product recommendations. The brand can then send customers hyper-personalized email marketing campaigns using the data collected, so each user gets a unique marketing experience."
—Ryan Turner, Ecommerce Intelligence
8. Make star elements clickable
"Relying solely on your CTA button to convert leads may no longer be the best strategy. Instead, think of all the other star elements in your email that you could make clickable: pictures, GIFs, and videos—and even blocks of text that stand out from the rest. Today's audience likes an interactive experience, so if different parts of your email lead to relevant pages on your website, it's a win-win situation for everyone involved. This doesn't mean you should scrap your CTA button entirely—just remember that it doesn't have to be the only star of the show."
—Guy Sharp, Andorra Guides
9. Activate autoresponders
"Email autoresponders are an easy way for you to create professional, personalized emails that help your sales team communicate with your customers regularly. You can create a series of prewritten emails that have been tested and perfected, or you can create custom messages for each lead or customer. You find that this will give you a leg up on your competitors who are still sending out mass emails."
—Nathan Hughes, Art Ignition
10. Micro-segment your lists
"Now more than ever, I think email marketers are moving beyond simple segmentation and into micro-segmentation. This shows that they are not relying on a single piece of data (or method of segmentation) to place an email recipient into the correct group.
"When a marketer combines demographic information with clickstream data, they can create highly targeted niches like 'people in California who are interested in sock purchases.' Marketers can construct ultra-specific marketing for these subsets using micro-segments. The nuances of the buyer's decision-making process are revealed, allowing for more targeted content creation.
"Micro-segmentation is one trend helped forward by others, such as AI implementation. Artificial intelligence (AI) allows marketers to gather, analyze, and filter data to discover the micro-segment that will yield the highest conversion rates. Marketers will also be able to track customers as they transition between micro-segments thanks to AI."
—Zephyr Chan, Living The Good Life
11. Create mobile-optimized emails
" Eighty-one percent of all emails are opened and read on mobile devices. The consequence of this statistic is that ensuring your emails are mobile-optimized can actually make or break your email campaigns’ ROI. Your optimization techniques can make a huge difference in how many or how few people read and respond to your emails.
"If a user cannot read your offers or promotions, and can't see the CTA clearly, chances are they will close your email and not open it again. Therefore, make sure that your email opens on the right device, loads quickly, and is complete with CTAs, images, and offers so your users have a good experience."
—Kartik Ahuja, GrowthScribe
12. Automate with AI
"AI experimentation can help email marketing strategists offer more targeted and relevant content to their target consumers. For example, segment your contact list based on previous website interactions. Also, both the timing and content of your emails can be improved with the help of AI. This implies that your emails have a better chance of getting through spam filters and into the inbox of your prospective customers.
"In my opinion, using AI to assist in your email marketing campaigns is like employing the services of a very competent and precise copywriter. It will help you save money and generate more income as you streamline your operations."
—Timothy Allen, Corporate Investigation Consulting
13. Write short and punchy subject lines
"We like to shoot for subject lines between two and three words, along with emojis. We also like to make pop culture references based on the content of the email. Here are some examples:
- Silow Talk (Email talks about a tool called Silow, and the subject line refers to Pillow Talk.)
- Crawl of duty (Tool helps crawl websites; subject line is referring to Call of Duty.)"
—Ernest Bio Bogore, Nerdy Joe Inc.
14. Place emojis in your subject lines
"Right now, including emojis in your email marketing campaigns isn't being overused and can actually be effective. It adds a little emotion to your email and can provide color to the inbox of the person you're sending it to. Also, emojis in the subject line can increase open rates, so that more people engage with your email. I predict that soon emojis will be overused, and we'll be tired of them. But, for now, they are ripe for the picking."
—Shaun Connell, Credit Building Tips
15. Produce emails in dark mode
"'Dark Mode' is a trend you should implement to give you an edge over your competition. Dark Mode is the practice of putting light-colored fonts against a dark background—a setting that's now used by
over 80% of smartphone owners. Dark Mode reduces strain on the eyes, and studies have shown that it is easier to read, and will keep readers engaged for longer periods of time. When designing your emails, use both light settings and dark mode so you will meet everyone’s preference and keep the recipients' eyes on your email longer, increasing your chances of your CTAs being clicked on."
—Mackenzie Whalen, E1011 Labs
16. Engage customers with personalized emails
"Personalization is one way to stand out among the competition. Leverage data and information about your customers and their preferences to create targeted and relevant email campaigns. This can include using their name in the subject line or body of the email, tailoring the content of the email to their interests or needs, and segmenting your email list so that you can send more targeted emails to different groups of customers.
"Personalization keeps you relatable and engaging which can lead to higher open and click-through rates and ultimately drive more sales and revenue for your business. It starts with collecting the right data through surveys or sign-up forms and using email marketing software that allows you to segment your list and customize your emails based on this data."
—
Michelle B. Griffin, BRANDthority, Inc.
17. Use UGC in your campaigns
"Take advantage of user-generated content and get extra UGC traction via email campaigns. It takes a load off your content creation team, refreshes your marketing campaigns, and provides social proof that people love your brand—a big credibility booster! Since UGC emails recreate the feel of a social platform, users are more likely to respond and follow your CTA than they would with traditional content. Use emails to highlight UGC campaigns, increasing user interactions and pulling more responses."
—
Tory Gray, The Gray Dot Company
About the Author
Post by: Brett Farmiloe
Brett Farmiloe is the founder and CEO of Terkel, a Q&A site that converts insights from small business owners into high-quality articles for brands.
Company: Terkel
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Terkel.io
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