No matter if you’re new to email marketing or have been doing it for years, it can be tough to keep up with the latest rules, best practices, and ways to keep your audience engaged.
We understand—email is our passion, and even we occasionally need a quick update.
That is why we have compiled this thorough and updated guide of the essential email marketing best practices you need to be aware of for 2024 and the future.
To help you out, we’ve put together our top tips to give you the tools and inspiration you need to create your best email marketing campaigns ever.
The most important email marketing best practices in 2024:
1. Get To Know Your Audience
Grasping a deep understanding of your recipient audience is one of the most important aspects before you start sending emails. Your audience is more than just a demographic segment. Consider the following questions and answer them with as much detail as possible:
- How and when do they prefer to be contacted?
- Is there a particular language or slang that might connect with them more effectively?
- What actions or behaviors set your audience apart from the general public?
The reality is, you probably won’t fully answer these questions on your initial attempt. But the beauty of email marketing is that, over time, you’ll gather crucial insights and data about your recipients, helping you make informed changes to your program.
2. Use a Professional Email Marketing Tool
You might consider using tools like Outlook or Apple Mail for your email marketing campaigns, but I’d recommend against it. While they may be free, their services are limited and can negatively impact your deliverability.
Email marketing tools like MUMARA campaigns not only help you design attractive emails but also assist in building and segmenting your email list, automating your communication, and tracking the performance of your campaigns.
3.A/B Test Your Emails
Once you establish a baseline for key email metrics, start adjusting different elements of your emails to identify what boosts your results. The most effective way to determine what works best is through A/B TESTING.
This practice involves creating two editions of the existing email campaign, each differing by just one element. You send version A to one segment of your audience and version B to another, then monitor which version performs better.
A/B testing works best when you make one small change at a time, so be patient and keep track of your learnings, and know that you’re getting closer to knowing better email campaign tips each time you press send.
4. Make Irresistible CTA Buttons
CTA buttons motivate your readers to take specific actions by clearly instructing them on what to do next. They highlight the objective of your email, whether it’s encouraging store visits, promoting current offers or sales, or providing discounts.
CTA’s are crucial in guiding your customers effectively, making them a vital element of email marketing.
For example “notify me”, “shop new arrivals”, “try free”, “order” etc. They altogether objectify your email and make it more worthy.
5. Use Confirm Opt-in:
Whenever I talk about good email practices, I always say email list quality beats quantity
However, I witnessed many marketers who were hesitant to use confirmed opt-in.
I understand their concerns—they worry about losing potential clients simply because someone might not check their inbox and click the confirmation link.
6. Personalize Your Emails:
Personalization isn’t new for 2024, but it keeps picking up steam, becoming increasingly important for email programs.
Email personalization goes beyond just a strategy; it’s a way to connect individually with each person interested in your business. It’s among the best practices in email marketing.
This approach allows marketers to craft emails that resonate with each individual on their list without needing to write separate emails for everyone.
According to Experian, 78% of customers are more aware of how businesses use their data. Therefore, personalization is an increasingly effective way for marketers to enhance their email marketing strategies.
7. Write a Catchy Subject Line:
Email is often an entry point for small businesses. As a newcomer, you might be tempted to use attention-grabbing phrases such as “Buy now!” or “Limited time offer!” in your subject lines because you’ve seen other companies use them. However, remember that what works for one company may not necessarily resonate with your audience.
When writing subject lines and content for your email campaigns, the general rule is to make them relevant and interesting to your subscribers.
Keep subject lines short and descriptive; Clearly explain the content of your email rather than focusing on selling.
Also, Avoid aggressive sales languages, flashy catchphrases can annoy your subscribers and increase the chance of your emails landing in spam filters.
8. Segment Your Audience:
Segmentation is a crucial yet often overlooked email marketing strategy because it can be difficult to implement, especially without the right tools. The concept of segmentation involves creating categories based on customer characteristics like demographics and purchasing behavior. You then modify your marketing efforts to each specific audience segment.
For instance, you might have one segment of repeat buyers and another consisting of contacts from a particular zip code. Although both groups may appreciate what you offer, you should approach each segment with distinct marketing strategies.
Remind segmentation while creating email campaigns
9. Consistency In Campaigns Creation
There are many good practices for email marketing, but hurrying to send emails isn’t one of them.
We understand that strict deadlines can create pressure, but rushing through campaign creation without considering your design, content, and subject line can lead to problems.
If the content in your email campaign is irrelevant to your subscribers or differs from what they initially signed up for, you might experience lower open and click rates or an increase in spam complaints and unsubscribe rates. Take a moment to slow down, breathe, and ensure that your list and campaigns are in excellent shape.
10. Email Marketing Errors
Every email marketer makes mistakes. Your first error is like a formality of passage, and sometimes these issues are out of your control.
First, become familiar with common email marketing mistakes. One major error is overlooking the fact that email is part of an ongoing relationship with your subscribers. Keeping this perspective helps ensure your messages remain respectful, relevant, and valuable to recipients.
For mistakes that occur in just one or two emails, have a response plan in place. Decide when it’s acceptable to overlook minor errors, like typos or formatting issues. For more significant mistakes, assess their potential impact on your audience. When needed, remember that a genuine apology can be effective in repairing any relationships affected by the error.
11. Focus On Quality Over Frequency
Email marketing has proven to be a worthy tool for digital communication, but increasing your email frequency doesn’t necessarily make your messages more effective.
Bombarding recipients with too many emails can have the opposite effect. They might unsubscribe if they feel inundated by your messages, or worse, mark your emails as spam.
Begin with a gradual approach and test how your audience reacts to different email frequencies.
12. Send Welcome Emails
The single most effective message you can send—Your welcome email
Welcome emails play a key role in maintaining clean best practices in email lists and enhancing deliverability.
If a subscriber enters an incorrect email address, the welcome email will result in a hard bounce, prompting your email provider to remove it from your list.
These emails also confirm to new subscribers that their signup was successful and that the information they’re expecting is on its way.
Additionally, they help establish a connection with new subscribers. By offering something valuable or exclusive right from the start, you can boost click-through rates.
13. Hit The Right Timing:
Determining the ideal time to send your emails is a frequently debated topic. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, we can offer some useful advice and insights.
Our testing revealed that marketing emails sent on Tuesdays generally achieve higher engagement. You might want to experiment with sending your emails on Tuesdays to see if it benefits your campaign as well.
Additionally, consider scheduling your emails at unconventional times rather than at the top of the hour. For instance, send your newsletter at 10:07 a.m. instead of 10:00 a.m. Sending at the top of the hour can increase the likelihood of delays, causing your emails to arrive later than intended.
14. Review Your Landing Pages
Designing and customizing copy for your email campaigns will take a significant amount of time. However, it’s also crucial to think about where you direct your recipients through links and buttons.
Ensure that your recipients are sent to landing pages that align with your email’s goals and content. The experience should be seamless. For instance, if your goal is to promote a specific product, direct recipients to the landing page for that product, rather than to your homepage or a general product line page.
15. Test Your Email Subject Line
According to a study, 50% of subscribers determine to open a message based on the subject line
It makes sense.
Apart from those who open every email they receive, your recipients typically consider three key elements before deciding whether to open or ignore your message:
- Sender Information
- Subject line
- Preview text
Given that the subject line is usually longer than the sender name and preheader, it plays a significant role in influencing whether subscribers choose to take action.
Consider them the most crucial part of your email campaign – because they are. Don’t treat them as an afterthought. Allocate time for A/B testing your subject lines and rely on data rather than intuition.
17. Customize Your Email List
Whether you built your email list from scratch or inherited it, it’s crucial to ensure that every address was added voluntarily and with the individual’s consent.
Immediately remove any rented or purchased email addresses from your list. Otherwise, you might face low engagement rates (since many purchased emails aren’t legitimate) and risk being blocklisted by major internet service providers (ISPs) such as Gmail and Yahoo! Your email service provider (ESP) might even suspend your accounts.
While growing your list organically may not be the quickest method to build a large email base, it is the only way to ensure an engaged audience and maintain high email delivery rates.
18. Drive Click -Throughs With Engaging Content
What makes certain emails click-worthy?
When examining your favorite newsletters, you’ll likely notice some common elements. They might feature great products, intriguing stories, thought-provoking articles, humorous videos, or other engaging content.
Your subscribers may have varying preferences, but certain features often stand out. What are your goals for your email marketing campaigns?
Our data shows that emails with videos tend to have above-average click-through rates, and the same is true for emails with images, personalization, and preheaders.
To improve your email conversions, it’s essential to convey your message as efficiently as possible.
Organize your content for easy readability and comprehension. Utilize bullet points, headlines, lists, and preheader text to quickly communicate your main message. If executed effectively, you should see a boost in your email engagement metrics, such as click-to-open rates.
One brand that excels in this approach is MUMARA.
19. Monitor Deliverability
Sometimes, your emails don’t reach your prospect’s inbox due to numerous reasons.
Therefore, as one of the important email marketing best practices, you need to make sure they get delivered and don’t end up in the spam folder.
Monitor the volume of newsletters you send, as high volumes could be mistaken for spam. Also, have a predictable pattern with the number of emails you send.
20. Make Your Emails Readable:
These days, we all are extremely busy and constantly bombarded by various distractions, people, and marketing messages at every turn.
To improve your email conversions, it’s essential to convey your message as efficiently as possible. Organize your content for easy readability and comprehension.
Utilize bullet points, headlines, lists, and preheader text to quickly communicate your main message. If executed effectively, you should see a boost in your email engagement metrics, such as click-to-open rates.
21. Pick The Right Email Frequency
Another key email marketing best practice is determining the optimal frequency for contacting your subscribers, which can be quite challenging. According to our data, email marketers who send a single newsletter per week tend to achieve the highest average open and click-through rates.
This approach is quite common, with 46% of the accounts we analyzed opting for a weekly newsletter. Keep in mind that this data includes marketers who may also send triggered or RSS emails.
22. Focus On The Right Metrics:
Another key email marketing best practice is determining the optimal frequency for contacting your subscribers, which can be quite challenging. According to our data, email marketers who send a single newsletter per week tend to achieve the highest average open and click-through rates.
This approach is quite common, with 46% of the accounts we analyzed opting for a weekly newsletter. Keep in mind that this data includes marketers who may also send triggered or RSS emails.
23. Add Unsubscribe And Content Preference Buttons to The Footers
One of the important email marketing best practices is to give your audience the liberty to opt out of your emails easily. Or better yet, let them choose the content they’d like to receive.
Make sure the unsubscribe button or link is clearly visible by using distinct colors or bold formatting. Another key email marketing best practice is determining the optimal frequency for contacting your subscribers, which can be quite challenging. According to our data, email marketers who send a single newsletter per week tend to achieve the highest average open and click-through rates.
This approach is quite common, with 46% of the accounts we analyzed opting for a weekly newsletter. Keep in mind that this data includes marketers who may also send triggered or RSS emails.
Additionally, avoid lengthy unsubscription processes, such as requiring customers to send an email.
24. Write Engaging Stories:
Got a story to share?
An interesting, engaging plot about your business can create an emotional attachment with your customers and add genuine significance to your brand.
Emails give you enough room for expression and creative visual design, making them one of the best channels for this kind of marketing.
25. Automate Constant Campaigns:
Email automation is a must-have for any serious marketer in this day and age. It’s best practice to ensure your email marketing tool has robust automation features.
In this way, you don’t need to take too much load to think what to write in emails Another edge of automated content is that it is completely personalized.
The only thing you have to do is to set up a workflow, and they’ll begin to work for you 24 hours a day
EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES FOR 2024 (Takeaways):
The list may seem long, but there are endless benefits to maintaining the discussed email marketing best practices.
You don’t have to be an email marketing expert to succeed; each step is straightforward and quickly becomes intuitive.
Naturally, you need a complete email marketing software to ensure everything runs smoothly. Don’t have one? Try the MUMARA email automation solution, start free.
