To help you master the art of email marketing, we asked CEOs and Heads of Marketing to share their crucial dos and don'ts. From never over-promising and under-delivering to including clear calls to action, here are the top twenty insights these experts provided to enhance your email campaigns.
Never Over-Promise and Under-Deliver
Prioritize Personalization and Relevance
Utilize Preheader Text Effectively
Time Your Emails Properly
Segment Audiences for Better Engagement
Use Symbols and Emojis in Subject Lines
Monitor Recipient Engagement
Run Regular A/B Tests
Avoid Click-Bait Subject Lines
Ensure Emails Are Timely
Respect Your Subscribers
Craft Engaging Subject Lines
Build a Permission-Based List
Prioritize Personalization in 2024
Include a Prominent Unsubscribe Option
Avoid Triggering Spam Filters
Switch Up Your Messaging
Optimize Emails for Mobile Devices
Avoid Sending Unsolicited Emails
Include Clear Calls to Action
Never Over-Promise and Under-Deliver
The golden rule of email marketing? Never over-promise and under-deliver. It's like inviting someone to a party and then serving them stale chips and warm soda. Sure, they might show up the first time, but they won't be coming back for seconds.
When you hype up a product, offer, or event in your email, you're setting expectations. And if you don't meet those expectations, you're not just disappointing your subscribers; you're eroding their trust.
Instead, focus on under-promising and over-delivering. Give your subscribers more than they expect—surprise them with bonus content, exclusive discounts, or early access to new products. This will build excitement, loyalty, and keep them eagerly opening your emails every time.
Michael Lazar, CEO, Content Author
Prioritize Personalization and Relevance
As a marketer, one crucial “do” in email marketing is to prioritize personalization and relevance in every message. Create dynamic, interactive emails that cater to individual subscriber interests, increasing engagement and conversion rates. Avoid sending generic, one-size-fits-all emails; instead, leverage data to tailor your content, ensuring that each communication feels valuable and timely to your audience.
Zeeshan Akhtar, Head of Marketing, Mailmodo
Utilize Preheader Text Effectively
Don't ignore the power of preheader text. Although frequently overlooked, preheader text has the potential to significantly affect open rates in email marketing. The preheader text, which acts as a second headline directly below the subject line, offers recipients a sneak peek of what is inside and persuades them to open it. In fact, emails with well-crafted preheader text typically see up to a 12% improvement in open rates.
Therefore, neglecting this valuable area of your emails means missing a chance to catch people's attention. Additionally, the preheader may support or elaborate on the subject line, making your email more interesting and giving recipients a reason to read further into the email's body. Optimizing every single part of our communication strategy—including the preheader—can make a substantial difference in your overall marketing success.
Brandon Schroth, Founder, Reporter Outreach
Time Your Emails Properly
One of the most important things you can do to have an effective email marketing campaign is to time your emails properly. The best time to send emails is usually midweek, on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
Meanwhile, Monday mornings and Friday afternoons are the times you should avoid. Engagement is usually very low around holidays and weekends.
Pay attention to the time zone of your audience when you are deciding the best time of day. Emails sent at around 10 or 11 a.m. will get the most responses. This is because clients will be more settled into their workday at this time. Consider the best time based on the industry and routine of your audience for the best results.
Cale Loken, CEO, 301Consulting
Segment Audiences for Better Engagement
Don't go fishing in the dark! Segmenting audiences for email marketing is essential because it allows for more personalized and relevant communications. By dividing your email lists into distinct groups based on criteria such as demographics, behavior, or purchase history, you can tailor your messages to address the specific needs and interests of each segment. This approach not only increases engagement and conversions, it also reduces unsubscribe rates and increases overall campaign success.
Additionally, clearly identifying and categorizing campaigns in your contact-management system is crucial for tracking conversions down the funnel. This is a tremendous help in accurately measuring performance metrics, analyzing interactions, and understanding which strategies bring the best results. This approach helps optimize campaigns based on data-driven feedback, refine strategies, and ultimately hit a better ROI.
Ryan Sullivan, Marketing Manager, Stay22
Use Symbols and Emojis in Subject Lines
The answer is simple. A “do” is to use symbols (“+” or “=”) and, if relevant, incorporate an emoji or two within your subject line to make your message more compelling amidst the clutter most people have in their inboxes. You want your email to stand out in a sea of wordy, lengthy subject lines. To spark interest, the best way to do it is to not give all of it away in the subject line but to give just enough to pique curiosity.
A “don't” is to create a sense of unnecessary urgency. It comes off as clickbait-y, and your intended readership will lose trust. Don’t catfish people with deceptive subject lines and spammy content, as it undermines your credibility and, in the long run, damages your reputation. The last thing I want to read is a message with a subject line “urgent” only to find out that it was not urgent or important at all.
Ajay Chavda, CTO, Mojo Dojo
Monitor Recipient Engagement
The days of blasting messages to everyone in your email-marketing software are over. With the new rules being heavily enforced by the major mailbox providers—Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo—it's imperative to actively monitor which of your recipients open, click, and reply to emails and which ones don't. Then take appropriate action based on those metrics. Opt out the contacts who aren't opening and clicking. Change your content to encourage readers to click links in more of your emails or to reply.
Scott Hartley, Marketing Strategist & Author, MasterPlan4Success
Run Regular A/B Tests
To really make your email marketing more effective, one of the best things you can do is run regular A/B tests. They're a great way to see if your copy, design, and CTAs actually resonate with your audience. Aim to change one element at a time in your emails to test if it's working, tweaking your templates based on the results.
Also, when it comes to sending emails, less is often more. It’s better to send fewer emails than you think you need, so as not to overwhelm your audience with too many promotional messages. If you send too many emails, people might unsubscribe, and that can damage your relationship with them.
Avoid Click-Bait Subject Lines
My number one “don't” in email marketing is don't use click-bait subject lines just to get a good open rate. As with anything in marketing, remember why it is you're sending the email. It's not to get an open rate; it's to get what happens after the email is opened. This might be a link click, a newsletter sign-up, a call request—any number of things.
Although the open is required in order to achieve those things, the open isn't the aim itself. If you create a subject line that is too focused on “opens at all costs,” and isn't matched with the content inside the email, your open rate will be strong but those other measures won't be. So the email hasn't been successful. In fact, those real goals might actually be harmed, due to the user feeling misled or losing trust in your offering.
So when writing your subject line, make sure it is persuasive and encourages an action, but constantly review it to ensure it is still adequately linked to the content of the email and the offering inside. Certainly don't write something that misleads the reader or tries to encourage the open with a promise that the email doesn't actually deliver. Be convincing, but not too pushy. Create a sense of intrigue, but don't deliberately confuse.
Follow this tip, and it'll ensure your email marketing stays focused on what is important—the action taken on the email. But it will also ensure you're following best practice and developing better relationships with your subscribers.
Alex Myers, Head of Marketing, The SEO Works
Ensure Emails Are Timely
It's a hot, humid summer day. Blue skies overhead, the smell of hot sidewalk underfoot, and the sound of sprinklers on grass. You hear a ping from your phone and look down to the email from your favorite fashion brand talking about their new line of winter jackets. Immediate unsubscribe. Okay, it's an extreme example, but making sure your emails are timely is a huge factor in their success.
As marketers, we know it as “when”—one of the five W's of marketing—and it comes into play both in the proactive planning-and-strategy part of the job, as well as in the reactive day-to-day part of the job. Whether it's the season or time of the year, or the minute of the day, choosing the right moment can have a big effect on open rates. More importantly still, it can make the difference between making your brand feel relevant and useful compared to annoying, bothersome, or even confusing.
What's more, utilizing “newsjacking”—the practice of capitalizing on current stories and trends with your own take—can provide great opportunities to make your brand feel up-to-date, trendy, and funny.
Hugo Douglas-Deane, Founder & CMO, Canopey.com
Respect Your Subscribers
The biggest piece of advice I can give when it comes to email marketing is: respect your subscribers.
Yours isn't the only email they're getting in their inbox every day, so don't send emails that act like they're the only ones your subscriber has to read. By which I mean, don't make them so incredibly long that they have to keep scrolling to keep reading. Get to the point. Don't blatantly sell at them every single email—offer them something of value that makes your emails worth getting.
Really assess and look at your emails from the reader's perspective. And if you won't read your entire email or you find you're losing interest halfway through, then it needs work. Because if you're not interested, how can your subscribers possibly be?
I see too many people sending not-good emails and expecting to make sales from them, and I firmly believe and know there's a better way to do it!
Sarah Wayte, Copywriter & Brand Photographer, Sarah Wayte Creative
Craft Engaging Subject Lines
The most crucial “Don’t” in email marketing is buying an email list. First of all, any email list you buy will deliver your content to spam rather than the inbox, as these are generic lists that may or may not contain your targeted audience. Also, it is a very unethical form of marketing, as you don’t know whether the audience is interested in your products or services or not.
Fahad Khan, Digital Marketing Manager, Ubuy India
Build a Permission-Based List
In my opinion, the most important “Do” in email marketing is to build a permission-based list. That means your subscribers must opt in to your list because they want to hear from you. That also leads to things like honoring opt-out requests and not buying email lists from somebody else. When you think about it, why do you want to have people who don't want to hear from you? If you do that, it defeats the purpose of having the list.
Nabil Al-Baidhani, Affiliate Marketer, KRA Marketing
Prioritize Personalization in 2024
One important “do” in email marketing for 2024 is to prioritize personalization and relevance. With consumers increasingly bombarded by marketing messages, delivering content tailored to their specific interests and needs is crucial. Leverage data insights to segment your audience and craft personalized subject lines, messaging, and offers.
Personalization goes beyond inserting a subscriber's name—it's about understanding their preferences, purchase history, and browsing behavior to provide a tailored experience. Relevant, timely emails cut through the noise and drive better engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty. In 2024's crowded inbox, personalization is no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity for effective email marketing.
Mahee Chouhan, Content and Digital Marketing Manager, Mitt Arv
Include a Prominent Unsubscribe Option
While it may seem counterintuitive, a prominent unsubscribe option can actually boost the effectiveness of email marketing. It showcases transparency, respect for the audience, and a commitment to quality content. By making it easy for recipients to opt out, you can ensure your email list remains engaged and receptive to your messages. A clean email list with genuinely interested subscribers leads to higher open rates, click-through rates, and ultimately leads to better results.
Vipul Jain, Founder and CEO, Red Tulip Media
Avoid Triggering Spam Filters
To avoid your emails getting flagged as spam, it's crucial to be aware of specific elements that can trigger spam filters.
Based on my experience, certain words are notorious for raising flags, especially those associated with high-pressure sales tactics—such as "free," "earn money," or "discount."
Using these terms in your subject lines or email content can increase the likelihood of your email being redirected to spam folders.
Additionally, excessive punctuation can also be a red flag. For instance, using multiple exclamation points (!!!) may signal to spam filters that the message is promotional or untrustworthy.
It's also wise to limit the use of all caps, which can come across as shouting and further indicate a potential spam issue. I would say that keeping your language professional and straightforward helps ensure your message lands in the inbox rather than being filtered out.
Joshua Volpe, Chief Marketing Officer, Kind Water Systems
Switch Up Your Messaging
One of the most important things you can do in email marketing is switch up your messaging. You can't always lead with a hard sell to your prospective customers, clients, students, etc. You want to provide some value beyond consistently promoting yourself or your products.
What types of educational content can you offer? Is your industry in the news? Maybe you can use your email newsletter to speak on it in a way that educates and ultimately provides context for why it's important for your subscribers to learn more, reach out, sign up, pay for your services, etc.
There are many ways to engage with your customers over email that don't involve simply asking them to do something for you—email marketing goes both ways, and you have to be able to provide that value people are looking for in order to keep paying attention.
Joe Klenk, Director of Marketing, Pennsylvania Institute of Technology
Optimize Emails for Mobile Devices
In the current digital era, most email recipients will open their email on a mobile device. If your email campaigns are not optimized for mobile, the result could be poor user experiences and low engagement, translating to low conversion rates. For example, at our recycling business, we noticed that click-through rates increased by 30% after we optimized the emails for viewing on mobile. Previously, they were lower.
Careful attention to mobile optimization would not just help us increase engagement metrics but also strengthen our commitment to accessibility and user experience—two very important values for anything with an eco-friendly mission.
Gil Dodson, Owner, Corridor Recycling
Avoid Sending Unsolicited Emails
One important “don't” in email marketing is to send unsolicited emails or spam.
I've learned that bombarding potential customers with irrelevant messages can damage your brand's reputation and lead to high unsubscribe rates. Respecting your audience's preferences and privacy not only maintains trust but also enhances your credibility. It's crucial to focus on building an opt-in mailing list where recipients genuinely want to receive your emails, ensuring that your communications are welcomed and anticipated.
This approach not only complies with legal requirements but also cultivates a positive relationship with your subscribers, ultimately enhancing your marketing effectiveness.
Gregory Todd, Managing Director, tkskiphire.co.uk
Include Clear Calls to Action
One “do” that's easy to overlook is the power of a clear, specific call to action. Every email should have one primary action you want the reader to take, whether it's visiting a product page, signing up for an event, or just hitting reply. We make that next step crystal clear and easy to do.
Instead of vague phrasing like “Learn More,” we use straightforward, active language like “Get Your Free Sample Kit” or “Reserve Your Spot Now.” And we place that call-to-action on a large, visible button. People are far more inclined to take action when they are aware of exactly what has to be done next.
Lastly, make your email easy to read on a phone screen. Over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices these days. If your message is a jumbled mess of tiny text, you've lost them at hello. We make sure every email uses a mobile-friendly template with a single-column layout, large fonts, and touchable buttons. We put the most important info at the top and keep the copy skimmable. The goal is to make it effortless for them to get the key points, with no pinching and zooming required. Mobile-optimized emails show you value people's time.
David Primrose, President, Metal Marker