By Anna Ribas, on 27 February 2024
As we move further into the digital age, email marketing remains a pivotal element of any robust marketing strategy. With an average ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, email marketing offers unmatched potential for engagement and conversion. In 2024, best practices such as automating your campaigns, refining metrics, running A/B tests, cleaning and segmenting your mailing lists, and using AI-driven insights, among others, will help you maximize the effectiveness of your email campaigns and ensure that they resonate with your audience.
1. Automate Your Campaigns
Marketing automation allows you to send the right message to the right person at the perfect time, without having to go through the effort of setting up and sending all those emails one by one.
If you haven't yet automated your email marketing strategy, it's time to get started. We recommend having at least the following types of emails automated:
Welcome email (when a user registers for the first time)
User registration confirmation
Thank you message for purchases or downloads
Birthday and anniversary with your brand email
Abandoned cart alerts
Recovery emails (when a user has been inactive for several months)
2. Refine Your Metrics
To know if your emails are working, it is good practice to periodically review the results of your campaigns. These are the key metrics you should pay attention to:
- Open Rate: the number of emails opened divided by the number of emails delivered.
- Click-Through Rate: the number of unique clicks divided by the number of emails delivered.
- Deliverability Rate: the number of emails delivered divided by the number of emails sent.
- Abandonment Rate: the total number of unsubscribes divided by the number of emails delivered.
3. Run A/B Tests
Measuring the results of your emails will allow you to see what works and what doesn't, but to take your 2023 email marketing to the next level, you need to get hands-on and experiment with A/B testing.
A/B tests are based on creating two variations of the same email, but with an element that distinguishes them, for example, a different subject line or a different color in the call-to-action button. To do this, send each email to a sample of users from your database and compare the results to see which is more effective. The key to A/B Testing is to only change one single element between the A and B emails so that you can easily recognize the element that is producing better results.
4. Clean Up Your Mailing Lists
Poor quality mailing lists cause delivery and open rates to drop, and can even result in your emails being sent straight to the spam folder. Aim to remove inactive users from your database and repeat the process every six months.
5. Segment Your Mailing List
Once your mailing list is free of inactive users, the next step is to tidy it up with good segmentation. Segmenting your mailing list consists of dividing it into smaller, more specific groups, based on interests, location, purchasing behavior, and more. This way, you will be able to send more relevant and personalized content to users, and consequently improve open, click-through, and conversion rates.
6. Include a Call-to-Action
With very few exceptions, your emails should include a call-to-action. Think about the result you want to achieve with your email and make it clear to the user what you would like them to do.
The call-to-action can be in the form of a button or a link that directs users to read a blog post, register for an event, make a purchase, or anything else.
Remember that you can (and should!) get creative with your calls to action. Instead of opting for the classic "Buy now" or "Click here," think about how you can encourage your users to take the next step.
7. Use Double Opt-In
Double opt-in consists of sending an email to new users who register in your database and asking them to click on it to confirm the subscription. This extra step helps you confirm that it is an email address that is actually being used and that they are interested in receiving your content.
8. Avoid Using a No-Reply Email Address
Surely you have received emails from email addresses that start with "noreply." Although this is a common technique, it can cause several problems like:
- Reducing the delivery rate
- Increasing the chances of being marked as spam
- Worsening the customer experience since users can't send you their questions.
Instead, we recommend using an email address like support@companyname.com. It goes without saying, but make sure that the account is actively monitored and there is someone responding to customer inquiries.
9. Personalize Your Emails
Using personalization helps you create emails that are better segmented and stand out in users' inboxes. Personalization is not limited to just putting the user's name in the subject line; you should use everything you know about them to create a tailored message and offer.
10. Review Emails Before Sending
To prevent silly mistakes from ruining your email campaign, send a test email to yourself and check that everything below is in order:
The email loads correctly
Images look good and have alt-text
There are no spelling errors
Links and call-to-action buttons work
The email loads correctly on desktop and mobile
11. Utilize AI-driven Insights
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in email marketing is revolutionizing how marketers gather insights and make predictions. Use AI to optimize your send times, predict the best content for each user, and segment your lists more effectively. AI can also help personalize emails at scale by analyzing data points across your entire customer base.
12. Keep Up with Regulatory Changes
Stay updated on laws and regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA, and others, which impact email marketing. Compliance not only avoids penalties but also assures your subscribers that you’re handling their data responsibly.
