By Anna Ribas, on 29 November 2021
The time has come to make your resolutions for 2023, and improving your email marketing strategy should be among them. Year after year, email continues to be one of the most versatile tools for communicating with your customers and building loyalty.
Email marketing has been around for quite some time, meaning there are plenty of best practices to follow. Let's take a look at the email marketing best practices for 2023 and what you can do to help your company achieve better results with this channel.
10 Best Practices for Your Email Marketing Strategy in 2023
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.
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
