This step-by-step guide reveals 12 top tricks for crafting an effective email marketing strategy. We'll cover how to grow your email list and delight recipients every time you appear in their inbox.
What are the best email marketing strategies?
Here are 12 tips and tricks to help you supercharge your email marketing campaigns.
Pro tip: See what makes Superhuman the most productive email app ever made.
1. Segmentation
Segmentation based on gender, location, or past purchases can help develop a more effective email marketing strategy. That said, you should also consider the deeper motivations behind the behavior of your segments
For example, if a particular segment tends to purchase a select number of products, what underlying need might explain that? Identifying these email segmentation trends can help you develop a campaign that's tailored to their underlying motivations.
2. Strategic timing
Did you know that — generally speaking — the best time to send sales emails is on Tuesdaysbetween 4 and 6 a.m.?
Strategizing when to send emails to your customers requires some trial and error, but it can provide a serious return on investment in the form of higher open rates, better click rates, and reduced bounce rates.
Even better, use Superhuman's Smart Send. Send your message at the optimal moment, ensuring it arrives in the inbox when your recipient is most likely to open it.
In addition to time, email frequency can also impact the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. For example, if new subscribers expect to receive an email newsletter every week, maintaining that frequency helps establish credibility and build brand awareness.
That said, constantly sending emails can bombard your target audience and increase your unsubscribe rate.
3. Being selective about email content
Although emails can be longer than other types of communication — such as texts or social media messages — only a select number of subscribers typically read long emails word-for-word.
These days, the mindset of "TL;DR" has become the status quo. Integrating this concept into your emails can help you refine your content and improve your results.
Learning how to write a sales email is a crucial skill. Each element — from email design features like impactful visuals to email subject lines — must earn its space on the page.
Additionally, a clear and compelling call to action (CTA) should direct readers based on whether you're promoting a product or service, a sign-up form for rewards, or another conversion. The landing page you drive traffic to must fulfill these same requirements.
4. A/B testing
With A/B testing, you can test two or more versions of the same email against one another and see which performs better. A/B testing can influence your email marketing strategy on both a macro and micro level.
A/B testing offers insight into what color palettes, subject lines, or CTA buttons your customers prefer for promotional emails.
With so many variables and email marketing tools you can experiment with, the sky is truly the limit with A/B testing.
5. Optimizing the mobile experience
The core of any effective email marketing strategy requires putting yourself in your audience's shoes. That said, evaluating their experiences on mobile devices is often overlooked.
The user experience (UX) is critical to any marketing strategy, regardless of your industry. After all, if your customers struggle to interact with you through the means you provide, they're less likely to engage in the future.
Improving the user experience is a top marketing tactic that you should integrate into every aspect of your email marketing strategy. If your emails include graphics or images, ensure they load quickly. Craft CTA buttons that can be seen at a glance, and don't underestimate the power of previewing and testing campaigns before they arrive in your customers' virtual mailbox.
6. Maintaining an email calendar
Sending emails on a schedule can keep subscribers engaged, but planning ahead with an email calendar can make an even greater difference. Instead of your customers feeling like they get random emails throughout the year, a reliable frequency and cohesive schedule can encourage a more conversational relationship.
One of the easiest ways to think about an email calendar is for a new product launch. The emails you develop for a launch should tease, position, and promote the product, with each objective scheduled at a different time in the build-up to release.
Email calendars don't always have to be developed in step with your business' growth. Instead, you can implement email automation based on calendars tailored to your products or services — but we'll get to that later.
7. Integration with a comprehensive marketing strategy
We've hinted at it before, but let's make it clear: you should integrate your email marketing strategy into your overall marketing approach.
The emails your company sends should complement your social media campaigns, relevant content strategies, other marketing channels, and your physical location(s) if you have any.
In practice, a good email marketing strategy is one that echoes the core elements of other channels while bringing something new to the table. That way, potential customers will feel like your communications come from the same place.
8. Setting goals and measuring progress
Running a successful marketing campaign requires learning how to set goals, figuring out what you need to achieve those goals, and measuring your results to determine your success.
Speaking of success, effective email marketing strategies involve numerous metrics, including:
- Email open rates
- Click-through rates
- Conversion rates
- Bounce rates
- Unsubscribe rates
Email deliverability also plays a role in measuring the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy. Most email marketing software incorporates data collection and analysis tools, which your business can use to make informed decisions regarding future campaigns.
9. Incorporating personalization and storytelling
Personalization lies at the core of successful customer retention strategies. Your message will resonate with your email subscribers if you inject personality and storytelling elements into your copy in a way that aligns with the voice of your brand.
10. Creating distinct, tailored campaigns
Our list of email marketing tips began with leveraging segmentation and identifying demographic trends. To implement those insights and reach those segments, you should create personalized email campaigns using your findings.
Re-engagement and abandoned cart emails, for example, address two segments that are common in e-commerce: previous customers and potential customers. However, you can also personalize your messages based on gender, age, and other demographics.
11. Automating certain emails
Marketing automation can create and maintain consistency in brand messaging. For instance, sending an automated email containing a discount code that customers can use on their birthday establishes a rapport with individual consumers.
Automated emails create a structure for welcoming new subscribers, moving customers through the funnel, and encouraging them to sign up for rewards and other programs. Automating new customer welcome emails and other messages can help your marketing team perfect this process.
12. Managing your subscriber list
Growing your email list can cultivate customer loyalty, but effective email marketing demands balancing quantity and quality. As your email subscriber count fluctuates, strive to replace unsubscribes with engaged customers who look forward to interacting with your business.
Additionally, you should try to re-engage inactive subscribers through personalized emails that include discounts, coupons, or other valuable offers.
Closing thoughts
With these email marketing strategies in hand, you can supercharge your campaigns, grow your email lists, and increase conversions. But just as vital as your strategy is the tool you use to make it a reality.
Superhuman is the fastest email app ever made. Fly through your inbox twice as fast, reply two days sooner, and save more than four hours every single week. Experience blazingly fast email today.
