Creating Inbox Magic: Email Best Practices You Need to Know

Kate Kotzea Dir. of Marketing

Technology

@katekotzea

Email marketing has long been associated with a medium to reach

subscribers rather than a strategy to reach and engage the right subscriber

73% of millennials prefer email, because it’s “part of everyday life”.

-Adestra

B2B marketing email averaged over a 47% higher CTR than B2C email and has a 23%

higher click-to-open ratio.

-emfluence

All emails should have a clear purpose, not only to nudge users to do what you want

them to do, but to drive their user experience forward.

- Customer.io

CREATE A REASON

•  Exclusivity •  Special content •  Behind-the-scenes

•  Early product releases •  Special offers •  Automation

REPORTING & ANALYTICS

•  Open Rate •  Click-through Rate •  Deliverability •  A/B Testing

•  Device opened •  Geography •  Specific links clicked

TIE TO BUSINESS GOALS

Email generated REVENUE

Email generated CONVERSIONS

Email ROI

SEND BEST PRACTICES

Design & content

Subject lines

When to send

Design & content

Subject lines

When to send

Think Mobile First

Use text & images together. Include the primary content in the email as text, not just a graphic.

Give the alt tags / labels for your images descriptions that make sense.

People spend a lot of time worrying about email clients with 1% usage; accessibility is a much bigger issue.

- Rebelmail

Create Clear Calls to Action. Kj lklkj

In A/B tests, there was 28% increase in CTRs if the call to action was a

button vs. a link. - Campaign Monitor

BUTTON DESIGN

•  Contrasting, non-grey colors •  White space around button to stand out •  Arrow or other elements to help with next steps

On average, business email campaigns see a 55% increase in CTRs when a video is called out in the subject line or included in content

- eMarketer

Showcasing products – 103%

increase in conversion rate

Design & content

Subject lines

When to send

Words to Use & Avoid

Thank you / Thanks

You/Your

Account

Monthly

Free

$$$

Earn

Guaranteed !!!

Keep it Short

A/B Testing

•  Highlight only one topic •  Keep it familiar (Company June Newsletter, July Newsletter) •  Break out topics (Topic 1 | Topic 2 | Topic 3 ) •  Create urgency and/or curiosity (Take 50% off)

Emails with personalized subject lines are 20% more likely to be

opened.

- HubSpot

Usepreheaders

Benefits of Preheaders:

Summary of email

Brand connection

Extend your subject line

-MailChimp

Emoji usage in email marketing has gone up 7,100% over the last year.

👏👏👏 -Litmus

56% of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher

unique open rate. ✉️️ + 😍 = ❤️️

-Experian

When to Use an Emoji

Fits with your brand

Subscribers have updated OS

Strong mobile opens

Use Emojipedia

Design & content

Subject lines

When to send

-Experian

70% of millennials check their email from bed (vs. 52% of the

general survey population).

-Adestra

Know Your Industry

DATABASE SEGMENTATION

A ALWAYS

B

S

BE

SEGMENTING

Gather New

Information

•  Form signups

•  New contests

•  Integration with other platforms

Zombie Subscribers

•  Unengaged

•  Don’t open

•  Old addresses

•  Deliverability

Millennials aren’t afraid to mark unwelcome emails as spam, seriously hurting your sender reputation and

your ability to send emails in the future to anyone.

- Litmus

MARKETING AUTOMATION

What is marketing

automation?

Automated Emails Generate:

70.5% higher open rates

152% higher click-through rates

75% of email revenue

- Epsilon Email Institute and DMA

Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales

ready leads at 33% lower cost.

- Forrester Research

•  Confirmation or thank you

•  Account setup next steps

•  Account deadlines or expirations

Understand the right

send delay

Clearly communicate

next steps

Use plain text – don’t over

design

Integrate with Business Goals

THE FUTURE OF EMAIL

-Adestra

Email is still preferred way of communication

MESSENGER APPS

Customer Service

Contests

Ecommerce

Sales Promotion

Ways to Integrate with Apps

Bots will run automated workflows; send confirmation emails, abandoned cart emails, create newsletter sign ups, all personalized with data from the chat

session.

MORE BOTS

WEARABLES

EMAILS ON WEARABLES

Notification – subject line importance Plain text Limited or no tracking

Email content will be based off of different sources and real-time variables will be generated at moment-of-open

(not send).

AGILE EMAILS

MORE VIDEO

Apple iOS 10 will again support HTML5. As of November, 53% of emails were opened

on a Apple email app.

-Litmus

INTERACTIVE EMAILS

Shopping carts Forms Quizzes Accordions Rotating banners

LOOKALIKE AUDIENCES

Email marketing has long been associated with a medium to reach

subscribers rather than a strategy to reach and engage the right subscriber

TAKEAWAYS

•  Establish email metrics

•  Understand your database

•  Do A/B tests

•  Look for automation opportunities

•  Use animation