Category Archives: Email Marketing

You’re heading to a meeting with your stakeholders to present the results of last quarter’s email campaign, for which you took the lead. 

There’s a spring in your step as you approach the boardroom, and a satisfied smile adorns your face as you take your seat.

Your eyes lock with your marketing manager, and their expression mirrors your own as they welcome you to share your insights.

As you paint a vivid picture for your stakeholders of the resounding success of the executed email marketing campaigns, you notice their undivided attention, actively asking questions, and commending you for a job well done.

Seizing the opportunity, you confidently present your fresh ideas for the upcoming quarter and request an increased budget. Without hesitation, they agree, and there’s even talk of a generous Christmas bonus coming your way.

What if we told you that this could be your reality? 

All you need to do is to implement the invaluable insights from our digital marketing materials and textbooks, which are built around design thinking fundamentals.

These resources will ensure that your brand effectively connects with your audience across email marketing channels.

Today, we’re going to take a look at how you can generate high-quality leads for your email list and nurture them into loyal customers. We’ll also cover:

• Real-world examples of companies that implement design thinking into their email marketing strategies
• A range of unique email lead capture strategies proven to generate high-quality leads
• How you can leverage your email list to increase social media engagement

Without further ado, let’s dive straight into the lead generation techniques and nurturing that will set you on the path to unparalleled success.

1 – Implement Design Thinking, Email Lead Capture Strategies

Source: salecycle.com

Is email marketing dead?

Absolutely not! 

In fact, according to a research study conducted by SaleCycle in 2022, 50% of customers make monthly purchases from marketing emails every month.

However, it’s important to note that the average person spends a mere 10 seconds glancing at brand emails, as highlighted by a study from Statista. This means you have just a brief opportunity to captivate their attention.

Enter brilliant marketers who harness the power of design thinking. They understand the importance of increasing customer dwell time by curating content that stops readers in their tracks and persuades them to take desirable actions.

Through the application of design thinking principles, marketers can craft impactful and personalized email marketing campaigns that deeply resonate with their target audience. The result? Heightened engagement and conversion rates.

It’s crucial to implement the following effective lead capture strategies, all rooted in this human-centric approach:

Interactive Games and Quizzes

Source: airbnb.com

To capture the attention of your target audience and encourage their active participation, create interactive and engaging quizzes or assessments with a format that makes the experience enjoyable and interactive. This will increase the likelihood of users completing the assessment.

To ensure that the quiz format is enjoyable and interactive, we highly recommend conducting thorough research to understand your target audience’s pain points, motivations, and preferences related to your company’s product or service.

You can accomplish this by employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, such as surveys, interviews, social listening, and data analysis, to gain insights into their needs and behaviors.

For example, Airbnb created an interactive and fun quiz called Airbnb Trip Matcher to help its users choose an ideal travel destination based on their personality.

Airbnb crafted the quiz by asking customers easy questions with amusing multiple-choice answers. This approach intrigued and sparked curiosity in their customers, making them more inclined to provide their email addresses in order to receive the quiz’s final results.

By providing their email addresses, users gain access to a valuable resource that helps them plan their ideal vacation, reinforcing their connection with Airbnb as a trusted travel partner.

Airbnb can then utilize the collected email addresses to send targeted emails to users, offering them relevant accommodation options, special discounts, or tailored travel tips based on their quiz responses.

Expert Tip: Boost user engagement by incorporating gamification elements, such as a leaderboard or rewards, into your quizzes.

Valuable Content and Gated Resources

One of the biggest perks of understanding your target audience’s interests and pain points is that you’re then able to create highly relevant and engaging content, such as e-books, guides, and industry reports.

By adopting a user-centered approach, you’re able to curate content that provides valuable insights, practical solutions, and helpful information to address identified challenges.

Once you’ve created a valuable lead magnet, determine the most effective channels for reaching your target audience. Consider their preferences, behaviors, and where they’re most likely to discover and engage with your content.

For example, your research indicates that your ideal customer loves to read long-form copy. In this case, you can create a blog post that’s Search Engine Optimized (SEO) and run a search ad campaign to attract them to your website.

OnDigitalMarketing has a beginner’s textbook with actionable, evidence-based SEO optimization strategies that you can employ to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Ensure you utilize the design thinking approach of empathy to understand your users’ needs and craft a compelling message and visuals for your blog post. These should highlight the value and benefits of accessing the gated content to entice users to take action.

Requiring users to provide their email addresses to access gated content enables lead capture, allowing you to build a database of potential customers.

By delivering additional relevant content and nurturing leads via email marketing campaigns, you can build relationships, strengthen brand affinity, and guide leads through the user journey, ultimately driving business growth.

Webinars or Online Events

Fun Fact: Webinars are proven to be incredibly effective in generating high-quality leads for B2B companies.

This finding is supported by a research trial conducted by GoTo 1, which analyzed 250,000 webinars. The study revealed that 73% of B2B companies consider webinars and online events as the best means of acquiring prospects with a higher likelihood of converting.

Here are a few probable reasons why webinars are so effective in lead generation:

• Niche offering: Webinars and online events provide the opportunity to attract a highly targeted audience. By choosing a specific topic or theme relevant to your niche, you can attract individuals who are genuinely interested in your industry or offerings.
  This targeted audience is more inclined to provide their email addresses, resulting in high-quality leads.
• Interactive environment: Additionally, a webinar creates an interactive environment where participants can engage with your content and interact with the host or speakers.
  Seeing a friendly human face representing your brand fosters a sense of connection and involvement, making attendees more receptive to providing their email addresses to continue the conversation or access additional resources.
• Timeless content: You can conveniently record a webinar or online event and offer it as on-demand content, allowing individuals who couldn’t attend the live session to access the information.
  Repurposed content can be used for lead generation by requiring email registration to access the recorded webinar or event. Not only will this benefit those who missed the live event, but also any future prospects whose user journey leads them to your website.

OnDigitalMarketing has years of experience leveraging tactical and real-world education from the trenches of eCommerce and digital marketing to help you understand your users and delight them across SEO, social media, paid, and email outlets.

Our methods have generated a whopping $350 million in revenue for our clients and are taught across three undergraduate universities. We would love to help you become a success too.

2 – Build Rapport & Trust Over Time by Nurturing Email Leads

When your customers honor you by filling out opt-in forms and joining your email list, it’s your responsibility as a marketer to make their experience with your brand superb. You can do so by fulfilling all of the promises you made to them.

Although it may be tempting, don’t bombard the customer with too many emails—this will land you in the dreaded spam folder, potentially damaging your sender reputation. 

When email service providers (ESPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) notice you doing this, they flag your domain as untrustworthy, damaging your deliverability rates in the future.

Instead of spamming your customers with excessive and annoying emails, consider thinking about nurturing your email leads in the following manner:

Segment Your Email List

First of all, you need to cut through the noise by segmenting your list according to where each subscriber is in terms of their user journey, behavior, interests, and preferences in order to deliver highly relevant and personalized content.

A prime example of a company that excels in implementing this email marketing strategy is Spotify. They leverage data from user interactions and listening preferences to personalize their emails. 

Subscribers receive emails with recommended playlists, new music releases from their favorite genres and artists, and concert notifications for artists they’ve shown interest in.

For instance, in a recent email campaign, the music platform prompted its users to participate in a competition for a chance to win $2,000 to spend on concerts held by Universal Music Group artists in 2023. 

Because their list is segmented, they can send this email out to listeners who frequent these artists’ music, only targeting highly relevant listeners. As a result, they provide value to their subscribers, increase user engagement, and ultimately foster customer loyalty. 

The table below can be used as a guide to help personalize the email content for each prospect for higher conversion rates:

Create a Series of Automated Emails

We highly recommend designing a series of well-crafted and informative emails that offer valuable content, insights, tips, or exclusive offers to your subscribers.

Each email in the series should serve a specific purpose and provide a unique value proposition to engage and captivate the attention of the recipients. 

It’s important to strike a balance and avoid overwhelming your email list with excessive messages that might lead to annoyance or disengagement. 

For example, Coschedule suggests sending out emails two or three times a week, preferably on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. These time frames tend to yield higher open rates and ultimately contribute to improved conversion rates.

GetResponse’s Michal Leszczynski finds that “Email engagement is usually quite stable throughout the day and goes in-line with the typical business hours. There’s little difference in terms of engagement between individual weekdays.”

By delivering consistent value through these automated emails, you can establish trust, showcase expertise, and ensure that your brand remains top-of-mind for your customers.

To illustrate, let’s consider Airbnb’s email sequence. Once a user signs up for their email list, they receive a series of personalized and value-driven emails. 

The initial email might provide destination recommendations based on the user’s location or preferences. Subsequent emails may feature travel tips, exclusive discounts on accommodations, or highlights of unique experiences available through Airbnb. 

The desired outcome is to keep the Airbnb brand in the minds of subscribers, provide them with relevant and engaging content, and ultimately encourage them to book accommodations or experiences through the platform.

Leverage Social Media to Foster Engagement

Your email list consists of individuals who’ve already shown interest in your brand or products by subscribing.

Consequently, by promoting your social media channels to this audience, you can extend your reach and engage with them on multiple platforms. 

This not only increases your brand’s visibility, but also allows you to tap into their networks, potentially attracting new followers and customers through social media engagement, shares, and interactions.

Moreover, by fostering conversations, responding to comments, and encouraging user-generated content, aspiring online marketers can create a sense of community and strengthen their relationships with their email leads.

For example, Nike’s marketers encourage their subscribers to follow their social media accounts, where they share inspiring stories, athlete collaborations, workout tips, and product updates. 

The sportswear brand actively engages with its followers, responds to comments, and even runs campaigns that encourage user-generated content, such as sharing photos and videos of customers using their Nike products. 

This strategy helps build a strong connection with their audience, increases brand loyalty, and drives conversions by keeping Nike top-of-mind when consumers are ready to make a purchase.

Bonus Tip: Consistently provide value to your email subscribers by offering exclusive content, promotions, and resources in your emails to keep them engaged and loyal over time.

Build Your List, Nurture Your Leads, and Reap the Benefits

Successful list building relies on two key aspects: generating high-quality leads and nurturing them into loyal customers.

OnDigitalMarketing has come up with a powerful framework that digital marketers and entrepreneurs can utilize to succeed in these two areas, design thinking.

By taking a step back and considering things from the customer’s point of view, you’re able to empathize and understand their needs, preferences, and motivations, allowing you to create compelling campaigns that resonate with your audience and drive desired actions.

Our team comprises driven and experienced experts who are dedicated to helping you craft effective digital campaigns that deliver tangible business results. 

With our proven methods, we’ve generated an impressive $350 million in revenue for our clients, showcasing the effectiveness of our strategies.

To receive access to exclusive content, worksheets, upcoming courses, and insider tips, be sure to sign up for our email newsletter today.

Sherlock has Watson. 

Mario has Luigi. 

Peanut butter has jelly.

For higher email open rates, you also need a dynamic duo: specifically, snappy subject lines and powerful pre-headers.

While much emphasis is placed on subject lines, a well-written pre-header further entices a reader with a sneak peek into your value prop.

After all, who wouldn’t be interested to learn the answer to a thought-provoking subject line like.

“How did we nurture an inclusive work culture?” or a hinting pre-header such as, “A dating app helped?”

Insights like these keep us excited about internet marketing at OnDigitalMarketing. They inspire our mission to help aspiring entrepreneurs and online marketers discover the immense potential of digital media.

As such, we’ve collated more information on email pre-headers to help you achieve better user engagement and higher open rates. As we delve into these ideas, you’ll also discover:

• Best practices for creating effective pre-headers
• Common mistakes to avoid when crafting email pre-headers
• Real-life examples of effective email pre-headers
• How to conduct an A/B test on email pre-headers
• How pre-headers influence user journey and brand growth

But first, why you should be hyped about email preheaders.

1 – Importance of Email Pre-headers

Email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing channels for businesses to engage with their audience. However, it can be challenging to cut through the clutter of emails in people’s inboxes without pre-headers.

They serve as one of the first points of contact between your email and the recipient, appearing immediately after your subject line.

This makes them especially crucial for the six-second window readers take to open an email, where they provide insight into your value prop. 

Essentially, your pre-headers help answer the question, “Why open this email?”

Here’s an excellent example of Marketing Mastery using their pre-header to entice a reader:

Subject line: Jen boosted her conversions by 84%

Pre-header: Want to know how she did it?

Marketing Mastery’s subject line provides the initial hook regarding boosted conversions. They follow this intrigue up with an enticing offer to teach the reader more about boosting conversions through a well-crafted pre-header.

Pro Tip: Use a concise email pre-header to help readers understand the value of opening your email.

2 – Best Practices for Email Pre-headers

“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches—at scale.”

— David Newman

With better engagement and higher open rates at stake, what are the best practices for email pre-headers?

• Concise Messaging: Remember the six-second window? You don’t have much text to spare either, typically between 30–80 characters, so you need to make your point quickly and help the reader understand the benefit of your email at a glance.
• Keep the mobile user in mind: Considering that 65% of email opens are on small-screened mobile devices, your email pre-header needs to be mobile-friendly, which reinforces the need to be concise and conservative with text length.
• Personalization: For email marketing in general, make sure your content feels personal to boost engagement and read-throughs. For your pre-headers, personalization grabs your readers’ attention and encourages them to open your email when they feel it’s addressing them specifically.
• Calls-to-action: Sometimes getting people to act is as easy as just asking them. This makes it essential to have a clear CTA in your pre-header to encourage users to engage with your brand beyond just opening the email.
• Curiosity: Remember Marketing Mastery’s subject line, “Want to know how she did it?” We humans are naturally curious, and passing up such an offer is difficult. This presents an opportunity for your pre-header to leverage curiosity for higher open rates.
• Incorporating branding: You’re going to be sending a series of emails, so it’s important that your audience recognizes your brand within the six-second window to encourage opens. This entails using your brand’s colors, logos, and other visuals in your pre-header design.

Bonus Idea: Use A/B testing and web analytics to guide your implementation of these best practices into your pre-header design. For instance, find out how many of your readers use mobile devices, and which are the best forms of personalization for your audience.

3 – Avoiding Common Mistakes With Email Pre-headers

Clickbaits or misleading pre-headers stand out as the most frequent blunders in digital marketing.

They often do an excellent job at enticing users into clicking your emails and joining the subscriber list, only for them to quit soon after. They then proceed to report a negative user journey from your emails, tainting your brand as a spammer.

Your open rates then soon plummet.

Luckily, all you need to do to avoid this fate is to simply deliver on your claims and value propositions. This enables you to harness the promotional benefits of physiological triggers and enjoy brand growth with positive reviews of delighting users.

An excellent example of this is a pre-header from Peet’s Coffee.

Subject Line: Introducing Members-Only Menu

Pre-header: You won’t find these anywhere

The pre-header elicits a sense of urgency and Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) that encourages the reader to click on it. And their claim of exclusivity isn’t over the top because it’s truly a Peet’s Members-Only menu, which they proceed to share in the email.

Another common mistake for email pre-headers is exceeding the recommended maximum length of 80 characters.

This does little to entice readers who have only six seconds to decide on opening an email. Chances are they won’t even finish your pre-header before simply ignoring you along with the other uninspiring emails in their cluttered inbox.

So, don’t let your precious text real estate go to waste. Use your characters conservatively and be as concise as possible. In a nutshell, say more with fewer words.

Here’s a perfect example from Hotels.com:

Pre-header: Join now to collect double stamps and get a reward* night twice as fast.

It perfectly summarizes the reward offer for stamps and how joining earns the reader double stamps. It also gives the tip that nights are faster, all while keeping below 80 characters.

It’s an efficient use of text real estate that offers the reader three reasons to click on the email, and is likely to generate high open rates.

So, to avoid common mistakes, incorporate the best practices from the previous section and employ A/B testing and web analytics to guide you. This will help you craft excellent pre-headers for higher open rates.

The following table compares the key engagement metrics between clickbait-style pre-headers and concise pre-headers.

4 – A/B Testing Email Pre-headers

“Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your marketing.”

— Mike Volpe

Creating effective pre-headers has no one-size-fits-all approach. You need to adapt your design to include the best practice elements that resonate the most with your specific audience.

This is where A/B testing of email pre-headers comes in.

A/B testing allows you to test different pre-header variations and identify what works best for their readers. To do this:

1. Send the same email content to your readers with varying pre-headers. For instance, one pre-header with a CTA and another with curious language.
2. Compare the performance indicators of each variation, such as open rates and read-throughs, to determine the best pre-header style for your audience.
3. Figure out why different pre-headers generate different results by using web analytics and drawing inference. For instance, the various geographical locations of your readers and demographics.
4. Create data-driven templates for future email campaigns based on the insights generated from the web analytics.

Implementing A/B testing insights in your email pre-headers not only improves engagement levels and open rates but also helps with SEO optimization.

Expert Tip: Use A/B testing to also improve your email content to enhance read-throughs on top of achieving high open rates from data-driven pre-headers.

Search engines like Google monitor bounce rates and take high open rates as a signal of quality content, which boosts your domain ranking. So, improving your pre-header also benefits your reputation as a website.

Watch the video below to get insights of how Google ranks websites.

5 – Examples of Effective Email Pre-headers

We’ve looked at the importance of pre-headers in boosting engagement and open rates plus best practices for ensuring optimization. Now, let’s borrow a leaf from the pros with these perfectly-executed pre-header examples from their email outlets.

• Jet Blue: “Ready for takeoff? Don’t forget to check in!”
  Jet Blue’s pre-header uses a clever play on words to pique the reader’s interest, while also reminding them of an essential action item for their upcoming flight. By incorporating a clear CTA, the pre-header entices users to open the email and take action, ultimately improving user journey and brand growth.
• Grammarly: “Spice up your writing with Gingerbread Lattes!”
  Grammarly’s pre-header engages users by tying in a popular holiday drink with their writing product. This pre-header personalizes the user experience and entices users to open the email to discover how they can improve their writing process.
• HubSpot: “Behind on your work? Let’s get back on track.”
  HubSpot’s pre-header acknowledges the user’s challenges and offers a solution. By utilizing a concise message and emphasizing personalization, the pre-header shows that the company understands the user’s needs and offers a helpful solution.
• Kind of a Big Deal: 50% off this weekend. But only the first 100 customers.
  The pre-header effectively creates a sense of urgency while concisely highlighting their value proposition—50% off for the weekend. This entices readers to act quickly and open the email to learn how to be among the lucky first 100 customers.
• MailerCheck: Sign up for free and verify emails in minutes!
  This pre-header does a fantastic job of concisely highlighting the value propositions—free sign-ups, and an instant application. It also serves as a CTA that entices readers to take action and open the email.

The table below showcases examples of effective email pre-headers used by different companies to engage their audience and improve open rates.

6 – User Journey and Brand Growth Through Email Pre-headers

“Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

— Damon Richards

Beyond improving email open rates, incorporating effective email pre-headers into your email marketing strategy also enhances the overall user journey and promotes brand growth.

A perfect example of this is a pre-header that accurately reflects the content and message of your email. It sets the right expectations for your readers from the very beginning and primes your content for positive reception.

The result is a delightful user experience that fosters trust, where your audience believes what you say, and sets you up for brand loyalty.

Every marketer and entrepreneur understands that your most loyal readers are your best advocates and they’ll help you expand your reach through word-of-mouth.

Therefore, it’s crucial to avoid making over-the-top claims and promises with your pre-headers, and ensure you deliver each time to enhance the user experience and foster brand-boosting loyalty.

Discover More Insights for Your Email Campaign With OnDigitalMarketing

So, that’s the key to higher open rates with email pre-headers.

But there’s still so much to explore about email marketing and we at OnDigitalMarketing would be delighted to share with you our insights.

For instance, how do you entice readers to subscribe to your mailing list? 

Curated top stories? Insider tips? How-to guides? Deals with partner websites?

77.1% of respondents from our recent survey love signing up for how-to guides.Discover more by signing up for our monthly email today. You’ll also get instant access to our College Textbook for Digital Marketing and Social Media.

Imagine you’ve been onboarded onto a company as an email marketing specialist.

The head of marketing explains that they haven’t been running successful email marketing campaigns and they require you to identify the cause of the problem and find a solution.

Once you gain access to their email analytics, you immediately identify the problem. The reason why their email campaigns are performing so poorly is because they have a high email bounce rate.

At the end of the quarter, you explain to your boss and your stakeholders how you were able to tackle the bounce back issue and double the return on investment of your email campaigns.

You can’t help but feel a deep sense of accomplishment and pride at how impressed they are with the progress you made in such a short period of time.

It can be extremely challenging to reap the benefits of your marketing efforts if your emails are not delivered to your customers in the first place.

So, how do you handle such a situation like a pro?

You just need to implement the strategies we discuss here and you never have to worry about this happening to you again. In addition, we will explore:

• • A hypothetical scenario that breaks down the concept of email bounce back 
  • The two types of bounce backs and the reasons why they occur
  • A comprehensive list of preventative measures that you can take to curb bounce back

Let’s jump into the definition of email bounce back and the impact it can have on your brand.

1 – Understanding Email Bounce Backs

Email bounce back, also known as a bounced email or a bounce message, refers to a situation where an email fails to be delivered to the intended recipient and is returned to the sender. 

When an email bounces back, it indicates that there was a problem or failure in delivering the message.

As you can imagine, a high email bounce back is a nightmare for marketers because it damages the sender’s reputation, increases the likelihood of being blacklisted, and provides a negative customer experience.

But, how severe are the consequences?

Well, let’s consider a hypothetical scenario involving a fictional brand called “Juice Electronics” and its email marketing campaign. 

Juice Electronics’ digital marketer, Fred, regularly sends promotional emails to their customer base to announce new product releases, exclusive offers, and updates. 

However, one day when Fred went to check on his brand’s email deliverability, he noticed an issue with their email list: a significant number of bounce backs were occurring.

Fred knew this was not ideal, and he had to immediately identify the root of the problem before his brand faced the following challenges:

• Negative customer experience: When customers signed up to receive emails from Juice Electronics, they expected to receive relevant and timely information.
  However, if their email addresses are invalid or non-existent, they will repeatedly receive bounce back notifications instead of the intended emails.
  This can lead to frustration and a negative perception of the brand, with customers regarding the brand as disorganized or unprofessional, impacting their trust and loyalty.
• Brand perception and credibility: If customers repeatedly encounter email delivery issues, it may lead them to question Juice Electronics’ competence, reliability, or attention to detail.
  This negative perception can extend beyond email interactions and potentially impact the brand’s overall reputation in the market. Just look at what happened to Dell when they didn’t listen to and address their customers’ concerns.
• Decreased engagement and conversions: Bounce backs prevent the delivery of important marketing messages to customers who genuinely want to receive them.
  As a result, Juice Electronics misses out on opportunities to engage with its audience, showcase new products, and drive conversions.
  Without the ability to reach customers effectively, the brand’s marketing efforts are significantly hindered, resulting in reduced sales and revenue.

To mitigate the impact of email bounce backs on his brand, Fred implemented effective email list hygiene practices, such as regularly verifying and updating email addresses, removing invalid or non-responsive contacts, and monitoring email bounce rates.

These practices helped Juice Electronics’ domain maintain a positive sender reputation, increase deliverability, and enhance customer experience. 

Additionally, adopting best practices for email marketing, such as permission-based marketing and providing valuable content, helped rebuild trust and engagement with their target audience.

Definition: Email sender reputation refers to the credibility score given by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to entities that send emails, determining their email deliverability rates.

2 – Types of Bounce Backs

Source: mailtrap.io

“Know thy enemy and in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.”

— Sun Tzu

As we have established, email bounce back is the biggest enemy of your email marketing efforts. 

So, in order to prepare to win any future battles with email deliverability, you must understand the two types of bounce backs:

Hard Bounce

A hard bounce refers to a permanent failure of an email message to be delivered to the recipient’s email address. 

Hard bounces can have a significant impact on your brand’s reputation and deliverability because they suggest outdated or incorrect email lists, potential spamming practices, or poor list hygiene. 

Persistent hard bounces can lead to blacklisting, decreased engagement, and lower deliverability rates.

There are several reasons why a hard bounce can occur, including:

• Invalid email address: The email address may contain typographical errors, such as missing or misplaced characters, or an incorrect domain name. For example, a customer may accidentally write their email address as “[email protected]”.
• Non-existent email address: The email address may have been deactivated or deleted by the recipient, making it no longer valid. Usually, this issue comes back with a bounce message labeled “UNKNOWN_USER.”
• Blocked email address: Think of email service providers (ESPs) as gatekeepers who run every domain trying to send emails to their users through a filter.
  If your sender’s address is not up to par with their standards, they may suspend your domain or blacklist you, preventing successful email delivery.
• Blocked by spam filters: The email may be flagged as spam by the recipient’s email server or spam filters, leading to a hard bounce.
  Spam filters are designed to identify and filter out unsolicited or unwanted emails that exhibit certain characteristics commonly associated with spam such as a broadcasted email with a purely financial motive.

The table below outlines common causes of hard bounce (discussed above) and ways to solve them.

To maintain a healthy sender reputation and improve email deliverability, it is important to regularly clean and update email lists, remove invalid addresses, and take appropriate actions to address hard bounces.

“A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a bigger list that isn’t committed.”

— Ramsay Leimenstoll

Soft Bounce

A soft bounce refers to a temporary failure of an email message to be delivered to the recipient’s email address. 

Unlike a hard bounce, which indicates a permanent failure, a soft bounce suggests that the delivery issue may be temporary and that subsequent delivery attempts may be successful.

Some common reasons why a soft bounce may occur include:

• Mailbox is full: The recipient’s email inbox is at maximum capacity, and no further messages can be accepted until it is cleared out.
  If you keep getting this as the reason for the bounce back, we recommend removing the email address from your list as it might mean that the customer abandoned it and the emails kept piling up.
• Temporary server issue: The recipient’s email server may be experiencing temporary technical difficulties or undergoing maintenance, preventing the email from being delivered.
  This type of issue usually returns a bounce message labeled MAILBOX_MISCONFIGURATION, which means the recipient is not receiving any mail at the time.
• Message size exceeded: When a soft bounce occurs due to the message size exceeding the recipient’s email server’s limits, it means that the total size of the email, including any attachments, is larger than what the server can accept.
  Email servers typically impose limits on the maximum message size to ensure efficient email processing and storage.
  For example, Gmail’s maximum limit is 25 MB, which means you can have more than one attachment as long as they all add up to less than the limit.

By addressing soft bounces promptly and taking appropriate measures, you can maintain a healthy email deliverability rate, increase email engagement, and ensure successful email communication.

Bonus Idea: Use analytics to identify patterns in email bounces and optimize your marketing efforts for better email communication and customer reach.

3 – Step-By-Step Guide for Preventing Email Bounce Backs

Now that you understand the enemy, you’re better equipped to take the necessary measures needed in order to overcome email bounce back. 

We have compiled a comprehensive step-by-step guide plush with resources that you can use to overcome email bounce back. Let’s get straight into it:

1. Build a quality email list: It goes without saying that it’s optimal to only have people who want to be on your email list on it.
   Use organic methods such as offering a lead magnet to acquire email addresses from interested individuals who willingly provide their contact information to ingest more of your content.
   Moreover, to maintain a high-quality email list, implement a double opt-in process where subscribers confirm their email addresses to ensure accuracy and engagement.
2. Monitor and maintain a healthy sender reputation: Each ESP tracks your domain or IP address to determine your sender reputation and uses a unique algorithm to assign a reputation score.
   It’s crucial that you check your sender reputation regularly using reputable email deliverability monitoring tools such as Sender Score to provide you with insights into your reputation score, email success rate, and other metrics.
   Take necessary steps to improve your sender reputation if it’s low, such as addressing high email bounce rates, reducing spam complaints, and maintaining a consistent sending history.
3. Optimize email content for engagement: Next, you want to make content that is so valuable and educational that your customers will keep opening and engaging with it, ultimately boosting your sender reputation.
   For example, by crafting compelling subject lines and preview text using design thinking principles, you can improve email open rates and entice recipients to engage with your emails.
4. Regularly clean and maintain your email list: Keep your list squeaky clean by removing invalid or inactive email addresses every three months to maintain list hygiene and reduce bounce rates.
   Use email verification services or tools such as ZeroBounce to validate and verify email addresses.
   Implement re-engagement campaigns for subscribers who haven’t interacted with your emails for a long time. This helps identify inactive addresses and allows recipients to opt-out if they are no longer interested.

Below is a table summarizing measures you can employ to increase your email deliverability.

If you incorporate the following practices into your email marketing strategy, you will maintain a high sender reputation and increase your email deliverability. 

However, one of the primary reasons why you should strive to maintain a low bounce rate is to prevent ISPs or anti-spam organizations from blacklisting your domain and IP address.

Being blacklisted can have severe consequences on your email deliverability, as your emails may be blocked by multiple ISPs, leading to widespread delivery failures. 

Removing your IP or domain from blacklists is a time-consuming and challenging process that causes significant disruption to your email marketing efforts.

“A bad email reputation is like a hangover: hard to get rid of and it makes everything else hurt.”

— Christ Marriott

Expert Tip: Analyzing bounce backs can help you identify issues and optimize your email communication to improve engagement and open rates. Use analytics to track patterns and trends.

Reverse the Bounce and Conquering Email Marketing

Well, there you have it. It’s incredible what you can achieve by educating yourself about the best way to handle seemingly complicated subjects.

As we have discussed, tackling email bounce back may seem like a daunting task, but it’s actually quite simple once you understand what it is, the two types of bounce backs, and effective preventive measures.

At OnlineDigitalMarketing, we provide an evidence-based, tactical education system in place that breaks down digital marketing concepts into easily digestible and actionable chunks that you can use to enhance your career as a digital marketer and an entrepreneur. 

Our methods have been taught across 212 countries, to 54 companies, and in four undergraduate universities, resulting in $350 million in revenue generated for our clients.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter today to gain exclusive access to insider tips, one-of-a-kind content, and evidence-based worksheets and textbooks.

Unlike social media platforms that can abruptly shut down or close your account, leaving you with no followers, your email subscriber list is something you can hold dear and nurture with care.

Now, here’s the catch—keeping your subscribers engaged and active can be a little tricky. 

Did you know that as a digital marketer, it’s projected that you’ll lose around 25 percent of your email database every year? Some of your subscribers could decide to bid farewell and hit that unsubscribe button, while others may become inactive and show little interest in your emails.

This is all part of the dynamic nature of email marketing, but OnDigitalMarketing is here to help you navigate these challenges and find effective solutions.

Pro Tip: Through re-engagement, you can rekindle the interest of your lost customers and convert them into loyal supporters of your brand.

In our guide today, we’ll take you on a journey through the essential steps and techniques to effectively implement email retargeting campaigns. 

We’ll show you how to gracefully guide your lost customers along their user journey, reignite their interest, and ultimately drive those sought-after conversions.

“Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches—at scale.”

— David Newman

Throughout this guide, you’ll have the opportunity to learn:

• The pivotal role of email retargeting in re-engaging and converting lost customers.
• How to efficiently segment your audience based on their behavior and interactions.
• Strategies for crafting irresistible email retargeting campaigns that capture attention.

So buckle up and get ready for some email marketing magic with these five email retargeting strategies.

1 – Master the Art of Email List Segmentation

To make your email retargeting campaigns a smashing success, get friendly and familiar with your audience and slice the campaigns into segments based on their behavior and interactions.

Learn how you can segment your email list in the video below:

Sending them generic emails as a re-conversion tactic never works; it will only cost you more time, with no tangible results.

So correctly segment your customers and figure out what has made them disengage.

The disengagement could stem from many reasons. Maybe they signed up to snag a special offer or gift, and once they received what they wanted, their interest waned.

Some of them might have added items to their cart, only to be deterred by pricing, payment methods, or a clunky checkout process, causing them to abandon ship.

And let’s not forget about those who simply forget to check their emails. It happens. In fact, according to a recent study by Mailbird on email use, the results revealed that the average person leaves approximately 35% of their emails unread.

The good news is that you have the power to dig into why your subscribers are no longer engaging with you. 

Many email service providers offer detailed analytics, allowing you to see who opens your emails, who hits the unsubscribe button, and various other nifty stats.

Example: Moosend, for instance, provides access to comprehensive email analytics that offer valuable insights into crucial metrics such as email opens, clicks, bounces, custom event tracking, and predicted demographics data.

Now, if you notice an entire demographic is disengaged, that’s a clear sign you’re not addressing their pain points. It’s time to take action and rectify the situation.

By tailoring your messages to specific customer segments, you can work some magic and bring back these lost customers, converting them into happy buyers. 

Here’s your winning strategy:

1 – Segment Like a Pro

Divide your audience into neat little segments based on their actions and preferences. 

Think about what products they’re interested in, their browsing history, previous purchases, or those pesky abandoned carts. 

By doing this segmentation dance, you’ll create email campaigns that speak directly to each customer’s unique needs and interests. For example, you can send personalized recommendations based on their previous interactions.

We love how Crate & Barrel has used this clever strategy in this re-engagement email. 

By recommending to their subscribers a curated collection of items that harmoniously complement each other and align with their recent purchases, they’ve made it easier for subscribers to re-engage and even make another order.

2 – Dive Deep Into Your Customers’ Data and Analytics

Take a deep dive into your customer data and uncover some hidden gems. Analyze their browsing history, purchase patterns, and how they’ve interacted with your website or app. 

Look for patterns and pinpoint customers who’ve shown interest but haven’t sealed the deal or explored further. 

With data and analytics tools on your side, you’ll unearth some valuable insights about your audience.

Below are two fantastic data and analytics tools with valuable insights that can help you get to know your customers better:

• Google Analytics: A staple tool for many website owners that offers detailed information about website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates.
  You can track key metrics such as the number of visitors, their demographics, popular landing pages, and even their journey through your site.
• Kissmetrics: A digital tool that focuses on customer behavior and provides insights into customer journeys, conversions, and customer retention.
  It tracks individual user actions, allowing you to create personalized experiences based on their specific behaviors.

3 – Take a Walk in Your Customer’s Digital Shoes

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and stroll through their typical journey on your website or app. Identify those key moments when they tend to lose interest or abandon ship. 

Armed with this knowledge, you can target specific stages of your customer’s journey with emails that hit the right notes. 

Think of nurturing emails that educate and guide those cart abandoners back to the checkout.

Remember, it’s way more cost-effective to re-engage inactive customers than to convert new cold leads.

But here’s the thing—you need to think strategically about the timeframe for inactivity. The duration depends entirely on your company and its dynamics:

• If you run a grocery business where customers typically make weekly purchases, you may want to wait no longer than a month before reaching out.
• But if your business only requires customers to check in once every month or two, you might give them a breather of three or four months before deeming them inactive.

And here’s a clever re-engagement move: If your clients previously engaged when they abandoned their cart, why not send them an email asking if they forgot something? It’s a friendly nudge that can reignite their interest in a jiffy.

Remember: Segmenting your subscribers and crafting personalized re-engagement strategies will breathe new life into your email marketing efforts. Say goodbye to generic emails and hello to a world where your messages hit the right spot every time.

2 – Elevate Your Online Marketing Game With Captivating Email Retargeting Campaigns

Crafting captivating email retargeting campaigns is a game-changer when it comes to re-engaging and converting your lost customers.

Email retargeting campaigns are all about re-engaging with subscribers who have previously interacted with your brand but have not yet taken the desired action.

Source: brevo.com

The first step you want to take is to come up with an objective for your campaign. 

Consider these three questions to get started: 

1. What does customer engagement mean to you? It’s all about defining what actions indicate meaningful interaction with your emails.
   Do you want to focus on open rates, responses, or maybe the traffic generated from email clicks? You get to decide what really matters to you and your campaign.
2. How much customer engagement do you want to drive? Put a measurable goal in place, like aiming for one out of every ten subscribers to respond to your emails.
   Quantifying your expectations helps you track progress and see how well your campaign is doing.
3. Which other channels do you want to integrate with your email campaign? Think outside the inbox. Consider how you can combine email with other channels to boost your customer engagement.
   Social media, your website, or even offline events can all play a role in amplifying the impact of your campaign.

Source: facebook.com

And with the right strategies in place, you can create personalized and attention-grabbing email content that will reignite the interest of your customers, remind them of what they loved about your brand, and entice them to take action.

Here are four strategies that will make your email retargeting campaigns stand out and deliver fantastic results:

• Create personalized and relevant content: Tailor your emails to your customers based on their preferences and past interactions, creating a personal touch that will spark curiosity and re-ignite their engagement.
• Write catchy subject lines: Craft irresistible subject lines that instantly grab attention and motivate your customers to open your email. Use actionable language and create a sense of urgency or exclusivity that will entice them to explore further.
• Include compelling visuals: Incorporate visually appealing elements in your emails to make them visually engaging and convey emotions. Use high-quality images, videos, or GIFs that capture attention and support your message.
• Add a strong Call-to-Action (CTA): Include clear and persuasive CTAs that guide your recipients toward the desired action. Use action verbs and highlight the benefits they’ll gain from taking that step. You simply need to make it easy and appealing for them to engage.
  

  

  Source: thebudgetnista.com

  (An example of this strategy is showcased in this Path’s re-engagement email. The photo editing app has strategically displayed its latest features to attract the attention of inactive subscribers.The prominent ‘Update Now’ call-to-action (CTA) effectively grabs the users’ interest and encourages them to engage by urging them to update their app.)

And don’t forget the power of storytelling. Share your brand’s success stories, testimonials, or user-generated content that showcase the positive experiences other customers have had with your company. 

This will help to build trust and credibility, reminding your lost customers why they were initially drawn to your brand.

3 – Drive Maximum Impact Through Enhanced Email Deliverability and Timing

Crafting compelling content is vital for effective email retargeting campaigns, but don’t forget the equally crucial aspects of optimal email deliverability and timing.

High email deliverability will ensure that your emails actually reach your intended customers’ inboxes instead of being lost in spam folders or blocked by filters, increasing the chances of your retargeting messages being seen and acted upon by the customers.

Source: blog.hubspot.com

Timing is everything when it comes to effective email retargeting. By delivering your emails at the right time, you’ll catch your target customers’ attention when they’re most receptive. 

This increases their likelihood of engagement and conversion because your message aligns with their current needs and interests.

Consistently delivering emails at the right time and ensuring their successful delivery is also an excellent way to build trust and credibility with your customers. 

When you consistently dish out valuable and relevant content, your customers are more likely to engage with your emails, leading to stronger customer relationships and higher conversion rates.

Some of the actions you can take to ensure that your emails not only reach your customers’ inboxes but also arrive when they’re most likely to engage include:

• Maintaining a positive sender reputation by consistently engaging with your audience and avoiding spam trigger words in your email content.
• Using a reliable email deliverability tool like Mailflow or Mail Tester to test for any potential issues before sending your emails.
• Analyzing your customers’ time zones and past engagement data to determine the best times to send your emails.
• Taking advantage of audience segmentation to personalize your content based on the specific interests and behavior of different customer segments.

4 – Elevate Your Performance Through Automated and Personalized Email Retargeting

Despite email retargeting being a game-changing strategy to re-engage and convert lost customers, managing and personalizing your email campaigns can still be a bit overwhelming, especially when you have a large audience.

That’s where automation and personalization step in, making your life easier and your campaigns more effective.

“Personalization—it is not about first/last name. It’s about relevant content.”

— Dan Jak

Automated email retargeting allows you to reach out to your lost customers with personalized messages tailored to their specific preferences and past interactions. 

You’ll also be able to set up timely follow-up sequences, meaning that whenever a customer shows signs of disengagement, like not opening or clicking your emails, a carefully crafted series of messages will be triggered to re-engage them at the right moment.

Automation tools such as Mailchimp, EmailOctopus, and MailerLite, make all these possible. They’ll seamlessly integrate with your email marketing system, allowing you to set up triggered campaigns based on user actions or behaviors. 

That means less time spent manually following up and more time for you to do the things you love. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows just when to send the perfect email.

Segmenting your customers based on their preferences, purchase history, or browsing behavior will also let you create email content that speaks directly to them. 

Add in their names, offer personalized recommendations, and watch the magic happen. They’ll truly appreciate the extra care and attention.

And with dynamic retargeting (a powerful technique that allows you to personalize your ads or content based on the specific interests and behaviors of every customer), you can show different product recommendations, offers, or messages to your customers based on their interests. 

Here’s how dynamic retargeting works: Let’s say a customer visits your website and looks at a particular product, but doesn’t make a purchase. 

With dynamic retargeting, you can then show them ads or content that specifically feature that same product, reminding them of their interest and enticing them to come back and make the purchase. 

It’s like giving them a gentle nudge, saying, “Hey, remember that awesome product you liked? It’s still here, waiting for you.”

But dynamic retargeting goes beyond just showcasing the same product. It can also display related items or complementary products based on what your customer has shown interest in.

So if they were eyeing a pair of shoes, you can show them ads for matching accessories or even suggest similar styles they might love. It’s all about delivering a personalized experience that feels tailor-made just for them.

5 – Measure and Refine Your Email Retargeting Success

By measuring your email retargeting efforts, you gain valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not in your campaigns. 

Source: enginemailer.com

When you analyze your customers’ data, you’ll discover the strategies and content that truly resonate with them. 

You’ll find those magical elements that make your customers take notice, engage with your emails, and ultimately convert them into loyal customers. 

With these valuable insights, you can make informed decisions about your future email retargeting efforts. You’ll know what strategies to double down on and what aspects to improve or adjust. 

Measuring your email retargeting efforts also helps you to refine your strategy. With the consumer data you collect, you have the power to fine-tune and optimize your approach, bringing you closer to achieving your customer re-engagement and re-conversion goals.

One area of refinement is experimenting with different subject lines. The subject line is the first impression your email makes, so ensure that it’s tailored in a way that will grab your customers’ attention. 

Test different approaches, such as:

• Using personalized subject lines
• Creating a sense of urgency 
• Teasing intriguing content

Each variation allows you to understand what resonates best with your customers, increasing the chances of them opening your emails and reading your message.

Another aspect to refine is your call-to-action (CTA). The CTA is like a signpost that directs your customers toward the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or downloading a resource. 

Test different CTAs, such as using different wording, colors, or placement within your email. By experimenting and analyzing the data, you can discover the most compelling CTAs that drive clicks and conversions.

Design elements also play a vital role in capturing your customers’ attention and enhancing engagement. Test different email layouts, visuals, and typography to find the right combination that aligns with your brand and resonates with them. 

A visually appealing and well-structured email can make a significant impact on how your message is received and acted upon.

Check out how attractive this re-engagement email from BirchBox is. They’ve even made it more captivating by presenting their subscribers with two enticing options, creating a highly rewarding avenue for re-engagement.

Remember, each adjustment and refinement brings you one step closer to crafting the perfect recipe for re-engaging your lost customers and boosting conversions. 

It’s an iterative process where you learn from the data, adapt your strategy, and optimize your email retargeting efforts to create a truly impactful campaign.

Consider the following tips to effectively evaluate your performance and make data-driven improvements: 

• Track key metrics: Keep an eye on important numbers, such as open rates, click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, and revenue generated from your email retargeting campaigns. These metrics hold the key to understanding how well your campaigns are performing.
• Analyze segment performance: Take a closer look at how different customer segments are responding to your campaigns. Identify those high-engagement segments and adjust your targeting strategy to better cater to their unique characteristics and behaviors.
• Continuous optimization: Small tweaks can lead to big improvements, so keep iterating and improving your campaigns like a true marketing maestro. Adjust your messaging, timing, and personalization to truly resonate with your target audience.
• Take note of your customer’s feedback: Gather your customers’ insights directly through surveys or feedback forms. Their input is pure gold, since it will help you refine your email retargeting approach based on their preferences, expectations, and pain points.

The table below provides an overview of key metrics and their optimal or benchmark numbers for measuring the success of email retargeting campaigns.

Take Action and Reclaim Lost Opportunities With Email Retargeting

Your re-engagement email sequence is like a missing puzzle piece that completes the whole picture. It’s designed to win back those customers who may have slipped through the cracks and missed out on your previous offers. 

By implementing these effective email retargeting strategies, you have a chance to reignite your customers’ interests and secure those sales that might have otherwise been lost.

However, remember that email retargeting is just a piece of the puzzle when it comes to driving sales to your website. 

There are plenty of other powerful strategies that can work hand in hand to amplify your results, including social media engagement, content marketing, and remarketing ads.

So if you’re eager to stay one step ahead of the competition and elevate your digital marketing skills, OnDigitalMarketing has something special for you.

Sign up for our email newsletter, and you’ll gain access to the latest insights, exclusive tips, and valuable information about our upcoming digital marketing courses.

Join our community of ambitious marketers and let us guide you towards digital marketing greatness.

What do you think of this email subject line?

“I will be outspent.”

It’s indeed a peculiar one, but what’s really fascinating about it is that it’s one of the best-performing subject lines that drove funding for President Obama’s successful re-election campaign.

The subject line was among 13 enigmatic headlines that piqued curiosity among readers, resulting in increased email open rates, read-throughs, and conversions.

Was it made on a hunch? Not at all. It was the result of incessant testing that revealed how novelty in emails wears off and one needs variety to keep them exciting.

It’s insightful ideas like these that got us excited at OnDigitalMarketing about powerful email campaigns. Since 2012, we’ve been educating marketers and entrepreneurs on email best practices, including knowing your audience, timing, and compelling content.

We’ve gathered more information on these best practices, and as we delve into them, you’ll learn:

• How knowing your audience helps you craft engaging content
• How to adhere to email standards
• Why your timing affects your email open rates
• How to create engaging content and how A/B tests help
• How to conduct tracking and analysis using performance indicators

1 – Know Your Audience

Email campaigns are one of the most effective and widely-used digital marketing strategies by businesses today.

However, a powerful campaign needs more than just flooding your subscriber list. You need to truly understand your audience and offer value by catering to their individual needs.

From your subject line and introductions to the actual content, your audience needs to get the sense that you’re addressing their problems specifically, and offer solutions or insights that make reading your email worthwhile.

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product and service fits him and sells itself.”

— Peter F. Drucker

So, how do you go about creating this sense? Netflix has an idea we can learn from.

Amidst the recent explosion of streaming services, Netflix realized that they needed to do more to stand out. A simple, “Top movies to watch this week,” in their email subject lines just wasn’t enough.

They needed a more convincing way of sounding like they understood their audience’s problem of sifting through endless content to find that binge-worthy show. They needed a more targeted approach based on their subscriber profiles.

This insight inspired Netflix’s shift to hyper–targeted email campaigns guided by one unifying philosophy of, “Let the subscribers experience the customer journey differently.”

Under this strategy, their emails featured segmentation subject lines such as, “Viewers who liked this show also watched… ” and “Top picks for you.”

From these subject lines alone, you get the sense that Netflix is trying to help you find the perfect show specifically for your demographic and interests. This makes the emails more compelling and significantly enhances their open rates.

The emails also featured personalization elements such as subscriber names and the use of a second-person voice, which allowed a deeper level of engagement for readers and helped to build trust.

The following video by Seth Godwin explains how you can find your audience and win their trust.

Expert Tip: Emails with personalized subject lines are 26 percent more likely to be opened, and those with personalized content have a 29 percent higher unique open rate.

2 – Follow Email Standards

You’re probably wondering, “Don’t I need to stand out?” And you’re right, but within the limits of email standards, such as the CAN-SPAM Act. Adhering to these directives will help you avoid the disheartening spam folder and blocked list and keep you from violating the law.

They also help you achieve email optimization and deliverability by creating a positive user experience for your target audience that leads to brand recognition and trust.

Therefore, your emails will need to feature the following:

• Clear Identification of Advertisement: You must let your audience know that your email is of a promotional nature to inform any decision they make as a result of your content. This creates transparency for your brand in the minds of your audience.
• Conspicuous Opt-Out Mechanism: You must include a clear way of unsubscribing from your emails. This prevents the negative associations of harassment while giving you the ability to review your email engagement levels and improve.
• Prompt Processing of Opt-Out Requests: You must provide quick unsubscriptions upon request. This demonstrates your respect for your subscribers’ preferences and helps you maintain a positive brand image.
• Truthful Email Subject Lines: Your subject lines must accurately reflect your email content to avoid duping your readers into opening your emails under false pretenses. This helps you build trust with your audience and enhances open rates.

The resulting trust and positive brand image of compiling with the above standards will optimize your email outreach and help with your subscriber list growth.

Bonus Idea: Utilize marketing automation to streamline your email campaigns and ensure compliance with email standards for improved deliverability and engagement.

3 – Your Timing Matters

Is there a perfect time to send a promo email, and does the day of the week matter?

The answer is, yes, but it also depends. Timing is another aspect of personalization that influences email deliverability, but it’s also subject to your audience.

Take a look at this marketing email from Harpoon Brewery:

Happy Birthday, Carly!

May your day be filled with birthday wishes and (most importantly) your fridge full of Harpoon beer! Happy birthday from all of us at Harpoon Brewery.

It’s an excellent example of perfect timing (right on Carly’s birthday) and a demonstration of how timing is a crucial part of email personalization. As such, it’s highly engaging and likely to get a read from Carly.

Even so, there are general rules of thumb regarding timing to keep in mind and help you achieve email optimization:

There is a general weekly pattern for emails and their open rates. Monday is a tough day for emails with readers going through a wave of emails from over the weekend. Your chances of read-throughs are modest due to the backlog.

Tuesdays are the best days for emails with open rates at 18.3 percent. Your subscribers are recovered from the weekend by then with Monday serving as their transition back into work mode.

Going deeper than the day of the week, the hours with the best average open rates are between 8:00 AM–12:00 PM. These times are generally the start of most work shifts and it’s a common routine to check your email at the start of your day.

So, as a rule of thumb, the prime time for sending emails is typically on Tuesdays between the hours of 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM.

The good news is that automation allows you to schedule your emails according to this pattern and factor in personalization aspects such as birthdays and other special days. This optimizes your email marketing for better open rates and enhances engagement for more read-throughs.

You also need to consider the frequency of your emails. Even the best day and timing won’t be effective if your subscribers feel inundated with emails. They will likely ignore them or worse, unsubscribe.

On the other hand, too few emails won’t be effective at creating awareness for your brand and generating interest in your products.

Expert Tip: To find the perfect balance for your audience, conduct an A/B test on frequency and use the resulting email metrics for insight.

The table below highlights different types of emails across five industries and their recommended frequency.

4 – Deliver Compelling Content

Compelling content is at the heart of powerful email campaigns. It’s the only way to generate read-throughs in today’s distracted society and drive conversions.

Your email content needs to be well-written and feature engaging elements such as captivating images and videos as well as personalization.

Netflix’s approach to compelling email content is a classic example of this strategy with its dynamic use of landing cards—high-quality images of their most popular shows.

Beyond inviting and personalized subject lines such as, “Enjoy Netflix Again,” the emails feature landing cards from top trending shows. And what’s really exciting is that the images are different for every subscriber as they’re based on insights into their tastes and preferences.

This curated approach combines the power of visual stimulation and personalization to realize remarkably compelling email content that’s sure to get read-throughs and conversions.

Another important consideration for compelling content is viewing optimization, where your emails display perfectly over various devices with different screen sizes.

All that effort of incorporating visuals, personalization, and fantastic writing won’t matter if the emails appear awkwardly on some devices.

Tip: Prioritize personalization, segmentation, and optimized design to increase engagement and response rates for your email marketing campaigns.

5 – Track and Analyze Your Results

“Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway.”

— Geoffrey Moore

What are your average open rates and dwell times for emails? How many conversions do you get per 1,000 emails?

If you can’t answer these questions objectively, your email campaign is at risk of missing the mark for deliverability and business growth. 

Email analytics help you track key performance indicators, such as open rates, dwell time, and opt-out rates, enabling you to identify improvement points and make changes—for instance, tweaking your layout and subject lines to enhance the overall engagement of your emails.

Case in point, Voices.com recently evaluated their 50,000 monthly drip emails by organizing screenshots of what their emails look like in one document.

Immediately, it was apparent that the sequence was out of order and a major drawback for engagement levels. The review also highlighted the generic nature of a [email protected] sender email address and its tendency to be overlooked.

This was the first change: moving from the generic email address to a more personal “Customer Experience Manager Silvana Cordoba.” This switch alone improved the average open rate by 4.93 percent.

The other change was correcting the order of emails and in some instances, cutting out entire messages to minimize email frequency and maximize the value of each post.

Without this analysis, Voice.com wouldn’t have noticed the impact on engagement from a generic sender address and disordered emails. As such, they wouldn’t have experienced a significant increase in their open rates.

That said, A/B tests offer plenty of insights for your emails with regard to subject lines, calls-to-action, and content. Simply test different variations of these elements to find what resonates with your audience and maximize your return on investment (ROI).

Were they any changes to your key performance indicators with different versions of subject lines, calls-to-actions, and content? What are the analytical conclusions based on the implemented changes?

The table below showcases the performance of different email campaigns, presenting key metrics such as subscriber list growth, email deliverability, click-through rates, conversions, and open rates.

Learn About Creating Powerful Email Campaigns and More From OnDigitalMarketing

So, there are five email best practices to inspire your campaign.

And there are plenty more insightful ideas to explore with OnDigitalMarketing.

From user empathy, to SEO and digital strategy, to social media execution, our College Textbook will guide you in making smart decisions and grow your brand.

The coursework mixes the practical day-to-day challenges of building a successful online brand with a groundwork theory in marketing.Feel free to drop us a line to learn more about our program and don’t forget to sign up for monthly pro tips, toolkits, and curated news.