The Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing
We are now using email more than ever before.
Back in 2017, people sent around 269 billion emails each day. In 2022, that figure has hit 333.2 billion — and it is projected to grow to 376.4 billion in 2025.
Email has always been an awkward marketing medium. If you add emojis, casual language, or exclamation marks, your email will come across as very informal. On the flip side, many marketers err on the side of caution and end up coming across as cold or spammy.
Bad email marketing also has consequences. If you don't follow email etiquette rules carefully, you can damage your website domain's health (and thus, your wider Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts).
To help you master email etiquette and protect your domain's health, this article will cover the do's and don'ts of email marketing.
Email Do’s
Here's a list of things you want to make sure you are doing as an email marketer:
- Use a recognizable sender email address that's similar to your brand name. This way, recipients will recognize who the email is from.
- Check if your emails are going to spam with isNOTspam.com. To use this tool, add the email address isNOTspam.com gives you to your marketing list (everyone will get a unique address). Then, press "view your report." isNOTspam.com will run several authentication tests and tell you if your email passed or failed.
- Don't send emails more frequently than every two business days. Doing so can land you in the spam folder and encourage people to unsubscribe.
- Monitor your email marketing metrics carefully. This includes your bounce rate, open rate, deliverability rate, Click-Through Rate (CTR), list growth rate, and conversion rate.
- Use a concise subject line that's easy to read. Try to use everyday language and stick to 60 characters or less (roughly nine words). Make sure you also choose a subject line that reflects your email's body text.
- Check your spelling and grammar carefully with professional tools like Grammarly and Writer.com. Spelling and grammatical errors can turn potential customers away, so double check for them.
- Use mailtester.com to verify the addresses on your email list. This will help you spot invalid email addresses so you can remove them.
- Make your unsubscribe button easy to find. This is mandated by the CAN-SPAM act.
- Monitor your results and check you are targeting the right audience. It may help to build an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to represent your audience.
- Stay within your Email Service Provider's (ESP's) daily allotment. Depending on your ESP, you may incur additional charges or penalties if you exceed your allotment.
- Stay up to date with email marketing best practices. Best practices in emails change with new data and privacy legislation. Make a habit of checking if your marketing is compliant every quarter. This is also the kind of task a marketing project manager can help you with.
Email Don’ts
Here's a list of things you do not want to do as an email marketer:
- Write your entire subject line in CAPS LOCK. You may annoy recipients and trigger spam filters.
- Use exclamation points in your subject line. According to a study of 115,886,636 emails from the book Email Subject Lines That Actually Work, the open rate for subject lines with exclamation points is 45.5%, compared to the average of 51.9%.
- Use common spam filter trigger words. Examples include "free," "only," "winner," "money," "billion," and "price."
- Use more than one Call-To-Action (CTA). Instead, direct all your readers towards a single CTA that supports your overall email marketing goal.
- Use large images or embedded forms. These will load slowly and frustrate readers. They are also not particularly mobile-friendly (and many, many people read their emails on a mobile-device).
- Attach files. Doing so will activate spam filters that are trying to protect email users from ransomware.
- Use any dynamic scripts within your email. Dynamic scripts include Flash and JavaScript.
- Use too many bright fonts, underscores, or bolded fonts. These are great attention-getters, but they can also make your email look overwhelming, unprofessional, and spammy.
- Purchase email lists from a third-party provider. Using third-party provided email lists can damage your sender's reputation. You may also be fined for sending unconsenting parties unsolicited emails.
- Mislead people with your email header or the "from" field. These practices are considered "email spoofing," and they can damage your sender's reputation and land your email in the spam folder.
Email Communication Etiquette and The Role It Plays In Your Marketing
Email marketing can be very lucrative for brands. Statistics from the Data and Marketing Association in the U.K shows that the Return on Investment (ROI) from email marketing is over 3510%.
Following the email do's and don'ts in this article will help you maximize your reach with email marketing.
If you'd like to boost your marketing further, reach out to Matter Made. Matter Made helps eCommerce brands leverage Product-Led Growth (PLG), RevOps, demand generation, and more.
Contact Matter Made today!
