A Small Business Guide to Sending Effective Marketing Emails

How to send effective marketing emails

The following steps will guide you in creating effective email campaigns that drive the engagement you want to see.

1. Sign up for an email service provider.
2. Develop your contact database.
3. Get permission.
4. Determine the types of marketing emails you should send.
5. Understand your audience.
6. Be authentic.
7. Provide valuable content.
8. Monitor your success.

1. Sign up for a reputable email service provider.

Before you so much as draft a marketing email, you should sign up with a top email service provider (ESP) and implement its email marketing platform. These products are fundamental to successful email marketing campaigns, as they both send emails and track key campaign metrics. They give you the tools to execute and analyze email sends — all from within the same interface.

To start your search for email marketing software on the right foot, determine your email marketing goals. Then, figure out your budget and the features you most need from your ESP. Read reviews about each vendor’s ease of use, security features, customer support, integrations, and tools for email marketing automation and data tracking. Look for a reliable solution that promises delivery on at least 98 percent of emails. Hint: You can’t go wrong with one of our picks for the best email marketing services.

Once you’ve found a budget-friendly ESP that checks all your boxes, you’re ready to sign up. Soon you’ll be drafting and sending emails to your target audience.

2. Develop your contact database.

As you prepare to send regular marketing emails, you need to follow email marketing list management best practices. The first step is to send a welcome email to customers who have signed up for your emails. The process continues with giving customers the option to receive more or fewer emails from you. Next, it moves on to what might be the most important step: removing unnecessary email addresses.

Duplicate, incorrect or invalid addresses are inevitable. On an ongoing basis, you should delete any such addresses from your list alongside those that result in soft or hard bounces. The more of these email addresses you keep on your list, the lower your sender reputation will become. And with a lower reputation comes a greater likelihood of your emails going to spam.

As you delete unnecessary email addresses from your list, look for contacts who haven’t been engaging with your emails recently. Isolate these contacts for re-engagement campaigns. Finally, ensure all your email sends have an obvious unsubscribe or preferences button.

3. Get permission.

This step is a legal requirement for email marketers. Consumers must opt-in to receive your emails. Otherwise, you risk making a significant email marketing mistake and having your emails labeled as spam (and thus never read). You might even accrue hefty fines under the CAN-SPAM Act.

This step is largely about convincing the consumer that your emails are worth subscribing to. So, spend some time honing your language and graphics for the permission request.

“Consumers respond best to personal, targeted [language], with a clear call-to-action and beautiful imagery,” said Kristien Matelski, content and PR manager at Vizion Interactive, a digital marketing agency.

The permission request doesn’t have to be dry and boring — this is the place to let your copywriters run free. Think personality, cleverness and short, punchy copy, but don’t overdo it.

“The No.1 thing businesses do wrong is overselling,” Matelski said. Explain why the consumer should want to read your emails and outline what you’ll be sending them so there won’t be any surprises.

4. Determine the types of marketing emails you should send.

With your ESP assembled and your mailing list put together, you can send all kinds of marketing emails. These can include emails announcing new content, product updates, events and business updates. Other marketing emails can confirm recent orders or form submissions, distribute newsletters, co-market another company, welcome subscribers or nurture leads.

5. Understand your audience.

Knowing who you’re emailing and why is almost as necessary as getting permission because not everyone is your target customer. Studying your audience will determine the nature of your content, how often you should send blasts and to whom you send which emails.

Your email campaigns will also depend on your business and what it offers. Jakub Kliszczak, who was a marketing specialist at CrazyCall (a business phone system company now known as Channels), said that their customers looked mainly for informational updates.

“We [sent] marketing emails whenever there [was] an important thing happening with our software,” he said. “We [gave] an in-depth explanation [but] put no effort into trying to push recipients into signing up for a trial. Yet we always [got] a handful of people who decided to check out the software.”

Pay attention to buying trends, demographics and customer feedback. If you lack customer feedback, consider sending out a survey to gather information on what your audience wants to see in your emails. Then, base your content on those responses. Fortunately, most email marketing solutions boast survey tools that make this process easy.

6. Be authentic.

Many companies fall into the pit of marketing for the sake of marketing. Rather, they should be putting effort into a campaign that means something to the business and its clientele. If you’re jumping into email marketing just to keep up with the Joneses, your consumers are going to sense the insincerity and unsubscribe.

Authentic and experiential marketing are more critical than ever. So, sit down and understand what your vision is and what you want each email campaign to accomplish. You may want to consider implementing triggered emails that only send based on customer actions.

“Marketing emails [should] always be useful,” said Ruggero Loda, founder and publisher of Running Shoes Guru. “Each email should have a goal for the sender and provide value to the reader.”

Speaking of value…

7. Provide valuable content.

It’s hard enough getting people to sign up for your emails; it’s even harder to get them to stay. As the saying goes, content is king. Make sure you’re sending personalized emails with content that is engaging and relevant to both your readers and your company.

“The more you can make the receiver feel wanted and like you actually know and care about them, the better response rates you’ll achieve,” said Matthew Tudge, digital marketing specialist at eProductivity Software.

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes and only send emails you would want to read. Also, keep them simple. Allie Danziger, former president and current board member of Integrate Agency, recalled a client who overloaded their emails with images and blocks of information — tucking their call-to-action below the fold. Her team simplified the template and defined the client’s goal, which led to a 71 percent increase in open rates.

“This proved why simple is better,” Danziger said, “and why laying out goals at the forefront can dramatically impact effectiveness.”

8. Monitor your analytics.

To ensure continued success, you need to track how your email campaigns perform. Many email marketing services come with built-in analytics capabilities; you can also integrate the software with third-party providers like Google Analytics. The three most important metrics to monitor for email marketing are open rate, click-through rate (CTR) and unsubscribes.

Your open rate shows how many people open your email and indicates how engaged your readers are. If the rate is low, identify where your emails are missing value for your readers. Then, work on developing a stronger personal relationship with them.

The CTR shows how many people clicked on any links in your email. A low CTR reflects poor or mistargeted copy or links your readers aren’t interested in. Increase your CTR by improving your content, observing what types of links your readers click on and modeling your emails accordingly.

The unsubscribe rate reflects how many people are clicking on the unsubscribe button at the bottom of your emails. Check your unsubscribe rate in relation to your opt-in email marketing rate. If the unsubscribe rate is high, you need to figure out where you’re dropping the ball; this figure shows that people are engaged enough to opt in but are then choosing to unsubscribe.

Mastering your email marketing strategy

Email marketing is a powerful tool for engaging with customers and driving conversions. You should carefully select an email service provider. Then, manage your contact list, understand your audience and consistently provide valuable content. That way you can create effective email campaigns. Start implementing these steps today to see better results from your email marketing efforts and stand out in a crowded inbox. Getting a marketing message to your ideal consumer is not easy. However, if you remember your goals, keep it simple and watch your analytics, you’ll be well on your way to managing successful campaigns.

Amanda Clark contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.