11 Email Marketing Ideas

With 87% of marketers using email marketing to some extent, no matter how well written a marketing email is, this ‌can make it rather difficult to get subscribers to open your emails…

…let alone read them.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though.

If you’re looking for new and innovative ways to boost your open rates and engage your subscribers, you’ve come to the right place.

From subject line tips to email automations, here you’ll find 11 actionable email marketing ideas to improve your email campaigns today.

11 Email Marketing Ideas

You’re probably thinking, “I’ve tried everything!” but we guarantee you haven’t tried these ideas.

1. Define Your Email Marketing Goals and Streamline Your Strategy

When it comes to promoting your business’ goods and services, there’s arguably no better way than sending marketing emails. In fact, according to Campaign Monitor, for every $1 spent, on average, email marketing ventures have a $44 return on investment (ROI).

This makes email marketing one of the most cost-effective and profitable marketing channels online businesses have up their sleeves.

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With that said, before kick-starting or revamping your email marketing campaigns, it’s important to define exactly what it is you’d like to achieve by investing in an email campaign.

Start by setting specific goals for your email marketing campaign. Do you want to:

• Increase brand awareness. By sending out regular emails to your customers, you can keep your brand at the top of their mind. This can lead to more sales and a better reputation for your company.
• Drive website traffic. Email marketing drives website traffic by enticing recipients to click on links in the body of the email that directs them to your latest blog post or an important sales page.
• Compliment SEO efforts. By providing valuable, engaging content, email marketing can improve your target audience’s experience while also helping to improve the site’s ranking in search engine results pages.
• Generate leads. By sending out a well-crafted email, you can reach many potential customers and generate interest in your products or services.
• Nurture customer relationships. By sending out regular emails, businesses can use email marketing to build loyalty among customers and encourage them to return to a store or website.
• Boost sales. By targeting a specific audience and sending them relevant information, businesses can increase the likelihood that customers will make a purchase.

Whatever the case may be, once you have a good understanding of what you’d like to achieve with your email marketing campaigns, you can begin developing a strategy that will help to reach those goals.

2. Find an Email Marketing Service Provider That Aligns With Your Online Business’ Needs

If you are yet to decide which email marketing service provider is right for you, you’ve probably already realized the decision-making process is no small feat.

There are literally hundreds to choose between, and trust us when we say: they ain’t all made the same.

And for those that have already made their choice, know that it’s never too late to reconsider.

Why do we say this?

Well, your business’ requirements are likely to change overtime, and sometimes making the switch to a service provider that better aligns with the requirements of your business is just what the doctor ordered.

So what’s the best way to gauge which email marketing service provider is best for you?

Consider these four tips for choosing the right email marketing platform:

1. Know what you need. Each email marketing platform offers different features, so be sure to know what you need before you start shopping around. Do you need robust reporting capabilities? A built-in sales CRM system? Customizable templates? The right platform will fit your needs and make it easy to send out effective email campaigns.
2. Keep your budget in mind. Email marketing platforms can range in price from free to several hundred dollars per month. So be sure to consider your budget before making a decision.
3. Consider the size of your business. For small business owners that are just starting out, you may want to choose a platform that’s easy to use and doesn’t require a lot of technical expertise. Some platforms are very user-friendly, while others require more of a learning curve.
4. Be mindful of the features offered by different platforms. Some platforms offer basic features, while others offer more advanced options. It’s important to choose a platform that has the features you need to run your business effectively.

So which email marketing platforms do we recommend?

There are several email marketing platforms available, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Some of the most popular email marketing providers include:

• MailChimp. There’s no denying it. MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms and is used by millions of businesses worldwide. While the platform’s services are on the pricier side, Mailchimp is very easy to use and offers a wide range of features, including automated campaign tracking, A/B testing and email segmentation.
• Klaviyo. Klaviyo’s main selling point is its powerful marketing automation features, which allow users to create complex workflows and automate their email marketing campaigns. It integrates with a variety of ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, and allows businesses to segment their email lists by demographics and purchase behavior.
• ActiveCampaign. ActiveCampaign is a great option for small businesses as the platform offers a lot of features for a reasonable price. Users can create automations to send targeted emails based on customer behavior, and there’s also a built-in sales CRM to help keep track of contacts.

The best email service providers are not always the obvious choice. Remember, don’t decide on your email marketing service provider without doing your research. And for those already actively using a service provider, don’t be afraid to switch it up. Most email marketing platforms make importing your email list hassle-free.

3. Jumpstart Your Email Marketing Strategy With Pre-Designed Templates

Email templates can be a tremendous help when it comes to email marketing. They allow marketers to create a standardized email that can be used repeatedly, saving time and ensuring marketing emails always look their best.

Templates can be as simple or complex as you want them to be, and you can use them for a variety of purposes, such as newsletters, product announcements, promotional emails, and more. Templates can be customized to match your branding and voice, so you can create polished emails quickly and easily.

When creating an email template, it’s important to keep the following in mind:

1. Stay on brand. Start by creating a template for your email campaign that can be easily customized for each individual message. This will help save time and ensure a consistent, brand-aligned look and feel for all of your communications.
2. Keep the layout simple. Use a standard font and limit the number of colors and graphics. This will make the template easy to read, and it will also look good on different devices.
3. Include all the necessary information. Make sure that the template includes your business’ logo, contact information, and any other essential details.
4. Keep mobile-friendliness in mind. With over half of all emails being opened on mobile devices, make sure your template is compatible with all devices.

So you don’t spend hours crafting the perfect email only to have it lost in a sea of sameness. Be sure to make use of email templates. That way, you can get the best of both worlds: the convenience of a template with the personalization of a custom email.

4. Build Out Your Email List With Strategically Placed Email Opt-Ins and Sign Up Forms

If you’re looking for ways to grow your email list, consider using strategically placed email opt-ins and sign up forms. An email opt-in is essentially a sign-up form that allows website visitors to join your email list.

To boost the chances of securing email subscribers, place email opt-ins or sign up forms in prominent locations. For example, you could put an email opt-in form on the header or footer of your website. You could also place them in the sidebar or integrate them into your website as a pop-up.

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Here are a few tips for strategically placing your email opt-in form:

1. Place the form in a prominent location on your homepage.
2. Make sure the form is easy to find and clearly visible.
3. Use eye-catching design elements to draw attention to the form.
4. Consider adding the form to other key pages on your website.
5. Make signing up easy and user-friendly.
6. Offer an incentive (such as a free ebook, report, or discount code) to encourage people to sign up.

Email opt-ins are a great way to grow your email list, and they’re easy to add to your website. With a few clicks, you can have an email opt-in form on your website that will help you grow your list quickly.

5. Create a Welcome Email Series That Gets Results

If you aren’t contacting your new subscribers while your business is still fresh in their minds, there’s a high chance they’ll forget they ever signed up to your mailing list and view your first contact as unsolicited.

Their next move?

To hit the black list button, sending your future emails straight to their spam folder and risking rubbing your email marketing service provider the wrong way.

The solution to this problem? A welcome email series.

A welcome email series is a set of automated emails that are sent to new subscribers shortly after they sign up for your email list.

The first email in the series should be to confirm a new subscriber’s subscription – sometimes referred to as a double opt-in (the first opt-in often as a call-to-action found on a business’ website). The second email introduces new subscribers to your brand and provides them with a brief overview of what they can expect from your email list.

While the following emails should include details that will help new subscribers get the most out of your list. And any subsequent emails can be used as call-to-actions. Depending on who you are and what your business sells, these emails may include links to an ecommerce store’s product pages or a list of valuable content on a blog.

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If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few tips for creating a successful welcome email series:

1. Make sure your emails are personalized. Your subscribers will appreciate feeling like you’ve taken the time to personalize their experience.
2. Keep your emails short and sweet. You don’t want to overwhelm your subscribers with too much information at once.
3. Be sure to include valuable content in your emails. This will help keep your subscribers interested in what you have to say.

Your welcome series is often your subscribers’ first interaction with your brand. Make sure you’re putting your best foot forward by crafting a stunning, cohesive series that reflects your brand’s personality and leaves a lasting impression.

6. Improve Click-Through-Rate With Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines

If you’re pouring hours into creating the perfect message, but your click-through-rate is still abysmal, it’s beyond time you invest some time and energy into the art of writing attention-grabbing subject lines.

Subject lines that are short and to the point are more likely to be read than those that are long and rambling. You should also try to personalize your subject lines whenever possible, using the recipient’s name or a personalized message.

For example, an email subject line that says “You’re Invited: A Party Just for You” is more personal, engaging, and likely to get more clicks than one that simply says “Your Invitation”.

You can also use a provocative or intriguing subject line to get recipients’ attention. For example, you could tease them with a subject line like “Don’t Miss Out: The Biggest Sale of the Year Is Happening Now!” or “This Could Be the End of Your Problems.”

Also, don’t neglect getting to know your target audience.

There’s nothing more effective at getting subscribers to “nope” out of your email campaigns than using subject lines that simply don’t align with their interests. For this reason, be sure to do your research. That way, you’ll be curating catchy one-liners that’ll grab their attention, rather than encouraging them to blacklist you.

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Keep in mind, you’re losing customers (and wasting money) if your subject lines don’t make readers stop and click.

7. Complement Subject Lines With Click-Worthy Preview Text

When you’re drafting your email, it can be tempting to just slap on a subject line and hit send. As effective as well-crafted subject lines are, sometimes they’re simply not enough.

If you want to seriously boost the chance recipients will open your marketing emails, you need to put more thought into it.

One way to do that is to consider preview text.

Preview text tells the recipient what the email is about. If you use Gmail, for instance, you’ll understand what preview text looks like. It’s the text following an email’s subject line.

So how do you edit preview text?

Well, that varies from email service provider to email service provider. If you’re familiar with the way meta descriptions work on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), you’ll have a basic idea.

For Gmail, oftentimes the preview text for an email is pulled from the body of the email. Typically, the first sentence or two. But that’s not always the case, just like the Google SERPs may ignore specifically curated meta descriptions and instead use text from elsewhere within a blog post, Gmail may also may also use ALT text from an embedded image or, in rare cases, pull it from code such as <a> tags.

With this in mind, when curating the first couple of sentences within your email, or assigning image alt tags, consider preview text.

Complimenting your subject line with strong preview text can increase your click-through rates significantly. Strong preview text entices subscribers to open your email and learn more about what’s on offer. It also gives them a taste of the content on your website, which can convince them to stay and explore further.

As the co-founder and CMO of DoorLoop, David Bitton puts it:

“The preview text adds an additional piece of information for readers to consider when deciding which emails to open or disregard. An intriguing preview text that adds depth and reinforces the urgency you’ve created with your subject line is an excellent method to pique curiosity and drive engagement, resulting in higher open rates.”

8. Tailor Content to Specific Email Segments

For a truly effective email marketing campaign, you need to be segmenting your email list. By dividing your subscribers into groups based on their interests, you can target them with personalized emails, up-to-date content, and valuable information that’s most relevant to their individual interests.

For example, if you sell sporting goods, you might create a segment for people who are interested in running, another for people who are interested in cycling, and so on.

Christiaan Huynen, CEO/Founder at DesignBro, elaborates on this point:

“Bulk email marketing needs to stop. To give the reader relevant information about what they want to engage with, any communication that deals with nurturing or offers for leads has to be personalized. You need to make them feel seen and understood. There’s possibly nothing more annoying than to get an email about the joys of a new motorcycle when you’re a new mom.”

Segmenting your list is also a great way to increase engagement rates. When subscribers receive content that’s relevant to them, they’re more likely to open and read your emails. And when they read your emails, they’re more likely to click through to your website or make a purchase.

The thing is, manually segmenting your list can be a time-consuming process. Fortunately, there are ways to automate the process. One way to do this is by using marketing emails tools. For instance, the AWeber’s “Tags” feature allows users to create custom segments of their list based on subscriber characteristics like their location, purchase history, or interests.

Another example of this is OptinMonster’s “Audience Insights” feature. This tool allows you to create audience segments based on data from your subscribers’ activity on your website.

No matter if you’d rather not use either AWeber or OptinMonster. Thankfully, any reputable and well-developed email marketing service provider will have similar features.

With email list segmentation, you can send targeted content to small groups of subscribers who are more likely to be interested in what you have to say. This results in more engaged readers and more sales for you.

9. A/B Test Your Marketing Emails for Increased Engagement

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to email marketing. The best way to figure out what works for your business is to test, test, test. A/B testing can help you fine-tune your email marketing strategy and improve your open and click-through rates.

With A/B testing, you create two versions of an email, then send each version to a randomly selected subset of your audience. By comparing the results, you can determine which version performs better and send that version to the rest of your audience.

Not convinced?

For further insight, according to Litmus, brands that utilize A/B testing generate more return on investment (ROI) than those brands that don’t. In fact, they estimate these brands earn about 82% more on average.

So, you may ask, what exactly are we testing?

Well, everything, really.

From the subject lines to the layout, different images, and perhaps even different variations of the author’s name.

Nothing is safe.

If you’d like to know exactly what other marketers are testing in their marketing emails, check this out. According to a survey conducted by SuperOffice, these are the different elements of marketing emails that are most commonly tested.

So, stop guessing what works and start testing. By testing the various elements of an email, you can improve your engagement and get more leads.

10. Boost Your Email Marketing Strategy By Sending Emails At The Best Times

You’ve probably heard that timing is everything. When it comes to email, that couldn’t be more true. The best time to send your emails can mean the difference between getting lost in your customer’s inbox or receiving consistent engagement.

The best times to send emails vary depending on your audience and industry. However, there are a few general rules of thumb that you can follow to boost your email marketing strategy.

According to a meta analysis conducted by CoSchedule of 14 different studies, the best time to send a marketing email lies somewhere between Tuesday morning through Thursday afternoon.

And what about time of day?

Again, this varies from industry to industry, but generally, 10am appears to be the sweet spot. Although anywhere between the early hours of 6am through to 8pm on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday will do the trick.

This is because people are most likely to check their email early in the morning or right before bed.

If you’d like industry specific research, a SendInBlue study found:

So now you know.

If you’re not sending your emails at the best times, you’re likely dooming any future campaigns and potentially miss out on engagement and conversions.

11. Get More Leads and Conversions With Automated Emails

Unless you want to drive yourself completely insane, with an ever-growing contact list, sending marketing emails manually is out of the question.

Instead, why not get yourself set up with automated emails?

Automated emails are sent out automatically based on triggers, such as a customer’s purchase history or website activity. This means that you can focus on other tasks while your automated emails continue to generate leads and conversions.

Automated emails can also help you improve your customer retention rates. And those emails that are sent based on a customer’s behavior or interests can help keep readers engaged with your brand and encourage them to return to your website.

So what types of automated emails should you prioritize?

According to Kinsta, there are 6 automation workflows that are most effective at increasing open rates, click-through rates, and order rates. These are: order confirmation, cart recovery, welcome, customer reactivation, birthday, and customer automation.

There are several software programs that you can use for automated marketing emails.

Some of the most popular ones include HubSpot, Marketo, and Keap. These programs offer a wide range of features, including email templates, lead scoring, and CRM integration. They also have large user bases, which means that you can find support and resources if you need them.

If you’re not using automated emails to get more leads and conversions, you’re missing out. It’s time to start using the power of email automation to turn more prospects into paying customers.

12. Boost Customer Loyalty and Re Engage Inactive Subscribers and Existing Customers

Inactive subscribers can also be a challenge. Unfortunately, the reality is, some subscribers simply will not open or act on emails, regardless of the time they are sent.

Not all is lost, though. There are certain tactics to once again secure their brand loyalty.

One tactic is to target inactive subscribers with special offers or incentives – whether that be a discount code, free gift, or some form of other incentivisation.

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This will show your customers that you appreciate their business and are willing to reward them for staying loyal. Additionally, it can help to reignite interest in your product or service.

Be sure to keep track of customer activity and tailor your incentives accordingly. If a customer hasn’t been active in a while, consider offering them a discount on their next purchase. Alternatively, if a customer has recently made a purchase, you might want to send them a free gift as a thank-you.

Whatever incentive you choose, be sure to make it clear how customers can redeem it. This will help ensure that as many customers as possible benefit from the offer.

Summary

There’s no doubt, email marketing is still a powerful tool for businesses. By using the ideas in this article, you can create successful email campaigns that reach your target audience and generate results.

FYI: email marketing shows the best results when coupled with other digital marketing strategies.

Here at Loganix, we provide content marketing, SEO, PPC, and link building services to help businesses achieve their SEO goals and reinforce the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns.

If you’re looking for help with your content marketing strategy, contact Loganix today.