Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to reach their customers directly. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your customer base and build long-lasting relationships. Think of your email marketing campaigns as the perfect opportunity to cross-sell, share company news, announce product launches, showcase your latest projects and drive sales.
“Around 361.6 billion emails are sent every day in 2024” – Oberlo.
With billions of emails sent daily, your emails must stand out. For those new to email marketing or who would like to implement it as part of their marketing strategy for 2025, here are some key ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ of email marketing.
Let’s start with the Do’s.
The Do’s
1. Do Have a strategy
Like anything in business and marketing, a clear strategy is key to its success. Email marketing is no exception. From setting objectives to segmenting your audience, email content, frequency, follow-up and measurement, it is crucial that you have a clear plan for every email campaign.
2. Do use bespoke and branded templates
Designing an email template that aligns with your branding is a great way to ensure consistency. It makes your email easily recognisable among your customers and will save you a lot of time every time you send an email.
3. Do write compelling subject lines
The first thing your customer will see is the subject line of your email. In most cases, the subject line will determine whether your customer will open your email or not. That is why it is so important that your subject line is concise, intriguing and relevant to the email content.
TIP: Don’t be afraid to use emojis in subject lines. 🤩
4. Do animate your graphics
Adding animated graphics, such as GIFs and videos, to your email content is a great way to capture the reader’s attention and encourage engagement with your content. In the above example, we have added a gif to the header of our email. The GIF is short, fun, and catches the reader’s eye, which encourages the reader to scroll further.
5. Do personalise your emails
Once you have a clear strategy and have segmented your database, you can start to personalise your emails. This does not just mean addressing the email to the customer, for example, Hi {John}, but you can speak directly to their needs with ‘products you may also like’ or perhaps send them a discount code on their birthday.
6. Do send yourself a test
Always send yourself a test email first before sending your email campaign. Check that all the links work and that all images, gifs, and videos load correctly. You wouldn’t want your customers to click on a broken link or be unable to view your email correctly.
7. Do analyse email performance
Analysing your email’s performance helps you gain insight into your customers and their behaviours. This analysis enables you to optimise your email campaigns to achieve your desired results and overall goals.
TIP: Email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp and Constant Contact are brilliant tools for taking your email marketing to the next level.
The Don’ts
1. Don’t send too many emails
Nobody wants to see their inbox flooded with emails from the same contact. Sending too many emails can be frustrating and result in customers unsubscribing to your mailing list. Your emails could also be marked as spam. Email campaigns should be frequent and timely to meet your customers’ needs.
Want to know what makes a ‘good’ marketing email? Read now
2. Don’t purchase an email list
Purchasing data for your email list is not a good idea. Not only do you not know if the data is correct, but you could be breaking the law by contacting people you do not have permission to email.
3. Don’t send to all contacts
You might want to send a blanket email to your entire database with a new product launch or important company news; however, this should not be your approach with every email campaign. Email marketing is better when segmented and personalised with your marketing strategy in mind.
4. Don’t send to non-subscribers
You must respect your customers’ wishes regarding communication. Some customers might be happy to receive marketing and promotional emails; however, if some have expressed that they do not want to be sent marketing emails, this must be respected.
To sum up
There are many benefits to utilising email marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy. It provides a direct communication link to your customers, which can help you retain existing customers and nurture new leads. To get the best return on your investment in email marketing, follow our Do’s and Don’ts.
Case Study Examples:
In this example, we have added a GIF to the footer of the email to capture attention and encourage visitors to leave a review online.
In this client case study, we added an emoji to the subject line that is applicable to the topic and will stand out in the reader’s inbox.
We designed email templates for another client to create consistent, on-brand email marketing campaigns.
Ready to start email marketing? Get in touch with us to see how we can help.
