Yuka Kato
Effective email marketing is essential regardless of your business’s industry. When executed correctly, email campaigns can boost engagement, convert prospects, drive sales, increase website traffic, and more.
But how do you ensure your marketing campaigns are compelling and engaging?
While crafting an effective campaign may seem challenging, achieving it is not impossible. In this guide, we’ve curated a special list of email marketing campaign best practices that you can refer to to help you develop a successful email campaign strategy and achieve the best results.
We will cover the basics of sending bulk emails. Specifically, the article will cover the following:
Overview of Bulk Email
A bulk email, also known as a mass email, is a message sent to a large number of recipients. It is an important marketing tool brands use to reach vast audiences.
When done right, bulk email can be a highly effective way to improve engagement, increase brand awareness, and boost revenue.
People sometimes confuse it with spam mail, but they are not the same thing.
Spam mail is illegal, while bulk emails are not. While spam is also sent to many people, it is largely unwarranted and unwanted.
Bulk email, however, is fundamentally different because all recipients are from a targeted list that has signed up to receive messages from your brand. This means they are interested in your offerings and will likely open the message to read its contents.
Some of the most common content of bulk emails include:
- Newsletters
- Promotions
- Event invitations
- Company updates
19 Bulk Email Best Practices for Effective Email Campaigns
Now that you know what bulk email is, let’s review 19 best practices for ensuring your emails don’t go to your recipient’s spam folder.
1. Write Catchy Subject Lines and Captivating Copy
The subject line is the first thing recipients see when they receive your email. There is no overstating its power—it could be the sole reason a recipient opens the email or sends it to the trash without reading it.
When writing your subject lines and content copy, avoid sensational phrases like “Buy now!” or “Limited time offer.”
You may be tempted to do so since many other companies do it. However, remember that what works for one company may not appeal to your audience.
The general rule when writing subject lines and content for your emails is to make them relevant and interesting to your subscribers.
Here are some tips:
- Personalize the subject line by using your recipient’s first name, e.g., “Jenny, you might like these deals.”
- Again, avoid spam words or distinctly salesy language, like “buy now” or “free.”
- Keep it short. Seven words and 40 characters are ideal, but you shouldn’t be overly strict about this.
- Use open-ended questions to make recipients curious, such as “Who runs the world?”
- Focus on what recipients want, not what you want.
- Be specific. Instead of saying, “Have better health!” say, “5 simple habits to improve your mental health.”
- Email must be timely and urgent, for instance, “Special sale ends today.”
- Include a single, relevant, and super clear CTA.
2. Personalize Your Emails
Personalizing bulk emails is a powerful way to establish customer loyalty. Everyone likes to feel heard, and customizing emails to include a contact’s name is one way to make your subscribers feel listened to.
Think about it. Saying “Hi, Jenny!” has more of a positive effect than “Hi, customer!”
This direct address implies that the email contains information they will personally be interested in.
This simple adjustment also creates a better customer experience, as the recipient will feel more valued by the brand. And the best thing is that doing this is really easy to do with mail merge.
Understand that personalization goes beyond putting a recipient’s first name on the email. The type of content you send matters as well.
To ensure you are sending the right message to your targeted audience, segment your customer database so you can send them relevant emails.
For example, a welcome email is appropriate when you have new signups. Sending such a message to a long-time customer will make it clear that you are not paying attention.
3. Only Send Email Campaigns with Permission
Building a quality email list is the foundation of your bulk email marketing efforts. It takes time, patience, and a verifiable signup process, but it is the only way to get people’s permission to send marketing campaigns.
Getting people’s permission complies with anti-spam regulations and ensures you’re cultivating a loyal audience.
When creating your email campaigns, keep the following in mind.
- Ensure you have permission from all your recipients before sending your first marketing email.
- All recipients should understand what they’re signing up for and why they receive your emails.
4. Use Double Opt-In for Better Email Lists
Add subscribers to your list through a double opt-in process to ensure you build a better email list. Double opt-in is when a user signs up for your mailing list and then receives an email with a link that confirms their subscription.
Once the second link is clicked and confirmed, the subscriber will be officially added to your mailing list. But why is this helpful for your small business email marketing?
A double opt-in helps create an email list that won’t bounce back. This approach guarantees that people know what they’re signing up for and are genuinely interested in receiving your emails.
5. Segment Your Audience
Segmentation may be complex, especially if you lack the correct tools, so it is often overlooked in email marketing campaigns. However, segmentation is critical to consistently sending relevant messages to your targeted audience.
The concept behind segmentation is to create categories based on customer traits, such as demographics, interests, and purchasing behavior.
When you correctly segment your audience, you can market to each segment accordingly.
For instance, you may have a repeat buyer category or a segment that includes contacts from a specific zip code. While these two segments may enjoy what you have to offer, you wouldn’t market your products or services in the same manner.
Therefore, when you create email campaigns, you must consider the segment and use different messages and marketing strategies for each.
6. Avoid Sending Campaigns to a Stale List
Even if all the addresses were added through a double opt-in process, an email list will go stale quickly if you don’t engage it regularly,
Think about it: If you don’t email your contacts regularly, there’s a good chance they’ll forget they signed up for your list. Sending emails to a stale list can result in high bounce rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribes.
A practical email marketing tip that can prevent this is creating a mailing schedule. This ensures that your subscribers receive your emails regularly and that you remain at the top of their minds.
7. Re-Engage Inactive Subscribers
Just because you’ve lost subscribers doesn’t mean you can’t get them back. But this time, you have to improve your campaign. Look back at the things they used to engage with and the emails they used to open.
For example, if they used to interact with content about new shoes, entice them with your latest collections and include a discount coupon to sweeten the pot.
Always keep data on your customers, and target leads so you can respond to them with better offers.
8. Don’t Purchase Email Lists
You may be tempted to purchase an email list, but don’t. While it’s not technically illegal, many email service providers prohibit sending to purchased lists. Many vendors get around it by collecting email addresses and asking their list if they’d like to receive special offers from third parties, but the cons often outweigh the pros when doing this.
9. Optimize Email for Mobile Devices
Most marketing emails are created on desktops or laptops, so they are usually optimized for these devices. However, according to Tech Report, 41.9% of all emails are first opened on mobile devices, which is higher than on any other device.
Hence, you must always prioritize simplicity and accessibility for your audience to provide them with the best experience. Recipients will quickly delete or even unsubscribe if the email you send isn’t optimized for mobile.
How do you make your email responsive for mobile devices?
- Keep the subject line short
- Use pre-header text
- Keep content brief
- Choose the appropriate file format for images
Test your emails on multiple devices to ensure they cover all your bases before sending them out.
10. Take Your Time Creating Campaigns
Sometimes, marketers get overly excited and rush to email new leads. However, rushing through the campaign development process without considering your design, content, and subject line can result in problems.
If your content isn’t relevant to your subscribers or isn’t what they signed up for, you may see a decrease in open and click rates or a rise in spam complaints and unsubscribe rates. So slow down, take a breather, and make sure your list and campaigns are pristine.
11. Include a Clear Call to Action (CTA)
Every email should have a clear and compelling CTA that tells recipients what action to take next, whether visiting your website, downloading a white paper, or purchasing.
Make your CTA button stand out visually with a contrasting color and clear text. Place your CTA strategically within the email, at the end of your message, or next to a relevant offer.
Use action-oriented language like “Get Started,” “Learn More,” or “Shop Now” to prompt immediate engagement
12. Target the Emotions
When creating your email campaign copy, targeting recipients’ emotions is a great way to find success. Here are some things that will make recipients want to open your messages:
- Excitement – Offer exclusive deals and promotions they can’t say “no” to.
- FOMO – The fear of missing out is real. If you use the bandwagon effect in your emails, customers become more receptive to your offers.
- Inspiration – Emphasize your brand values and implore customers to join your advocacy.
- Hope – Provide solutions to problems, and customers will have hope that things will become better.
- Curiosity – Entice recipients with something fresh to pique their curiosity.
How do you make an emotional connection with your customers?
Tell a story. Email marketing is not just about promotions and deals. It can be used to share a good story about the brand and its social projects.
13. Know Your Timing
Being timely refers to two things. First, it’s about seasonality.
Is it close to Christmas?
Then send emails about the holidays—not just deals and promotions but valuable and relevant content, like gift guides. Sending timely, educational, and informative articles will be helpful to your customers.
Second, there is also a right time of the day to send bulk emails. You want to send it when people are more likely to open and read it. According to Omnisend research, here are the best times to send emails:
- It’s best to send a campaign on weekdays. Tuesday has the highest open rates, but Friday showcases the best conversion rates.
- The first ten days of the month are vital in email marketing. The first day shows the best conversions, the second has the best click-through rates, and the tenth has the best open rates.
- The best times to send emails are 8 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m in your recipients’ time zone.
Of course, these are all general metrics—the specifics vary depending on your niche, target audience, and many other factors. Do your market research to understand your customers and determine the best days and times of day to send emails.
14. Understand Spam Filters
Email spam filters use a long list of parameters to figure out whether or not your campaign will be delivered to a recipient’s spam folder.
The list of spammy parameters is constantly growing and adapting as filters learn more about what spam looks like each time someone hits “junk” or “Mark as spam” in their email dashboard.
Spam filters even synchronize with each other to share what they’ve learned.
There’s no magic recipe for avoiding spam filters, but here are some tips to help you avoid common mistakes marketers make that get their emails marked as spam.
- Maintain a good sending reputation
- Use properly coded email templates
- Make your intentions clear
- Make sure subscribers on your list have opted-in to receive your campaigns
- Stay within the content and design your audience already associates with your brand
15. Track Your Campaign Results and Analyze Data
Ignoring campaign reports means you’ll miss critical details about your audience and campaigns that can inform your marketing strategy. Tracking emails and analyzing them will help you identify what’s working and what’s not so you can continuously improve your future campaigns.
One of the benefits of using Mailsuite for your email marketing is being able to track and analyze your campaign reports. You can use a Gmail extension that tracks emails and provides metrics and analytics reports like Mailsuite.
Mailsuite allows you to personalize emails with ease. All you need is a spreadsheet outlining recipient information, and the extension will do the rest.
Mailsuite reports include the following:
- Date the email was sent
- Date and time when the email was first opened
- Number of emails sent
- Open rates
- Click rates
- How many PDFs were viewed (if you send a PDF attachment)
16. Refrain from Using a No-reply Email
An email marketing campaign best practice that shouldn’t be overlooked is to avoid using no-reply email addresses. No-reply email addresses prevent you from receiving replies from recipients. These emails often lead to a poor customer experience (CX), especially if you haven’t provided other ways to reach you.
No-reply emails also negatively impact deliverability since they’re often filtered as spam.
17. Clean Your Email List Regularly
Regularly remove inactive subscribers and invalid email addresses from your list to maintain high engagement rates and avoid deliverability issues. Inactive subscribers and invalid email addresses cost you money and increase bounce or spam rates.
18. Test Your Emails
Testing your emails is critical to determining which elements (subject lines, content, images) resonate best with your audience. You do this by performing A/B testing on your emails.
With A/B tests, you want to determine which group likes what types of content the most. Hence, you want to pay close attention to the results and not repeat unappreciated messaging.
Testing is critical to optimizing future campaigns and writing emails that convert.
19. Include an Unsubscribe Link
Lastly, when you send bulk mail, there is a high chance you will experience a wave of unsubscribers. But it’s not always a bad thing. Having a highly engaged list is better than just a vanity metric of many uninterested audiences.
Make unsubscribing easy. One-click. That’s it. Put the unsubscribe link in the footer. Don’t make people log in to unsubscribe. You violate the law if you don’t include an unsubscribe link.
Secondly, many people will report the email as spam, which isn’t good for your brand.
Takeaway: Maximize Your Bulk Email Campaigns with Mailsuite
Bulk email marketing can be a fantastic way to nurture leads, generate sales, and build customer relationships. By following the best practices outlined in this guide and leveraging Mailsuite’s features, you can create and execute successful bulk email campaigns that deliver real results.
Some of the best practices mentioned in this guide include building a quality email list, personalizing content, optimizing for mobile, and continually analyzing performance.
Start implementing these tips today and see the difference in your email marketing success. Ready to take your bulk email marketing to the next level?
Get started on Mailsuite today and see how our tool can help you achieve your marketing goals.
Bulk Email FAQs
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about bulk email marketing:
Is There a Difference Between Bulk Email and Mass Email?
Bulk emails and mass emails mean the same thing and are used interchangeably in email marketing. These emails involve sending the same email template to a large group of people at the same time. While bulk email and mass email are the same, they are very different from spam emails. Recipients must opt in to receive bulk or mass emails, while spam emails are usually deceptive emails sent to random people.
How Many Emails Qualify as Bulk?
The definition of bulk email can vary from one email service provider (ESP) to another, but it generally refers to sending emails to a large group, typically hundreds or thousands of recipients at once.
Nevertheless, Google and Yahoo define “bulk emailers” as sending over 5,000 messages daily from one domain or subdomain.
What Are the Updated Requirements for Sending Bulk Emails?
Google and Yahoo have presented new requirements for bulk email senders, focusing on authentication, reported spam rates, and easy unsubscription from email lists. Bulk senders who fail to meet these guidelines will receive temporary errors on a small percentage of non-compliant email traffic.
Can Bulk Email Impact My Brand Image?
Yes, bulk email can impact your brand image. To keep a positive brand image, you must ensure your bulk emails provide value and relevance to the recipient. Following bulk email best practices, like personalization and segmentation, you can craft targeted and valuable messages that resonate with your audience. This can help you build trust and enhance your brand image.
How Do I Measure the Success of My Email Campaign?
You will know if your bulk email campaign was successful by measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as open rate, click-through rates (CTR), unsubscribe rate, email delivery rate, conversion rates, and overall ROI.
