The Ultimate List of White Hat Email Marketing Tips

Email marketing can be one of the most valuable components of your marketing strategy — but only if you do it right. In the age of digital overload, overflowing inboxes and banner blindness, you have to be extra cautious that your emails don’t alienate or annoy your subscribers. To keep your readers engaged, interested, and invested, follow these email marketing tips.

Strategize your email marketing like a pro.

• Set goals.
• Understand your audience.
• Grow subscription list with engaging content.
• Better your content reach.
• Conduct thorough market research.
• Collect data that will tell you about the way a visitor consumes your content.
• Understand what content your current subscribers want and need now.
• Think progressively about how you can solve issues that may arise in the future.
• Understand why the members of your community have stuck around and how long they have been an active part of the content community.

Produce content like a pro.

• Emails should be short and to the point. If you have more to stay about a subject, you can make it a blog post.
• Always ask questions to encourage engagement.
• Leave dull, boring, jargon at the door.
• Spend extra time on the subject line of your email.
• Always add a custom branding element to each of your emails.
• Make it stand out as your content the second the email opens.
• Ask questions within the body copy, and produce content that stirs emotions.
• Produce content that will fill the needs of your subscribers.

Design emails like a pro.

• Be sure any links included in the copy are easily noticeable.
• Minimize the use of large distracting images, unless the email is infographic-based.
• Ensure text is easy-to-read.
• Include beneficial links to resources, blog posts, and other information that may benefit the recipient.
• Include a plain text format for each of your emails.
• Use alt text for every image.
• Be on the lookout to improve user experience.

Distribute like a pro.

• Always send test emails prior to sending an email to any list, regardless of the size.
• Understand the appropriate delivery timing.
• Don’t send out impersonal auto-response emails. No one likes that!
• Keep your contact list clean and organized.
• Ask for feedback.
• Be sure all emails are CAN-SPAM compliant.
• A / B test email content, subject lines, CTAs, Forms, and attached landing pages.

Nurture like a pro.

• Lead each contact on a journey through the buyer’s cycle.
• Reassure your email subscribers that you are there to help.
• Be sure you have properly segmented emails and email lists.
• Email “blasts” are non-productive emailing tactics that can hurt email marketing efforts more than they help.
• Collect as much information as you deem fit for the value proposition within your content – make it an even exchange.
• Monitor website visitor behavior from each email sent.
• Understand what is working and what is not.
• Know the exact location of each contact within the buyer’s journey each time an email is sent.
• Use analytics tools to research page visits, drop off points, clicks, and general website activity to better address each visitor’s pain points.

Developing an email marketing plan can be difficult if you are not clear on the fundamentals and goals of your new email marketing program. If you apply these best practices to your email marketing plan, you’ll be well on your way to outshining the competition in the inboxes of the individuals who drive company success—your content audience.