Email marketing has long been a top performing channel, and 2024 will be no different. Recent data shows email has a median ROI of 122%, highest amongst all digital marketing channels.
With engagement rates 4x higher than social media, it’s imperative for marketers to continually optimize their email programs to drive even higher results. This in-depth guide covers everything from list building techniques to design principles to key metrics so you can skyrocket your email success this year. Let’s dive in!
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the process of sending commercial emails to a list of subscribers with their consent and permission. It involves building an email list, creating branded email templates, and running email campaigns to drive user action or engagement. The goal is to nurture contacts through valuable content while promoting products or services.
The Importance of Email Marketing This Year
It’s easy to underestimate the power of email thanks to the rise of newer formats. However, data shows this cornerstone channel is still unparalleled when it comes to ROI and engagement. Consider:
- Email generates $36 for every $1 spent
- 96% of internet users check email daily
- 2.9% average email click rate, nearly 4X social media
Clearly, email is poised for a big 2024. When integrated effectively into cross-channel strategies and personalized at scale, performance trends upward year over year.
Robust email programs will be crucial for both lead generation and nurturing tasks among savvy marketers.
Developing an Email Marketing Plan
Like any strong marketing effort, spearheading a new email subchannel starts with laying the groundwork in a formal plan. Critical components include:
Objectives & KPIs: What is the focus? Acquisition or retention? What specific metrics like open or clickthrough rates will determine success?
Audience Personas: Map out who exactly you are trying to reach. Common identifiers include demographics, location, role, preferences, pain points and buying stage.
Email Content Types: Map the journey with a mix of promotional, educational, service related and re-engagement emails.
Tie ins: Integration with your blogs, landing pages, forms and CRM will create seamless experiences.
As we detail specific list growth, design, analytics and deliverability recommendations in this guide, continuously refer back to these foundational elements of your plan.
Building Your Email List in 2024
The most critical part of email success is list growth. Use the following strategies to systematically get more qualified people joining your list throughout 2024:
Offer Content Incentives
Everyone enjoys getting something for free. Create gated lead magnets like guides, templates, webinars or discounts in exchange for email sign ups.
Strategically Place Opt In Forms
Not just on your website, but guest blogs, paid ads, social promotions, online events and more. Follow up with non converters.
Grow Through Partners
Work with complementary brands to co-create resources and cross-promote offers through channels like webinars and newsletters.
The key is permission – never buy or scrape email lists. Grow organically with incentive based calls to action that clearly communicate how often subscribers can expect to hear from you. Continue reading below for more segmented subscribers tactics.
List Building Tactics
Getting more granular, here are some of the top subscriber growth tactics for 2024:
Contests and Giveaways
Perhaps one of the most proven ways to rapidly grow your list. Encourage shares for more entries to spike viral reach.
Post-Event Follow Up
Don’t miss the opportunity to follow up with people who registered for, attended or downloaded assets from one of your events.
Website Scrolling Popups
As visitors peruse your content, interstitially invite them to unlock more resources by joining your subscriber list.
Follow-to-Download On Social
Gate access to in-demand checklists, templates or guides behind a follow of your social channels.
As touched on in the section above, the element tying these tactics together is the value exchange provided by way of “lead magnets” that incentivize list sign ups.
Now let’s explore the actual creation and sending of effective emails.
Email Content Best Practices
With list growth underway, simultaneously focus on crafting resonant email content. Tactics include:
- Personalization – leverage dynamic fields like first name, location or company along with segmentation to drive mass relevance.
- Subject Lines – compel opens through urgency cues, value signaling, curiosity sparking, and benefit driven positioning. Aim for under 60 characters.
- Copywriting – know your audience intimately and make the primary value and next step crystal clear within sentences.
- Design – clear hierarchy, ample white space, multiple call to action placements
- Mobile Optimization – preview on all devices and ensure ease of taps, swipes and consumption on the go.
Types of Emails to Send
Your subscriber journeys will vary, but core email bucket types include:
Educational – deliver value by informing and enlightening – e.g. tips, how tos, class recordings
Promotional – drive conversions with discounts or scarcity building product offerings
Customer Service – shipment notices, status or inquiry follow ups to resolve issues
Lead Nurturing – send targeted content guides based on lifecycle stage
Winback – re-engage dormant subscribers who have high renewal value
Map respective sequences to move subscribers across each funnel stage and toward defined goals like clicks, downloads, purchases or scheduled consults.
Email Design Tips
Email creative best practices evolve quickly. Ensure your templates not only comply with CAN-SPAM regulations but also adhere to modern requirements:
Focus on Mobile
Given nearly 50% of opens happen on mobile, continuously preview and test responsive layout on phones. Prioritize easy tap targets.
Apply Brand Standards
From color palettes to logo placement to imagery, ensure visual continuity from other assets.
Guideline Grid Systems
Structure content sections symmetrically for orderly flow. Use white space between elements.
Legible Typography
Both body copy and headers should use web friendly fonts at a large enough size – at least 14px – to consume at a glance.
With design covered, let’s talk deployment.
Building Your Sending Strategy
Now that you are equipped to generate compliant and compelling email layouts, strategically map out delivery:
Cadence Appropriately
Send welcome and re-engagement series with nurturing content to move contacts across lifecycle stages per your objectives.
Vary Frequency
Avoid future blocks by adhering to subscriber designated frequency preferences, which average 1-2 sends per week.
Test Days and Times
While some verticals perform better on weekends, most see higher weekday engagement, especially Tuesdays and Thursdays. Try various days and times while monitoring analytics like open and click rates.
The above information should adequately provide a picture of how to coordinate sends. Up next, arguably the most critical component – tracking email program performance.
Email Analytics Essentials
Robust email programs run on data. Be sure to have the following tracking capabilities activated:
- Open Rates: Benchmarks range between 10-25%+. Troubleshoot below 5%.
- Click Rates: 2-3%+ is good. If below 1%, subject lines and content likely need reworking.
- Bounce Rates: Indicator of data hygiene issues if over 5%. Remove or re-permission bounced contacts.
- Conversions: How many desired actions like form fills, content downloads or purchases result?
- Unsubscribes: 1% or less per send maintains list health. Analyze for trends.
- Share Rates: Benchmarks 0.5-2%. Encourage forwards through secondary value messaging.
Segment all metrics by elements like send date, list, demographic filters and lifecycle stage to extract optimization insights.
Improving Deliverability in 2024
You could have the most robust list and compelling creative, but without sound data infrastructure your emails will not reliably land in inboxes. Core elements include:
- Dedicated IP: Important for sender reputation building over time.
- SPF/DKIM/DMARC: Key security protocols preventing spoofing and verification issues leading to blocks.
- Double Opt Ins: Requiring confirmation links proofs contacts intend and consent to receive communications.
- Subscriber Engagement Monitoring: Nurture interested segments and remove fatigued contacts.
- Complaint Analysis: Track spam button clicks, blocks and other negative actions to diagnose issues.
Constantly optimizing your program for inbox placement ensures more opens and clicks long term.
Top Email Marketing Tools
Dozens of capable email marketing platforms with varying feature sets exist today at different price points. Leading solutions include:
- Mailchimp: Intuitive for beginners with expanding complex functionality at scale. Free to start.
- ConvertKit: Specically designed around creator monetization with signature sequences.
- ActiveCampaign: Combines email with robust automation built for small business marketing teams.
- Klaviyo: Flexible with superior analytics and campaign management capabilities.
- AWeber: A long trusted email solution with seamless WordPress integration and course marketing features.
- MailerLite: Affordable freemium access for solopreneurs, ecommerce shops and blogs building their first lists.
When selecting your platform, align respective strengths and limitations to your current business stage, budget, feature needs and user skill level. Most providers offer free trials to substantiate decisions.
For additional context, take a look at the next section covering what real brands have achieved with email.
Success Stories From Real Brands
Wondering if advanced email tactics can work for your business? Consider the following examples:
- Dell significantly increased revenue by 109% using GIFs in their email campaigns, showcasing the impact of engaging visuals.
- Charity Water raised $800,000 by increasing email frequency, highlighting the effectiveness of storytelling and engagement in campaigns.
- Nanoleaf recovered 30% of sales from abandoned carts through follow-up emails, illustrating the power of targeted reminders.
- Harry’s gathered 100,000 emails in a week leading up to their launch through a referral mechanism, underscoring the effectiveness of incentive-based referrals
From legacy publishers to bootstrapped startups, intelligent and integrated email continues fueling growth for those who invest in list quality, compelling content frameworks and data driven optimizations.
The time is now to refine or relaunch your efforts.
Conclusion
By taking a strategic approach informed by the latest 2024 email trends, formats and analysis covered in this guide, your potential for profits through email is immense.
Remember to always:
- Offer irresistible value exchanges to systematically grow your subscriber list
- Write benefit focused subject lines and body copy matched to intimate audience knowhow
- Send consistent campaigns nurturing subscribers across segmentation funnels
- Obsessively monitor performance metrics to dictate decisions
Now that you’re armed with a blueprint of tips and considerations, the only step left is getting started. We covered the tools, tactics and resources – you supply the diligent testing and refinement.
What’s your #1 takeaway from this extensive email guide that you plan on implementing first? Let me know in the comments below!
FAQs
How is email list building done?
List building tactics include content upgrades, website and social opt-ins, lead gen ads and forms, webinar/event registration capture and search retargeting. The key is only growing your list organically with permission, never scraping or buying email lists. Use double opt-in for verifiable intent.
What are some best practices for writing effective email subject lines?
Keep subject lines below 60 characters. Use emotional triggers related to the reader like curiosity, urgency or exclusivity. Communicate primary benefit clearly. Test different formats continuously – some brands favor subject line personalization powered by merge tags.
How often should you send emails?
Industry benchmarks average 1-2 email sends per week, but also consider weeks with no sends to give your audience a content break. Set subscriber expectations upfront and gather frequency preferences. Consider day of week testing – for most Tuesdays and Thursdays convert best.
What makes an email design aesthetically appealing?
A clean, mobile friendly template with ample whitespace, scannable copy, clear calls to action, quality visuals, and branding elements extends opens, clicks and attention. Use a responsive template from your ESP or design using a grid.
What are some important email metrics to track?
Open, click through, bounce, abuse complaint, unsubscribe rates should be monitored. Conversion metrics like purchases along with sharing rates also help gauge engagement. Use filters and segments to derive optimization insights.
How can you improve email deliverability?
Proper SPF, DKIM and DMARC records increase security and prevent blocks. Double opt-in proofs consent. Monitoring attempts, complaints then remediating issues ensures future inbox placement for quality subscriber outreach.