Did you know that email marketing is the most effective form of marketing? It’s proven to work better than social media, according to McKinsey & Company, and is an affordable marketing tactic with high returns. Email marketing is an essential method for promoting products, engaging with customers, and building a loyal community. It offers a more intimate way to connect with your target audience by sending them personalized and curated content. If used
correctly, email marketing can help increase brand awareness, promote repeat purchases, and
generate revenue.
But, it’s not as easy as it seems. You’ll need a specific strategy to stand out from a sea of
emails that every consumer receives from different companies. Luckily, this article will provide
you with the best practices of email marketing — from its different types to recommendations on how to utilize it for generating leads and converting customers
What are the Benefits of Email Marketing?
For a successful direct-to-consumer brand, you need to come up with effective email marketing
strategies to retain customers, drive sales, and keep your community. Statistics show that email
marketing is 40 times more effective in customer acquisition than social media and for every $1
spent on email marketing, you can expect a return of $38. In 2023, e-mail marketing
revenue was estimated at more than 10 billion U.S. dollars.
- Email marketing can help brands retain and strengthen their relationship with their customers. When you regularly engage with your audience, then you can encourage repeat purchases and brand loyalty.
- It can also increase sales and generate revenue effectively. Email campaigns are an effective method to convert first-time customers to make a purchase and motivate existing ones to make a repeat purchase.
- You can directly and reliably reach your audience with personalized and targeted content. This will make them feel more connected to your brand.
- It can promote brand awareness and increase website traffic. When customers were asked whether they liked receiving promotion emails, most answered at
Data Source: Marketingsherpa
6 Email Marketing Best Practices in 2024
Email Authentication
Email authentication is becoming more of a requirement than a best practice, especially in 2024. The guidelines of Google and Yahoo have adjusted with new requirements such as:
- SPF and DKIM authentication
- You should set up Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) for your sending domains. These are important in authenticating your emails and proving that the source is legitimate.
- Implementation of DMARC policy
- DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance policy which has become mandatory. This can help you against domain spoofing and abuse.
- Valid DNS records
- It’s essential to maintain valid forward and reverse DNS records. DNS stands for Domain Name System which helps translate a domain name into an IP address to locate the owner’s site.
- Easily accessible unsubscribe button
- One of Gmail’s requirements for maintaining low spam rates is having the unsubscribe button visible and easily accessible. This is essential, especially for subscription-based messages.
- Maintain a low spam rate
- You need to keep spam rates below 0.3% which is a reflection of the effectiveness of the sender’s email behavior.
Interactive Email Experience
This new trend focuses on transforming traditional emails into dynamic and engaging
experiences for its readers. This is the future of email marketing, especially as technology
continues to advance, there will be more opportunities to make the email experience more
immersive. Some best practices for this trend include:
- Embedded widgets and features
- You can include elements that are interactive, such as surveys, quizzes, or polls. This is also a chance to get to know your customers further and learn more about their feedback or insights.
- Real-time updates on content
- Update your content in real time related to the weather conditions or stock levels, depending on the user’s actions.
- Include gaming elements
- There are gaming elements you can add to your emails, such as spin-to-win games or scratch cards. This is surely exciting and will increase customer engagement.
- Interactive and emphasized CTA buttons
- You can highlight a call-to-action (CTA) button by using an attractive color or fun animation to get your reader’s attention.
- Integrate rich media
- Utilize GIFs or videos to make your emails more engaging for your audience. You can include references to trending topics or take advantage of humorous content to connect with your audience.
Minimalistic Designs
Minimalistic designs for email marketing are more popular lately especially because of their
simplicity and straightforwardness. There’s no need to include unnecessary elements for a
hassle-free user experience. The goal of a minimalistic design is to focus on what’s important — which means fewer images, more white space, simple color schemes, and fonts that are easy to
read.
A minimalistic design should have these elements:
- A clean layout
- Simple color scheme
- Easy-to-read fonts
- Improved readability
- Focus on content
- Faster load times
Mobile Focus
Most people read their emails through their mobile phones, so it’s best to keep an email format
that can cater to them. Ensure that the content is easy to read on a small screen, the text fit and
all buttons are placed correctly. When designing email campaigns, it’s important to take note of
including best practices such as:
- Having a responsive design
- The email format should smoothly adjust to fit the screen of your reader despite their phone’s screen size. This can promote better interaction and readability.
- Content is concise
- Your email content should be brief and straightforward since people nowadays have a shorter attention span. They need to get your message and understand it quickly.
- Elements are touch-friendly
- Make sure the buttons are large enough and clickable with just a tap of a finger, considering that mobile screens have smaller screens.
- Optimized images
- The images you include in your emails should quickly load without letting go of its high quality.
Focus on New Metrics
More than open rates, businesses are starting to adjust their metrics, especially because of the
Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and related data restrictions. Here are some Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) that businesses can use to measure the performance of an email
campaign:
- Engagement beyond open and click rates
- You should track how long your audience engages with your emails and the type of email they tend to engage more. Open and click rates are important, but engagement is equally reliable information whether the email is effective to your audience.
- Influence of email marketing to customers
- Assess the impact of email campaigns on your audience in terms of their behavior as customers.
- Long-term value of subscribers
- You must focus on the long-term benefits of your subscribers rather than prioritizing short-term metrics like click rates.
- Conversion rate
- Take note of the data measuring how many of your audience complete a desired action from an email campaign. This can include those who sign up for webinars or those who proceed to purchase a product that was advertised.
- The growth rate of the email list
- Keep track of the growth of your email list and make sure to keep it segmented down to your active audience.
Customer Data Platform (CDP)
Customer Data Platform or CDP gathers all customer information from different sources. CDPs
organize the data into a single profile for each customer for a more optimized and better
experience. Customers interact with social media, digital ads, direct mail, landing pages, search
engines, and more. Their behavior on these platforms can give businesses an idea of their
interests and come up with a tailored marketing strategy.
The more they interact with different platforms, the more personalized their content will be to the
next website they’ll use. This can make it seem like everything is personally curated for them,
despite it being automated. Customer data can help brands understand a customer’s
preference, behavior, and purchase history. Having this knowledge can help you create more
personalized connections and build a stronger relationship with your audience.
One of the email platforms that offer these services is Klaviyo. This CDP software allows brands
to send email campaigns based on customer actions. For example, when a customer abandons
their cart with items from your store, you can send emails encouraging them to push through
with the purchase or remind them about the items that are almost out of stock.
Email Marketing is the Best Practice for DTC Brands
Email marketing is a proven effective method for DTC brands, especially when used properly. It
should be adapted and utilized by companies if they want to better communicate with their
customers. Companies should learn about the different types of email marketing campaigns and
take advantage of the mentioned tips for better results. While email marketing is used by many
companies, not everyone can make an impact with the emails they send to their customers. If
you want effective email marketing, then you should apply the practices mentioned above and
remain consistent in your campaigns.
Ready to start?
