When it comes to email marketing, there is no “perfect” recipe. The ideal is to try. Test, test, and test some more. Adapt your message as needed. Try new things, explore alternatives. Be creative. Best practices are ideas. And they work, providing real results. But only if there is a strategy behind them and it is a damn good one, based on experiment, analysis and flexibility.
Nonetheless, there are some things that you could or shouldn’t do in relation to your email marketing efforts.
Subject
- avoid terminology such as “free”, “deal”, “discount” and the likes
- keep it around 30-45 characters
- don’t shout! – nobody likes all-Caps-Lock
Content
- find the balance between text and image
- use nice templates; they show respect
- use simple, to-the-point, intuitive templates; they show professionalism
- pay attention to grammar
- provide relevant, interesting content
- lose the gif/ animated content
Timing
- keep away from end-of-the-day messages
- schedule your emails thoroughly
Audience
- build your own email addresses database
- grow it correctly; check out double opt-in options