Email Marketing Best Practices
Why Email Marketing is Essential
Email campaigns are a powerful tool for constant business growth and communication. They help you:
Communicate with both current customers and new prospects.
Build brand awareness and foster brand loyalty.
Generate revenue and increase repeat business.
Announce new products, services, or promotions.
Optimizing Your Email Send Time
Testing with your specific audience is key, but industry data provides a strong starting point for maximizing engagement.
Best Day of the Week to Send
Metric | Best Day | Worst Day |
Highest open Rate | Friday (18.9%) | Saturday (17.3%) |
Highest Click-Through Rate | Friday (2.7%) | Saturday (2.4%) |
Highest Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR) | Wednesday and Friday (14.4%) | Tuesday (13.5%) |
Best Time of Day to Send
Goal | Best Time to Send | Device Usage |
High Engagement (Clicks/Action) | 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. OR 8:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. | More mobile opens |
High Opens Only | 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. OR 8:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. | More desktop opens |
Tips for Crafting High-Converting Email Content
The content of your email—from the subject line to the body copy—determines whether a subscriber takes the next step.
Subject Lines and Preheader Text
Your subject line is your first Call to Action (CTA). Keep it compelling and professional.
Keep it Short: Aim for under 50 characters, ideally around 4 words, for optimal success.
Use Action Verbs: Start with verbs and ask compelling questions to inspire curiosity.
Avoid All Caps: Stick to professional capitalization.
A/B Test: Always A/B test different subject lines, as effectiveness varies by audience.
Use Preheader Text: This text snippet appears next to the subject line in the inbox. Use it to provide a short summary or an additional, engaging hook.
Email Body Length and Structure
The body of your email must fulfill the promise of your subject line quickly.
Source: Boomerang
Keep it Concise: The best-performing emails are often under 150 words. Emails with 75-100 words have the highest response rate (51%).
Focus on Scannability: Use short paragraphs, headers, and bullet points to make the content clear and easy to read.
Create a Hierarchy: Place the most important information in the first lines of the text.
Describe the Value: Clearly explain the "juiciest" part of your offer to motivate the reader to click your CTA.
Address Pain Points: Show your audience that you understand their problems and are ready to offer a solution.
Understanding Key Metrics
Monitoring your metrics is vital for constant optimization.
| Metric | What it Measures | Target Range |
Open Rate | The percentage of total subscribers who open your email. | 11%-15% |
Click-Through Rate (CTR) | The percentage of total sent emails that result in a click. | 6%-10% |
Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR) | The percentage of people who opened the email who then clicked a link inside. | 20%30% |
How to Improve Your Metrics
Improve Subject Lines: Test different lengths, tones, and content.
Optimize for Previews: Use compelling preheader text.
Ensure Relevance: Use personalization and segmentation to make sure the content is relevant to the recipient.
Maintain Brand Voice: Keep your messaging consistent across all platforms.
Optimize Design: Ensure your email renders well across all devices and clients.
Strong CTAs: Include an irresistible, easy-to-click call to action.
Managing Bounce Rates and List Health
A healthy email list is essential for high deliverability.
Bounce Rate: Strive to keep your bounce rate below 8%.
Hard bounces mean the email address is invalid or non-existent. These must be removed immediately.
Soft bounces are temporary (e.g., full mailbox). These emails can be kept and retried later.
Unsubscribe Rate: A healthy unsubscribe rate is generally 2% to 3%.
List Maintenance: To prevent your list from going "stale," email your subscribers regularly (at least once a quarter).
Things to Avoid
Never send to a list of contacts that did not explicitly opt-in.
Never send to a list of contacts that you have not emailed within the last 6 months.