Tag Archives: best practices

Email newsletters are one of the most effective ways to stay top of mind with your customers. When done right, that is. The problem, though, is that so many businesses don’t know what they should actually put in their newsletter.

More often than not, businesses don’t know why they should be sending newsletters. They’ll say they need to because everyone else is doing it, or because they want to “stay top of mind”, but have no strategy outside of that. Then, the responsibility is “given” to someone who probably doesn’t want it, leading to boring, lifeless email blasts that don’t bring value to your subscribers or your business.

That may be the case for 90% of businesses, but it doesn’t have to be the case for yours. With the right plan and a set of goals in mind, you can make your newsletter a hard-working marketing channel for your business — and we’ll show you how.

Read on to discover the top email newsletter best practices that will turn your newsletter into something people actually want to read.

8 email newsletter best practices

1. Use a powerful subject line

Your subject line is arguably the most important piece of email content. Without a solid subject line, your email open rate is going to suffer.

Think about subject lines that draw you in — what’s compelling about them? Do they use concise language? Empathetic language? Bold language? Emojis?

In our experience, the best email subject lines are short (think 30-50 characters), engaging, and give just enough of a preview of what’s in the email to make you want to know more.

For more subject line tips and best practices, head here!

2. Optimize your email for mobile devices

People read over half of all emails on mobile devices. That’s an astounding number, considering people do still use their computers on a regular basis.

Knowing that, it’s a good idea to optimize your emails for mobile devices. That means making sure your newsletter template looks good on desktop as well as mobile. This may sound complicated, but it’s not. At Campaign Monitor, we have a library of over 80+ free mobile-friendly email templates ready for you to use.

Optimizing for mobile means testing your subject lines as well! Neglecting to preview your subject lines for different devices is a recipe for disaster, so make sure you take them all into account and send as many test emails as possible.

That includes design as well as email subject lines.

3. Pay attention to your email newsletter design

It’s hard to overstate the importance of design for your newsletter’s success. You might think of design as only the fonts and colors you choose, but there’s so much more than goes into designing an effective email.

Designing the layout of your newsletter content is going to have huge implications on how your readers engage with it. Making it easy to read and making your calls-to-action (CTAs) clear are going to give your engagement metrics a major boost. Plus, well-organized emails help boost your email deliverability.

You also want to make sure you’re designing with accessibility in mind. Are you using an appropriate amount of color contrast? Are your fonts big enough? Do your images have alt text? These are things you need to take into consideration.

Look at this engaging email campaign design from Bezar, which uses bold color blocks to highlight products and information:

email campaign design example

Source: Really Good Emails

Other design best practices:

  • Make your CTA buttons clear and concise
  • Keep your emails on-brand
  • Include your logo, website, and social media accounts
  • Don’t be afraid of white space
  • Don’t forget to add preheader text

Ultimately, your newsletter is an extension of your brand, and as such, you want to make sure it lines up with the rest of your brand experience (on your website, in your store, etc).

4. Use segmentation to target your customers

While most email newsletters will go to your entire list, your organization may have a different structure. If your company serves multiple different verticals, it may be wise to craft different types of content for each of those industries.

Or maybe you have newsletter subscribers in different regions, in which case it might make sense to have specific content for each.

Don’t let newsletters shut you into a typical “Here are our company updates” box. One of the biggest mistakes companies fall into with their newsletters is making it all about them. Your email subscribers don’t want to hear about you, they want you to deliver them valuable content, and the more personal you can get with them, the better.

5. A/B testing can improve your click rates

Your marketing team should already be A/B testing. If they’re not, they need to start doing it now. As much as we might want to say we know our audience and the types of emails they prefer, we’re never going to know as well as our audience themselves, and A/B tests give your audience a chance to tell you what they prefer.

Marketers who A/B test generally see far better engagement metrics like open rates and click-through rates than those who don’t, so you need to make A/B testing a priority.

As a result, you’ll know what works and what doesn’t with your audience, which you can use to inform your email marketing strategy moving forward.

6. Watch your email frequency and timing

Sending emails too often can result in unsubscribes from your email list, but sending emails too infrequently can result in your subscribers overlooking them.

The annoying thing is, figuring this information out is usually completely unique to each company. There’s no magic solution to this puzzle. You can look at other companies in your industry to see how often they’re sending as a start, but ultimately, if you test it and make tweaks, your data will tell you what frequency your audience responds to.

7. Craft a compelling call-to-action

Typically, when a company sends a newsletter, they have something they want to link their readers to. Maybe it’s a piece of content on your website that you teased in the newsletter, or maybe it’s a new product if you’re an ecommerce company. Either way, crafting a clear, compelling call-to-action will help make sure readers get where you want to send them.

This newsletter from Zendesk includes a letter from the CEO about a new product announcement, and a CTA encouraging people to click to “learn more” about that product.

good email design includes CTA

Source: Really Good Emails

The button is easy to see and the copy is clear, making sure that readers can’t miss the next step.

8. Use videos to encourage people to open your newsletter

Videos can encourage people to both open and click emails. Viewers find them engaging, and they’re an efficient way to communicate a lot of information quickly.

Videos created by your organization are the best to include in your email newsletters (like how-to videos, testimonials, or advice from executives or industry experts).

All of these videos can entice your readers. Plus, they provide an opportunity to really sell people on why they would want to work with your company.

This email newsletter from Mitsubishi uses video to highlight the rugged features of one of their models:

email design with video

Source: Really Good Emails

Wrap up

These eight email newsletter best practices are your guide to creating an email newsletter marketing plan that’ll impress your customers and improve your conversion rates.

Three key takeaways you should leave with are:

  • Use your email subject lines wisely to boost your open rates.
  • Use list segmentation to creatively divide up your list for maximum impact. Think outside the marketing box on this.
  • Email frequency and timing can make or break an email campaign, so use A/B testing to find the best times to send your newsletters.

Don’t forget to set up an A/B testing log, if you don’t have one already, and put together a comprehensive marketing calendar to stay on track with your email campaigns.

Looking for an email platform to create stunning newsletters? Campaign Monitor has a powerful drag-and-drop editor—complete with templates—to create the perfect emails.

This article was first published November 2015, updated May 2020.

As an email marketer, you’re probably aware of the myriad of mistakes you can make any time you create and send your campaign. Whether spelling mistakes, broken links, or inaccurate segments, things can go wrong for even the savviest of marketers.

This is probably why many marketers commiserate around that all-too-familiar, knee-knocking fear before pushing “send” on a campaign.

It’s inevitable that at some point a mistake will happen, so let’s take a look at some common reasons for sending ‘oops’ emails, see some real-life examples, and examine how to deal when you find yourself facing an unfortunate error.

The right template can send the right message—right when you need it.

Trying to fix a mistake is stressful. Our apology template can take the stress and time out of designing an oops email. Try out the apology template for free here.

Common email marketing mistakes

Addressing a specific mistake head on is often the best way to address these kinds of problems. See what you can do based on the type of mistake that’s made.

1. Incorrect links

It’s somewhat common to come across emails that contain broken or incorrect links. Although this may sound like a minor issue, it could cost you if the problem isn’t caught and rectified.

This is why sending a test email prior to sending out your campaign is vital. It provides you a chance to test all the elements in your email from the subject line to CTA buttons and of course, your links.

Make it a habit of clicking on every link in your test email to ensure your links go where you want them to.

Note: As a Campaign Monitor customer, if your campaign goes out with a broken link our Support team can fix it on the backend so people who haven’t opened or clicked won’t be affected.

CycleSurgery chose to send this email to subscribers who had already clicked on their email that had a broken link.

Technical difficulties on your website

Technical troubles seem to be one of the most common reasons for sending an ‘oops’ email, especially among ecommerce companies. This can often be an unforeseen problem, where a website goes down due to increased traffic, or technical issues.

In this case, it’s a good best practice to get back to your subscribers as soon as your website is back up and running with a small incentive to apologize.

This example from Reebok gets straight to the point with a short and snappy message and a 30% discount. Notice how they even use the word “Oops” as the promo code:

Park Seed ran into issues when they updated their website and rewarded their subscribers with a 20% discount as a consolation. Again, they use a clever promo code with “All is Good.”

Incorrect segment

Sending to the wrong segment or no segment at all has the potential to confuse your subscribers and harm your brand. Shutterfly sent an email to its entire database of subscribers, congratulating them on their newborn children.

Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, it was picked up by media and discussed at length on Twitter and Facebook:

Shutterfly email example

Shutterfly swiftly followed up on this mistake with a formal apology email from their chief marketing officer, who explained what happened and invited concerned subscribers to email the company.

Sending the incorrect version of an email

Brands often create two different versions of an email, with the intent of sending one version based on the result of a game, event, or vote. Unfortunately, it seems like every year we see an example of when the wrong version is fired off.

This can be a high profile and potentially damaging mistake to make, depending on what’s said in the email. If this happens to you, you’re usually best off sending an apology email with an explanation ASAP to those affected.

The Cal Bears Shop made this mistake when they prematurely sent an email celebrating a win and offering a discount on hats before the end of a game. Unfortunately, the other team came back to win 49 to 45.

Cal followed up with an apology and promise on Twitter that the discount was still valid.

Plan for mistakes.

Rather than reacting after a mistake happens, it’s best to have a plan in place, in case things go awry. This will ensure that you can act quickly and calmly if you run into trouble.

Email mistake response checklist:

To help you navigate your way back to safety after sending out an email with mistakes, here’s an easy checklist to follow. Recovering from a mistake requires a level head and taking the right steps. A checklist will help you with both.

1. Make a list of all potential issues.

Before you go ahead and try and salvage the situation, the first thing you’ll have to do is list all the potential issues in your botched email campaign. Doing so will help you get a handle the situation and tackle every mistake in an orderly and professional manner.Jot down each mistake, whether it’s typos in the subject line, broken links, incorrect pricing, slow website, wrong segment, broken HTML, etc.

2. Determine which potential issues require a response.

Marketers are human, and that means, once in a while, mistakes are bound to be found in a campaign. However, not every mistake warrants a response, as some can be fixed without any attention being drawn to them. Others, like spelling mistakes, don’t even need to be addressed (unless it’s a glaring typo).

Once you have noted the mistakes in your campaign, determine those that need a response. These are usually the errors that have the potential to hurt your brand or reduce your conversions. For example, sending a wrong email to a segment and forgetting to include a call to action should warrant action.

3. Define how you plan to respond to each of the more serious mistakes.

It’s easy to get into panic mode when you discover a mistake in your email marketing. However, it’s wise to take a deep breath and calmly define how you’ll rectify each of the mistakes.Will you send a follow-up email, apologize on social media channels, send a physical apology letter, or do all of those things? Set appropriate response times with your marketing team and make sure that everyone knows the plan. Failure to do this will result in more mistakes, due to a lack of coordination.

4. Get agreement.

Formal sign-off from your boss and the marketing team on your response plan will ensure that everything goes a lot smoother when something does happen. This also helps verify that nothing slips through the cracks and gives you the opportunity to set reasonable response times.Working as a team (and having a checklist) is a great way to reduce the chances of falling victim to the most common email marketing mistakes—and the uncommon ones.

5. Outline the creative approach for each type of apology email.

Rectifying an email campaign gone wrong requires a lot of creativity—in fact, more creativity that was needed for the original email. The reason for this is that you now have to kill two birds with one stone:

  • Regain your audience’s confidence in you.
  • Achieve the results you wanted to in the original campaign.

So how will you recover from the mistake and keep your campaign on track? Will you simply change the subject line, insert some text in the pre-header, add some text above the primary content, or create an entirely new email?

Brainstorm the solution with your marketing team and come up with the best approach. A well-executed apology can actually help your campaign run as smoothly as if everything had gone normally from the beginning.

6. Prepare an “oops” email template.

Having an email template for such emergencies is wise. It’ll save you from scrambling around when you need to send out an “oops” email, particularly if it’s a time-sensitive campaign. Have a few “audible-ready” templates for different scenarios. You could have one for light-hearted errors with appropriate images and a discount code ready to go, and another, more formal template for serious mistakes.

Here's an example of a company responding to an email marketing mistake.

Source: Really Good Emails

Make sure you have an email template ready to go before anything hits the fan. Start out with our apology email template and drop your branding in to make it a perfect send every time. Try out the template here.

Wrap up

Planning for the eventuality of mistakes, as rare as they may be in your business, is still an important aspect of running a solid marketing campaign. It’s also important, once in a while, to run drills where you set up a mock situation to help keep you and your team ready for the real emergency.

While some marketing mistakes are common and easy to spot, others are not. In order to mistake-proof your campaigns, make sure to check out our article that highlights the top email marketing mistakes you should stop making.

This is a guest post from Helga Zabalkanskaya at Newoldstamp.

Whatever awesome tactics and cutting-edge strategies you choose in digital marketing, there’s always a place for email.

Love it or hate it, email wins digital marketing with its simplicity and straightforwardness, not to mention its high-performing effectiveness.

But what should you be looking for when it comes to email? If you’re not sure, it can be healthy to research what your goals should be. According to original Campaign Monitor research, these are the average email benchmarks for all industries:

  • Average open rate: 17.92%
  • Average click-through rate: 2.69%
  • Average unsubscribe rate: 0.17%
  • Average click-to-open rate: 14.10%

Staying on top of your email marketing efforts might seem difficult, but even a basic email marketing strategy can improve your ROI—by as much as 4500%.

And, if you want even more return on your investment, learn how to write emails that will be opened, read, re-read, and replied to.

Read on to learn how.

1. Do your homework.

Automation and personalization shouldn’t overwhelm each other. While it’s tempting to send one generic email to all your lists, you should learn something about your recipients and personalize based on that info.

Personalization increases open rates by 26%. Personalization can help you write emails that get read.

If you want your email opened and replied to, personalize it a little: There are a number of ways to make your messaging feel more tailored.

Add the recipient’s name or help them learn something useful. The latter requires building buyer personas and creating thoughtful nurtures.

You can go even further by learning about your audience demographics and using data to customize dynamic content.

Not sure which demographics to target? Use surveys to determine your customer base and research the marketing that appeals to them. For instance, our guide discusses how Gen Z and millennials differ.

2. Work on your subject line.

The best way to improve your open rate is by improving your subject lines. The difficulty is in making it both interesting enough and not too pushy.

If you want your emails opened, tell the recipient that the content inside is interesting. Try to describe what’s inside in just a few words. According to Retention Science, subject lines containing around eight words are the best.

This email example uses lots of space and relevant content to keep people reading.

As engaging as your subject line should be, use less exclamation points and caps and more action words instead (e.g. visit, buy, get, follow).

For added personalization, use your recipient’s name in an email subject line. People are much more likely to open an email from someone who knows who they are.

Also, consider using emojis in your subject lines to make your emails stand out.

Long story short: it’s best for your subject line to be simple and to the point. You want to hook readers into opening, reading, and clicking through to your website.

3. Use the preview text.

Most email clients show a preview of your email body text. Being up to 60 characters long, it’s a huge opportunity to help people take a glance at your email.

Watch the video below to learn about preheader text: what it is and how to use it.

4. Make your first sentence engaging.

If your email is opened, people will spend about two seconds looking through its content to decide whether they want to keep reading, so the first sentence is very important.

Begin your email with some numbers like: “90% of marketers say this tool is awesome.” Something that encourages them to read more.

Your recipients might be interested in what it’s all about.

5. Be specific in your requests.

People hate ambiguity and uncertainty. With two seconds of the recipient’s attention, you have to be as specific as possible.

Understanding an email’s intent from the first glance is crucially important. If it’s not clear, subscribers are less likely to read or reply. And people are more likely to respond if you ask directly for advice or reactions.

Thus, if you want something from your recipient, ask right away. And, if you send an email for educational purposes only, don’t make any promises.

6. Keep your email as short as possible.

You may want to share a lot of information in your email, but recipients might not need all of it. The rule here is simple: Try making your message as short as possible.

Plain text email example

You shouldn’t cut important stuff: Just make the whole email concise and simple.

7. Skip the small talk in your email.

To make your email shorter, avoid small talk. Don’t include extraneous information unless it pertains to your email’s message and theme.

Emails are built to encourage people to open, scan, click through, and (hopefully) convert.

Writing a wordy email won’t encourage subscribers to read more: It will discourage them from clicking on your emails in the future.

8. Make sure you highlight the most important parts.

You can use HTML email formatting to add headings to structure your content and highlight important data and CTAs throughout the email.

Also, try to add some white space between logical blocks or CTAs. It helps readers identify the most important content subconsciously and remember it more easily.

This is a plain text email example.

9. Make your links friendly.

If you want to add links to your emails, make sure these links look attractive and friendly. This means they’re not ambiguous and it’s easy to find.

Use anchor texts for links that make you want to check it out. For example, write some interesting facts and follow them with a link to the source.

Pro-tip: CTA buttons get more clicks than hyperlinks.

10. Use bullets to make your email easy to scan.

Bullet points highlight and separate important information. What’s more, they leave more white space between sentences, so it’s easier for recipients to find what they’re looking for.

Additionally, bullet points are useful for listing your software features or adding arguments to support a point.

11. Use the word “you.”

The word “you” makes emails even more personal. Plus, by speaking directly to your readers, you’re positioning yourself as a thought leader. You’re guiding them on next steps through authoritative language.

Plus, saying, “you” in your copy is a simple way to create a message that feels authentic—like it’s coming from a friend or colleague.

12. Use the same language that your readers do.

You want people to speak to you the way you want to be spoken to: This means respectful, thoughtful language. (And it also means the write language and dialect!)

Localization, paired with inclusive language, is a professional way to appeal to subscribers and customers. Not only are you breaking down language barriers, but you are respecting the culture and UX of your subscribers.

Have questions about email localization? Read all about it in our guide.

13. Add facts.

Instead of making assumptions, add facts and data to your emails. Make sure your subscribers get value from your content—with facts and interesting copy.

Some statistical data, research-based information, and case studies are always valuable and interesting. Support your facts with corresponding links and mentions to ensure credibility.

14. Add an email signature.

Any emails you send should be as personalized as possible, and this includes a custom email signature.

Give your subscribers an idea of who is sending the email: the face behind the name or the personality behind the brand.

Want to write emails that will be read? Create a custom email signature like this example.

Source

Plus, you can add important content to your email signature. HTML techniques allow adding pretty much anything to an email footer:

  • Your name and contact information conveniently displayed in a logical order.
  • Your personal photo or company logo to increase personalization and credibility of an email or boost brand awareness.
  • Social media icons with links to your business profiles to increase engagement and followers number.
  • CTAs with links or even CTA buttons.
  • Promo banners linked to any kind of content, like your recent blog posts, calendar appointment scheduling, meeting invitations, etc.

You can use email signature generators like MySignature.io or Newoldstamp. These allow you to build a signature in a convenient online editor. You can customize all the elements and choose the appearance with galleries of templates and banners.

What’s more, online email signature generators allow organizing multiple signatures in departments and sending those to different users. It’s great for corporate customers, as assigning similar signatures to all employees is a powerful move for a brand.

15. Consider using images.

You can use images in your email. However, make sure they’re no larger than 50 kB.

Also, people expect an image to be linked, so use hyperlinks and alt tags that describe what’s on it. The latter is useful in case your images don’t load.

Learn more about using images in email by reading our marketer’s guide.

16. Double-check attachment names.

If you’re writing a 1:1 email and you attach a document, name it correctly. Something like “document.pdf” looks weird and you can’t really tell what’s in it. Use more specific words, like “winter-sales-report.pdf.”

Also, make sure you mention all the attachments in the email body. Let people know how they can use them.

Wrap up

An interesting and engaging email will always get positive attention. When writing one, think about what emails you personally like to read and will reply to. Also, keep these tips in mind:

  • Learn who your recipients are.
  • Use a descriptive subject line with no more than 10 words.
  • Make an email interesting from the first sentence.
  • Avoid ambiguity and be specific.
  • Skip small talk and add useful information only.
  • Highlight the most important parts with headings, CTA links, or buttons.
  • Use bullet points.
  • Refer to your readers with the word “you.”
  • Try writing in the recipient’s language/tone.
  • Use an email signature to stay professional, make emails more personalized, and promote your content.
  • Avoid uploading images that are too large.
  • Double-check the names of all attachments.

This list isn’t at all difficult to follow. Although it might seem restricting at first, once you start crafting your emails accordingly, you’ll see the number of reads and replies grow exponentially.


Author bio:  Helga Zabalkanskaya is the Head of Marketing at Newoldstamp, a 500Startups-backed startup that helps marketers to promote their services through brand consistent email signatures with banner campaigns.

Are your email campaigns sluggish lately?

Does your marketing toolbox need a powerful tool to improve click rates and conversions? Have you considered email lead scoring but need a little primer on the best way to use it?

Email lead scoring is a unique way to rank your subscribers based on the information you know about them and their behaviors. But how do you do it the right way?

Where can you get more information about using lead scoring to your advantage, and where do you even begin?

Read on to discover ways you can use email lead scoring to improve conversions, how to set up your strategy, and best practices for using this effective marketing tool.

How to set up an email lead scoring system

Email lead scoring is a powerful way to improve your click rates and conversions. Once you do the research and set up a scoring system, email campaigns work for themselves.

You can make an email lead scoring system as complex or simple as you want—it doesn’t have to be some complicated algorithm. It can be as simple as assigning arbitrary numbers to actions and attributes about your customers.

Here’s an example of a simple email lead scoring system:

  • Takes an action on your email—2 points
  • Multiple visits to email or website—2 points
  • Takes an action on your website—5 points
  • Downloads an eBook or guide—5 points
  • Takes an action in your shop—10 points
  • Abandons cart at checkout—20 points

You can set up automated emails that trigger when someone reaches a certain lead score. For example, let’s say someone downloads an ebook from your website and adds your newest course to their cart, but then abandons checkout.

This person scores 40 points—you can send an email when they hit 30 points that invites them back to your shop with a discount code or free shipping offer. This is just one of many ways lead scoring can help improve your conversion rates.

Get cart abandoners back with Campaign Monitor Commerce.

If your organization has too many leads for a simple system, you can put together something more comprehensive that has weighted attributes.

An example of a weighted attribute would be weighting the scores of people who take actions on your website versus people who take actions on your emails.

5 ways you can use email lead scoring to improve conversions

We’ve told you how to set up an email lead scoring system and how it improves conversions, but how exactly do you use your email data to set up a lead scoring system?

Let’s look at some of the ways you can score your data:

1. Scoring by email engagement

How a subscriber engages with your emails is an indicator of their interest in your company (and your products or services). This is valuable data to use in email lead scoring, and valuable data to predict your conversions accurately. In fact, it might be some of your most valuable data.

You can score based on opens, click-throughs, and conversions, or even score on where someone clicks on your email. Did they click your CTA or some other link in your email? What was their next action?

2. Scoring by website engagement

It’s one thing for subscribers of your email campaigns to read your emails, but it’s a different thing entirely for them to interact with your website. If your emails are working, your subscribers should find something in your email to guide them to your website.

Score websites differently than emails where it makes sense. You may want higher scores for different levels of website engagement, like abandoned carts or eBook downloads, for example.

Jack Wills sends an abandoned cart transactional email to a potential customer.

Source: Really Good Emails

3. Scoring by demographics

Demographics—age, gender, orientation, location, ethnicity, etc.—can be an effective attribute to score on, if you know your target audience well. Take a look at the demographics of your usual buyer, then score your leads based on the demographics that spend the most on your products and services.

Learn how millennials and Gen Z compare in our guide.

Using demographics is a great way to improve your targeted email campaigns, in general. Location-based email marketing is effective for companies that have local appeal, and it happens to be one of the more commonly used targeting methods.

 Airbnb targets a person’s intended location by using their travel plans to make suggestions.

Source: Really Good Emails

4. Scoring by channel

Did your customers get on your email list from a download you offered? Did you get their email address when they started an abandoned checkout process? Maybe they got to your list from Facebook? All of these can be indicators of where a person is in the buying process—thus, they’re prime attributes for scoring.

The more a subscriber interacts with your website, the more likely they are to convert. Scoring based on how they interact is a great way to amplify your scoring system’s value. Someone that got to your website from a shopping cart should have a higher score than someone who got there through social media.

5. Scoring by industry

B2B email marketing can benefit from email lead scoring too. Does your company have an industry that routinely spends more than others?

Is there an industry your company wants to get into, but you aren’t quite there yet? Weight their industry higher than others to trigger targeted emails for their industry.

Scoring by industry allows you to rank the most lucrative industries higher than industries that may not spend as much with your organization. You can then send emails targeted at that particular industry, highlighting your industry expertise.

Campaign Monitor sends out an email to their list with a focal point on the nonprofit industry.

Source: Really Good Emails

Email lead scoring best practices

Now here’s the fun part: taking all of that data and putting it into practice.

You’ve set up a scoring system and your team decided score subscribers based on their email and website engagements, plus the channel through which they got to your site. Now what?

Here’s how you can use that data to maximize conversion rates:

  • Set up a proprietary scoring system: You can start with our example but create an email lead scoring system based on your audience. What are the key attributes of your subscribers? How do they typically interact with your emails, and what behavior are you trying to drive with them?
  • Use list segmentation to further drill down into your audience: List segmentation, which you should already be using, is an equally powerful tool for email marketing. Have lists that routinely outperform others? Rank those people higher in your scoring system.
  • Work with an agency that knows lead scoring: Feeling a little overwhelmed by the prospect of putting together your own scoring system? Use an email marketing platform that understands the ins and outs of lead scoring. All you do is provide the data and parameters, then reap the rewards.
  • A/B testing can help solidify your scoring system: It’s highly unlikely that you’ll knock it out of the park on your first round of email lead scoring. Don’t worry—use A/B testing to monitor the results of your efforts and see how people with different scores respond to your emails.
  • Combine lead scoring with other email best practices: Don’t sleep on other email best practices like testing your subject lines, creating stunning email design, and crafting language that’s engaging. These email best practices serve to amplify the efforts of your email lead scoring system.

A comprehensive email marketing system is critical to higher ROI. These best practices will guide you toward an email lead scoring system that works for your company.

Wrap up

Don’t let all of this information overwhelm you; setting up an email lead scoring system isn’t hard. It just takes some diligence and patience. Log your results in a testing log, so you can track your changes and improvements.

Here are three important things to keep in mind after reading this guide:

  • Create an email lead scoring system based on your audience—you know your audience better than anyone, so use what you know about them to start building your scoring system.
  • Real rewards don’t happen overnight—between building your system and sending A/B testing emails, seeing benefits from lead scoring will take some time.
  • Use email best practices to exponentially increase the value of your scoring system—best practices are a cornerstone to effective email campaigns.

We’re positive you can put together a practical lead scoring system using these best practices and tips for building one.

Want to know more about how list segmentation can drive your email lead scoring system? Contact Campaign Monitor to learn more about their list segmentation features.

Looking for ideas to touch your customers for the upcoming holiday season? Want fresh inspiration for Halloween email marketing campaigns? Need a little guidance in setting up your holiday email schedule?

With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to start gearing up for the holiday season. Holiday email campaigns are the perfect opportunity to casually touch base with your subscribers. They’re also the perfect opportunity to create conversions.

Use the holiday season to your advantage. Send out industry emails with a spooky spin or offer a promotional discount in seasonal numbers, like “13” or “31.” Does Halloween seem a little silly for your business? Have a fall sale or send an autumn discount code instead.

Creating a powerful holiday campaign is as simple as following a few best practices. Read on to discover how to make the process more efficient as well as a few examples to fuel your imagination and get into the spirit.

Your guide to sending Halloween email campaigns

Holiday emails are trendy and capitalize on specific times of the year. You can send them in addition to your email newsletters or other email campaigns, or you can work them into your regular email schedule.

Because they’re different from your standard emails, people may be more inclined to open them, and more opens mean more conversions.

Here are some key stats on email campaigns and why you want to get on board with this trend:

  • Twenty-one percent of email marketing revenue comes from automated emails, and over 75% of revenue comes from triggered campaigns.
  • Click-through rates improve by 14% with personalized email messages. Conversions improve by 10% with the same personalization.
  • When it comes to marketing, email results in more conversions than other marketing channels, like search and social media.

Let the data guide you. Email marketing is the most effective form of marketing available; it results in more conversions and it has an incredibly high ROI.

Halloween email marketing campaign best practices

It can be tempting to whip up a quick Halloween email and send it off to your entire list, but don’t rush it. You have a golden opportunity here, so use this email campaign to convert people, not just have a little fun for the holiday.

Keep these best practices in mind to help you send an engaging holiday email campaign:

  • Automate your workflow: Automation not only makes sending emails a breeze, but it results in higher open and click-through rates. Set up an automated email newsletter and work in your holiday email campaigns to be part of your workflow.
  • Personalize your emails: Email personalization increases clicks and conversions, so don’t sleep on this critical marketing tool. Use all the data you have about your subscribers to create segmented lists for personalization.
  • Test a few subject lines: We all know that your subject line is the most important email component. Just because you’re sending a fun email doesn’t mean you want to drop the ball on this. Test a couple of subject lines for maximum impact.
  • Check your timing and frequency: Timing and frequency are especially critical with holiday emails. Sending them too soon or too late can be a miss, and sending them too often can be annoying. Send your Halloween emails after fall starts, and don’t send more than one or two a week.
  • A/B test your campaigns: This is something you want to do with all of your email campaigns, but A/B testing is a useful tool for hammering down important details in your emails. A/B test Halloween emails the same way you’d test standard emails.

With these best practices, you can get started on crafting the perfect holiday email campaign.

6 Halloween email tricks to treat your subscribers

Are you ready for maximum Halloween inspiration? Check out these six emails and our takeaways on what makes them powerful and engaging.

1. Forget the candy—this deal is the sweetest one yet!

Source: Really Good Emails

Blue Apron digs into the holiday with its subject line, images, and text. The cemetery reference is perfect for Halloween, and the mention of being haunted by missing out on their offer is in the spirit of the season.

Takeaway: Notice the $40 off promotional code—discounts and savings are the perfect opportunity to convert people with your Halloween emails. Send a preliminary email letting people know to watch out for Halloween savings, then hit them with the savings when it makes sense on your marketing calendar. Don’t forget to automate your workflow to include “thank you” emails for your customers.

2. Pumpkin spice and all things (not) nice

WeTransfer uses clever language and trendy phrases to entice its readers.

Source: Really Good Emails

Playing on one of the season’s biggest trends—pumpkin spice—We Transfer uses clever language to get people excited for the holiday. With references to “gloominess” and “utter darkness,” this email’s language, combined with a dark gradient graphic, is all it takes to get into the spirit.

Takeaway: You don’t have to go full-on Halloween to thrill your subscribers. Simple language combined with clean graphics can make all the difference in an ordinary email newsletter. Use your subject line to set the tone, then dive in with your chilling content. Don’t forget a compelling call to action. You’re still trying to convert your subscribers.

3. A little treat to go with all the tricks this weekend!

Taylor Stitch takes a minimalist approach to their Halloween email campaign.

Source: Really Good Emails

This minimalist design exudes elegance while offering a reason for subscribers to click through to the website. Taylor Stitch uses a simple jack-o-lantern graphic and a quick “Happy Halloween”—they don’t go overboard with graphics or use any spectacular language—plus a small discount.

Takeaway: Try something minimalistic and elegant to take advantage of the holiday. Use every opportunity to pique your customers’ interests. Halloween is a national tradition in the U.S., so take the time to touch your customers on this holiday. It is the unofficial start of the holiday season.

4. Don’t let Halloween sneak up on you!

Modcloth uses puns and the age-old Halloween costume to spice up their holiday email.

Source: Really Good Emails

A sense of urgency combined with a sense of humor make for a great Halloween email. Modcloth uses the Halloween spirit to capitalize on their “thrilling prints” and “spooktacular accessories.” As a clothing retailer, they use an image of someone dressed in their clothing for Halloween.

Takeaway: Envision ways your products or services can tie into Halloween and work that into your emails. Use humor based on your audience—different demographics will respond to different things favorably. Modcloth knows their audience well. They used a casual, witty header to get their subscribers’ attention.

5. ? ? ? Happy Halloween! Get 30% off Designmodo Shop and Market

Source: Really Good Emails

Designmodo gets straight to the point in their subject line—30% off their shop. That’s enough to get people interested, then they find out it’s for 3 days only. This is a great tactic for getting opens and conversions.

Takeaway: Use your subject line to tell people why they want to open the email. Use your con

tent to tell people why they want to sign up for your services or buy your products. Notice that this email isn’t even in traditional Halloween colors—think outside of the box. You don’t have to stick with tradition. Work Halloween into your brand.

6. So delicious it’s scary… | Shop Halloween Treats ?

Fortnum & Mason entice their readers the “nice” way—with treats.

Source: Really Good Emails

Fortnum & Mason turn to an image of a monster and Halloween puns. They start with a compelling subject line (Doesn’t everyone want to shop for Halloween treats?) and move into humorous plays on words.

Takeaway: You don’t need to offer a promo code or discount to take advantage of Halloween email marketing campaigns. An email with a targeted subject line, content with a sense of humor, and a simple CTA is all you need to capitalize on this holiday. Create a CTA that pops and let your imagination run wild.

Wrap up

Halloween is the start of a busy holiday season—Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s aren’t too far behind. Start the holiday season off right with a solid email campaign.

Three important takeaways you need to remember are:

  • Use promotional codes and discounts sparingly—they’re a great way to get clicks and conversions.
  • Halloween-centric language is popular, but you know your audience. Adjust appropriately.
  • Personalization is a key attribute to good email campaigns, and Halloween is the perfect personalization opportunity.

Using these email best practices and Halloween email examples, you should be able to craft the perfect Halloween email for your audience.

Need help preparing for the holiday season? Campaign Monitor has a drag-and-drop editor that can help you craft the perfect Halloween email campaign.

This is a guest post from Samuel Hum at Referral Candy.

Email marketing is extremely important in keeping your brand top of mind and bringing customers back to your website.

However, it can also be quite complex due to the sheer amount of variables that affect it. When open rates and click-throughs aren’t what you expect, we start to ask ourselves questions like:

“Did they receive it but didn’t open it?”

“Did they open it but didn’t like it?”

“Why are they unsubscribing?”

Read on to discover 5 reasons why your emails may not be performing as well as they should, as well as tips to fix or prevent these common email marketing mistakes and maximize your campaigns:

Common email marketing mistakes

1. Sending emails that lack personalization

When we think of personalization in email marketing, different ideas come to mind. In order to be successful in email marketing, you have to master them all.

Personalization isn’t just a buzzword; it’s one of the main drivers to a successful email marketing campaign. Personalized emails have about 26% higher open rates, and over 14% click-through rates when compared to other, non-personalized emails.

As mentioned by Peter DeNunzio, general manager of cross-channel marketing from Experian Marketing Services in a study on email marketing personalization:

“Consumers have come to expect content tailored to their unique interests and preferences, and there is a clear business case for why marketers need to meet those expectations.”

Personalized copywriting (starting from the subject line)

Using your subscriber’s first name in the subject line is an effective way to instantly make your email more personalized.

Take a look at the example from LinkedIn that uses the first name in their subject:

LinkedIn personalized subject first name

It makes your customers feel that you are talking directly to them. That hint of personal touch will also make your email seem less “salesy.”

Personalized content based on customers’ demographics

To take personalization a step further than just the use of first names, you need to make use of other data that you have received from them when they opted in. This information can be used to plan promotions and relevant content for their demographics.

You should make use of data including:

  • Date of birth (their birthdays and age)
  • Gender
  • Location (specific festivals and seasons, if applicable)
  • Interests (that are relevant to your products/services)

Engaging them based on their demographics help make your emails more personalized and more relevant to them, which will increase their chances of interacting further with your brand.

Personalized recommendations based on customers’ behavior

Another great way to make your content more personalized is to recommend products that your customers have browsed while on your site.

Customers who haven’t purchased

Fab cart abandonment email example shopify

(Cart abandonment email sent by Fab | Image: Shopify)

Abandoned carts are a good place to start because the customer liked the item(s) enough to add it to the cart, but there was something that stopped them. Sending a cart abandonment email to inform them that the item they chose is still available will help remind them if they forgot about it and encourage them to make the purchase.

Customers who have purchased

You can also apply a similar approach to email customers who have purchased from you. The key difference would be that you should now recommend products that are either similar in style or complementary to that item they purchased previously.

You should also take the opportunity to increase customer loyalty by encouraging existing clients to interact with your brand by offering rewards points, discounts, or special perks.

Audible email similar recommendations

(Image: Audible email recommendations)

In this example, Audible sends an email notifying me of recommendations (based on what I have bought), and also the current bestsellers.

Further reading:

6 ways you can make your email campaigns more personalized

5 Ways To Use Personalization To Engage Your Customers

2. Not knowing or ignoring your sender reputation

If you’re not aware of what your sender reputation is, there’s a high chance it’s affecting you more than you know.

As the name suggests, your sender reputation represents your authenticity and credibility as a sender. It’s a score that Internet Service Providers (ISP) give in order to determine if what you’re sending is genuine or spam.

Your reputation is determined by many factors, including:

Your email bounce rates

When an email that you send bounces, it could be due to a temporary problem like a full inbox (soft bounce), or a more permanent issue like a closed email account (hard bounce).

The best way to prevent this from happening is to review your email lists regularly and remove those who have not been actively opening your emails. Doing this will ensure that your email list consists of more active subscribers, thus reducing your bounce rates.

Daily email volume

Spam senders love to send out to huge lists at once, as they want to have maximum reach. Your reputation may be negatively affected if you’re also sending numerous, irrelevant emails to massive groups of people.

This is especially true when sending first emails. If ISPs feel that large amounts of mail are coming from a new IP address, they will start to investigate further.

To mitigate this, you can follow an incremental schedule to “warm up” your IP address.

Unsubscribe rates

If your subscribers are unsubscribing en masse, that’s another red flag for you.

Assuming that your email content is on point (more tips on that coming up), you want to ensure that those who subscribe to you are genuinely interested in knowing more about your brand.

A double opt-in feature requires the subscriber to check their email and click a link to approve the subscription. This extra step will lead to an overall lower quantity of signups, but it will ensure that those who really want to hear more from you successfully subscribe.

3. Getting your emails flagged as spam

After you have analyzed your email metrics, it’s time to look at the content of your emails again. There a couple of issues to look at so you don’t get grouped together with the spammers.

Keeping your content relevant

Producing content that isn’t what your readers subscribed for will make your emails very unpopular, often causing them to be ignored or marked as spam by subscribers.

It’s always a good idea to tell your readers what content they can expect to receive from you. Once you do that, you can then focus on producing content that’s relevant to that expectation.

An additional tip will be to occasionally ask your subscribers what content they would like to see more of in future emails. This feedback will give keep you on track to send emails with relevant content.

4. Ignoring your target market’s concerns

CB Insights diagram demographics vs psychographics

(Diagram comparing demographics and psychographics used in customer personas | Image: CB Insights)

Coming up with content ideas that are relevant to all your subscribers can be extremely difficult, as you can’t constantly ask them what they want to know.

An effective way to come up with relevant content that addresses your subscribers’ concerns is to create customer personas. Customer personas are fictional representations of your target customers. You probably have a pretty good idea who your target customers are, but crafting these personas will give you a much deeper insight into their needs and concerns.

To create a detailed persona, you should combine your customers’ demographics and psychographics. Demographics will give you insight into who they are by providing information about gender, age, marital status, occupation, income level, etc. Psychographics, while less discussed, will tell you about their values, thoughts, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles.

Crafting customer personas based on both demographics and psychographics will help you understand what your customers are going through and what they actually need. This, in turn, will allow you to craft content that will directly address those pain points.

5. Sending the same email to all your subscribers (segmentation is key)

Now that you have created your customer personas, it’s time to give them relevant content.

However, just like your various personas will have different reasons for coming to you, not all your subscribers subscribe for the same reasons.

Sending them all the same email will relate to some but not all, and will ultimately make the rest lose interest.

One way to avoid that is to create segmentation based on your customer personas. You can place your segmentation right at the subscription stage, where subscribers can select what topics they are interested in. This will feed them into different mailing lists, where you can provide different types of content to engage them differently.

For example, Hubspot’s blog has four options to choose from when opting in for their newsletter: Marketing, Sales, Service, and Agency. Hubspot will then send you relevant content based on your chosen preferences.

It might also happen that your customers are at different stages of your funnel, which means that each individual customer needs to receive specific content that’s relevant to their purchase stage.

A widely known strategy called AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) is a formula that allows marketers to provide results-driven content to their readers with the end goal of making them move through the sales funnel.

Wrap up

Avoiding these 5 common email marketing mistakes will take time and experimentation.

However, addressing them will eventually give you a much better understanding of your company, your target customers, and how to prevent automated email systems from cutting your efforts short.

About the author:

Samuel is a writer for Anafore, the Singapore-based company behind CandyBar and ReferralCandy, two SaaS products that allow online and offline retailers to run customer referral and loyalty programs.

First impressions count. They have the ability to make or break your business. And that’s why your welcome emails not only have to showcase your brand in the best possible light, but also have to engage your customers in the right way.

Welcome emails are a vital part of any marketing campaign so we’ve provided everything you need to know to make yours successful, including the top 7 welcome email dos and don’ts.

Why are welcome emails so important?

Open rates for welcome emails are, on average, 50%. This means that, compared to standard newsletters, they are 86% more effective.

Frankly, you’re never going to get this type of opportunity or success rate ever again, so you need to make the most of it.

However, over 50% of brands don’t automatically send a welcome email when their customers or potential customers subscribe. When 74% of new subscribers expect this type of email and subscribers show a 33% higher engagement rate on a long-term basis, you can’t afford to miss this opportunity.

When a customer has gone to the effort of signing up to your mailing list, it is clear your brand already resonates with them. They want to know more about your company and they might be very close to making a purchase.

These customers are hot leads. But lack of effective communication on your part could soon turn them into leads for your competitors instead.

This welcome email from PrettyLittleThing introduces their newest subscribers to their highest performing pages while maintaining a clear and consistent branding:

welcome email for subscribers

Source: Really Good Emails

The top 7 welcome email dos and don’ts

Here are our top welcome email dos and don’ts that will drive stellar results and boost your email marketing ROI.

1. Do reassure them that they’ve made the right choice

First, you need to put your new recipient’s mind at ease and prove to them they’ve made the right decision to sign up to your mailing list. After all, they’ve made a big commitment to you already by handing over their email address and inviting you into their crowded inbox. After all, these days, they’re all crowded inboxes.

In order to reassure them they’ve made a good choice, start by considering your email subject line. This needs to welcome them to your mailing list and show you aren’t spam while still being clickable.

Something simple like, “Thanks for letting us into your inbox! Now what?” is straightforward and transparent.

Then, inside the email, welcome them to your brand’s community by starting a conversation with them. One of the great aspects of email marketing is the way it allows you to dialogue with your customers and deliver value right into their hands. Be sure that you deliver on these expectations from the very first.

Finally, don’t forget to reiterate your privacy policies, reassuring them that their email address is safe and won’t be passed on to numerous advertising companies.

2. Don’t fail to deliver on your promise

If you enticed customers to sign up to your mailing list by offering them discounts, free downloads, free delivery, and so on, don’t fail to deliver in your welcome email.

This not only provides the customer with their incentive to shop with you but it also goes one step further toward building trust with them. If you promise your subscribers something, you better deliver.

For example, the team at Bare Bones presents their new subscribers with a $10 off discount code in their welcome email.

Subscription discount

Source: Really Good Emails

3. Do set some expectations for the future

Your welcome email serves as an opportunity to show your newest subscribers what’s in store for the future. If you plan on sending emails at weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly intervals, make sure they know that straight away.

Instead of making yourself guess how frequently your subscribers would like to hear from them, consider just asking your subscribers their preference. That way, you know you’re getting the right balance and you’ll meet their expectations.

Equally, whatever frequency you (and your customer) choose, it’s crucial to actually do what you say you’ll do. Don’t say you’re going to email once a week and then only send out something once a month or vice versa. Even if you think they won’t mind if you limit your frequency, you’ve made a promise to your subscribers and any change needs to be clearly communicated to them.

Your relationship with your subscribers is just that — a relationship. You don’t want your friends telling you something and then doing something else, and neither do your subscribers. Remember, there are humans on the other side of those email addresses who deserve to be treated as such.

And finally, be sure to make it easy for your new recipients to unsubscribe.

While you hope they don’t want to unsubscribe immediately, you need to ensure they can do so if they want to. Otherwise, you risk having your emails flagged as spam which will start to harm your sender’s reputation. Not to mention, it’s the law.

HIMs subscription

Source: Really Good Emails

4. Do consider the timing and frequency of your welcome emails

The frequency of your emails is imperative to their success. And you also need to time them just right, too.

A report by Experian found that real-time welcome emails generate 10 times more transactions than welcome emails that are sent in batches.

And it doesn’t take a genius to understand why.

A customer who has just signed up to your email subscription list has your brand on the brain. They’re expecting to hear from you. If you can get your email in front of them while your brand’s at the forefront of their mind, you’re far more likely to convert this lead into a customer.

5. Don’t just send one welcome email

While it’s imperative you don’t bombard your customers with email after email, you may also benefit from sending a welcome series of emails over a period of time. That way, you can engage your subscribers in different ways and present them with different information without overloading them in one email.

For example, you can tailor your welcome emails based on what stage in the sales funnel your customer is in.

So if you send a welcome email and they make a purchase, you can send them an email with new products in it, and then perhaps a coupon. After all, welcome emails with coupons have 2.5 times higher transaction rates.

Alternatively, if they don’t make a purchase after the initial welcome email, you could provide them with more information on your brand and its products or services. And if they still don’t buy from you, you can move on to encourage them to interact with you in different ways.

Welcome to the community

Source: Really Good Emails

6. Do encourage them to engage in other ways

You don’t have to interact with your customers solely by email and should encourage them to engage with you on a variety of different platforms. Now’s the ideal time to ask new subscribers to join you on social media or to get in touch with you by phone: Marketing channels work best when they work together.

Essentially, you want to make sure your subscribers feel they can contact you in whatever way they want to. They want to feel like you’re wherever they are and they want to know you’re listening. Connecting with your customers on multiple channels means you care about more than just their money.

However, always make sure the channels you suggest in your welcome email are ones you use avidly. The last thing you want is to send customers to a communication channel if you don’t use it properly and can’t provide them with the information and service they’re expecting. If you invite your subscribers to join you on Twitter, then you need to be active and vocal on Twitter.

Including screenshots of your social media accounts—perhaps highlighting a positive comment from a customer or a recent competition you ran—teases your subscriber with just enough of your content to make them curious and hopefully inspire them to join you.

Welcome to the team page

Source: Really Good Emails

7. Don’t send impersonal emails

While you want to automate the sending of your welcome emails, it’s important to add some personal touches to these emails.

For instance, you can ensure the subject line includes the recipient’s name to up the personalization factor. Try something like “Welcome on board, [NAME]! What’s next?” Taking this time to feature this personal touch will ensure a higher open rate and more interaction from your recipients without much extra effort from you.

But don’t stop with adding a subscriber’s name. Going further with personalization can make a big impression, such as talking about a specific product they’ve viewed or featuring content that specific subscriber likes to read. Segmentation makes such specific personalization fairly simple.

Adding personal touches to your email showcases the human side of your company while also proving you understand that your contacts are human, too.

The more they read, the more they spend

Creating a series of welcome emails is a great way to skyrocket your company’s ROI but it’s important you make sure your recipients are engaging with the emails you’re sending. According to studies, the more you can get your recipients to read your welcome emails, the more money they’re likely to spend with you.

In the study, if a recipient didn’t read any of the three welcome messages sent by the brands, they spent, on average, $247. However, when they read all three of the messages, they spent an average of $391.

This means customers are spending an average of 58% more when they’re engaged in welcome emails. By tapping into some of your most enthusiastic fans, you can tap into greater revenue for your company.

Wrap up

If you don’t already send welcome emails, what are you waiting for?

When you send personalized, timely, and engaging emails while your brand is at the forefront of customers’ minds, you’re taking those all-important steps toward building a long-term relationship with your subscribers. And your subscribers will thank you for it by sharing and engaging with your emails.

And remember, your welcome emails don’t need to be perfect. But it is important that you follow these key welcome email dos and don’ts. That way, you’ll be building strong, long-lasting relationships with your subscribers, turning customers into lifelong brand ambassadors.

Ready to start designing your next batch of welcome emails with confidence? Check out our free welcome email templates and transactional email templates to help refresh your email designs in minutes. 

As a marketer, nothing is more frustrating than working hard on a campaign, only to find it didn’t deliver the results you were expecting. There are a variety of reasons this could be happening, but for email marketers, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is the spam filter.

Tracking open rate is one of the most important email marketing tracking metrics marketers should be monitoring.

A low open rate could be a sign of several issues with your marketing, including poor subject line copy. However, it could also indicate your subscribers simply aren’t seeing the email. This could be because the email’s been directed to their junk folder instead of their inbox.

This inevitably leads to marketers asking, “Why are my emails going to junk mail in Outlook?”

Your emails have been thoughtfully crafted and you feel like you’re doing everything correctly, so why are you emails ending up in the junk folder?

In this article, we will look at some of the most common reasons Outlook and other email providers direct legitimate marketing emails to the junk folder. More importantly, we will provide some helpful tips to ensure your emails don’t end up in the junk folder.

Why are my emails going to junk mail in Outlook?

  1. Your subject line is preventing engagement
  2. Your email was reported as spam
  3. Your emails are breaking the rules
  4. Your emails aren’t being opened
  5. Your email list is out-of-date

Your subject line is preventing engagement

The subject line is the first impression your emails make on subscribers, and it’s important the impression is a good one.

Subject lines no longer play a major part in spam/junk folder determination. Instead, all major mailbox providers now weight engagement as their top influencer for where your email ends up. The takeaway: subject lines may not influencer providers, but they do influence users: an exciting subject line encourages opens and clicks, which then lend to positive signals to mailbox providers.

The takeaway: high engagement means your emails will probably continue to get through. With low engagement? Your emails could end up as spam or junk. That’s why testing and personalizing subject lines on a regular basis is so important.

Writing a good subject line is your first line of defense against these filters. Avoid sending subject lines that may look spammy to readers: words written in all caps, punctuated with numerous exclamation points, or using notable “spammy” terms like “guaranteed winner” and “free gift.” Writing an effective subject line can help your emails look trustworthy to users, thus elevating engagement.

Personalizing your subject line is also a great way to stand out to readers. In fact, personalized emails are 26% more likely to be opened by subscribers.

Your email was reported as spam

At some point or another, a subscriber will likely mark one of your emails as spam. Because of this, marketers should be tracking subscriber behavior to note any potential issues.

Email providers and ISPs are also tracking spam reports. This means future email campaigns may be sent to the junk folder whether or not the individual recipient actually marked your emails as spam.

Only send emails to those who have provided consent

Spam complaints most often occur when users receive emails without their consent. Sending mail to bought lists will heighten your chances of being filtered into spam. Plus, bought lists are simply unethical.

Grow your list organically through content upgrades, newsletter content, and giveaways. You can even go one step further and require double opt-in. This will require users to confirm that yes, they really did register to receive your emails.

Make sure your content is relevant

There are a number of reasons why someone may mark your emails as spam. One such reason is irrelevant content. While this may not fit the dictionary definition of email spam, people will use the spam flag anyway, simply to filter their inboxes and reduce clutter.

This highlights the importance of segmenting your email list and sending relevant content to the subscribers it will appeal to most.

Let them know who you are

Another reason people may mark your email as spam is because they don’t immediately recognize who the email is from.

Good design can combat this kind of spam report. Clearly list your company name or logo at the top of your email and include other identifying features. This will ensure that subscribers can immediately see who the email is from.

The example below is a great example of identifying your business in an email.

why are my emails going to junk mail in outlook?

Really Good Emails

The game title is listed right at the top of the email, along with a bright image of a recognizable character. There is less chance someone would be confused about the sender of this email and, therefore, less chance it will be marked as spam.

Your emails are breaking the rules

In an effort to reduce spam and make consumers more aware of who is contacting them with marketing messages, governments around the world have enacted digital contact laws and regulations.

In the United States, these regulations are described as CAN-SPAM. Businesses that want to contact email subscribers for marketing purposes must follow these rules.

For example, you must include your business’ physical address as a part of your email. Customers need to know where you can be found, and this information must be clearly shown in your marketing campaign.

Also, a visible, easy-to-find opt-out button or link needs to be included with every email. There are also rules about creating false or misleading headlines.

While you may be hesitant to clearly show an unsubscribe link, being in compliance with CAN-SPAM is essential. Be sure to offer great content as part of your email marketing campaigns, and you won’t have to worry about people choosing to unsubscribe in large numbers.

why are my emails going to junk mail in outlook?

Really Good Emails

Your emails aren’t being opened

Email service providers closely track which emails are opened at a high rate and which ones aren’t. Emails that are immediately deleted or archived without being opened could be considered spam, even if the recipient has not marked the email as such. This further highlights the importance of creating an engaged email subscriber list.

Low open rates may be a sign that your subject lines are not effective.

You may be lacking personalization, the offer may not be exciting, or the subject line could appear to be worded similarly to spam as we discussed above. The subject line is your chance to grab the attention of your subscribers and convince them to open your email.

If email providers see that your emails are being opened at a healthy rate, then they’re less likely to direct your emails into the junk folder automatically.

Tracking open rates can reveal which subject lines seem to resonate with subscribers and which ones do not. As you send more emails, you can see how your subscribers are reacting to your subject lines simply by monitoring your open rate and tracking the average over time.

Your email list is out-of-date

Over time, your email subscribers may change their email address, stop using the account, or go off the grid. Whatever the reason, sending emails to addresses no longer in use can contribute to emails marked as spam.

As a result, you should regularly evaluate your email list for subscribers who no longer engage with you.

An engagement campaign is a quick way to see who is still invested in your emails.

This is usually an offer that requests them to opt back into your email list. Sometimes, a special offer may be included with an engagement campaign to build more excitement.

If subscribers do not respond to the engagement campaign, then they can be removed from your email list. This helps increase your open rate, removes inactive accounts, and allows you to focus more on subscribers still engaged with your brand.

Regularly completing this kind of email list review ensures your list remains healthy for the long term.

why are my emails going to junk mail in outlook?

Really Good Emails

Wrap up

So, why are my emails going to junk mail in Outlook?

This is the frustrated cry of countless email marketers who know their content isn’t junk. However, there are algorithms and predictive technologies working to protect email users from spam.

And sometimes, these tools get a little overactive.

If you find your emails are ending up in the junk folder more often, you may want to consider the above tips to ensure that you get better placement right into the inbox of your subscribers.

At Campaign Monitor, we give you the tools to design better emails and track important metrics that can help you avoid the spam folder and grow conversions from your subscribers.

Want to start creating better email marketing campaigns? Try Campaign Monitor for free!