Email Marketing Checklist

Updated November 11, 2022

You’ve Got to Be On Email These Days

Emailing your customers is one of the primary ways interact with them, but because of that it’s easy to slip into autopilot and stop thinking about what you’re doing. Email should be treated like any other content marketing. So from time to time we like to check that the emails we’re sending are appealing enough to open, read and respond to. Take a look at our email marketing checklist.

How do you Encourage Signups

Before you can start spamming your customers you need to get them to sign up to your mailing list. Firstly, you should be clear with them from the start that you plan to market to them over email. If they don’t know this before signing up it isn’t going to reflect well on your business and will lead to unsubscribes.

Once you’ve made that clear, you should tempt them with a ‘gift’. Like a golden handshake with a new job, you want to gamify the signup process for your mailing list. Offer them something as a welcome gift. Perhaps an eBook, or a video series. Some piece of content or information that is higher value than what you typically share on your blog or website.

Pimp your Subject Lines

As with blog posts, meta descriptions and ad texts your email subject lines are really important. These small strings of around 100 characters can define how good your online marketing is. Spend time drafting different titles and trying to make it as clear as possible what value the reader will get from choosing to open your email, without giving away everything that’s inside.

One way of doing this is to add time constraints. Phrases like ‘Limited Time Only’ or ‘Don’t miss out’ can help you, but be careful not to overuse them, as your readers will quickly become blind to them. Creating a sense of urgency is a key part of making sure your emails aren’t ignored.

Utilize The Preview Text/ Preheader

If you’re sending your email in a platform like Mailchimp you’ll notice that you can decide what preview text will show up with your emails. DO NOT IGNORE THIS. This is what the reader will skim when in their inbox. Just like the meta description for your web pages, this is vital space to sell the content of your email. Leaving it blank is a wasted opportunity.

As well as the preview text, you should also use any automation you have access to. Mailchimp will allow you to do things like insert the reader’s name, or company name into the email text. These small customizations are expected now and help to add some degree of a personal touch to what is usually an impersonal communication method.

One Thing Per Email

Your email should tell a story and engage your readers. But when it comes to asking them to do something, or passing on information, keep it simple. Ideally you shouldn’t have more than one story, or CTA per email. You want the reader to be clear what they should do next by the end of the email. You don’t want them have 3 or 4 different options. Because if they do, they’ll probably think ‘I’ll respond later’ and later usually equals never.

Ditch Inactive Subscribers

To paraphrase Neil Patel you should only send out emails to people are opening them. If someone isn’t opening your emails send them a message to ask if they’d like to still receive them. If they say no, or don’t respond, put them on a separate list and think about catching up with them in 6 months or so. Then see if they’re more receptive.

Not only will this help clean up your mailing list and email statistics, but you save alienating a customer who isn’t ready to make a purchase yet.

Do You Have An Email Marketing Checklist?

Do you think these tips will improve your email marketing? We’d love to hear how you keep your open rates high and stop the unsubscribes.

Photo credit – Top: Joe the Goat Farmer