ADA University

Digital Marketing
Module 10: Email Marketing

1. Introduction

Email marketing is a strategic method of sending personalized, purposeful emails to a targeted audience
to nurture relationships, drive conversions, and enhance brand awareness or engagement, by involving
segmentation, automation, and analytics for effective communication.

Email marketing is a commercial channel used by both B2B and B2C companies to deliver
advertisements, offers, education, and other marketing content directly to a user's inbox.

Bear in mind, a user's inbox is one of the most private parts of the online experience. Many people can see
your website, social media posts, but no one except you typically sees your email inbox. So, it's a very
personal space and a great way to connect in a meaningful manner with consumers.

Email has not only stood the test of time as a marketing channel, but has experienced a renaissance of
late, with the advent of smartphones allowing users to check email whenever and wherever they like,
coupled with privacy issues on other channels like social media, email is seen by many consumers as a
secure place where brands and organizations can communicate with them in a useful, effective way.

With more than 4.3 billion active internet accounts globally, 50% of the world's population is connected
online and nearly everyone has an email address. In fact, study after study has shown that consumers
overwhelmingly prefer email over all other digital and even offline marketing channels for company
communications.

Sixty-four percent of decision-makers use email, and email marketing delivers an ROI at least three times
higher than social media. Plus, it converts three times better than social. Its influence is most directly felt
in e-commerce, evidenced by the fact that 44% of consumers who receive targeted emails acknowledged
buying at least one item because of a promotional email message. Indeed, it sits at the very center of
omnichannel marketing for commercial, B2C sales, and B2B lead generation and nurturing.

When it's personalized, automated, and targeted, email marketing is one of the strongest conversion, lead
nurturing, and sales channels.. Email is a relatively inexpensive high-impact channel and typically has the
highest ROI among all digital.

It is extremely effective for both customer acquisition, meaning qualifying leads and nurturing
relationships with potential new customers, as well as for retention, generating direct sales, and growing
loyal customers. There are many different types of email campaigns you might use to engage your
customers from registration emails, to product updates, newsletters, and renewal notices.

Module 10: Email Marketing

Prepared by Manaf Khudiyev
2. Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing offers numerous benefits for businesses looking to engage their audience and drive sales:

- Company/Product Information & Updates: Emails serve as a direct channel to communicate

important information about your company, new product launches, updates, or changes in services. This
keeps your audience informed and engaged with your brand.

Example: A tech company sends regular newsletters to subscribers, sharing insights about upcoming
product launches, feature updates, and industry news. These emails provide in-depth information about
their offerings and keep subscribers informed about the latest developments.

- Announcing Events and Promotions: Email is an excellent way to announce upcoming events,
promotions, sales, or special deals. It reaches a wide audience instantly and encourages immediate action.

Example: A clothing retailer plans a weekend flash sale offering 50% off on select items. They send out
an email campaign to their subscriber list a few days before the sale begins. The email includes vibrant
visuals of the clothing items on sale, along with bold text announcing the discount.

- Lead Nurturing: Through targeted and segmented emails, you can nurture leads by providing valuable
content tailored to their interests and needs. This helps in moving potential customers through the sales
funnel.

Example: A software company implements a lead nurturing email sequence, providing educational
content such as whitepapers, case studies, and webinars. These emails aim to guide potential customers
through the decision-making process by offering valuable information.

- Driving Immediate Sales: Well-crafted email campaigns with clear calls-to-action can prompt
immediate sales. This is especially true for limited-time offers or flash sales that create a sense of urgency
among recipients.

Example: An online store sends personalized emails including limited-time discounts or special offers,
prompting customers to make immediate purchases.

- Building Stronger Relationships: Personalized offers, customized content, and engaging newsletters
help in building stronger relationships with existing customers. When customers feel valued and
understood, they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand.

Example: Example: Netflix sends personalized recommendation emails to its subscribers based on their
viewing history and preferences. These emails contain curated lists movies tailored to the individual's
interests. For instance, if a subscriber frequently watches sci-fi series, they might receive an email
suggesting new sci-fi releases or similar titles.

Module 10: Email Marketing

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- Upselling/Cross-selling: Upselling and cross-selling are powerful techniques used by businesses to
increase sales and maximize the value of each customer. Email marketing serves as an effective platform
to implement these strategies by suggesting complementary or higher-value products/services to existing
customers based on their purchase history, preferences, or browsing behavior.

Cross Selling Example: An e-commerce platform sends an email to customers who recently purchased a
DSLR camera, suggesting related products such as camera lenses, tripods, and photography courses, with
a special bundled discount.

Up Selling Example: A software company, "XXX Solutions" offers a basic version of their project
management tool. A customer who has been using this basic version for a while and has achieved
significant results receives an email from"XXX Solutions”. In the email, "XXX Solutions" highlights the
advanced features and benefits of their premium version, including more robust reporting, integration
capabilities, and priority support. The email suggests upgrading to the premium version with a
limited-time offer of a 20% discount for the first year.

3. Email Marketing Flow

An "email marketing flow" encompasses the systematic process of strategically growing an email list,
setting up email service providers, devising a comprehensive strategy, crafting compelling email, and
measuring the performance of email campaigns. It involves the following key components:

Growing Email List: This involves implementing various tactics and strategies to organically increase
the number of subscribers in your email database. It includes methods such as creating engaging opt-in
forms, offering lead magnets, hosting webinars, leveraging social media contests and so on to encourage
sign-ups.

Setting Up Email Service Providers (ESP): Choosing, subscribing to, and configuring an email
marketing tool (such as MailChimp, Sendgrid) or service provider that aligns with your business needs.

Module 10: Email Marketing

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This includes setting up accounts, establishing sender details, configuring settings for compliance,
automating emails and integrating with other tools or systems.

Developing Strategy: An email strategy helps you market your products and services, taking into
consideration who your target customers are, what they are looking for, and when the best time is to
provide that information to them.

Building Email: Crafting optimized email content is pivotal for improving key metrics like open rates
and click-through rates (CTR). This involves a holistic approach, from attention-grabbing subject lines to
compelling body copy, visuals that resonate, and strategic calls-to-action

Measuring Results: Utilizing key performance indicators (KPIs) and analytics to track the success of
email campaigns. Measuring metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, bounce
rates, and unsubscribe rates helps in assessing the effectiveness of campaigns and making data-driven
decisions for improvements.

3.1 Growing Email List

(a) Sign Up Forms (CTAs) Throughout Your Website

Calls-to-action strategically placed on the website can encourage visitors to register.

Example:

Trello, a project management tool, employs sign-up forms strategically by offering users the option to
sign up for an account with their email addresses while navigating through different features and
functionalities. They place CTAs at points where users might need to create an account to access more
features, thus growing their subscriber list.

(b) Offer incentives, such as discounts, free trials, or exclusive content

Providing value in exchange for an email address is a powerful strategy. Discounts, free trials, or
exclusive content can entice users to sign up.

Example: Many e-commerce websites often use pop-ups that offer a discount (for example, "Get 10% off
your first purchase") in return for signing up with an email address. These pop-ups typically appear when
a user visits the site for the first time or after spending a certain amount of time browsing the website.

(c) Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a valuable piece of content (ebook, whitepaper) offered for free in exchange for an email
subscription, typically appearing as a pop-up on a website. It's strategically positioned to catch the
visitor's attention and entice them to take action, such as providing their email address in exchange for the
valuable offer presented.

Module 10: Email Marketing

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Example: HubSpot offers free downloadable templates, guides,ebooks and marketing resources in
exchange for email subscriptions. Their comprehensive marketing materials act as valuable lead magnets
to attract subscribers.

(d) Newsletter Subscribe Button:

The Newsletter Subscribe Button is a clickable feature on websites, inviting users to sign up for regular
updates or newsletters. By providing their email addresses, users opt-in to receive valuable content and
promotions, helping companies expand their email subscriber list and maintain ongoing communication
with their audience.

(e) Email Addresses at the Point of Sale

Requesting an email address during the checkout process or in-store purchases can help build your email
list with engaged customers.

Example:

At the checkout, the cashier invites customers to enroll in the store's loyalty program for exclusive perks.
They provide a tablet where customers can quickly enter their email addresses to join. Members receive
early access to sales and personalized offers.

In this scenario, the fashion store encourages customers to join its loyalty program by entering their email
addresses at the point of sale. This tactic not only grows the store's email subscriber list but also
incentivizes customers with exclusive benefits.

(f) Running Contest

Running a contest for growing an email subscriber list entails creating an enticing competition, giveaway,
or promotional event where potential customers are invited to participate by submitting their email
addresses. The contest is designed to attract attention, engagement, and entries from a target audience
interested in the contest's theme, prizes, or benefits. Participants are required to provide their email
addresses for entry, enabling businesses or organizations to collect valuable contact information and
expand their email subscriber base by engaging potential customers through the contest.

Example:

A fashion company hosts a summer-themed contest encouraging participants to share their favorite
vacation photos on social media using a designated hashtag. To officially enter, participants were directed
to the company's website to submit their email addresses along with their photo entries. Winners received
a bundle of summer apparel and accessories.

(g) Lead Generation Ads

Lead generation ads for growing an email subscriber list are targeted advertisements strategically crafted
to encourage individuals to share their contact details, particularly email addresses.. These ads are
specifically designed to capture user information directly within the ad platform, on Facebook or
LinkedIn Ad for example, without redirecting users to external landing pages. The primary objective is to
entice potential subscribers with compelling offers or information, fostering engagement and allowing

Module 10: Email Marketing

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companies to expand their email subscriber base by collecting valuable contact information from
interested users.

Example:

A fitness apparel brand created lead generation ads on Facebook to promote a free fitness challenge. The
ads were specifically targeted towards fitness enthusiasts and those interested in health and wellness.

The ad highlighted the benefits of the fitness challenge, such as personalized workout plans, nutrition tips,
and access to an exclusive community for support and motivation. It included a "Join Now" or "Start
Challenge" button directly within the ad.

Upon clicking the button, users were directed to a lead generation form embedded within Facebook. The
form asked users to provide their name, email address, fitness goals, and preferred workout styles to join
the challenge.

By using these lead generation ads, the fitness brand effectively reached its target audience on Facebook,
attracting individuals interested in improving their fitness routines. They successfully grew their email
subscriber list by offering a valuable fitness challenge and collecting user information directly within the
Facebook platform.

(h) Hosting an Online Webinar/Event:

Hosting an online webinar/event for growing an email list involves organizing a virtual session, focusing
on a specific subject matter to engage and educate an audience. The event serves as a platform to attract
potential subscribers by offering valuable insights, expertise, or resources in exchange for attendees'
registration information, particularly their email addresses. Through this strategy, companies aim to
expand their email subscriber base by providing informative content and fostering connections with
interested individuals.

Example: A software company specializing in project management hosts a series of webinars on

optimizing workflows. These webinars are free to attend, requiring registration with an email address.
Attendees gain valuable insights while the company expands its email list with engaged professionals
seeking workflow solutions.

(i) Lead Generation Quiz

Lead Generation Quizzes are interactive tools used by businesses to capture user information,
predominantly email addresses, by engaging individuals with quizzes tailored to their interests or needs.

Example:

An online language learning platform designed an interactive grammar quiz to assess users' language
proficiency. The quiz, consisting of grammar-related questions, allowed participants to test their skills in a
fun and engaging way. Upon completing the quiz, users were offered the option to receive their quiz
results and personalized grammar tips directly in their inbox. To do so, participants were asked to enter

Module 10: Email Marketing

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their email addresses, enabling the platform to send tailored language learning resources and grow its
subscriber list.

(j) Referral Program

A referral program for growing an email subscriber list involves incentivizing existing subscribers or
customers to refer new individuals to join an email list. It encourages current subscribers to share the
subscription link or details with friends, family, or their network. When new subscribers sign up through
these referrals, both the referrer and the new subscriber often receive incentives, rewards, or benefits. This
program aims to leverage word-of-mouth marketing and existing customer relationships to expand the
email subscriber base. Wolt is an exemplary company that utilizes a referral program very effectively.

3.1.1 Opt-in Permission

It is extremely important to remember you cannot just email anyone. You can only email people who
have opted in or subscribed to your email list.

There are two main ways to collect and verify email subscribers with their explicit consent.

Single opt-in: User submits their email on a form on your website, and they're immediately subscribed to
your list.

Double opt-in: When a person subscribes to emails by submitting an email address through a form or
purchasing online, a confirmation email is returned. This confirmation email message contains a request
to verify consent, usually by clicking a link in the message. Only after a subscriber has clicked a link in
the verification message is their address verified and added to your list.

There are benefits and disadvantages to both types of opt-ins:

Single Opt-in

While single opt-in provides for a smoother user experience and offers rapid scale in list growth, it may
not be sufficient because of the absence of good email address verification and hygiene practices during
collection, individuals can submit incorrect data, which then causes deliverability problems later.

Double Opt-in

Double opt-in emails ensure that people are entering real email addresses, and this helps reduce the
number of bots or fake accounts subscribing to your list. This way, you can ensure that you're collecting
high-quality email addresses from real people.

You'll get lower subscriber numbers than with a single opt-in, but there'll be higher quality and verified
addresses. For this reason, double opt-in is a quality-over-quantity approach to email list building.

Module 10: Email Marketing

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3.1.1.1. Inbound vs Outbound Email Marketing (Legislations and Regulations)

Inbound Email Marketing:

Inbound email marketing refers to strategies where your subscribers willingly opt-in or subscribe to
receive your emails. These subscribers willingly provide their email addresses through sign-ups,
downloads, or registrations, demonstrating their interest in hearing from your business.

Outbound Email Marketing:

Outbound email marketing involves reaching out to potential leads or customers without their prior
consent. It often includes finding email addresses from third-party sources through methods like data
scraping, purchasing email lists, or acquiring contacts without explicit permission. This approach
typically involves sending emails to recipients who haven't directly opted in to receive communication
from your business.

3.1.1.1.1 Drawbacks of Outbound Email Marketing

a. Spam Risks and Reputation Damage: Sending unsolicited emails to the users via an outbound way
can lead to being marked as spam. High spam rates can damage your domain reputation, impacting not
only your outbound campaigns but also causing your legitimate inbound emails to land in spam folders.
This tarnishes your brand's credibility and affects deliverability rates.

b. Legislative Concerns and Compliance: many countries have strict regulations, such as GDPR in
Europe and CAN-SPAM Act in the United States, governing email communication. Non-compliance with
these regulations when acquiring email addresses or sending unsolicited emails can lead to legal
repercussions, fines, or damage to your brand's reputation.

- GDPR is The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. It was introduced in
2018. It requires strict user data and permission practices in relation to the collection and use of
Personally Identifiable Information (known as PII). People must explicitly consent to receive
marketing emails and consent to allowing website cookie tracking on their devices.

- CCPA is the California Consumer Protection Act, which was introduced in early 2020. It is
similar to the GDPR though not as far-reaching in some areas. Some interesting differences
between CCPA and GDPR include opt outs to prevent companies selling your consumer data to
third parties.

- CASL relates specifically to Canada, the Canadian anti-spam legislation of 2014. It requires
marketers to obtain permission from a user before they may send marketing material via email or
SMS.

Module 10: Email Marketing

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 - CAN-SPAM is the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of
2003. CAN-SPAM established certain mandatory opt-out practices and requires email senders to
clearly identify themselves.

3.2 Email Service Providers (ESPs)

An email service provider, or ESP, is a platform for managing all your email campaigns. Typically, ESPs
are an online interface – like Mailchimp – where you can upload your email subscriber lists, segment
these contact lists, build email templates, and then send and track your campaign performance. They are
not intended for one or two email sends, but for lists of hundreds to millions of subscribers.

3.2.1 Some of the features of ESPs:

Contact database management, where the list of subscribers, email addresses, and other contact
information is stored, making it easy to add, edit, and remove contacts as needed.

Segmentation, because the contact database stores all the information about your contacts on their
personal profiles, the ESP can extract that data and use it to segment users.

Personalization, again, because you have all that data residing within people's profiles, you can then use
the ESP to extract that information to create a personalized experience.

Automation, allowing for repetitive tasks like sending a welcome email or sending a receipt, is perfectly
manageable through an ESP, and a better alternative to sending an individual email every time.

Tracking behavior, providing the data and insights regarding who opened and clicked the email, so you
can improve your future campaigns.

Unsubscribe management deals with users who want to opt out from receiving your emails. This is very
important when you consider the legislation. As a business, you need to be able to prove how a person
opted in and opted out of receiving your emails on your site, should it go to court.

Email creation, drag-and-drop builders, allow you to quickly create and edit your emails and/or your
landing pages.

So there are many reasons why you may want to consider an email service provider rather than your
personal Gmail.

3.2.2 Email Automation

Email marketing automation, sometimes known as triggered email, is simply the sending of emails to
recipients automatically. Once someone completes an action on your website, for example, such as
subscribing or submitting a form, or even buying, your automation software can deploy an email that

Module 10: Email Marketing

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confirms their action and instructs them or advises them on what to do or what will happen next.

Email automation is an efficient technology-driven way to trigger the sending of common recurring email
campaigns. It means that someone doesn’t have to manually and repeatedly deploy the same message
every time.
Automated email is particularly useful for B2B organizations with long sales cycles and complex, high
cost, big-ticket products and services, where there may be multiple stakeholder involvement and where
customers need a lot of information to make a decision before purchasing. This information can be
drip-fed to prospects over the length of a sales cycle automatically through email. Sending automated
emails keeps potential customers engaged and allows sales teams to focus on closing deals rather than
spending a lot of time engaging with leads who might not be ready or qualified to purchase.

When it comes to email marketing automation, sometimes known as triggered email, is simply the
sending of emails to recipients automatically using software. Once someone completes an action on your
website, for example, such as subscribing or submitting a form, or even buying, your automation software
can deploy an email that confirms their action and instructs them or advises them on what to do or what
will happen next.

B2C Examples

An example from the B2C world might go something like this. Someone buys on your website, your
e-commerce store, so your marketing automation software automatically deploys a purchase confirmation
email. Or someone registers online for a webinar, they receive a registration confirmation, then timed
reminders about the upcoming event, perhaps both a day and one hour before the webinar starts. All of
these emails are sent automatically based on rules that you, as a user, establish in the software.

B2B Examples

Automated email is particularly useful for B2B organizations with long sales cycles and complex, high
cost, big-ticket products and services. B2B purchasing decisions may involve multiple stakeholders that
require a lot of information before making decisions. An example from the B2B world could be a
decision-maker in an organization you are targeting sees a LinkedIn ad for a new e-book your company
just published. The prospect clicks the ad, reaches your e-book landing page, and decides to get the
e-book, but access to it is gated by a form.

The prospect enters their name, corporate email address and phone number, and submits the form. Almost
immediately, an automated email is sent to the prospect, providing a link to download the e-book. Seven
days later, your automation software sends the prospect a follow-up message, encouraging them to
explore other content assets or e-books that you might have.

Your marketing automation software can continue to drip invitations to video, blog, or social media
content to this prospect over the next few weeks or even months in order to build on their initial interest
and engagement and slowly but steadily nurture them from prospect to paying customer.

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Imagine then, several more weeks pass, and an automated email is sent to the prospect with a special offer
for a free trial of your product or service. The prospect signs up for the free trial, and midway through the
period, another automated email invites them to speak with a sales rep. By this time, your series of
automated emails has enabled product education, information, and free trial, pre-paving the way to a
productive closing sales conversation.

By the time the lead has spoken to sales, they have engaged with multiple pieces of your content,
understand your offerings, and are favorably predisposed to your company. As a result, they are far more
likely to buy than those who haven't been through this warm-up process.

3.2.2.1 Types of Emails to Automate

Customer lifecycle stage campaigns – for example, new customer welcome emails or lapsed customer
reactivation.
Transactional or functional emails – for example, shipping confirmation and order receipts.
Behavioral campaigns – for example, emails triggered by subscriber behavior, such as an abandoned cart
reminder or a post-purchase upsell or cross-sell offer.
Reminders or alerts – for example, notifications to customers on an upcoming event or that a favorite
item is back in stock.
Date-driven campaigns –for example, birthday, anniversary, expiration, and renewal campaigns.

3.3 Email Strategy

An email strategy helps you market your products and services, taking into consideration who your target
customers are, what they are looking for, and when the best time is to provide that information to them.

For an email marketing strategy to be effective, you need to consider segmentation, personalization, and
timing

3.3.1 Segmentation

Segmentation is grouping similar users together and sending relevant content based on that criteria.
By sending messages to targeted segments within your lists, your recipients will find your campaigns
more relevant to them.

Depending on the type of organization, B2B or B2C, you can segment your email recipients in different
ways:

- Demographics – for example, gender, age, geography, education

- Job role, industry, or company type
- Purchase history
- Current or Potential Customer
- Stage in Sales Cycle

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 - Preferences or Interests
- Clicks, opens or content formats
- Change in engagement or behavior, for example, if they didn't complete a purchase (cart
abandonment) or if they haven't opened one of your newsletters in a few weeks (inactivity)

3.3.2 Personalization

When it comes to personalizing emails, you can get creative with email content, subject lines, and
responsive design, creating unique experiences for recipients. For example:

- Address the customer by their name.

- Offer the customer a product recommendation.
- Display products based on their viewing history.

3.3.3 Timing

It is very important to be strategic about the timing of your email, and to make sure it delivers the right
message at the right time. There are some steps you can take to ensure this:

- Identify optimal days for your campaigns.

- Take account of different time zones.

According to Demandsage,

Monday has the highest opening rate (22%).

Tuesday is the best day for click-through rates (2.4%).
Tuesday & Wednesday have the highest click-to-open rates (10.8%).
The whole week has a stable unsubscription rate of 0.1%.

Sunday has the lowest opening rate, with 20.3%.

Saturdays and Sundays have the lowest click-through rates, with 2.1%.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have the lowest click-to-open rates, with 10.1%.

3.3.4 Email Campaign Types

There are many different types of email campaigns to acquire and retain customers, from registration
emails, to product updates, newsletters, and renewal notices.

- Foundational: Baseline communications sent to your broadest audience, such as newsletters,

bulletins, holiday greetings, and company or product announcements.

- Promotional: Email messages to generate revenue or product demand, such as sales and special
offers, free trials, discounts, and holiday shopping.

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 - Informational: Communications to establish and grow relationships, such as product-related
education, how-tos, articles, and lead nurturing programs.

- Engagers: Email messages to inspire comfort, familiarity, and interest among brand subscribers,
such as surveys, reviews, or rewards

- One-on-one: Communications targeted at individuals based on their actions, inactions, or

personal data, such as welcome, post-purchase thank you messages

3.4 Preparing an Email (Email Components)

There are certain components that contribute to writing and designing effective emails:

- Audience
- Sender name
- Subject line
- Copy/Email text
- Design
- Calls to action (CTA)
- Imagery

3.4.1 Sender Name

The sender name that displays in the email is the first thing a recipient looks at to see if they recognize
who is contacting them. Then they will decide whether to engage further. The sender name is sometimes a
person’s name and the company name, for example, "Manaf from ADA University". A sender name
should not be generic or just an email address, for example, [email protected].

Sender names are one of the first things people see when you deliver an email to them, with up to 20-30
characters depending on the email client and device.

3.4.2 Subject Line

Your email subject line should be relevant to your subscribers and motivate them to open your email.
The subject line should also match the content of the body of the email. In fact, this is a legal requirement
of the CAN-SPAM Act in the US. If the subject line is not compelling, the recipient will simply ignore
your email. Always ensure the body of the email aligns with the subject line.

Shorter subject lines are more impactful for B2C opens, while longer and more descriptive subject lines
often yield higher open rates from B2B. But be sure to test your audience and find out what works best for
them.

Emails that have a personalized subject line have a 26% better open rate. Personalize your subject line, for
example, by including customers’ first name or their username.

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Next, segmenting emails sees an increase of 14% on opens.. Segment your audience by grouping similar
users together and sending them the relevant message, and see what happens.
3.4.2.1 Subject Tones

The subject line will set the tone for the email and let the recipient know what to expect. There are various
themes you can apply when creating a subject line for your email. Here we’ll look at themes of
self-interest, curiosity, offer, urgency, humanity, news, social proof, and story.

Self-interest. Self-interest speaks directly to the user and shows what benefit they will gain by opening
the email. It also provides a clue to the reader about what’s in the email. For example: ‘28 ways to
increase organic social traffic’. This subject line is direct and clear. If the user wants to see how they can
increase their organic social traffic, they will open to find out more.

Curiosity. Without giving too much information away, you draw the recipient in to opening the email. Be
careful when using this tone because if the subject line provides no information at all, the recipient might
ignore the email completely. For example: ‘Pokémon GO: 3 Marketing Mistakes, Millions of Users
Lost!’. The use of curiosity makes the reader wonder what three mistakes were made.

Offer. If you are giving something away or having a sale, mention it in the subject line. Everyone loves
free stuff and it’s a great way to entice the recipient to open your email. For example: ‘Receive 10% off
everything in our Summer Sale’. You let the reader know what you are providing, and if this is
something they are interested in they will open the email.

Urgency. This tells the reader that they must act now or they will miss something. It's a very powerful
subject line tone, but should only be used when there truly is a deadline or expiration. For example:
‘Hurry, just two days left in our Huge Seasonal Close Out’. Simple and direct, with a sense of
urgency, the user believes they might miss something if they do not open.

Humanity. By adding human appeal for attention or telling a story, you are letting the reader know there
is a person behind your product or service. For example: ‘Why I (kinda) HATE surveys... ’. The use of
‘I’ here lets the reader know there is a real person behind the email.

News. Providing the latest news about your company or newest features of your product always performs
well and drives open rates. These subject lines often work well with the curiosity tone. For example:
‘ANNOUNCING: Marketing Mastery Class’. This lets the user know this is something new and draws
them in to read more about the class.

Social proof. Share success stories and inform users about how many other people are using your product
or service. Humans will always look at the behavior of others when making decisions. For example:
“80% of people would recommend our company to a friend”. The use of a case study lets the reader
know how something was achieved and how they can do it.

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Story. Telling the recipient a story, or the beginning of one, can draw them into the email to read more.
For example: ‘I got Botox—& THIS is what it looked like’. This draws the reader in with the start of a
story. If they want to see what happened, they will open the email.

3.4.3 Email Copy

If the user found your subject line compelling, they will open your email. And it's here, in the email copy,
that you must follow up with what you promised and make it easy for the user to take action. Here are
some guidelines that will help you create a good experience for your users. It's important to try and
incorporate all the guidelines into your email, as this will lead to better performing campaigns.

First of all, make it simple and strong. The email should capture the reader's attention and keep them
interested.

Make it scannable. Users spend only a couple of seconds scanning your email to see if it's relevant to
them or not. The main message should be clear and bullet points can be used to help get the main point
across.

Less ‘we’ and more ‘you’. When you're writing your email, the message should focus on the reader's
needs and how the email can help them.

Benefits versus features. The reader wants to know what's in it for them, not what you're trying to
market to them. They need to read your email and understand how they will benefit.

Align with the subject line. Quite simply, if the content of the email doesn't relate to the subject line, the
user is less likely to take action.

Know your target market. Recognize what your audience wants, and send them relevant content based
on that. For example, for a newsletter, if a user has set their preferences to receive the emails weekly, do
not send them daily or monthly.

Have a singular goal. The email should have one goal or call-to-action, such as clicking through to a
specific landing page. If the email contains too many links, which all go to different web pages, then the
marketing strategy won't be as successful.

And finally, a sense of urgency. By adding a sense of urgency to the email, using particular words that
relate to deadlines, the user is encouraged to take action immediately, and this can help with the goal of
your email campaign.

Mandatory Requirements – The last step for creating an email is fulfilling the legal requirement that all
emails must contain an unsubscribe link and a postal address, so that the user can opt out from receiving
the emails.

Module 10: Email Marketing

Prepared by Manaf Khudiyev
Optional Requirements – It is best practice to include the unsubscribe link and postal address in the
footer of the email. While not mandatory, including social media links in the footer, along with a link to
your company's privacy policy and some text about why the user is receiving the email, helps to provide a
general better experience for the reader.

3.4.4 Email Design

Before you start designing your email, you need to consider why layout and visual appearance is so
important. Emails often look and feel like a webpage. In fact, emails can be like a mini-web experience
inserted into someone's inbox. They have images, clickable links, titles, and text content just like a
landing page. Well-designed marketing emails enable personalized connections with customers, and
contain customized relevant content to motivate engagement, action, and purchase. Emails should be
designed to be clear, concise, and motivating, and they will still be visually appealing and true to your
brand's personality.

Emails should be designed to be clear, concise, and motivating:

- Include all the information a recipient needs to consider your offer.

- Make it easy for recipients to act on the email – for example, information on how to reach out to a
contact for more information

The email design is not just the look and feel of an email but how it works and flows for the reader,
otherwise known as the user experience. Before jumping into how best to design your email, we need to
answer the question, why is email design so important? The following are some of the main reasons why
an effective and appealing design is important to implement throughout your email campaigns:

User experience: Having a good email design creates a better user experience, making it more enjoyable
and compelling for the reader.

Consistent experience: Good design should drive a consistent brand experience between your emails and
your website, and make that transition seamless.

Drive conversions: If the email is well-designed and contains relevant information, the user is more
likely to take action and convert.

Layout: Good layout will support your calls to action. Organize layout for skimming because people tend
to scan email. Don't add too many elements in your design and allow some white space in your layout.
Align your content into blocks, columns, and defined scalable modules. And create definition between
content areas or blocks. Aim for a width of 600 pixels to optimize design for mobile environments.

Imagery: Using brand colors, style, and imagery effectively will increase brand recognition.

Module 10: Email Marketing

Prepared by Manaf Khudiyev
Placement of CTAs: Clicking the call to action is often the main objective of an email. Having a clear
CTA at the top and bottom of an email will make it easier for the reader and help them click through to
the landing page.

3.4.6 Images

Overuse of images may unnecessarily increase email message file size, resulting in deliverability or poor
user experience issues.

- Use your brand assets.

- Follow your brand style guide, if you have one.
- Include product photos.
- Make sure your images are the correct size for your layout.
- Use pixel tracking images – images added to email code that indicate if an image was viewed.
- Use a balance of text and separate images.
- Include the alt text and title behind each image.

3.4.7 CTAs

A call- to-action, or CTA, is an engaging button or link that you place in your email to drive readers
through to a landing page. As you can see, there are a number of CTAs that can be used depending on the
campaign you are running. Let's take a look.

"Apply Now" is very useful in an offer email where the user must apply for something.

"Download Now" is where you're offering access to a guide or an eBook that the reader needs to go to
another page in order to access.

"Sign Up" can be used when the user needs to register for something like a webinar or an event.

"Book Now" is similar to "Sign Up," except that it could be for reserving a space, or making time in
someone's calendar.

"Learn More" can be used for a social proof or story email, where it wouldn't make sense to have all of
the text in the email, and the rest of the story is on website.

"Buy Now" is quite clearly used where you are encouraging the user to make a purchase.

Module 10: Email Marketing

Prepared by Manaf Khudiyev
4. Deliverability Factors & Avoiding Spam Folders

Email deliverability is the measure of how many emails actually make it to a recipient’s inbox. Keep in
mind, however, that the term ‘delivered’ does not specify which inbox it was delivered to. Here are the
different inbox folders that your emails could end up in:

- Primary Inbox
- Social
- Promotions
- Junk
- Spam

If your subject line makes your email look like spam then the recipient will probably think it is spam, and
the protective spam filters used by the ISPs will probably recognize it as spam. Here are tips to manage
this:

- Avoid ALL CAPITALS.

- Avoid excessive and unnecessary use of punctuation (!!!).
- Only use symbols and SP$C!AL CH@RCT3RZ sparingly, and only when relevant.
- Don’t use words such as: free, promotion, open, price, offer, discount, affordable and so on.
- Don’t use several images.
- Avoid using URL shorteners.
- Avoid inserting the full URL link as text.
- Create a hyperlink with the appropriate text.
- Ensure all links go to legitimate domains and are valid.
- Don't use goofy p.u.n.c.t.u.a.t.i.o.n or g a p s i n y o u r t e x t -- it all looks suspicious.

5. Testing & Optimizing (A/B Testing)

A/B testing is a method used in marketing to compare two versions of a campaign element to determine
which performs better. Let's say you have 100,000 subscribers. You can conduct an A/B test on 1,000 of
them by splitting this group into two equal segments of 500 each (A and B groups). Here's how it
typically works:

Testing Early: Initiate the test early in your campaign by sending different versions to a small segment of
your total list (e.g., 500 subscribers in Group A receive Version A, while 500 in Group B receive Version
B). This helps identify which version performs better before sending it to the larger audience.

Testing One Element: Focus on testing only one element at a time, such as subject lines, email content,
visuals, or call-to-action buttons. Testing multiple elements simultaneously can muddle the results,
making it harder to determine what caused any changes in performance.

Module 10: Email Marketing

Prepared by Manaf Khudiyev
Creating Two Variations: Develop only two variations (A and B) of the tested element. For instance, if
you're testing subject lines, create two distinct subject lines and keep other aspects of the email constant to
accurately measure the impact of the tested variable.

Trusting Results: Base your decision on the test results rather than personal intuition or biases.
Sometimes, results may go against your expectations, but trusting the data ensures better decision-making
and optimization.

6. Campaign Performance

Module 10: Email Marketing

Prepared by Manaf Khudiyev