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Social media and email marketing are two of the most powerful tools for reaching your target customers. It is stated that 76% of consumers have purchased a brand they saw on social media, and 59% of customers said marketing emails influenced their decision to buy.Based on these findings, we think it’s safe to say that combining the two channels will only increase your reach and drive more conversions.But let’s face it. It’s easier said than done.To integrate them effectively, you need a clear strategy. You can’t just combine email marketing and social media elements on a whim. Here are some of the six best practices for combining social media with email marketing and boosting your marketing efforts. But first, the basics:

What are the benefits of combining social media and email marketing?

Integrating social media and email marketing can create a dynamic synergy to enhance your marketing efforts. By combining these two channels, marketers can:

1. Reach a wider audience  

Different channels have different audiences. Therefore, combining social media and email marketing will help you amplify your message and solutions and widen your reach.Furthermore, integrating your social media and email marketing efforts lets you engage your potential customers across multiple touchpoints with personalized messages. I mean, they do say that it takes a potential customer seeing your brand 7 times to get them to complete the desired action ;)Social media elements like user-generated content can build trust and credibility with your audience. Not only does it allow your brand to reach other communities, but using the UGC in your emails is said to lead to a 73% boost in clickthrough rate.

2. Boost engagement

Boosting engagement is important in any business. A successful engagement of consumers contributes to 23% of a company’s increase in revenue, according to Gallup.To boost email engagement, one strategy is to include social sharing buttons in your emails - leading them to different avenues to experience your brand and engage with your content. Vise versa; youcan also promote your newsletter using social platforms. We’ll talk more about this later!

3. Ensures multi-channel touchpoints and forms of communications

Companies with an effective multi-channel communication strategy retain 89% of their customers.The integration of the two channels works well because of their differences. While email is a more direct and mass communication channel, social media enables real-time interactions and encourages open 1-1 conversations.You can create a comprehensive communication strategy that leverages the strengths of both channels for the best results. For instance, as a business, you can maximize social media’s capacity to showcase your product and curate curiosity that will help generate new subscribers. Then, you can use email’s strengths, like segmentation and personalization, to nurture those leads to become paying customers (and repeat customers).

4. Build customer loyalty 

Social media and email marketing provide valuable insights into your audience's behaviors, interests, and preferences. These insights are critical to personalization. 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences.Personalization has become expected for consumers. So much so that 63% of shoppers will stop buying from companies if they use poor personalization strategies. The truth is that consumers want to feel like they are the most important, and they are, so get to know them! More than 70% of customers say they would buy from a brand they feel connected to.Tools like segmentation, automation, and personalization are driven by how your users behave and act on both social and email. Leveraging these can help you craft campaigns where your readers feel seen and are inspired to take action and look forward to engaging with your brand again.

Effective strategies for integrating social media and email marketing

These strategies have been used by big brands such as Amazon, Copyblogger, and Hubspot and have proven to help achieve a successful integration of social media and email marketing.

1. Incorporate social media icons into your email campaigns

As mentioned previously, one effortless strategy is to integrate social icons into all of your emails. This helps brand engagement, which, according to Lucidpress, is responsible for a 23% boost in a company’s revenue.Here’s an example of how Amazon uses social media icons into their emails:

https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/smiles-davis-sent-you-an-amazon-gift-card

2. Include social sharing buttons in your emails

What’s the difference between icons and sharing buttons?While icons direct your subscribers to your social profiles, sharing buttons allow subscribers to share the email content on their social media platforms.This is a great way to allow your email subscriber to promote your email newsletter to their social media audience.A great way to encourage sharing is to consider adding a call-to-action like “Share with Friends” so your recipients know what to do with the social sharing buttons. This is exactly what Copyblogger did:

You can even run a referral campaign and provide a discount to readers who use the social sharing buttons.

3. Share e-business card with links to social media in email signature

An e-business card allows you to boost your networking efforts and provides a convenient option for potential clients to connect with you on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and others.E-business cards are a lot more personable than social icons since they lead to your personal social media. This strategy can be especially helpful for Sales teams whose mission is building customer rapport.Some ways to do this is by adding links or QR scans that lead them to the social platform of your choice.

4. Use social media profiles to promote email signups

Adding a link to your email signup page in your social media bios is a must. This helps lessen the barriers to entry since potential customers don’t have to go all the way to your website and look for your email subscriber form.A link management tool comes in handy if you have more than one link you'd like to add to your social profiles for easy access. These tools help to consolidate all the links to your marketing resources–newsletter, websites, and social media platforms, giving customers more options to connect and engage with your brand.The image below shows how Hubspot used a link-management tool to promote their email signup on TikTok. Below the Subscribe button are other buttons that lead to the brand’s newest blog posts.

5. Target your email subscribers with social media ads

Retargeted ads allow you to re-engage with an audience that has already expressed interest in your brand but never made a purchase. Ad retargeting allows you to showcase your latest offerings, promote your events, or run conversion-focused campaigns like discount sales, limited-time offers, exclusive deals, etc.You can use your email list to run these retargeted ads aimed at your subscribers. Just upload your email subscriber list; the social platform will match each email address with that person’s profile on the channel.If you want the best results, personalize your ad messaging to resonate with specific segments of your audience. And don't forget to include a strong call to action.

6. Promote your lead magnet on social media

A lead magnet can include an ebook, industry guide, case studies, and webinars. It is usually a way to encourage email sign-ups by offering potential customers free access to a resource. Think, Litmus’ “State of Emails Workflow Reports.”Lead magnets allow you to begin nurturing relationships with potential customers with email sequences or consistent, relevant email communication, which may result in them becoming paying customers.Social media comes into play as a way to promote your lead magnets. You can use paid ads or organic social posts to promote your ebook or webinar. Just highlight your lead magnet's unique value and benefits in your social media post or ad.Also, ensure your lead magnet is something only your potential customers–not everyone–will find valuable. Remember, your ultimate goal is to sell. Imagine a scenario where you sell email marketing software and offer an Amazon gift card as your lead magnet on social media. You’ll likely get many subscribers, but these might also include those who will never even purchase email marketing software.Don’t forget to analyze the performance of your lead magnets on social media and leverage the insights to fine-tune your campaigns.

Get started on integrating social media and email marketing

Combining social media and email marketing is a win-win for you and your customers. Together, they form a powerhouse to extend your reach, drive traffic and conversions, enhance personalization, and foster brand loyalty.Beefree is a great tool for creating social media assets like a link in bio page, landing pages with a form for new subscribers, and fully-fledged email campaigns. Its drag-and-drop functionality and thousands of free editable templates make getting started easy. The best part? It's free! - Happy designing.

There’s a lot of money to be made online on Black Friday - over $9 billion, in fact. Email marketing is one of the most lucrative ways to capture those sales. Are your emails good enough to rake in the conversions?If you’re not sure, we’re here to help. As your friendly email marketing experts, we’ve compiled some examples of the best strategies and approaches for Black Friday emails that your customers won’t be able to resist.Check out these examples and the key strategies they use to guide and inspire your Black Friday email marketing campaign.

How to Create a Successful Black Friday Email Campaign

There are many ways people shop on Black Friday. Some are impulse buyers - they just wake up on the day, scroll through their emails or newspaper inserts, and head toward whatever sales they find appealing. But then there are strategizers - those who, for days before the holiday, are compiling their lists of who to buy for this holiday season and gift ideas for each person, along with notes about which retailers have the best sales for those items. When Black Friday arrives, they already know where they’re shopping and what they’re buying, so they can snag all the good stuff before it’s out of stock.This is why Black Friday campaigns (rather than simply sending an email on the day of Black Friday to announce your sale) are so important. These campaigns actually help you with both types of shoppers. They make impulse buyers more aware of your sale so your brand is more likely to come to mind when they’re doing their shopping, and they give strategizers the information they need to plan to shop with you.Black Friday email campaigns can be broken into three categories:

• Pre-launch emails: to build hype and offer sneak peeks into your sale in advance
• Sale launch emails: to kick off the sale on the big day
• Post-launch emails: to keep up the momentum during the sale and continue encouraging more shoppers to join the fun

Each category in your Black Friday campaign serves a different purpose, and each has various techniques and types of emails you can use to make it effective. We’ll break down every category with top strategies you can use, and examples of each one implemented expertly.

Black Friday Pre-Launch Email Examples

The prelaunch before your Black Friday blowout sales should work to intrigue your customer base. You want to showcase products that will be on sale, while being transparent about the discount customers will receive on those products. Include these types of emails in your Black Friday pre-launch sequence:

• Teaser. Give customers a glimpse of the products you’re promoting for Black Friday.
• Early access. Let VIP customers in on the sales earlier than the rest. 
• Save the date. Include a countdown and an exact hour of when certain products will go on sale.

Here are some examples from brands that we love. Check them out to get inspiration for your Black Friday email marketing strategy.

The teaser: Sonos

Sonos gives subscribers a glimpse of what deals are coming. They ask subscribers to make a list and explore their gift guide. The bold CTA button takes readers to a gift guide landing page to check out items they can prepare to buy on Black Friday.Subject line: "Get ready for Black Friday."

Early access: Joe’s Jeans

It’s best to begin sending emails about Black Friday well in advance — as early as a week prior. Start your sale early to stand out, or simply use the time to increase awareness and anticipation. Joe’s Jeans sent this email on the Tuesday before Black Friday. Since subscriber inboxes will be flooded closer to the weekend, starting early is a good way to get out ahead of the flood.Subject line: "Black Friday Begins! Up to 30% off." 

Save the date: Frank & Oak 

Whether you’re starting your sale earlier or sticking to a more traditional timeline, give readers a heads-up about what’s coming. It’s a way to drum up excitement and maybe get a better turnout for your promotion. Frank and Oak gives readers the option to schedule their savings with calendar shortcuts. Include a countdown timer in your next email so your subscribers will save the date.Subject line: "Mark your calendar for Black Friday."

Black Friday Sale Launch Email Examples 

In your Black Friday emails that officially launch your sale, it’s crucial to display urgency and excitement. You want customers to pay attention to your Black Friday email above all other businesses, so what you have to offer must be enticing. Run through these types of emails for your Black Friday launch sequence:

• Announcement. The day is here! Give subscribers a rundown of what your biggest promotions are for Black Friday.
• Free gift. Offer a free gift when customers spend over a certain amount.

These brands approached their Black Friday sales with these strategies in mind. Try them out for your next campaign.

Announcement: Pact

Before you create your Black Friday sales emails, you need to decide two things: what you’re going to offer and the best method for announcing that method. The clothing company Pact mentioned several discounts in the subject line but focused on the best deal in the body of the email.Subject line: "Doorbusters: $25 hoodies. $5 socks. $15 leggings & more."

Free gift: MAC

Mac promotes more spending on Black Friday by offering a full-size gift to customers if they hit a certain amount of money spent. This is a great way to encourage customers to buy more than one product and greatly increase your sales. Make sure to craft a fun CTA in your brand voice and showcase the free gift offer in a clear way.Subject line: "Last Day to Choose Your COMPLIMENTARY Full-Size Gift."

Black Friday Post-Launch Email Examples

The post-launch phase of your Black Friday email marketing campaign is the last chance to catch your audience's attention and bring in more sales. Create a sense of urgency for the existing sale or provide additional money off of products or exclusive offers that customers won’t be able to pass up. For those that haven’t jumped on your Black Friday deals yet, try these emails to give them that extra push:

• Limited availability. Express that certain deals for specific products are only available for a limited time. 
• Last chance. Let subscribers know that time is running out and this is their only opportunity to snag those deals. 
• Extended sale. Surprise subscribers with a sale extension.

Limited availability: Function of Beauty

Inducing FOMO is a great way to get more subscribers to jump on your deals. Function of Beauty leveraged this strategy with creative CTA copy: NO MO’ FOMO. Their persuasive language explains that their deals are only available for a limited time and that other subscribers have already taken advantage of them. This encourages subscribers that haven’t purchased yet, to purchase.Subject line: "ONE MORE DAY! 25% off + the color everyone’s talk about."

Last chance: Boll & Branch

Boll & Branch shares with customers that it’s their last chance to get in on the Black Friday sales. They’ve designed their emails around their main selling point (in this case, a 25%-off discount). This is free from clutter and distraction while also pinpointing the urgency and deadline of the deal.Subject line: "Last chance for Black Friday savings!"

Extended Sale 

Is there anything worse than finding out about an amazing sale minutes after it ends? You can save your customers from that feeling and capture more sales by giving them a surprise sale extension. For example, perhaps your Black Friday sale was meant to end at 3 PM; when 3:00 hits, you send out an extended sale email announcing that you’re continuing your sale until 10 PM.

Leesa

Mattress company Leesa sent an email the day after Black Friday, letting customers know they had extended their deal — but that the offer was only available for so long, and their visible timer reinforced that message.Subject line: "Kelly, we’ve EXTENDED our Black Friday offer."

Black Friday Email Marketing Strategies and Examples

Now that you have a list of the types of Black Friday emails to include in your Black Friday campaign, how do you make those emails as effective as possible? After all, you have a lot of competition - according to Campaign Monitor, more emails are sent on Black Friday than on any other day of the year. Check out these strategies to catch your customers’ attention and boost your sales.

Starting planning early 

The sooner you start your email strategy game plan, the better. This will give you more time to get creative so your email campaign will stand out amongst the swarm. Depending on how extensive you want your campaign to be, starting your planning in July, August, and even September is a safe bet to be ready for the hype.

Craft a strong subject line

With emails flooding subscriber inboxes on Black Friday, it’s crucial to focus on standing out with attention-grabbing subject lines. A huge chunk of subscribers — about 47% — decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject line alone. Follow these tips to create a subject line that will stand out:

• Include a deal or coupon, a deadline, or other features of the sale. 
• Keep it short - most mobile devices only display the first six or seven words of a subject line.
• Make sure to test beforehand to see what style of messaging initiates a response from subscribers. 
• Don’t forget the preheader text that immediately follows your subject line. Like the subject line, the preheader serves as a screening tool, so make it enticing.

Keep your message simple

Black Friday is a once-a-year event that’s synonymous with particularly steep discounts and deals. Subscribers want to know your best offers for the day. So don’t dilute your promotion by sending a cluttered email. Logitech uses an attractive design to get across one message: Click to shop Black Friday deals. It’s easy to scan and pleasing to the eye. Show subscribers content that’s specific, relevant, and easy to understand.Subject line: "⏰ Rise and shine – Black Friday exclusives are selling quickly."

Include product images in your design

When people are scrolling through their emails, you want something that stops their thumbs and makes them take notice, and usually, it’s visuals that will do this. Including images of some of the most exciting items in your Black Friday sale will snag readers’ attention and generate interest in the products, whether or not these are items that were originally on their shopping lists. Just make sure to include variety. If you only include images of one or two types of products, customers will think those are the only types of products you’ll have on sale.Take a look at this email from Overstock, for example:

The product images are bright, colorful, and attractive, so it’s easy for customers to see them and think, “Could my home look like that if I picked up the products in this sale?”

Incorporate GIFs

With all the competing emails in your customers’ inboxes, you need to get creative if you want to stand out and be memorable. GIFs can do exactly that. They have all the visual appeal of eye-catching pictures, but they’re more engaging. New York & Company has done this well with a GIF of one of its top Black Friday sale items:

The movement in the ad for puffer jackets is attention-grabbing and shows the product in motion in an attractive way.

Don’t forget about building brand trust 

Brand trust on Black Friday means your audience trusts you to deliver content that’s relevant and valuable. Offer a real deal — one that’s special and different from your other promotions throughout the year. Black Friday doesn’t necessarily need to be about offering 50% off your product. Stay true to your brand’s mission and values, and approach the holiday by thinking of what your audience would most appreciate seeing.For example, Toothbrush company Quip announced a “Brush black, give back” campaign for Black Friday, selling a special type of toothbrush and donating the proceeds to provide dental care for disadvantaged families.Subject line: "Introducing All-Black. Give back this Black Friday."

This example puts the brand’s modern and impactful mission at the forefront while also giving customers an opportunity to shop for the benefit of a good cause. It’s a refreshing break from the excessive commercialized email customers are seeing, and it improves the brand’s image.

Optimize for mobile

Plenty of online purchases will be made using mobile devices. Plan ahead with a mobile-first approach. Create concise content, clutter-free design (no complex headers and focused messages), tap-friendly navigation, and bulletproof buttons (with appropriate padding), and use images with great ALT text for a fully responsive experience.

Prepare your abandoned cart emails. 

While there’s a large amount of online shopping going down, it’s crucial to note that this will increase the number of abandoned shopping carts among shoppers. They will be comparing prices and bouncing from site to site, trying to find the best deals. Have your creative abandoned cart emails at the ready, and include an extra discount to push them to purchase.

Design your Black Friday emails with Beefree

An optimized Black Friday email sequence is a game-changer for your business. Focus on crafting a strategy first, then use Beefreeto implement the best practices that you’ve gone over in this blog. There’s no coding required here when customizing Black Friday emails to match your brand identity.If you’re simply running out of time to create a whole sequence, choose from our Black Friday email template collection to customize. There are plenty of colorful, animated, and optimized emails to pick from. Don’t miss out on the holiday shopping hype — solidify your Black Friday email marketing strategy right now.

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Editor’s Note: This post was updated on August 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

For most businesses, the ability to convert leads into customers can mean the difference between profitable operations and unsteady income that causes it to fail. That’s why lead generation and conversion remain a priority.While several tactics can help you achieve this, not all strategies will initiate interest from leads.So, how can you effectively engage leads and turn them into happy customers? That is where lead nurturing can help.Lead Nurturing is the process of building relationships with your prospects with the goal of earning their business when they're ready. Lead nurturing is the third stage of the lead management process. There are five stages or elements of lead management:

• Lead generation, 
• Lead qualification and segmentation
• Lead nurturing
• Lead scoring and lead routing, and 
• Measuring success

To help your unique leads solve their challenges or achieve their goals, it's critical to understand who your leads are and why they've shown interest in your company in the first place.This understanding will help you develop a lead nurturing strategy to engage with each individual personally, based on their needs and goals, rather than sending blast emails. That way, you’ll generate more qualified leads with less effort. In fact, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.

How Does Lead Nurturing Work?

Let's view an example of lead nurturing from a HubSpot Solutions Partner, Campaign Creators.

They had a new initiative to target e-commerce businesses, so they created a new buyer persona, named E-Commerce Eric. They developed a new lead nurturing campaign based on this persona, called "E-Commerce Marketing Campaign."A lead would enroll into the E-Commerce Marketing Campaign workflow in HubSpot each time they downloaded the "E-Commerce Marketing: Intro to Lead Generation" guide.Over time, these leads would receive emails that offered a helpful and relevant resource called, "How to Create an E-Commerce Lead Nurturing Campaign." This resource serves the dual purpose of teaching learners how to nurture new leads while also nurturing them for Campaign Creators.Leads also received further nurturing emails to download other helpful offers, like "Your Guide to Filling a Digital Marketing Gap." This resource helped leads determine the right solution to overcome their digital marketing gap, and helped Campaign Creators identify leads that would benefit from their marketing services.After downloading this guide, leads would receive another set of nurturing emails promoting a free marketing consultation that would provide valuable and honest feedback on the best marketing solution for them. The value for Campaign Creators? To gain a better understanding of their leads' challenges and provide tailored experiences during the consultation.If a lead decided to schedule a consultation, the sales team would take over in the process. This marked the end of the lead nurturing campaign.

This multi-tiered lead nurturing campaign is a great example of how you can engage and nurture leads through their buyer’s journey.While some lead nurturing campaigns may differ, the most important aspect is to automate your entire process. This will provide your lead nurturing efforts with timely, efficient, and targeted communication.

Benefits of Lead Nurturing

Let’s explore the benefits described in the above example in more detail. Lead nurturing helps you:

Build a better customer relationship

Building any relationship takes time and effort, and that’s what lead nurturing allows you to do with prospective customers. Maintaining contact with your leads throughout their buyer’s journey and using personalized messaging can lead to increased trust and a sense of commitment from you to these potential customers.

Increase conversion rates

By providing relevant, personalized content with your lead nurturing campaigns, you ensure your audience remains engaged and more likely to click links to your website or online store for more information. This approach is in contrast to sending generalized content that is designed to reach as many people as possible but has no connection with specific audiences.

Identify customer interests or pain points

Lead nurturing is an excellent way to collect feedback that provides insights into your audience’s interests and pain points. This information can assist you in creating accurate buyer personas and products that will better meet your customers' needs.

Boost brand loyalty

The personalized engagement campaigns you use to build a relationship with your audience can also make them loyal to your brand once they take the step to become customers. In fact, 78% of consumers will likely be repeat customers of brands that personalize the shopping experience.

Get more referrals from satisfied customers

One of the objectives of lead nurturing is to ensure customers are satisfied at the end of their buyer’s journey. Happy customers are more likely to refer friends, family, and business associates to your business because of the trust and reputation you built with them.

How to Launch a Successful Lead Nurturing Campaign

There are five fundamental elements to launching a successful lead nurturing campaign:

1. Buyer Personas

A Buyer Persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on real data and some educated speculation about demographics, behaviors, motivations, and goals.Creating buyer personas will help you understand your potential customers’ needs, behaviors, and concerns. Understanding these details will help you tailor your content and messaging in a way that resonates with each lead.In the previous example, the lead nurturing campaign targeted the persona, ECommerce Eric. Not only did understanding ECommerce Eric's needs and goals inspire the different content offers, it also helped drive the messaging in the emails. If you don't have buyer personas, you can get started with HubSpot's Make My Persona Tool​.

2. Content 

The content you create should be strategic. It should showcase your thought leadership in certain topics, educate your audience, address their concerns, and inspire them to take action. You do this by creating content for each stage of the buyer's journey.The Buyer's Journey is the active research process someone goes through leading up to a purchase.This process is broken down into three stages: awareness stage, consideration stage, and decision stage. Creating content for each stage allows you to educate and nurture leads closer to a purchase, no matter where they are in the buyer's journey.

Once you've developed your content, it's time to share it with your leads.

3. Emails 

Emails will serve as the main communication between you and your leads. They enable you to educate and nurture your leads by providing tailored messaging and content offers.HubSpot provides email marketing tools that make it easy to publish your nurturing emails. You can also incorporate personalization tokens to personalize each recipient's email copy and content.But, building effective emails is only part of the process. You have to send the right content to the right person and schedule when the emails should arrive at their destination.

4. Segmentation 

Lead nurturing is the happy union between content and context. Email is how you provide the content, while segmentation is how you provide context.Segmentation is the process of dividing your contacts into sub-groups (known as segments) based on some type of shared characteristics. It works together with your nurturing emails by providing tailored and relevant content for each individual.For example, you can segment your leads by their buyer personas. Your leads will often have different challenges or goals, affecting the personas you create for them. You can create different email campaigns with relevant and compelling content for each of these personas .Another strategy is to segment leads by where they are in their buyer's journey. Leads in different stages of the buyer's journey are seeking specific information.For instance, leads in the awareness stage may be interested in content about the different types of products that are available, while those in the consideration stage may be more concerned about the pros and cons of each product that they are interested in. You can help more of your leads find the right content by segmenting emails by their buyer's journey stage.Try segmenting leads based on their online activity. A great example of this is automatically sending a welcome email every time a visitor subscribes to your newsletter.Lead nurturing is the happy union between content and context. Email is how you provide the content, while segmentation is how you provide context.

5. Automation 

The final element of a successful lead nurturing campaign is automation. Automation makes it easy to send the right content, to the right person, at the right time. HubSpot offers a workflow tool that can help automate your entire lead nurturing process. This tool can help you:

• Set enrollment triggers that automatically enroll leads based on set criteria.
• Add relevant emails and content that will be sent to enrolled leads.
• Indicate when those emails will be sent to each lead.
• Remove leads once they've met the workflow goal.

Implementing automation into your lead nurturing will not only make the entire process feel seamless, but it will also help you scale your lead nurturing efforts in the future.Incorporating these five fundamental elements into your lead nurturing process will give you the foundation needed to implement campaigns that turn more of your leads into happy customers.

Nurture Your Leads to Create Happy Customers

It takes just a few steps to turn leads into happy, returning customers, and it all starts with thinking of them in the buyer’s journey.Ask yourself what their interests or issues are and what solutions your company has that impact their values, needs, and desires. Then, strategically create your content and send it to your leads in a sequence that moves them from awareness of their problem to the decision to buy your solution.Lead nurturing takes time. Segmenting leads based on their buyer persona and the stage they’re in of the buyer’s journey can help you nurture leads more effectively. Automation can help manage a lot of this process and sendails to the appropriate people at the appropriate time with the appropriate content to move them in the right direction.Are you ready to start nurturing your leads? Use HubSpot’s Marketing Hub to create and launch your campaign today, and turn those leads into customers.

Email marketing is one of the marketing techniques with the highest potential for revenue - for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect a return of $42. But that word “potential” is important - some email marketing campaigns will rake in the big bucks and others will flop. It largely depends on one thing: skillful and strategic email design.To thrive and cook up a campaign that’s worthwhile, you have to keep up with the ever-changing email design best practices. As long-standing experts in the email marketing field, we’re here to help. We’ve created this guide of the top email design best practices for 2023.

What is email design?

Email design is the development of an email through strategic designing that ultimately engages and resonates with your business’s target audience. Your email design should be eye-catching and optimized for all email subscribers. Effective email design can be the difference between an email that wastes away unread in inboxes and one that compels readers to click and make a purchase. At the risk of sounding dramatic, the revenue potential of a well-designed email is practically limitless.

Benefits of effective email design 

Strong email design has the ability to significantly impact your email marketing metrics. An engaging, attention-grabbing email brings plenty of benefits to your business including:

• Increasing audience engagement and excitement
• Building brand awareness and recognition
• Establishing credibility with the audience
• Boosting conversion rates

Strong email design is a win-win, bringing your audience a more engaging and useful email and bringing your business more revenue. But how do you make your email design effective, exactly? Let’s dive into practical tips you can start using today.

Email design best practices

Expert graphic design skills aren’t needed to create impactful email designs and templates, simply follow along with these best practices, and you’ll be on your way to reaping the benefits that we shared above.

Choose an email layout that suits your email’s goal

The way you lay out your email will depend on what type of message you’re sending. A transactional email, an email newsletter, and a DEM email (direct email marketing) are all very different, and your layout for each one should create a visual flow that leads readers toward the goal of that email.While every email’s layout will be unique, there are several common types of layouts that can each suit specific purposes and goals. These include:

• Inverted pyramid layouts

• Gutenberg diagram email layouts

• Z-pattern email layouts

• F-pattern email layouts

There’s no singular email layout that’s more effective than the others; it all depends on the situation and what you’re trying to accomplish. Let’s talk about each of these layout types and what they can do for your email design.

Inverted pyramid email layout

An inverted pyramid email uses an upside-down triangle as its guide: It grabs your attention with a broad headline, explains more with a few lines of copy and then narrows in on the main CTA. This MealPal email showcases an inverted pyramid layout.

‍Subject line: STOP waiting in line and get 40% off

Gutenberg diagram email layout 

The Gutenberg diagram divides your email layout into a grid with four sections — primary optical (top left), strong fallow area (top right), weak fallow area (bottom left) and terminal area (bottom right). People’s eyes generally move in this pattern as they read, so using the Gutenberg diagram can ensure your email is easy to skim.

Z-pattern email layout

The Z-pattern email layout is effective because the zigzag pattern follows the path most readers’ eyes will take. Z-pattern messages are a great option for simple emails without much copy where you’d like to highlight the CTA. Here’s an example of a Z-pattern:

‍Subject line: Load up on all your grooming essentials

F-pattern email layout

Another common scanning pattern is the F-pattern, in which readers’ eyes move across the page in the shape of an F. With this pattern, people tend to catch the top headline, any bullet points on the left side of the page, and subheadings across the page.‍

Subject line: New arrivals | Sets to love

Email layout is an essential step in email design best practices. Choosing the right layout can make an enormous difference in how likely your customers are to convert.

Additional layout tips

Here are a couple more tips to keep in mind as you consider your email layout options:

• Modular structure. An email with a modular structure is mobile responsive and adaptable. It ensures that recipients can view the message on any device.Pro Tip: Your email should also be no more than 600 pixels wide so people don’t have to scroll horizontally.

• Rule of three. Another way to keep your email layout simple and skimmable is to focus on three main email design elements.

Coordinate each element of your email structure

Each element of your email’s structure will play a part in how effective your email design is. They need to all coordinate with each other to create the on-brand, compelling effect you want. Let’s look at each element in a well-structured email and how to optimize them.

Subject line and pre-header

Your subject line is the bold title of your email that readers see in their inbox, and the preheader (AKA preview text) is the text readers see below or next to that bold subject line. Depending on the email program a reader is using, it will look something like this:

As you can see, the subject line and pre-header are the only pieces of information (other than your name) that a user has when they decide whether to open the email. These pieces need to be enticing and clear, grabbing readers’ attention and giving them a reason to click. Think about who your audience is and what appeals to them most.

Body

The body text of your email should be engaging and personal, accurately representing your company’s personality and making a connection with the reader. Be clear about what you’re asking the reader to do and stay focused on your main message.

Remember, your reader is bombarded with messaging all day every day. If you want to stand out in their memory, make your email body creative and relatable while keeping it concise and on-brand.

CTA

The header and body of your email should lead the reader straight to the CTA button. Create a sense of urgency if you’re having a sale, and prep a specific landing page for this CTA. When you design your CTA button, make sure it’s bulletproof so it will render correctly in any inbox.

As much as possible, stay focused on the message you want to send with your CTAs. Multiple CTAs in an email can actually hurt your conversion rate — having too many choices is overwhelming. Think about your primary goal for conversion (is it most important to you that people visit your website or social media?) and use that as your CTA.

Keep in mind that using descriptive CTA text instead of a generic phrase (“click here”) can encourage readers to act. Moleskine uses the words “Personalize now,” which helps the reader envision themselves purchasing the customized product.

‍Subject line: Unique notes

Footer

For brands, an email footer usually includes social media links and the business’s physical address, as Groove Life does here. Solopreneurs or CEOs might craft their footer as more of an email signature with personal contact information. The footer of your email is also required by law to include a visible unsubscribe link.

Learn more helpful footer tips in our blog post outlining best practices for email footer design.

Be strategic with visual design elements 

When the structure of your email is ready to go, it’s time to consider what design elements to include.

Typography

Typography is an important part of your company’s visual branding. For the body of your email, use a font that’s easy to read. Consider font color, spacing, and size. Don’t use more than two fonts in order to keep it on-brand so customers read it as professional. If you decide to use a custom font, make sure to preview the email on multiple devices. We love the simple but effective typography in this Tuft & Needle email.

‍Subject line: Save 10% on new sheet covers

Color

Color is essential when it comes to how your customers view your brand. Use a non-white background color to make your email look like one cohesive image. Then choose accent colors (such as the shade of your header or CTA button color) based on your brand colors and the email’s overall color scheme. For example, MealPal uses a pale blue background and adds a pop of color with the orange CTAs (which match the company logo at the top).

‍Subject line: NEW: groceries for 40% off with MealPal Market!

Animated content

GIFs and videos are popular when it comes to email design best practices. Animated GIFs can grab a reader’s attention with humor or they can demonstrate how to use your product. If you choose to include video in your emails, create educational content and post it on your website or YouTube. Many ESPs don’t allow videos to play in messages, so sharing the video link in the email is best.

Optimize Your Email Design 

Your job doesn’t end once your email is structured and designed. You must also optimize your email settings, test your emails, and check that they are accessible to everyone.

Personalization

It’s natural for your customers to pay more attention to information that is more relevant to them, and you can signal that your email is relevant by personalizing the design. This doesn’t mean you have to hand-customize every email that goes out - there are ways to automate this in a practical way.You can use simple strategies like adding the customer’s name in the email and including suggested products in the email based on the customer’s purchase history. You can also create several versions of your email designed for different segments of customers, like one version for customers ages 18-30, another for those ages 30-45, another for those who are 45-60, and so on. Adjustments like these make your emails more personalized and relatable.

Responsive email template design 

A responsive email template design ensures that your message will change size to be viewed on any device. Since nearly half of all email opens, take place on a mobile device like a smartphone, creating responsive emails is essential. Here at BEE, we have hundreds of responsive email templates that you can use to make sure your email design is mobile-first.

Test emails

Don’t send your email without testing it first to make sure you catch any mistakes. Testing your email can confirm whether your message is mobile-responsive. It also gives you a final chance to take in your color choices, images, and text all together. When you design with the Beefree, you can easily test your email when you’re through designing by sending it to yourself or previewing it on mobile (both found under the “Actions” tab in the upper left-hand corner of the editor). Most ESPs have built-in testing options too.

A/B test

In addition to testing your email with an internal review, consider running A/B tests where two groups of subscribers receive slightly different emails. By doing this, you can see which variations of the message get the highest open rates, conversions, and other performance metrics.A/B testing is a powerful strategy because no two audiences respond the same way to the same emails, so these tests can show you what works best for your specific audience. You can conduct A/B tests on nearly any element of your emails: the subject line, the preheader, the body, the CTA, and so on. Just be sure to only have one differing element in each A/B test so you know what caused one version to perform better than the other.

Accessibility

Many people consume online information in different ways due to varying physical, mental, or developmental abilities. For example, someone might use a screen reader that verbally reads the text on the screen. To make your emails accessible to everyone, use real text instead of images and structure the layout of your message so it’s simple and easy to read. Use these tips to ensure accessibility:

• Size all text to 14px or larger
• Add alt tags to your images to accommodate anyone who might not be able to see the photos or graphics; this text describes your images and is visible when the image cannot be shown (as shown in the image below). 
• Keep your contrast high so it’s easy for readers to distinguish the elements of the messages. Who Can Use, a tool that shows you how people with visual impairments view different colors can be a huge help in making your emails accessible.

One other email accessibility best practice is to keep your image size small (around 600px). You don’t want your email to be too “heavy,” with large images that might not load on all devices and ESPs. Small images are best.

Enhance inclusivity in email design

An inclusive email is one that takes into account the many ways in which your audience is diverse — from gender and race to ability, culture, age, and more. Your customer base isn’t made up of just one type of person, so your marketing emails shouldn’t address only one type, either. Do your photos show people of different races, genders and abilities? Does your language reflect the reader’s location and any potential cultural differences?

If you’re not sure, find someone who can look over the emails and let you know.

Your company can also focus on hiring people with diverse backgrounds to help create content that’s truly made for everybody. In addition to testing your email with an internal review, consider running A/B tests where two groups of subscribers receive slightly different emails. By doing this, you can see which variations of the message get the most opens.

Optimize your email design with Beefree

Ready to create effective marketing emails? Try Beefree. Our thousands of drag-and-drop, customizable email templates can give you a launchpad. Or opt for a blank template to design your own email from the ground up — no coding knowledge required. Put the email design best practices you’ve learned into action and start designing today.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on July 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness.

In the dynamic landscape of digital marketing, an email sign-up form serves as an instrumental tool in fostering connections between businesses and audiences.

As a precursor to long-term customer relationships, an email sign-up form fuels lead generation and enables businesses to personalize communication based on user preferences.

Here we'll explore the essential elements of an effective sign-up form, from design to copy to layout, supported by real-life examples and industry best practices. As well as discuss strategies to engage subscribers post-sign-up.

How to create a high-converting email sign-up form: The key elements

Crafting an email sign-up form that guarantees conversions hinges on assimilating key elements into your design. Here are six essential elements supported by industry statistics. Note that these aren't exhaustive but are a great foundation to begin with!

Simplicity

Simplicity is the cornerstone of any high-performing email sign-up design. Fewer fields translate into less work for a user, leading to higher sign-up rates. In fact, statistics reveal that reducing form fields from four to three can boost conversion rates by up to 50%.

It's important not to confuse simplicity with a lack of detail and clarity. For example, we don't want to keep the customer from important information (such as privacy details) for the sake of simplicity. Still, we don't need to include the entire Terms & Conditions on the sign-up page (this can be appropriately linked).

CTA Button

The Call-To-Action (CTA) button is another common element of a sign-up form. Making the CTA button stand out using a contrasting color can enhance conversion rates by 14.5%.

Read: What's the best CTA button color for emails?

Privacy Statement

Users are growing increasingly conscious of data privacy. A privacy statement offering assurance of data safety can increase form fill-outs by 19%.

For extra security, you can also include a double opt-in email. This email is sent automatically to your new subscribers with a link to confirm the email address. By doing this, you can highlight your commitment to subscriber consent and ensure email addresses have been entered correctly!

Incentives

Giving incentives act as persuasive agents for users to sign up for your emails. This could be in the form of a freebie, discount code, or free trial. But really, any content that is not accessible to those who have not signed up.

Google found that 90% of customers will share their email for an incentive, so it's highly likely to reap more rewards than any incentive will cost.

Design and Placement

 The visual appeal of a sign-up form and its strategic placement on your website can significantly influence user interaction.

For example, forms placed above the fold tend to capture significantly more leads than those placed below, as customers generally lose interest fast.

 You can also create a pop-up form that appears after a certain period or when you visit a certain number of pages on the site. Just ensure these don't "pop up" too quickly, or it can put potential subscribers off!

Testing and Monitoring

A/B testing and performance tracking of your forms can reveal critical insights. Businesses with a clear testing and monitoring strategy can generate up to 45% more leads.

Design Elements in Practice: Email Sign-up Form Examples

Now, let's explore some noteworthy examples of the best sign-up form practices.

These email sign-up forms have been chosen to highlight specific design, copy, and placement strategies for you to utilize, but of course, they are not exhaustive! We recommend researching your competitors and favorite brands and using this list as a guide for what to look for when aiming for a lead into a newsletter subscription email.

Using Minimalistic Design: Highway Robery

Highway Robery showcases how minimalism can lead to a compelling sign-up form. Their approach of "less is more" results in a design that's straightforward and free of clutter, allowing the user to focus on the sign-up process without unnecessary distractions.

They also use the contrast of black on the peach to make the CTA stand out, effectively guiding users to complete the sign-up.

It's got an engaging text that includes a brand-related pun and one input field, and the form contains no images, so the engaging copy is the main attention-grabber here.

The Power of Visuals: Primal Pet Foods

This sign-up form exhibits the power of engaging visuals. By pairing creative imagery with a simple form layout, they create a connection between their brand and the user's emotions.

This emotional engagement can boost conversions significantly. In fact, compelling visuals have been shown to increase user engagement by up to 94%.

Also, note the volume of information this sign-up form example requests. Alongside the email, they ask the subscribers for their name, zip code, and pet-related info. While this may seem long, they have cleverly utilized the UI and made two-question check circles much easier and quicker than writing and more likely to get responses!

This allows them to collect valuable customer information and tailor further communications effectively.

Providing Value Upfront: Sherwood Media Snacks

This sign-up form cleverly highlights the value proposition by promising a "3-minute newsletter with fresh takes on the financial news you need to start your day". They clarify what subscribers will gain from signing up, providing an immediate incentive.

Using Social Proof: LKR Social Media

LKR Social Media includes a quoted testimonial on their sign-up form, leveraging the power of social proof.

This establishes credibility and enhances trust, which can significantly increase sign-ups. 92% of consumers trust user-generated content more than traditional advertising.

Integrating an email sign-up form: SUMO

SUMO integrates its sign-up form into its homepage layout and utilizes the above-the-fold method mentioned earlier. This seamless design can increase sign-ups as it does not disrupt the user experience and feels like a natural part of navigation.

Engaging Your audience beyond the email sign-up form 

An effective email sign-up form is a fusion of design aesthetics, user psychology, and strategic thinking. And if you've made it this far, you're one step closer to transforming your sign-up form into a powerful lead-generating and customer-engaging tool.

The next step is to maintain their interest and engagement. An excellent way to initiate this engagement is by sending a welcome email. Welcome emailshelp generate 320% more revenue per email than other promotional emails.If you're ready to get started, explore our catalog of thousands of templates to help you attract, maintain, and nurture your audience. Happy designing!

In the ever-evolving world of marketing, email automation is a stand-out feature that has changed how businesses engage and retain customers. With this tool, businesses can deliver personalized experiences at scale all while saving time and manual labor.Email automation forges stronger customer relationships by improving retention rates by ensuring customer loyalty through consistent and relevant communications. Overall, it is easy to see why it has become an essential tool in every marketer's arsenal. Today, we look at 10 email marketing automation examples in hopes of inspiring you to implement automation in your email marketing.

What Emails Should You Automate?

Deciding which emails to automate might seem overwhelming initially, but a well-informed approach can help streamline the process.Automation is particularly suited for emails that are a consistent part of your business operations and essential elements of your customer journey. A good rule of thumb is that if an email is repetitive in nature, it can be automated.Some great email automation examples are welcome sequences, onboarding emails, and transactional emails, such as purchase confirmations. It is also great for reactive or behavior-based scenarios—for example, abandoned cart emails. An automated email can be used to send them a reminder of their unfinished transaction.Overall, the decision to automate emails should be based on the necessity for consistent, timely interaction with your audience and the ability to respond effectively to specific user actions or behaviors.

Common Types of Automated Email Marketing Campaigns

To help you explore the possibilities when deciding how to automate emails and which emails to automate, we’ve compiled a list of 10 common types of automated email campaigns, each with their own specific nuances and benefits:

1. Welcome Emails
2. Customer Onboarding Emails
3. Transactional Emails
4. Abandoned Cart Emails
5. Upsell/Cross-sell Emails
6. Birthday or Anniversary Emails
7. Feedback or Review Request Emails
8. Renewal or Subscription Reminder Emails
9. Post-Purchase Follow-up Emails
10. Re-engagement Emails

Automated Email Examples and Ideas

The following email automation examples illustrate the diverse ways that automated emails can be used to engage, inform, and motivate recipients. While every campaign is unique, these automated email ideas should provide a source of inspiration to help you create your own compelling automated marketing emails.We selected email types that can be highly effective when automated and would otherwise take up significant amounts of time when not.

Welcome Emails

Welcome emails are typically triggered when a new user signs up for your service or subscribes to your newsletter. These emails provide a warm introduction, set expectations, and guide the subscriber through what they can expect from your newsletter. A well-crafted welcome email should include:

• A personalized greeting
• Acknowledgment of action taken
• A thank you message
• Information about what the subscriber can expect from future communications
• Engaging imagery and distinct branding
• Where to find you on socials
• Consider including an offer/gift/discount code

You can check out Beefree’s welcome email templates for additional inspiration.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Customer Onboarding Emails

Customer onboarding emails are a sequence of emails sent to new customers to help them understand and navigate your services or application.The main purpose of these emails is to help the new user familiarize themselves with your offering and guide them on how to extract maximum value from it. Automating these emails ensures timely and consistent communication, making users feel valued and reducing churn.Key components to include in customer onboarding emails:

• Step-by-step guides to navigate your service/product.
• Useful resources for getting started (videos, blogs, FAQs).
• Contact information for customer support.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are automatically sent in response to specific user actions, such as making a purchase, changing their password, or updating account information. These emails enhance customer experience by providing real-time updates and keeping transparency between you and the customer.Essential elements for transactional emails:

• Clear subject line summarizing the transaction.
• Details of the transaction/action.
• Next steps, if required (e.g., the tracking number for a shipped order).
• Contact information for further queries.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

You can discover some of BeeFrees more detailed best practices for shipping emails here.

Abandoned Cart Emails

Abandoned cart emails are triggered when a customer adds items to their cart but fails to complete the purchase. These emails serve as gentle reminders nudging customers to complete their transactions, thereby helping recover potentially lost sales.Key elements of abandoned cart emails include:

• Reminder of the items left in the cart.
• Direct link back to the checkout process.
• Incentives like discounts or free shipping to encourage purchase.
• Incentive to buy like a notice about low stock.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Upsell/Cross-sell Emails

Upsell/cross-sell emails are dispatched when a customer has made a purchase or shown interest in a product. These emails recommend related or premium products, fostering a personalized shopping experience and increasing average order value.Three critical elements in upsell/cross-sell emails are:

• Personalized product recommendations.
• Clear call-to-action leading to purchase.
• Explanation of the benefit or relevance of the recommended product.

Birthday or Anniversary Emails

Birthday or anniversary emails are an excellent way to celebrate your customer’s special occasions and celebrate significant milestones in your customer’s journey with your brand. They are a great way to show your customers you value their loyalty and to create a personal connection with them.Key components in birthday or anniversary emails:

• Personalized congratulatory message that is warm and friendly.
• Special offer, discount, or gift as a token of appreciation.
• Encouragement for continued interaction with your brand.
• Convey a sense of urgency (Research has found that ‘emails conveying a sense of urgency have twice as high transaction rates compared with average marketing emails.’

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Feedback, Survey or Review Request Emails

Feedback or survey emails are sent after a customer has interacted with your product or service, requesting them to share their experience. These emails are key to understanding your customers' satisfaction, gaining valuable insights, and collecting user-generated content, and can assist in improving your offerings.More positive reviews also increase the likelihood of other potential customers purchasing from you, so are great for brand reputability.Key components of feedback or review request emails:

• A respectful request for a review or feedback.
• Easy method for customers to provide their input.
• Inform your customers that their reviews will impact product development.
• Appreciation message for their time and effort.
• Consider offering a gift such as a discount code.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Renewal or Subscription Reminder Emails

Renewal or subscription reminder emails are sent to customers to remind them of their upcoming renewal dates for subscriptions or services. These emails are crucial to retaining customers and maintaining steady revenue.Essential elements in renewal or subscription reminder emails are:

• Clear mention of the renewal date.
• Steps on how to renew the subscription.
• Benefits or value proposition of the renewal.

Confirmation Emails 

Confirmation emails are dispatched after a customer has made a purchase. These emails are pivotal in maintaining communication with customers, encouraging repeat business, and fostering customer loyalty.Key elements to include in post-purchase follow-up emails:

• Clear outline of what they have bought.
• Thank you note appreciating the customer's purchase.
• Customer service routes.
• Request for product/service reviews.
• Recommendations of related products they might like.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Re-engagement Emails

Re-engagement emails are sent to inactive subscribers in an attempt to get them to interact with your brand again. These emails can be a powerful tool to win back the attention of your audience, potentially recovering lost revenue.Components to include in re-engagement emails:

• A check-in message expressing that they're missed.
• Special offer or significant incentive to encourage re-engagement such as a substantial discount, free trial etc.
• Highlight any positive changes or updates that have been made, new product launches etc.
• A quick way for the recipient to manage their email preferences.

Additional Tips for Creating High-Converting Automated Emails

Having well-designed automated emails is crucial in not only keeping your audience engaged but also leading them down the conversion path. Reflecting on these examples and considering how they can be adapted to fit your business needs will enhance your marketing strategy.In addition to the inspiration provided by these examples, be sure to check out our article on “Email Marketing 101: What is Email Marketing Automation?” for an in-depth look at email automation marketing best practices for creating effective automated email campaigns.And remember, a good automated email is always a mix of valuable content, engaging visuals, and clear calls to action.Now you’re armed with our email automation examples, are you ready to create your high-converting automated emails? Sign up for a free Beefree account to get started.

Email marketing automation makes it possible for businesses to send personalized emails at the right time to maximize opens and click-throughs. This marketing process involves triggering specific emails to specific groups or individuals based on the actions they take. 

These triggers can range from simple actions, such as sending a thank-you email to a customer after a purchase, to more complex ones, like launching multi-step, audience-segmented campaigns aimed at brand awareness, sales, or lead generation.

How do Automated Emails work?

Understanding how automated marketing emails work involves reviewing the strategic process marketers go through. This process starts with the conception of a marketing tactic and finishes with its implementation. 

First, identify a marketing tactic or a goal that is consistent with the company's objectives. These objectives involve anything from increasing brand awareness, customer retention, or overall increasing sales. 

Second is the strategy formulation stage. This involves developing a comprehensive strategy that considers various aspects of the target audience, including their demographics, behaviors, preferences, and needs. For example: 

• Behavioral data, such as past purchase history or browsing patterns, can help tailor content that resonates with the recipient and, specifically, what they are more likely to be interested in/purchase—inevitably, driving conversions.
• Audience attributes, such as demographics, preferences, and needs, inform the segmentation and personalization of emails, ensuring the message is curated to drive engagement. 
• The overall objective, be it brand awareness, customer retention, or sales, helps determine the appropriate tone, content, and call to action for each email, thus aligning the email strategy with broader marketing and business goals.

Understanding these enables marketers to create a targeted and well-planned email campaign that aligns with the overarching marketing strategy.

Email Automation Platforms

 Marketers leverage email automation platforms to bring their email campaigns to life.

These platforms are not just tools that facilitate the crafting and sending of emails. They are programmed to make segmenting audiences, creating personalized messages, and scheduling emails at the optimal time based on triggers or conditions easier than ever.

 Some popular ones you might have heard of are Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Salesforce. 

How to Create an Automated Marketing Email

Creating an automated marketing email doesn't have to be a complex task, especially if you're equipped with the right tools.

For instance, agnostic tools like Beefree simplify the process and integrate seamlessly with existing solutions to make your email creations (and exporting) a whole lot more streamlined. 

While email-sending platforms are great at automation, when it comes to design, they can be a little limiting. Beefree helps in that department.

 So, how can you create automated marketing emails that keep design and strategy in mind? 

Let’s get to it.

Step 1. Determine Your Email Marketing Goals & Target Audience

Before crafting your email, start by establishing the goals of your email marketing campaign. The goal could vary from increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or converting leads into customers. The aim is to set clear, measurable, and timely goals aligning with your business objectives. Think “SMART.”

Equally critical is identifying your target audience. Effective email marketing isn't just about sending emails; it's about sending the right message to the right people.  

To do this, you need to understand your customers' behaviors, preferences, and challenges. This understanding enables you to create personalized and impactful email campaigns that deliver results.

Step 2. Craft Compelling Content

Once you've identified your goals and audience, the next step is crafting compelling content. 

Your subject line, preview text, and email content need to work in harmony to captivate your audience. Each element plays a crucial role in influencing whether your email gets opened, read, and acted upon. 

Be sure to include clear and persuasive call-to-actions (CTAs) to guide your reader on the next steps. Remember, readers typically make decisions on whether to click in a matter of seconds, so these need to be short and impactful!

While content is key, don't underestimate the power of a well-designed email. A visually appealing email enhances the overall user experience, making navigating the content easier for your reader.

Beefree's templates provide the ideal starting point for creating professionally designed emails that look great and resonate with your audience.

Read: The Non-Marketer's Guide to Writing Emails Like a Copywriter 

Step 3. Design your automated email

Good design is impactful. It involves creating a visual road map for your audience. 

Each design element, from the choice of colors and fonts to the placement of images and CTAs, contributes to the readability and effectiveness of your email. For instance, strategically positioned CTAs can significantly improve click-through rates and drive your desired actions.

The design should also parallel the email content and your brand — a huge sale being offered may warrant bold, bright colors, whilst an update about a new product launch may be in keeping with your traditional brand colors to reinforce brand identity. These are just examples, but it’s something to consider when in the design phase.

Step 4. Set up Automation & Triggers

Once you're satisfied with your email's design and content, it's time to set up automation and triggers. This is what takes your marketing strategy to the next level.

This process involves defining the specific conditions or actions that will trigger your email to be sent. Depending on your marketing goals, these triggers could be based on user behavior, certain dates, or a specified schedule. 

By leveraging Email Service Providers (ESPs), these triggers can be easily defined, and the automation process can be more seamlessly set up.

Step 5. Test, Analyze, & Optimize

Testing is critical to effective automated email creation. It involves sending out test emails to validate the proper functionality of all email elements.

This means checking if the layout appears correctly across different devices and browsers, ensuring links and CTAs are functioning as intended, and verifying the deliverability of your email.

One widely used method of testing is A/B testing, or split testing. It is a data-driven strategy that compares two versions of an email to determine which one performs better.

The process involves changing one element in an email variant, such as the subject line, CTA, or images, and sending the two versions to similar audience segments. The version that generates a higher open rate, click-through rate, or conversion rate is deemed the more effective one. 

This method provides valuable insights into what resonates most with your audience and allows for continuous improvement of your email strategy. 

Once your email campaign is live, monitoring its performance is key to understanding its effectiveness. This is done through a thorough analysis of key metrics like open rates (the percentage of recipients who open your email), click-through rates (the percentage of recipients who click a link within your email), and conversion rates (the percentage of recipients who perform a desired action, like making a purchase or filling out a form). 

These metrics provide a quantitative measure of your campaign's success and reveal areas that may require improvement.

With these insights, you can optimize your email campaigns to better align with your audience's needs and preferences. This could involve making changes to the email content, design, delivery timing, or even your audience segmentation.

The Benefits of Email Marketing Automation

Email marketing automation brings numerous benefits to businesses of all sizes and types. 

At its core, it's about streamlining and maximizing the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. Automated emails allow businesses to nurture leads, increase customer retention, and drive more sales without the need for huge amounts of manual intervention.

Three more benefits include:

1. Timely, personalized communication: Automated emails can be set up to trigger based on specific behaviors or events, such as welcoming a new subscriber, acknowledging a customer's purchase, or re-engaging a dormant customer. This enables businesses to reach customers with the right message at the right time, enhancing customer experience and boosting engagement rates.
2. Scalability: As your business grows, it becomes challenging to maintain consistent, personalized communication with a growing customer base. Email marketing automation reduces this hurdle, enabling you to scale your marketing efforts without compromising on quality or personalization.
3. Insights: Email marketing automation provides valuable insights into customer behavior and campaign performance. By analyzing key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, you can understand what resonates with your audience and continually refine your approach for better results.

How to Get Started with Email Marketing Automation

Email marketing automation involves setting clear goals, understanding your audience, crafting compelling content and a visually appealing email design, and setting up automation and triggers. Don't forget to continually test, analyze, and optimize your emails to achieve better results.

Choosing the right email delivery platform is key to effective email marketing automation. Whether you're just starting out or looking to enhance your existing process, an agnostic email builder likeBeefree, which can easily integrate with your sending platform, can help simplify and enhance your email marketing efforts. The best part? It's free. Sign up now! 

One of the best places to get to know a customer and build their relationship with your brand is from within their inboxes. Did you know email marketing has an astounding ROI of $36 for every $1 spent? But here’s the catch: for email marketing to work, you have to attract customers to your mailing list. How do you do that? With an outstanding newsletter landing page. Settle in, and we’ll tell you how to make one that takes your potential to new heights.

What is a Newsletter Landing Page?

Simply put, a newsletter landing page is a landing page on your site where visitors can sign up for your mailing list. Visitors typically reach this page by clicking on one of your ads or an invitation elsewhere to join your mailing list. This landing page has two jobs: to encourage them to sign up and to make it easy and convenient for them to do so. It usually consists of information about why to sign up for the newsletter (like special offers, exclusive content, and so on) and a straightforward sign-up form.Your landing page is your chance to establish trust with your audience. You’re asking for a commitment to your newsletter by proving what you have to offer is educational and interesting or guides them toward a solution to their most pressing challenges. You’re also promising not to misuse their email or send them spam.Some landing pages are more convincing than others. In this article, we’ll explain what makes an effective newsletter landing page and how to create one of your own.

Why Is a Newsletter Landing Page Important?

A newsletter landing page is important because it’s the final push that convinces visitors to sign up for your newsletter, and that’s a big deal. Your newsletter has outstanding potential to grow your relationship with customers, build brand loyalty, prompt sales, grow your brand awareness, and more. And the only way you get the opportunity to do these things is by encouraging customers to sign up for your mailing list via your newsletter landing page.

6 Newsletter Landing Page Tips for Building Pages That Convert (with examples) 

Creating the best email newsletter landing page allows you to get closer to your readers over time. This is one of your first impressions, which is why your design quality is an essential investment. Put these pro tips and newsletter landing page templates to use to design an excellent landing page that sends your newsletter sign-ups through the roof.

1. Simplify Your Design and Page Elements 

A successful newsletter landing page to get right to the point. The reader should be able to find the CTA easily so they can subscribe before losing interest. A newsletter landing page is not the place to add loads of detail. Data has shown that landing pages that overwhelm their customers with more than one offer get 266% fewer leads than pages with single offers. Only include the essentials - a few bullet points about what to expect from the newsletter and a simple sign-up form (all you really need is the subscriber’s email address and perhaps their name, so skip unnecessary fields like age, location, gender, and so on).This example does precisely that - uses white space and clear, minimalistic designs to draw in the reader’s eye without overwhelming them.

2. Pull in Readers With a Powerful Headline

An attention-grabbing, engaging header serves as the “bait” that reels in readers and gets them interested in finding out more about your newsletter. First, determine what you want to convey. What is the purpose behind your newsletter landing page? What will you provide your audience with once they subscribe? Do you want to offer updates on your products or educational resources? Your header should clearly but concisely tell readers why they should read on.The headline is your first impression. The font, size, and location of this headline will help readers know what the entirety of the page is about. It’s where you captivate customers or lose them immediately, so your choices here are important.In this case, “The Hot Goss in Your Inbox” is unique, fun, and casual, albeit a bit corny, but in an endearing way. It makes readers feel like they’re joining a club by getting all the latest announcements and news in their inboxes. The headline is also formatted in a powerful way - clear, bold font with plenty of white space so it catches the reader’s eye.

3. Write Skimmable Copy

The descriptions and copy that follow your headline need to give the what and why in a way that quickly sparks the reader’s curiosity. What are you offering your customers? Why should they care and continue to care?While these questions might have your thoughts flooding with ideas, remember this copy can’t be overwhelming to the subscriber. Find the sweet spot where it’s skimmable yet captivating. Include bolded words, numbers, bullet points, and easy-to-read info. Your newsletter landing page copy should:

1. Set expectations for the customer’s subscription
2. Provide a compelling explanation of your offer’s value

You know the value of what your newsletter will offer readers, so be upfront about your benefits and what a commitment or sign-up entails. Provide concise copy that specifies that value and the actionable steps they need to take to subscribe.In this example, the content under the headline is simple, clear, and to the point. It’s also structured as a bulleted list, which makes it easy to skim at a glance. The bolded words add to the ability to see the value in your newsletter at a glance and compel readers to sign up.

4. Provide Authentic Social Proof

In case you’re not familiar with the phrase, “social proof” refers to showing customers that your product is popular so they may think, “If so many other people like this, maybe I would like it too.” Okay, it’s basically peer pressure, but it lends credibility to your product - in this case, your newsletter.You could include phrases like “Join our 3,000+ other subscribers” or “Find out why over 3,000 people have subscribed…and why new subscribers join every day!” You could also include slightly more subtle cues that your brand or your newsletter is well-liked.This example, while inviting readers to follow the company on social media, adds some social proof to the mix by providing a follower count for each social page the business is active on, as well as their top photos and videos from some of those pages. The views, likes, comments, and numbers provide proof that people trust you. Back up what you are promoting with factual progress through socials to increase conversions.

5. Use Valuable Imagery

Imagery that increases the emotional tie between you and your readers is key to high-converting newsletter landing pages. In truth, the human brain processes imagery 60,000 times faster than text. This means that your images can send a message and pique interest far more quickly than your copy can.Place your business logo, stock images, profile/bio pics, or other graphics to attract readers and inspire them to care about your newsletter. Portray value and ignite that emotion by using real pictures, which will allow readers to trust you and further feel for your purpose.In our sample newsletter landing page, the imagery throughout the page is on-brand with our hypothetical company’s image. It’s casual and fun, using bold colors to reel in readers’ attention and make them interested to read on.

6. Add a Clear CTA Button and Simplify Sign-Up

It’s time for the main event on your newsletter landing page: the sign-up. This is what it’s all about, so you want to make that sign-up form or button visually prominent and, dare we say, alluring.Anyone should be able to find this button easily on your newsletter landing page. Make it a visible, medium-sized font that is placed in a clear area on the page, and make sure the color of the button is not too bright or dim. Neutral CTAs will grab their attention if other details are accurate.Make sure the information you are requesting from the customer is simple:

1. Enable autofill – Customers appreciate when fields populate automatically when possible. It saves time and fast-tracks the subscription process.
2. Use only a name and email input – Limiting the number of field fills will get you more clicks because it’s quick and simple, respecting your readers’ time. 
3. If you must ask for more than a name and email, use multiple-choice questions – Typing out 3-4 fields takes more effort than clicking a choice bubble. Posing questions to get the answers you need also serves as a great tool for newsletters.

Again, here we see a clear CTA that’s easy to find. We are asked to simply fill out our name and email. The quick sign-up and bright colors allow customers to see and fully understand what is being asked of them and why. This makes for a quick and easy decision-making process.Read: Top Tips for Best Call to Action Button Design 

Get Started With a Newsletter Landing Page Templates

Now that you know which key elements make up a powerful newsletter landing page, you are ready to begin the design process. Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you! Our library of newsletter landing page templates guides you through using these best practices to design effective, conversion-driving landing pages, or you can start fresh and create your own. Beefree allows you to create your newsletter landing page in both a guided and customized way. To see for yourself, sign up for a free Beefree account today and start exploring our templates and options in seconds.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on June 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

You’ve invested precious time and effort into crafting an email to send out a new survey, and you’re eager to see what insights the survey uncovers. You finally click “send,” and then…crickets, day after day. Why isn’t your survey email getting conversions? Hint: it’s not just because people are busy. We’re diving into the top strategies and templates to use to convert survey emails.

Why send survey invitation emails?

Sending a survey email to your customers or subscribers is a method of getting valuable information that can inform how you run your business. With an email survey, you can:

• Easily gather a large quantity of responses with a cost-effective method
• Get honest answers (most surveys are anonymous, so your customers feel free to truly express their thoughts)
• Reach your customers on a channel where they’re connected and engaged

Survey invitation emails are also a smart choice because they’re cost-effective and don’t require much time on your end. We can’t think of a reason why you shouldn’t send one! When you’re ready to launch your campaign, check out these tips to learn the survey invitation email best practices:

#1. Make your survey email subject lines engaging

A huge chunk of subscribers—about 35%—decide whether or not to open your email based on the subject line alone. Salesforce reports that after the sender name, the subject line has the biggest impact on whether an email is opened or not. So the first step to getting readers to open your survey invitation emails is to put some thought, planning and testing into your subject line.Here are some examples of survey invitation email subject lines in our inbox. Based on what you see, are there any survey invitation emails you would open?

When it comes to survey invitation email subject lines, a good rule of thumb is to keep your subject line short. Most mobile devices only display the first six or seven words of a subject line, so using a short subject line is critical to get your message across.

Most of the subject lines from the invitation emails we received are transparent, making it pretty clear that a survey is enclosed. Those offering an incentive, like Klean Kanteen and Anthropologie, present that information in the subject line, too—a smart move for encouraging opens. Many of these messages also include “you” or “your” in the subject line, making it evident that the message is all about engagement.One subject line that stands out is in the form of a question, from the city recommendation guide InsideHook NY. “Are you happy with your job?” reads the subject line, followed by snappy preheader text (“Prove it.”) that’s perfectly on-brand.Main takeaway: When crafting your subject line, think about keeping it concise, differentiating yourself from other invitations and intriguing your audience.

#2. Be concise In your survey emails 

When you stick to a single message in your survey email—one that’s reiterated over and over in the subject line, images, content, and call-to-action—it’s more likely to sink in.Effective survey invitation emails will answer these questions right away:

• What: What is the email really about? What is the objective? Be clear about the survey’s purpose and why you’re doing it.
• Why: Why should readers participate? Are you offering an incentive, like a coupon? How will the survey results be valuable to you? Let readers know.
• How: How should readers engage, and how long will it take?(Is it less than 5 minutes?). Make sure the next steps are clear. 
• Where: Where should readers click? Use one strong, compelling call-to-action button. It should be obvious to readers where to click to participate.
• When: When is the due date? Create urgency by providing a deadline. Consider doing a drip email campaign with two or three messages to remind subscribers to complete your survey.

In this invitation from 23andMe, a genomics and biotechnology company, the letter-style message gets straight to the point. This survey email example answers all of the important questions: What the message is about (genetics research), why the survey is important (to help improve research efforts), how readers should engage (by answering as many or as few questions as they’d like), how long it will take (a few seconds), and where to click (an obvious “Submit Your Answer” CTA button). The email also gets the ball rolling by asking the first survey question in the email itself.

In another survey invitation email from InsideHook, the company repeats the subject line in the message’s first line.

‍Subject line: Are you happy with your job? 

Again, InsideHook tells readers what the email is about (a survey about work life), why participation is important (to contribute to a new story called “Men at Work”), how readers should engage (hit the hot-linked language or CTA), how long it will take (no more than five minutes) and where to click (“Take the Survey” button).

Main takeaway: Communicate clearly, letting readers know what you’re offering, why they should participate, and how they should respond. Don’t waste your readers’ time.

#3. Deliver a compelling call-to-action for survey emails

Once a reader has opened your survey invitation email and read the message, it’s the moment of truth: Will the reader become a survey participant?

The call-to-action you include in the email can make or break what happens next. There’s a good chance your reader will skip right over your body copy and read your CTA first, so make it easy for readers to click or tap by using a bulletproof CTA button. Buttons stand out and provide visual interest.

Allow ample white space around your button so it’s easy to tap on mobile, and choose a bright contrasting color for the button that’s easy to spot. Also, make the CTA language clear and compelling—three to four words should do it. The Muse, a career and job site, created an excellent CTA button in this survey invitation email example. The CTA states exactly what the action is and how long it will take, and also provides a little urgency with the word “now.”

Subject line: We need your help

Subject line: We need your help

‍

When creating CTAs for survey emails, avoid overused and generic language (“Click here,” “Register,” “Learn more,” and “Sign up”). Instead, use personal pronouns (“my” and “your”) to set a friendly tone and make the CTA engaging and approachable.Main takeaway: Good CTAs are unique and customized to reflect the brand’s tone. Read more about how to optimize your CTA button with our Top Tips for Best Call-to-Action Button Design post.

#4. Do a one-question micro-survey

It takes a lot to get the attention of busy, on-the-go subscribers whose inboxes are flooded and who are reading emails while distracted and multitasking. It’s a tough crowd out there! Inviting readers to take a survey is a big ask. One way to make your survey as easy, simple, and quick as possible is to ask just one question right in the body of the email. This micro-survey tactic might just be the thing that gets readers to respond at higher rates.Instapage, a tool for creating landing pages, did just that. Here’s a survey email example of how they executed it.Subject line: A world premiere: The one second survey

Readers can select one of five choices right there in the email itself, and then the survey is over. There’s no need to click a CTA button or go to a landing page, and no need to spend even five minutes of their time.The Brooklyn Public Library takes the same approach in the email below, where subscribers choose an answer within the email.Subject line: Your answer needed: What’s your favorite genre?

Main takeaway: If getting a higher quantity of respondents is important to you, consider asking readers to answer the highest-value question by including it directly in your email.

#5. Avoid spam filters

All too often, survey emails end up in the recipient’s spam or junk folder, which is the last place you want yours to be! You can head straight for the inbox by avoiding spam trigger words in the subject line and not using all caps. You’ll also want to make sure your email doesn’t contain too many images or too many links.Other important tips to keep your survey emails out of the spam folder: Include a link to unsubscribe (which should be in all of your emails) and test your email deliverability with a few major providers before sending the message for good.

Survey email templates to get started today

Not sure where to start when crafting your survey invitation email? You don’t need to start from scratch. Check out these helpful templates you can use and adjust accordingly, each with a particular purpose in mind.

1. Survey email template with a giveaway

One of the best ways to encourage people to take your survey is to give them a concrete reason to do it…like the chance to win something exciting in a giveaway. You can use a template like this to entice people to participate:Subject: Feeling lucky? Get a chance to win !Body:We’d love to hear your opinion! We want it so badly, in fact, that we’re giving away a !Just click the button below and complete our simple survey. It will only take a few minutes of your time, and when you have completed it, you’ll be entered for a chance to win . Plus, you’ll be giving us valuable insight to allow us to serve you better. It’s a win all around!Example:Giveaway Survey Email Template

2. Survey email template with a gift card

Some people are more enticed by the chance to win a large prize while others are more enticed by the guarantee of a smaller token of appreciation like a gift card. Every audience is different, and it’s worth trying out both approaches to see which one your audience responds to best. To try out a gift card offer, try this survey template.Subject: You could have a gift card in 5 minutes!Body:We want to know what you think, and we’re offering much more than a penny for your thoughts!Complete our simple customer feedback survey to receive a [$] gift card to  for you to use on your next purchase. Simply click the link below and complete our 5-minute survey to allow us to better serve you in the future. When you’ve completed the survey, you’ll receive a gift card you can use the next time you’re in the mood for (product name here)Thank you for helping us provide a better shopping experience!

3. Customer feedback email survey for a product

While it’s great to collect feedback on general customer experiences, you might want to know what customers think of specific products, especially new products. This is a great way to not only improve your product but collect marketable quotes and testimonials. Use this template to inspire your next product survey email.Subject: We’re dying to know what you thought of (product name)!Body:We saw that you ordered (product name here), and we’d love to hear what you think! We’re on a mission to bring our customers the best products we can offer, and you can help us make (product) better.To give us your thoughts on this product, click the link below and complete our product feedback survey. It’ll only take five minutes of your time, but you’ll be doing a solid for us and our future customers (including yourself).Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback!Example: Survey Email for Product FeedbackEach of these survey email templates has a different intent and use, but they’re all designed to engage your customers and encourage them to provide their feedback. Feel free to use them as they are or to customize them to suit your brand and your message.

Building great survey invitation emails

Designing survey invitation emails is no easy feat! Optimize your return on investment by getting readers to participate. If you need a little help getting started, check out our kit of survey email templates by designer Matteo Della Chiesa. The set includes five emails to take you from start to finish:

• Short invite
• Emoji invite
• Questionnaire invite
• Thank you
• Questionnaire results

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on May 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

Email marketers aim to send meaningful email content that engages readers and, perhaps, even motivates them to take action. However, this goal can be challenging to accomplish when you consider that competition in the inbox is high and that 74% of Americans subscribe to somewhere between 1-10 email newsletters.With these challenges already top-of-mind, it's no secret that email marketers fear the new Gmail unsubscribe tool.In an effort to help users improve their inbox quality, Gmail prompts them to automatically unsubscribe from emails they no longer engage with.But how exactly does the auto-unsubscribe Gmail tool impact email marketers? Keep reading to dig a little deeper.

How is the Gmail Unsubscribe Tool Beneficial?

If a user unsubscribes from an email list, they become ineligible to receive future emails from the sender unless they re-subscribe. Following the U.S. CAN-SPAM rules, if a user unsubscribes from an email list, the sender has 10 business days to remove an unsubscribe from the list. Don’t fret; unsubscribes aren’t all that typical – the average unsubscribe rate from an email is only 0.17%.While the Gmail auto unsubscribe tool might cause a few more unsubscribes to your list, it’s important to recognize the value it also provides. Every marketer should have the goal of keeping a healthy and active mailing list. Removing people who don’t want your emails will improve overall email deliverability, open rates, and click thru.This service also provides value to email users by making the unsubscribe process easier. Here are a few ways users unsubscribe from an email list in Gmail:

• Reporting a sender as spam will unsubscribe the user
• Blocking a sender will unsubscribe the user
• Recognizing unsubscribe links in the email and moving them to the top for greater visibility by the user
• Prompting the user to unsubscribe to subscribed emails they no longer open

Features of Gmail Auto Unsubscribe that Email Marketers Should Know

Is the Gmail unsubscribe button truly a negative impact on email marketers? After all, Gmail accounts for more than half of the U.S. email market, and it’s offering up the unsubscribe option on a silver platter. The answer is: not necessarily.As email markers, one of the top goals is to keep a clean and engaged mailing list. If anything, the Gmail unsubscribe option is one way of doing this.We know it’s easy to get caught up in fluffy metrics like list size, but the truth is that if your list isn’t engaging with your emails, it’s not a quality list. So take advantage of Gmail's opportunity to keep your least clean and up-to-date.Here’s how Gmail determines when to feature the unsubscribe option:

• An automatic prompt is served for emails in the Promotions inbox if they haven’t been opened for 30 days or more.
• Automatic unsubscribe Gmail suggestions are served when the user’s open rate for a specific sender is low.
• If the sender includes either the list-unsubscribe or list-unsubscribe-post snippets in their email code, it will move the unsubscribe option to the top of the email.

How to Avoid Penalties from the Gmail Unsubscribe Button

The Answer is Simple. Be Transparent.As mentioned earlier, email marketers should view the Gmail unsubscribe button as a valuable way to improve email deliverability by keeping a clean and engaged contact list.One of the reasons the U.S. CAN-SPAM regulation exists is to empower users to take more control over the contents of their inboxes. For subscribers, reporting emails as “spam” has historically been an easy way to unsubscribe. They don’t understand the repercussions that this action has on the organizations sending the emails, and truthfully, it’s not something they should be concerned with! It is the job of email marketers to make sure that you’re being transparent about the option to unsubscribe.By including the required “Unsubscribe” link in your email footer, you’re giving the recipient an easy way to let you know they’d no longer like to receive your content. Obliging their request is in your best interest to avoid costly fines from the FTC.Here are some other ways email marketers benefit from Gmail unsubscribes.

1. Keep an Updated Email List

By removing unsubscribes from your email list, you are eliminating contacts who are no longer engaging with your emails. This practice is an excellent way to clean them from your list because keeping them lowers your open rates. It’s a standard process to regularly clean an email list of low-engaged recipients to avoid future unsubscribes or spam complaints.For example, if you’re emailing a list of college-aged students and notice a substantial spike in bounce rates, it’s a good sign that those email addresses are no longer active. If you’re using an email service provider, they may be charging you to keep those names in your database, so it’s best to clean them out when you know they’re no longer active and save expenses.

2. Remove Inactive Contacts

Once every quarter to every six months, it’s a good idea to review your contact lists and remove inactive contacts – people who haven’t opened your email for a long time. Yes, it’s sad to see them go, but if they’re not opening your emails anymore, they’re just taking up space and bringing down your open rates.

3. Implement Requalification Emails

If removing inactive contacts is hard, try a requalification email first. This type of email is one more attempt to get the subscriber to re-engage with your brand. If you utilize an email automation platform, this is an easy email to set up and trigger to send when a contact becomes inactive for a certain amount of time.Using Bee’s email templates makes designing a requalification email a breeze. Check out our notification email templates here.

4. Segment Audiences

The mass unsubscribe Gmail offers can incentivize email marketers to up their game. Start by segmenting audiences more thoroughly and sending more targeted email messages. Then, by curating content for specific audiences, you should see improvement in email open rates.5. Build Targeted and Relevant EmailsThe end goal of features like auto unsubscribe in Gmail is to challenge email marketers to create better content. Experiment with dynamic content and more engaging subject lines to grow readership. Improving email design can also help with email deliverability – read these easy tips from BEE.

Key Takeaways on Gmail Unsubscribe Options

Instead of losing email subscribers or worrying about how does Gmail unsubscribe button works, email marketers should engage them with more targeted and intriguing email content. While Gmail presents the unsubscribe option in various ways to users, receiving an unsubscribe is one way to improve overall campaign performance.Campaign performance is always top-of-mind for BEE! Check out our easy-to-use email builder and selection of ready-to-use templates that make creating quality emails a breeze.

For this month's spotlight, we're featuring BEE's very own Shivangani "Shiv" Bedi. In our search for an Email Marketing Consultant, Shiv came highly recommended, and immediately, we knew she was the right fit for our team.With 13 years of email marketing experience, Shiv has the important job of communicating with our 350,000 email subscribers across all our solutions and newsletters. Her extensive experience keeps us in check when creating inclusive emails and helps us communicate with our diverse audiences. And, of course, recommends the best tools in the market to get things done efficiently (BEE Pro being one of them, of course).Thank you, Shiv, for being such a great part of our team! Here's a little about her story: 

Can you walk us through your journey as a marketer? 

My passion for email marketing started far back during my college years. During class, we were assigned a task to “build our own websites,” and I fell in love with both the technical and non-technical aspects of this project. The rest is history.My career path has been like a waterfall, moving in one direction, sometimes very steady and other times full of motion.During this 13-year-long journey, I've had the opportunity of working across three different continents - India, The United Kingdom, and Canada. I've been part of many start-ups and multi-billion dollar companies, both in-house and in agency environments. Each role helping me gain more knowledge and experience in digital marketing than the last.My first title was Assistant Manager in a start-up organization. My specialty? Generating leads for Insurance products. To be truthful, it was a very challenging job, but it was during this time I got an opportunity to wear my email marketer hat. A hat that I have never taken off. After that, I worked as a Business Analyst at Tesco HSC India. It was here that I learned all the ins and outs of email marketing operations. This role was heavy on coordination with data, creatives, stakeholders, and content teams to strategize and deploy email campaigns.In pursuit of more, I began working with “Mapp Digital.” This is the largest independent digital marketing technology organization in the world, with corporate offices in the U.S. and The UK, so the stakes were high. For five years, I worked in a fast-paced agency and managed a team of 6. Our goal was to deliver error-free and on-brand campaigns. I was awarded “MappStar” & PS Person of the Year” for two consecutive years.Finally, I began my journey with MRM Mccan group, a global direct and digital marketing agency. I worked with a leading automobile brand and assisted in auditing their programs/build journeys on the Responsys ESP platform. This role allowed me to explore the technical parts of the programs, as I helped identify the right tools and technologies to improve and build the best-in-class automation.And in between all of that, I worked for some big brands in the food industry, such as Skipthedishes and Goodfood. Managing end-to-end email/mobile marketing channels with esp like Braze and Emarsys. As I said, my career path in the last 13 years has been nothing short of fulfilling ;).

What makes you unique within the space? How do you infuse your different identities into your work?

Over the past 13 years, I've worked with so many different ESP platforms that I like to say I am an "ESP agnostic resource."I have also witnessed digital transformation. When I graduated, everything was done manually, now, there are hundreds of tools to help us automate campaigns within a few minutes. I've had to constantly incorporate evolving technologies into the strategies I pitch.Due to this, I like to think I am a well-versed email marketer that can manage the 360 spectrum of email/mobile channels, as well as the technical and non-technical aspects of the job.I have a multitude of identities and experiences that make me unique. This includes my race, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background.Infusing my identity into my work has allowed me to build strong authentic connections with colleagues and clients. As well as bring unique and valuable perspectives to the table.

As someone representative of many different cultures and identities, what are your best email marketing tips for creating inclusive emails?

Creating inclusive marketing campaigns requires a thoughtful and intentional approach. An approach that prioritizes respect for diverse cultures and identities. By keeping these tips in mind, you can create marketing materials that resonate with a wide range of people and promote a more inclusive society.

1. Know your audience

Before creating a marketing campaign, research and understand the demographics of your target audience, including their cultural backgrounds, values, and beliefs. This will help you create messaging that resonates with them and avoids stereotypes or offensive language.

2. Use inclusive language

Avoid language that could be considered offensive or exclusionary to any particular group. Use gender-neutral language where possible, and avoid using slang or regional dialects that may be unfamiliar to some audiences.Read more: 3 Tips for More Diverse and Inclusive Emails 

3. Incorporate diverse imagery

Include images and visuals that represent a diverse range of cultures, races, ages, and abilities. This can help make your marketing materials more relatable and inclusive.

4. Seek feedback

Consider seeking feedback from members of diverse communities to ensure your're writing inclusive emails that are culturally sensitive and appropriate. This can help you avoid unintentionally offending or excluding certain groups.

5. Emphasize shared values

Focus on the values that your product or service can offer to a diverse range of people rather than solely emphasizing one particular cultural or identity group. This can help you appeal to a wider audience while still acknowledging and celebrating diversity.

6. Be authentic

Ensure that your marketing materials accurately represent your brand's values and mission, and avoid cultural appropriation or tokenism. Be honest and transparent in your messaging, and demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion through your actions as well as your words.

In what ways do you think the email marketing space can better support and elevate diverse voices?

1. Prioritize diversity and inclusion in hiring:

The marketing industry should actively seek out and hire individuals from diverse backgrounds, including people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and individuals with disabilities. This will help ensure that diverse perspectives are represented throughout the marketing process. These individuals should be part of the process of developing something as big as your mission statement to something small like sending out inclusive emails.

2. Provide training and education

The marketing industry should invest in training and education programs that help individuals understand and address issues related to diversity and inclusion. This includes providing education on topics like cultural competency, implicit bias, and intersectionality.

3. Foster an inclusive culture

I can’t emphasize how important this point is. Companies should create a culture that values and celebrates diversity and inclusion. This includes promoting open communication, providing opportunities for feedback, and encouraging employees to bring their whole selves to work.

4. Amplify diverse voices in marketing campaigns:

Finally, the marketing industry can help craft inclusive emails by elevating diverse voices. My recommendation is to actively seek out individuals with different backgrounds and experiences and make it a priority to amplify the voices that are so often ignored. This can include working with diverse influencers, featuring diverse individuals in advertisements, and creating content that celebrates diverse cultures and identities.Overall, the marketing industry has a responsibility to prioritize diversity and inclusion and ensure that diverse voices are represented and elevated in all aspects of the marketing process. By taking these actions, we can create a more equitable and inclusive society.

Where do you see email marketing in 5 years?

Email marketing has been around for several decades and has proven to be an effective marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. However, the way that people use and interact with email has changed significantly in recent years. Here are some potential developments that we may see in the next five years:

1. Greater personalization (1-to-1 marketing)

Personalization has become increasingly important in email marketing, and this trend is likely to continue in the years to come. Businesses may use advanced data analytics and machine learning algorithms to tailor their email campaigns to individual customers' interests and behaviors.

2. More automation

Email marketing automation has become more widespread in recent years, and this trend is likely to continue. Automation can help businesses save time and resources by automatically sending personalized emails based on triggers such as customer behavior or purchase history.

3. More interactive emails

Interactive emails that include embedded videos, animations, and other multimedia elements are becoming more common. As email clients and devices become more advanced, we may see even more interactive email experiences that help businesses engage with their audiences in new and exciting ways.

4. Better email accessibility

Email accessibility has become increasingly important, with more businesses working to make their emails accessible to people with disabilities. In the next 5 years, we may see more email clients and marketing platforms provide built-in accessibility features to help businesses reach a wider audience.

5. Continued integration with other marketing channels

Email marketing is just one piece of the larger marketing puzzle, and businesses are likely to continue integrating their email campaigns with other marketing channels, such as social media and content marketing. This can help create a more cohesive and effective marketing strategy.To conclude, email marketing is likely to continue evolving in the years to come, with new technologies and trends shaping the way that businesses engage with their audiences through email. By staying up-to-date with these developments, businesses can continue to leverage email as a powerful marketing tool in the years to come.

Creating effective and engaging emails is essential for any business looking to grow and engage with their audience. However, the email creation process can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially for teams with limited resources.In fact, according to Litmus, it can take teams over 2 weeks to complete a single email. We asked 5 industry professionals across different industries to explore the challenges that teams face when streamlining their email creation process and share tips on how to overcome them. From using email automation and collaborative tools to setting aside time for revisions and defining guidelines and roles, these tips can help you streamline your team's email creation process and achieve your marketing goals.

1. Use Email Automation 

This is the most obvious, yet forgotten, form of streamlining your email creation process. Email automation is the act of creating triggers that starts an email sequence, typically unique to the specific action your audience takes.A common email automation you might be familiar with is the series of emails you receive after making a purchase or leaving something in your cart. These can be categorized as welcome or abandoned cart emails. These series are created in order to inspire you to take action and make a purchase (or come back for another purchase).Paul Somerville, Editor-in-Chief, of Electric Scooter Guide, shares that he even uses email automation to “monitoring of performance indicators like open rates and click-through rates to enhance upcoming email campaigns.”In simpler words, the entire goal of email marketing is to deliver the right message, to the right audience, at the right time – email automation makes that happen, all while freeing up your team to work on other important tasks.Janice Wald, Blogger, at Mostly Blogging, shares with us how his team uses automation.“Our team uses automation for email streamlining. We do all the heavy lifting before starting email campaigns.First, we choose the template and sign-up form. We place the sign-up form in visible spots on our website homepage and in our web content.Next, we select the time we want newly published content to go out, and we operate on autopilot. Our email vendor sends our emails to our list members on the selected day and time after publication.Most email services have this automation feature.This streamlines our email creation process and has for years.”

2. Take Advantage of Collaborative Email Tools

You’ve heard us say this a million times, but finding collaborative tools really is where it's at ;)The most effective email collaboration tools should be user-friendly so that everyone on your team can effortlessly integrate them into their everyday.The collaboration tool should also allow you to establish clear brand guidelines so that every outgoing message is on brand; as well as, allow you to minimize the number of tools you’re using on an everyday basis.Jamie Irwin, Director, at Straight Up Search, shares that “collaborative tools allow multiple team members to work together on specific projects or tasks in real-time. This could include assigning roles, sharing documents and files, and providing feedback.Utilizing such tools can help streamline the communication process and ensure that all team members are up-to-date on the progress of the project.These tools also provide an effective way to track changes in emails and who is working on what so that everyone stays organized and informed without wasting time searching for information or trying to keep track of who said what and when.Collaborative tools reduce manual labor in email creation by automating certain processes, such as adding signatures or inserting predefined templates into emails.”Read more: 7 Tips For Collaborating on Email Campaigns With A Remote Team.

3. Set Aside Time for Revisions

An underrated tip is creating time with your team to review email content together.Dakota McDaniels, Chief Product Officer, Pluto shares that “whether you're writing from scratch, using email templates, or designing from modules, you will more than likely have to make some revisions, even if only minor ones.Be sure to schedule time dedicated to this so they don't put your team behind schedule.Depending on the nature of the necessary revisions, this could require a substantial amount of time and effort. You'll want to ensure that you set aside an adequate amount of time to perfect your messaging.”We recommend making sure that your collaboration tool is one that makes the revision process as streamlined as possible. For instance, BEE Pro Enterprisehelps get the job done faster by allowing you and your team to leave design-specific comments and design simultaneously.

4. Clearly Define Guidelines and Email Templates

Paul Somerville, Editor-in-Chief, of Electric Scooter Guide, states that “setting up strict guidelines and templates for email content and style is one way to streamline the email creation process within a team.This process helps reduce the need to start from scratch with each email. As well as, helps ensure consistency in messaging and branding while also saving time.Standard components, including the welcome, introduction, body, call to action, and signature, should be included in the standards and templates. Avoiding superfluous jargon or lengthy sentences, the language should be simple and direct.”We couldn’t have said it better than this.Read: Why Every Team Needs An Email Design System. 

5. Assign Clear and Specific Roles and Responsibilities

This is a great tip shared by Joe Flanagan, Founder of 90s Fashion World. He states to “clearly define roles and responsibilities for each team member involved in the email creation process. This is important so that everyone knows what they handle, their expected outcomes, and when their work is due.”He continues, “there should also be clear communication channels that facilitate effective collaboration and communication across the entire team. This helps ensure that everyone is aligned on the goals of the email campaign and that the final product meets the needs of the business.”Take it one step further and follow the advice of James Nathan, Founder of Market Jar, “assign one point person who should be informed of all communication pertinent to that specific project or job is helpful, especially when several people are working on it.”

Streamline Your Email Creation Process With BEE Pro

82% of BEE Pro users see improved speed when creating emails. As a fully remote team, collaboration and streamlining your team's process is what we're good at. After all, it's why we exist.

We know there are more important tasks at hand. That's why it is our goal to make everything from copy to design, to reviewing and exporting effortless. Our new and improved "Review for Approval" workflow allows BEE Pro Enterprise teams to streamline your email creation and collaboration all inside our tool. The flow automatically begins when you send a request for approval and guides your team toward an on-brand and approved design.

Say goodbye to stress because your team's email creation process just got a whole lot faster. Give BEE Pro a try for free.