You may have seen several articles claiming that newsletters and email marketing are making a comeback.
At knok-studios.com, we don’t quite agree.
These strategies never really disappeared; they’ve just been a bit less fashionable than social networks for a while, that’s all.
At our agency, we’ve always emphasized to our clients the importance of building a solid email marketing strategy, and we offer practical solutions when they choose this path. While our agency is based in Southeast Asia, with our head office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the recommendations we’ll share in this article are relevant worldwide.
Why You Should Have an Email Marketing Strategy
It Converts
“Nobody opens promotional emails anyway.” This is something we often hear from our clients, but it’s simply not true.
Here are some data points that back up what we’ve personally observed with our agency’s customers:
- The average open rate is between 30% and 40% (which is far from “nobody!”).
- CTR (clicks on the Call to Action included in the email), among those who received the email—even those who didn’t open it—ranges between 3% and 5%. It may seem small, but don’t be mistaken: a click on a Call to Action often leads to a direct sale or a highly qualified lead!
It’s Scalable
Email service providers often have pricing tiers, so while the overall cost may increase as you send more emails, the cost per email decreases. This makes email marketing highly scalable and cost-effective for businesses looking to grow.
You Own / Control Your Audience
This is a key distinction from social media. With email, you control how your message reaches your audience—you aren’t relying on an algorithm that could change at any time.
While email lacks the virality and organic reach of social media, we found that among our clients, only a few were truly able to consistently reach their customer base organically through social media without a paid ads budget.
Case Study: ORCA Retail
“This sounds complicated.” “It’s a long-term project; we’ll do it when we have more time and budget.”
These are common responses we hear from our customers when we bring up the idea of implementing an email strategy. But that’s not the reality. Simple actions that deliver high ROI can be achieved with email for most businesses.
Take ORCA Retail, for example, a company that sells boat repair fabrics online. We implemented two straightforward, well-designed email sequences into their sales process:
- One targeted customers who abandoned a full online cart.
- The other re-engaged customers who had already made a purchase, offering them complementary items.
The result? These two email sequences are now responsible for generating 25% of the company’s online revenue! Yes, you read that right—just two email sequences led to a 25% increase in sales.
Do you need and expert ? Feel free to contact us whether you have an ongoing email marketing campaign that needs improvement or if you’re looking to implement a brand new one.
Now that we’ve covered why you need an email marketing strategy and how effective it can be, let’s move on to the practical side.
Here’s what our agency recommends for anyone looking to start or improve their email campaigns.
DO’s: Recommended Email Marketing Practices
1. Personalize and Segment Your Content
One size doesn’t fit all in email marketing. Customers respond better to content that feels relevant to them, so be sure to segment your audience based on behavior, purchase history, or demographics.
But let’s be clear: we’re not just talking about adding your recipient’s name to the header or first line of the email.
In fact, interesting data from GetResponse shows that this type of personalization can actually hurt businesses. According to their findings, the open rate of non-personalized subject lines is higher than those with personalized subject lines (41.87% vs. 35.78%). This difference was also reflected in the click-through rate (CTR).
So, when we talk about personalization and segmentation, we recommend sending different types of emails with tailored messages based on the data you have about your customers. You wouldn’t address someone who has never purchased from you the same way you would a repeat customer, right?
2. Optimize for Mobile
Here’s one simple statistic: approximately half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. If your emails aren’t optimized for smaller screens, you risk losing a significant portion of your audience.
This is an area where we often see our customers making mistakes. Optimizing for mobile isn’t just about ensuring your content displays correctly.
When optimizing your email for mobile, be sure to include these steps:
- Keep your text concise and to the point, as mobile users tend to have shorter attention spans.
- Ensure your CTAs are easily accessible and tappable on mobile.
- Make sure the landing pages linked to your CTAs are also well-optimized for mobile!
3. Nail the Subject Line and Use Both Preheaders and BIMI
Your subject line is the gatekeeper to your email. It needs to be clear, compelling, and honest. We emphasize honesty because if you trick someone into opening your email without delivering on its promise, your chances of them clicking on your CTA will likely drop to zero.
Now, here are two additional elements you may not be paying attention to:
- The Preheader: This is the text to the right of the subject line that gives a brief preview of the email. It doesn’t always have to be the first text in your email—you can customize it for better results. According to a 2023 survey by GetResponse, those who use preheaders see higher average open rates (44.67% vs. 39.28%) and click-through rates (4.54% vs. 3.67%).
- BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification): Simply put, this is the logo placed next to the email sender’s name. It allows trusted senders to control how their brand is represented in messaging services. More and more mailbox providers, like Yahoo and Gmail, have adopted this standard, and the setup process isn’t too complicated. If you haven’t looked into it yet, you should.
4. Include a Clear CTA (Call to Action)
Don’t make your readers guess what you want them to do. Every email should have a specific goal, and your CTA should clearly guide them toward that goal—whether it’s making a purchase, reading a blog post, or signing up for an event. Keep it visible and direct!
You may have noticed that we used ‘goal’ in the singular. There’s a good reason for that! Avoid adding multiple CTAs to your email (1 or 2 at most).
Equally important: ensure your email leads your customer to well-optimized landing pages that can convert those visits. Don’t just direct them to your website homepage and hope they’ll find their way from there.
We like to remind our clients that the only true metric that matters in any marketing campaign is how much revenue it generates. Data like open rates and CTAs are just tools to identify potential improvements or issues in the sales funnel—they are not the end goal!
5. Collect Data and A/B Test
This article is built around best practices that apply to most businesses. That doesn’t mean we believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. Your audience is unique, and it’s crucial that you understand what works best for them.
In addition to collecting data, the only way to truly figure that out is through A/B testing. The great thing about email marketing is that most providers offer plenty of tools for this. Experiment with different subject lines, CTA placements, and images, and even send times to discover what resonates most with your readers.
6. Offer Value!
If we had to choose only one recommendation from this article, it would be this:
Every email you send should provide value to the recipient—whether it’s a special offer, useful content, or exclusive access to something your audience cares about.
It’s not just about giving your customers a reason to open your next email; it’s about driving conversions, which is what truly matters. People will only click on your CTA if they know there’s something valuable in it for them. Your email should demonstrate your ability to offer that value.
DON’Ts: When You Should Not Click the Send Button!
We could have titled this section “We warned you!”
1. Buy an Email List and Send Emails to People Who Haven’t Asked for Anything
Sending emails to people who haven’t signed up to receive them is not only ineffective (what click-through rate can you expect, assuming your email doesn’t end up in the spam folder?), but it can also harm your business.
- First, a gentle reminder: doing this violates both U.S. law (the CAN-SPAM Act) and European law (GDPR).
- Additionally, your email server could end up blacklisted. Email service providers (ESPs) use systems to detect and block spam, and repeated spamming can result in your email or IP address being blacklisted, preventing any of your messages from reaching recipients.
Always ensure that your list consists of people who have opted in and genuinely want to hear from you.
2. Overuse Images
Here’s a quick reminder: while images may look great when designing your email campaign, not all email clients display them properly. Often, recipients will first be prompted to confirm if they want to view your images.
To ensure everyone can engage with your content, keep your design simple and always use text-based elements for key points and CTAs.
3. Spam Your Audience
Frequency matters. Sending too many emails can overwhelm your subscribers and lead to higher unsubscribe rates. The GetResponse survey mentioned earlier recommends sticking to 1 or 2 emails per week for optimal open rates and CTR.
4. Neglect an Unsubscribe Option
Lastly, always provide an easy way for people to unsubscribe. It’s not just good practice—it’s the law in many places. Plus, if people no longer want to receive your emails, forcing them to stay on your list won’t benefit you in the long run.
5. Don’t Overlook Your DMARC/DKIM Settings
This could seriously impact your email deliverability! Recently, Yahoo and Google have tightened their email security by enforcing stricter DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) requirements.
To prevent your emails from being marked as spam or rejected, ensure your domain’s DMARC/DKIM configurations are up-to-date and comply with their latest security standards
6. Making your email look like a spam
You may have good intentions, but certain practices can make your email look like spam:
- Using images that contain text.
- Not optimizing your images or email size, making it too large (many phishing emails contain heavy attachments).
- Including typical spam-related keywords (e.g., ‘Viagra,’ ‘Casino,’ etc.).
Recommended platform to get started
If you need help getting started, we recommend two platforms we’ve successfully used with our clients:
- Mailchimp
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Of course, there are many other options depending on your specific needs. Feel free to contact us whether you have an ongoing email marketing campaign that needs improvement or if you’re looking to implement a brand new one.
At Knok-Studios, we take a comprehensive approach to understanding our customers’ needs. We can assist not only with your newsletter content but also with your entire conversion funnel (landing pages, websites, etc.)