January’s webinar by Destination Uplift covered email marketing best practices to help you develop an effective program in 2025. We learned why email is important, how to choose the right platform, and strategies for list management, segmentation, and automation. Additionally, the webinar covered tips for creating engaging content, designing effective templates, optimizing landing pages, and maximizing overall engagement.
Why is Email Marketing Important?
Email marketing is incredibly effective because consumers are highly engaged with their personal email addresses, with 99% checking their inbox daily. On average, people check their email 20 times a day across home, work, and mobile devices, and over 85% of adults in the U.S. read or send emails daily, compared to just 61% using social media. With 90% of emails reaching their intended inbox, email marketing offers a direct and reliable way to connect with consumers, far outperforming organic social media posts, which only 2% of your Facebook followers see.
Choosing a platform and considerations
- Cost: How much will the platform cost? Some offer free options, so make sure it fits your budget.
- Customer Support: Does the platform provide customer support if you need assistance?
- Analytics and Tracking: Does it offer data tracking to help you understand your audience’s behavior, like what they’re clicking on?
- Automation: Does it support email automation (triggered emails)? This feature is crucial for efficiency and engagement.
- Integration: Is it compatible with other tools you already use in your business?
- Templates: Does it provide easy-to-use templates to help you create professional-looking emails without hassle?
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Your Email List: A Valuable Asset
Your email list is one of your most important assets—it’s something you own, unlike followers on social media platforms that may come and go. Emails are a lasting resource, so it’s crucial to make the most of your database and not just collect emails without purpose.
Cleaning and Maintaining Your List
When was the last time you sent an email to your list? If it’s been a while, it’s time to clean it up! Remove inactive contacts who haven’t opened an email in the last six months, but don’t delete them entirely. You can still target them through other channels like Meta ads. Try re-engaging inactive subscribers with a message like, “Hey, we’ve missed you! Want to opt back in?”
By cleaning your list, you’ll benefit from:
- Increased engagement
- Improved email deliverability
- Higher ROI
- More valuable data insights
- Better compliance with industry standards
Do You Have a Privacy Policy?
An email privacy policy is essential for explaining how your business handles the personal data of customers, clients, or employees. It’s not only important for building trust but also required by data privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). To create a privacy policy for your business, you can use Termly.io, which offers a free tool to help you draft a compliant and comprehensive policy.
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Grow Your Email List Effectively
To grow your email list, start by creating a simple, clean sign-up form that only asks for essential information: email address, first and last name, and zip code. Position your form prominently above the fold on your website and use clear call-to-action buttons whenever possible.
Maximize Engagement
Make signing up easy by adding buttons to your blog posts or checkout pages that encourage users to join your newsletter. Use tools like SurveyMonkey to ask subscribers what content they want to receive, and consider using pop-up forms—on average, pop-ups have an 11% conversion rate, with the best reaching up to 42.5%. Trigger pop-ups after a user visits a second page or spends 30 seconds on your site.
Incentivize Sign-ups
Offer an incentive, like discounts or free content, to encourage sign-ups. Promote your newsletter through social media, leverage QR codes, and don’t forget to engage with customers face-to-face, mentioning your newsletter when the opportunity arises. Finally, consider investing in paid ads, such as on Meta, to grow your list further. Avoid contests, as they tend to attract people who aren’t genuinely interested in your content.
Segmentation: Targeted and Personalized Messaging
Segmenting your email list allows you to send more personalized and relevant messages to different groups within your audience. Break your list into specific segments based on factors like interests, behaviors, or demographics, and include these options directly on your sign-up form to gather more targeted data. This approach is especially beneficial for businesses with multiple initiatives, as it lets you tailor your messaging to each segment, ensuring your emails resonate with each unique audience.
Leverage Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences for Effective Ads
Maximize your ad targeting by matching your email database to Meta and creating lookalike audiences. Start by preparing your email customer list, downloading the file template, and uploading the information into Meta’s system.
To ensure you’re not wasting ad dollars, exclude people who are already opted into your email list, and use that data to build a lookalike audience that mirrors your best customers. You can also target audiences who have engaged with your website, Instagram, or Facebook page to increase relevance and drive more conversions.
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Automation: Streamlining the Customer Journey
Create an automated onboarding process for new subscribers to keep them engaged from the moment they sign up. Don’t leave them wondering what’s next—set up a welcome email to be sent immediately after sign-up. Follow up with additional emails like a social media feature 3 days later, using content you’ve already created, and then a conversion-focused email with deals or discounts one week later. This sequence helps build a connection, encourages engagement, and drives conversions.
Creating an Effective E-Newsletter
Keep your e-newsletter simple and focused—limit it to 1-5 items. Less is truly more when it comes to email content. Use a single-column, full-width layout and make your content visually engaging with relevant images. Ensure you’re sending subscribers to valuable content, like your website, and always make sure your email is mobile-friendly. Before sending, test your newsletter thoroughly to check for any issues. Remember, about 80% of your subscribers may not be following you on social media, so include touchpoints to connect them to your platforms—show the content, not just the logos.
Best Practices for Engagement
Speak to your audience’s interests, not just your own, and set a regular schedule for sending newsletters. Use Google Analytics to identify what’s performing well on your website and incorporate that into your emails. Make sure your landing pages load in under 3 seconds using the Google Page Speed Test, and check mobile-friendliness on Bing. Track your links with UTM codes, which append a snippet of text to a URL to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts.
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Helpful Tips for Boosting Email Engagement
Resend to Unopened Emails:
Wait 3 days, then resend your campaign to those who didn’t open it the first time. Resending can increase open rates by up to 30%, though keep in mind that the open rate for resends is typically lower than the original.
Leverage Emojis:
Including emojis in your subject lines can increase open rates by 56% and click-through rates by 96%. Use Emojipedia to find the perfect emojis for your messages.
Stay Organized:
Create a plan and stick to a consistent schedule. Aim for one meaningful email per month—sending too many can lead to declining open rates.
Benchmarks and Best Practices
The average open rate for email marketing is around 21.9%, while the typical click-through rate is 2.5%. For optimal engagement, send emails on Tuesday or Thursday at 10am or 3pm, as these times tend to yield the best results.
Want to Learn More?
Want more marketing tips for 2025? Create a free account at Destination Uplift using promo code PARTNER2025 and subscribe to the e-newsletter for updates on upcoming webinars and helpful tips. Click HERE for more info!
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Source: Destination Uplift
