Complete Guide to Email Best Practices - MCH Data

Email Best Practices

Email, if used correctly, is one of the most successful marketing channels that exist today.  In fact, according to Campaign Monitor, email marketing can generate a return on investment of 4400%.  Marketers who take the time to follow email best practices can use this channel to generate sales, interest in products or services, and even retain valuable customers.   Below are some best practices that MCH has compiled:

Email Best Practice 1:  Get to Know Your Audience

Email is a one-to-one channel.  This means, recipients of an email campaign expect the content to be relevant, personalized, and tailored to their specific needs.  This requires a deep understanding of your audience personas.  Developing personas for your target audiences allows you to view them as more than just a demographic group.  You’ll consider their interests, hobbies, and preferences to help shape the messaging.   Ask yourself and try to address the following questions in as granular detail as possible:

• How and when do they prefer to be communicated to?
• What types of actions or activities differentiate your audience from the general population?
• What products have they purchased from you in the past?
• What types of content have they requested or downloaded from your website?

You’re unlikely to address these questions completely the first time around, but the beauty of email marketing is that, over time, you will get to know critical insights. These insights will help you segment, message, and determine the frequency of your email campaigns.  

Email Best Practice 2:  Don’t be Afraid to Experiment

Testing is an email best practice that is often overlooked.  Testing allows marketers to capture definitive data on what works and what doesn’t work.  Over time, if you capitalize on what works, you’ll be able to create better engagement rates and elevate your brand experience for your recipients.  It’s important to A/B test every part of your email, from subject lines to your calls to action. Some tips to keep in mind during your tests: 

• Only test one element at a time (otherwise your results will be inconclusive)
• Make sure you have a significant sample size in your testing
• Once you find a winning element, move onto the next test

Email Best Practice 3:  Design for Mobile

 The majority of emails are opened on a mobile device.  It’s important to use a mobile responsive design which means the email adapts to the size of the screen in which it is being displayed.  Emails that display incorrectly on a mobile device may be deleted within three seconds! 

Email Best Practice 4:  Understand Spam Triggers

Inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook look at engagement rates and previous interaction with your past campaigns to determine whether your latest campaign makes it into the inbox.  Positive engagements include:

• Opens
• Replies
• Moving an email to a folder
• Adding to an address book

Having a good understanding of spam triggers will help you create campaigns that drive better engagement and get delivered. 

 Email Best Practice 5:  Use a Reputable Email Service Provider

It’s an email best practice to use a reputable email service provider or ESP to deploy emails.  MCH’s Email Deployment Services team uses state-of-the-art technology to deploy emails.  Our in-house specialists will assess your list and creative prior to processing and deployment. The detailed assessment includes identifying any elements that are at risk of being blocked and recommending how to avoid or fix.

Email Best Practice 6:  Use a Clean Email List

It’s important to ensure that the emails you are deploying are valid email addresses.  From a B2B perspective, lists decay at a rate of 2% per month or 24% per year.  MCH’s compilation process includes email permission-passing and verification, giving our clients the most accurate email addresses on the market.  More verified emails lead to better engagement rates, and ultimately better return on investment. 

For more information on email best practices, download MCH’s Email Best Practices Guide   To learn more about MCH’s email deployment services, contact an MCH Relationship Manager.