Getting more out of your email marketing: best practices
A few habits that make your emails worth opening, keep contacts subscribed, and save you from rebuilding the same thing every month.
Pick the right kind of email
Under Marketing you'll find 3 ways to send email, and each answers a different question:
- Campaigns go out once, at a moment you pick: a newsletter, a launch, a seasonal offer.
- Recurring emails go out on a schedule and check who qualifies every time: birthdays, contacts who haven't visited in a while.
- Automated emails react to something a contact does, the moment it happens: a sign-up, a tier reached.
If you find yourself sending the same campaign every month, set it up as a recurring email instead. See Campaigns: sending a one-off email, and every option, Recurring emails: setting one up, and every option and Automated emails: setting one up for any trigger.
Send to the contacts it's meant for
A message that fits the reader gets opened. Instead of mailing everyone, build a contact list from the data you already have, such as tier, last visit or a custom attribute, and pick it on the Recipients step: choose Narrow down, then Contact lists. A dynamic list keeps itself up to date, so you can reuse it for every send. See Creating a contact list.
Whatever you pick, only contacts subscribed to the campaign's Subscription type receive it. A contact on your list who isn't subscribed is skipped.
Personalise with tags
In the email editor, the Tags panel on the left holds your contact data. Add a tag to the text and every contact sees their own value, such as their name. See How to use tags and personalise your communications.
Plan ahead and schedule
Don't wait for big moments. A steady rhythm of smaller, well-targeted emails keeps you top of mind and shows you over time what your contacts respond to.
You can prepare several campaigns in one go: on the Sending time step, choose Schedule and pick the date instead of Send immediately.
Reuse what works
Once you have a design you like, don't start from scratch again:
- Save it as a template. Open the Template panel on the left of the editor and save the design. New campaigns and automated emails can start from it. See How to create email templates.
- Save a part of it as a block. For a header, footer or layout you use in every email, select the section and click Save as block on its bar. To keep several sections together, select the first and Shift-click the last before you save. The block is then under Saved in the editor's Content tab, ready to drag into any email. See How to create an email.
- Duplicate a campaign. Open the campaign, click Actions and choose Duplicate, then swap the content.
Give contacts a reason to act
A campaign can hand out a reward to every recipient, such as a voucher or points. You set it up in the Actions panel of the editor. See Adding a voucher, gift card, points or a wallet pass to an email.
An automation can't start when someone opens or clicks an email. If you want something to happen for the people who receive a campaign, attach it to the campaign itself.
Measure what happens after the click
On the campaign's Information step, switch on Add Google Analytics tags to links. Every link in your email is then tagged, by default with the campaign's own name, so Google Analytics can show you the visits and sales that came from it. See Seeing the website visits and sales from an email in Google Analytics. Once the campaign is sent, its page shows the opens and clicks.
Grow the list you're sending to
Every form has its own link and QR code. Open the form under CRM → Forms, click Share form and copy the link or click Download QR code. Put the QR code in your store, on flyers and on packaging, and share the link on social media. See How to market your program to get more sign-ups? and Forms: best practices.
Keep contacts subscribed and out of spam
Every marketing email needs an unsubscribe link or a link to the subscription preferences page, and you can't send it without one. Give contacts the preferences page so they can choose what they get rather than leave altogether. See Editing the subscription preferences page your contacts see and How to avoid making spam emails.