Top 11 Email Marketing Tips for Your Small Business Success

Email marketing is a constantly changing field. Whether you’re completely new to it, or you already have solid experience, you can always leverage the best email marketing tips to improve your campaigns’ results.

In this blog post, we’ll focus on the top email marketing tips and tricks for small businesses.

What Are the Best Tips for Email Marketing Success?

Let’s explore the top email marketing tips that have proven successful in increasing open rates, click-through rates, and eventually conversions as well.

1. Create Catchy Subject Line and Preview Text

When it comes to email marketing, your first goal should be to have your email opened by the recipients. If they skip opening it, there’s literally no chance of converting them via this email – no matter how beautifully designed or well-written it is.

Since the first thing recipients see in their inboxes about your email is its subject line, and eventually the preview text, the best advice for how to increase open rates is to create catchy subject lines and preview text. Easier said than done, right? That’s why we’re here to guide you through the whole process.

To create a subject line that will make users open your email, you must first spark curiosity among your readers. Your subject line should be clickable, but not spammy. It should make your recipients want to learn more about what’s inside, but at the same time it shouldn’t mislead them as to what to expect. The subject line should address the pain points of your target audience and state the benefit for them. In this way, you will build trust and credibility among your readers.

Next, make sure to create a sense of urgency, especially for promotional and sales emails, to encourage readers to act immediately. Use words and phrases such as “last chance,” and “only a few hours left,” but avoid spam filter triggers like “free,” “urgent,” “cash,” etc. Plus, it’s also advisable to  avoid using all caps for your entire subject line.

Regarding the word choice for your subject line, use actionable, catchy phrases and verbs. It’s also often beneficial to personalize it by including the recipient’s first name, as this makes your message feel instantly more relevant. Overall, aim to produce subject lines that are unique, compelling, valuable, and straight to the point.

Last but not least, make sure your subject line is short and concise. Keep it under 50 characters for visibility on most devices and email platforms.

Next is the preview text, also known as preheader text, which appears alongside your subject line in the inbox, offering a sneak peek at your email’s content. It’s basically your last chance to make a convincing argument that your email should be opened. 

Use the preview text to provide a bit more detail about what readers can expect inside your email. While this text can be up to 90 characters, the ideal length is between 35 and 40 characters to ensure it displays fully across most devices.

2. Craft Compelling Copy

One of the most important email marketing tips is to thoughtfully craft your email content. After all, it’s the content that captures your readers’ attention and keeps them engaged with your message.

Let’s explore the best email marketing content tips:

Whether you’re writing an informational, educational, or promotional email, rule #1 is to ensure your content is relevant to your audience. Your content should address your subscribers’ needs and pain points, offering them value that motivates them to take action – whether it’s making a purchase or subscribing to your newsletter. Having a strong value proposition will get you one step closer to increasing your conversion rates.

In terms of word choice and writing tips, make sure that your email content is clear, concise, and scannable. To achieve that, include short paragraphs, and use headings and bullet points. It is also important not to overstuff your email content with unnecessary words, but rather get straight to the point, as today’s readers are usually in a hurry and quickly scan through emails.

For example, here’s an email from YouTube Studio. See how scannable it is? That’s because of the bigger, bold font title, followed by a catchy image, and a short paragraph. Then, it naturally flows to the blue CTA button, which stands out well against the white background. What’s more, the content is broken down into bullet points that are easy to scan because of the small icons at the beginning of each row.

To help you better understand and implement these tips in your next email campaign, we have a guide on how to write marketing emails, including specific examples and best strategies.

Another way to boost your email success is to use AI, which can help you immensely in your content creation. We know that writing can feel tedious, but it can also often feel intimidating to use AI and to figure out how to achieve the best results. Indeed, you need to know how to feed it the right prompts, and that’s an art of itself. That’s why we’ve compiled an extensive guide on how to write email prompts.

3. Have Clear CTAs

Looking for even more successful email marketing tips? We’ve got you covered. Your next crucial step is having clear calls to action. Here’s how to achieve that:

Since the main purpose of a CTA is to drive readers to take a specific action, your first goal should be to define what you want them to do. Do you want your readers to make a purchase, sign up for your newsletter, download an eBook, or visit a sales landing page of your new product or service?

Equally important is the design and wording of your CTA buttons, as both play a vital role in driving user action. Make sure to include short and actionable words on your CTA buttons, preferably verbs. Use phrases like “Buy now,” “Read more,” or “Get started.” 

The visual design of your buttons is essential – they need to stand out and grab attention. Use contrasting colors that differentiate them from your email’s background, and opt for bold, clear fonts to ensure they are easily visible and clickable.

Last but not least, instead of a button, you can also use an image as a CTA. In this case, one of the most notable email marketing hacks is to include an alt text for that image. Since some email providers might not display your image, your alt text will “show” people what the image was all about. Make your alt text short, yet descriptive and actionable – just as you would with regular CTA button copy.

4. Design Beautiful Visual Appearance

No matter how closely you follow the best email marketing techniques, if your email doesn’t have an appealing design, chances are that your click through rate and conversion rate will drop. But what does it mean to have an appealing email and most importantly, how to create one?

If you’re just starting with email marketing, one of the best email marketing tips you can get is to consider using an email marketing platform. It will not only make your life much easier, but it will also help your email campaigns become measurable, optimizable and ultimately more successful.

Most email marketing platforms will provide you with ready-to-use templates or easily customizable layouts. With SiteGround Email Marketing, you can create stunning emails fast with our free email templates, which leverage expert best practices. We have a template for every need – promotional, newsletter, welcome emails, or seasonal (such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday).

You can also lean on layouts for building your email campaigns. Layouts allow you to play around with the different elements of your email and customize them based on your own preferences and brand criteria. To help you create engaging email campaigns, we’ve also compiled a list of email layout examples.

5. Insert Appealing Images

Whether you’re using an email template or email layout, you must spice it up with appealing images. This is one of the best email marketing tips, as most people interact with your emails primarily through visuals. You need to grab their attention with the images in your email campaign.

They should be relevant to your content and value proposition. But they should also correspond with your brand guidelines, so that readers can guess right away that the email is coming from your brand (even if they don’t notice your logo right away!).

Appealing images are hard to find, though.

You either need to use free stock images, invest in paid images, or even hire a professional photographer. 

Another way to deal with images is using SiteGround’s Email Marketing platform, which offers a free built-in AI image gallery, and provides you with a wide range of photographs and illustrations in a variety of categories.

Just like with the CTA images, the rest of your images should also include alt text in order for readers to read what they are about in the event that the images are not visible via their email clients. 

You should also make sure to have your images linked to whatever page you want your readers to visit – sales page, downloadable assets page, or otherwise. If you decide to include a button on the image, ensure that the whole image is a link, not just the button, as users tend to put more attention on images rather than texts.

6. Incorporate Social Sharing Buttons

We understand: including social sharing buttons in your emails is not the most popular tip. Indeed, it often gets overlooked. But it literally takes no effort, so why shouldn’t you try? 

In order for this to work, you have to create an email that’s interesting enough to be shared. Ideally, you should also provide your readers with some incentive as to why they should share your email. Allow them to enter a contest when they hit the share button, or give them a discount code for passing your content along. Once they share your email, this will lead to two main benefits for your business:

• Reaching a broader audience

When one of your readers shares your email on social media, it’s exposed to a much wider audience – reaching people who may not yet be part of your community but will get to know your brand. It’s a great way to attract new subscribers or followers.

• Building your brand credibility

When your users share your email, it also acts as a recommendation. Their friends, acquaintances, and followers will not only learn about your brand or business, but they will also know that they can trust your brand, as it’s already endorsed by someone in their network.

7. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness

Mobile responsiveness is no longer an email marketing secret, but rather a must-have. To maximize engagement and avoid losing potential customers, it’s crucial that your emails are mobile-friendly. Here are some strategies to verify your emails are optimized for mobile devices:

• Use responsive email templates

Start with a responsive email template that automatically adjusts to different screen sizes. Many email marketing platforms offer pre-designed templates that are mobile-ready, saving you time and ensuring consistency across devices.

• Optimize image sizes

Large images can slow down load times, particularly on mobile devices without fast internet connections. Compress images without losing quality and use formats like JPEG or PNG. Additionally, consider using CSS for background images to further enhance load speed.

• Design clickable CTA buttons

Make sure your call-to-action buttons are easily clickable on small screens. Use a minimum size of 44×44 pixels for touch-friendly buttons, and ensure they are visually distinct with ample spacing between other elements to prevent accidental clicks.

• Ensure adequate sizing of links and text

Text links should be large enough to tap easily. Avoid placing links too close together, and use a font size of at least 14 pixels for body text to maintain readability without zooming.

• Prioritize conversions

Place the most important content and CTAs at the top of your email. This ensures that even if recipients don’t scroll, they will see the key message and action you want them to take.

Before sending out your email, test it on various devices and email clients to ensure it displays correctly. 

By implementing these email marketing tips for mobile, you can enhance the mobile responsiveness of your emails, leading to higher engagement rates and improved customer interactions.

8. Apply Smart Segmentation and Personalization

One of the best tips for effective email marketing is to apply segmentation and personalization in your email campaigns.

Segmentation allows you to divide your email list into smaller, more targeted groups based on specific criteria such as demographics, behavior, purchase history, or engagement levels. By tailoring content to these segments, you can deliver messages that are more relevant and valuable to each recipient.

When customers receive content that feels personal, they are more likely to feel valued and understood. This fosters a stronger connection with your brand, leading to increased loyalty and long-term customer relationships, as well as higher conversions.

Here’s how to implement smart segmentation and personalization:

1. First, gather data from various touchpoints, such as website interactions, past purchases, email engagement, and customer feedback. Use this data to understand your audience better and identify meaningful segments.

2. Next, based on your analysis, create segments that align with your marketing goals. Common segmentation criteria include age, location, purchase history, engagement level, and interests.

3. Third, use dynamic content and merge tags to personalize emails. This can include addressing recipients by their first name, recommending products based on past purchases, or sending birthday offers. Personalization should extend beyond just the subject line to the body of the email and CTAs.

Apply these segmentation email marketing tips in your next campaign and you’ll create more meaningful interactions with your audience. This will lead to higher engagement, stronger customer relationships, and ultimately, better business results. The key is to treat your subscribers as individuals, not just email addresses.

9. Utilize Automations

Your next step in the field of email marketing best practices is automations. By leveraging email automations, you can streamline your marketing efforts, deliver personalized experiences, and achieve better results with less manual effort. Automations not only save time but also ensure that every subscriber receives the right message at the right time, enhancing their journey with your brand.

Here’s how to implement email automation:

• Identify key opportunities

Start by identifying opportunities within your customer journey where automation can add value. This could include welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, birthday offers, or re-engagement campaigns.

• Choose the right tools

Select an email marketing platform that supports automation features. Check out SiteGround Email Marketing, as it offers not only automated welcome emails, but also automations that allow you to create a sequence of emails based on specific triggers.

• Define your workflows

Map out the customer journey and design workflows that align with your marketing goals. Determine the triggers (such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase) and the corresponding email sequence.

• Create personalized content

Develop email templates and content that are tailored to each stage of the workflow. Personalize messages using dynamic content and segmentation to ensure relevance.

10. Analyze Statistics

Tracking and analyzing your email marketing metrics and KPIs is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of your campaigns and making data-driven decisions. Without tracking, you can’t accurately measure the success of your email campaigns. 

Understanding how your emails perform helps you gauge whether you’re meeting your marketing goals. Analyzing data over time also allows you to spot trends and patterns in your audience’s behavior, helping you tailor future campaigns to their preferences and habits. By pinpointing what works and what doesn’t, you can make informed adjustments to your email content, design, and strategy to improve engagement and conversion rates.

• How to track and analyze email marketing statistics

1. Before diving into analytics, establish clear objectives for your email campaigns. Whether it’s increasing open rates, boosting click-through rates, or driving conversions, having defined goals will guide your analysis.

2. Next, leverage the analytics features of your email marketing platform to track these metrics. SiteGround Email Marketing, for example, offers detailed reports and insights into your email performance.

3. Make sure to also analyze metrics across different audience segments to identify which groups respond best to your campaigns. Compare performance across various campaigns to determine what strategies are most effective.
4. Last, but not least, regularly review your email statistics and use the insights gained to adjust your strategies. This iterative process ensures continuous improvement and alignment with your marketing goals. By regularly reviewing key metrics, you can identify areas for improvement, optimize your strategies, and ultimately achieve better results.

11. Perform A/B Testing

Another of our email marketing recommendations is to perform A/B testing to optimize your email campaigns. A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a powerful technique that allows you to compare two versions of an email to determine which one performs better.

Here’s how you can implement A/B testing effectively:

• Start by identifying what you want to achieve with your A/B test. Are you looking to improve open rates, increase click-through rates, or boost conversions? Having a clear goal will guide your testing strategy. 

• Then, select one element to test at a time to ensure clear results. Some common variables include: subject lines, email content, calls to action, and send times.

• As a next step, divide your email list into two random, equal-sized groups. Send version A to one group and version B to the other. Ensure the sample size is large enough to yield statistically significant results.

• Send out your emails and allow enough time to gather data. The duration of the test will depend on your email frequency and list size, but typically a few hours or a day is sufficient.

• When you get the results, compare the performance of the two versions based on your chosen metric (including open rate, click-through rate, etc.). Use statistical significance to determine if the results are due to chance. Once you’ve identified the better-performing version, roll it out to your entire audience. Use the insights gained to inform future campaigns and continue testing new variables.

However, remember that A/B testing is an ongoing process. Continuously test new ideas and refine your approach to keep improving your email marketing strategy.

Implement These Email Marketing Tips in Your Next Campaign

With these email marketing tips and tricks in hand, you’re all set to master your email campaigns. Start implementing these in your next campaign and see the results for yourself.

Let us know in the comments below how your email marketing efforts go, and which of these tips was new and most useful for you.