25 Ultimate Email Marketing Hacks to Give You An “Unfair” Advantage
Starting with Email Marketing? Use these email marketing hacks to clarify your objectives, and create your strategy.
Email Marketing is almost a fifty-year-old tool.
Yet, instead of losing its relevance, it is growing every day. Email Marketing is projected to generate over $9 billion in revenue this year. And that number is projected to almost double by 2027.
If you’re yet to start, start today.
If you’ve already started but haven’t taken it seriously, put in more effort from today.
Your revenue growth depends on it.
This article provides you with 25 email marketing hacks, clubbed into 5 checklists, to get you started and improve your game.
Email Marketing Hacks: Checklist 01 — Is Email Marketing For You?
The first checklist is to ensure that this particular tool is for you or not. Ask yourself the following questions and find the answer by yourself —
- Do you want to build an audience?
- Are you interested in building connections with your audience?
- Does your brand need more brand awareness?
- Do you have content that you want to promote?
- Are you looking to generate & nurture leads?
- Do you want to sell your products directly to your target group?
If you answer yes to any of the above, Email Marketing is for you.
The question you answer yes to — is going to be your primary goal with Email Marketing.
You may answer yes for more than one. In that case, make sure to prioritize and plan according to that prioritization.
Output of using the checklist: Decide if Email Marketing is for you or not.
Email Marketing Hacks: Checklist 02 — How to Devise An Email Marketing Strategy
Once you know that you want to start Email Marketing, you must devise your strategy. Follow the 7-step checklist to finalize your Email Marketing Strategy —
1. Find your target market:
Theoretically, you can target billions of people with Email.
In reality, you need only a few thousand.
Who do you want to reach? Who is fit for the product or service or content you’re developing?
2. Firm up your short, mid, and long-term goals:
The first checklist should help you find your overarching objective.
It’s now time to get into a measurable goal.
For example, if your goal is to earn money, your short-term goal can be to earn $100 in the first 3 months. In one year, you may target $2,000 and in 3 years 50,000/year.
3. Develop the tone of voice for your brand:
Depending on your target market, the product you’re trying to sell, and your goals, figure out your tone of voice.
It’s better to be conversational unless you’re pushing a product that demands otherwise.
4. Build your email list:
Building your email list is one of the most critical steps of your strategy.
Use commonly practiced techniques like lead magnets, and opt-in forms to get to an email list fast.
Building an Email list is covered in slightly more detail in the next checklist.
5. Create your funnel:
A funnel is a set of steps you make available to your consumers to increase the chances of conversion.
For example, writing a great article with an email signup CTA is a funnel. You’re trying to convert readers into subscribers.
You’ll need multiple funnels to create a holistic experience — e.g., welcome funnel, first product sale, cart abandonment, repeat purchase.
6. Set up measurement KPIs & trackers:
What you don’t measure, you can’t improve.
While there is an endless number of KPIs to track, don’t get into too much. Choose a handful and then stick to them for each campaign.
The most commonly tracked KPIs include — open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, bounce rate, and unsubscriber number.
7. Find the provider for your email marketing:
With so many options to choose from, you may wonder which email service provider (ESP) to choose.
It’s an important step and should be done with caution. Checklist 04 in this article provides a more detailed picture of this.
Output of using the checklist: Create an Email Marketing Strategy for your brand
Email Marketing Hacks: Checklist 03 — How to Build Your Email List
Building an email list is a grind and takes a long time. The initial days are harder. But after you start gaining momentum, you benefit from the snowball effect as well.
8. Create lead magnets
Lead magnets are usually free giveaways that entice your audience to get the item in exchange for their email ID. So yes, it’s not exactly free.
Examples are — downloadable files, ebooks, courses, checklists, spreadsheets, etc.
9. Use opt-in forms
Opt-in forms are a must and they should be present prominently on your website.
You can create a separate landing page for the form. Or you can keep it on the about page of your website, sidebar, and header. There are many options and do just enough to ensure you don’t look too sales-y.
10. Design a quiz
A quiz is an excellent way of bringing people who’re interested in your product.
A healthcare brand ran quizzes related to ideal weight calculation & diabetes prediction. They could then share healthy living or diabetes-related content with them. Eventually, they could even sell nutrition or weight loss plans or tests to detect diabetes.
11. Create segmented lists
It’s likely you’ll have audiences signing up for email using different links. Not all of those links can be connected to one topic.
Make sure to segment the lists based on audience interest. That’d help you run targeted & engaging campaigns.
Output of using the checklist: Build an email marketing list
Email Marketing Hacks: Checklist 04 — How to Choose An Email Service Provider (ESP)
Once you choose a provider, it gets harder to change with the progression of time. For that reason, choose an ESP that provides enough of the following values.
12. Choose a platform with segmentation capabilities
13. The ESP should have a strong reputation and standing with ISP to improve deliverability
14. It must have the ability to schedule and send emails (i.e., Automation)
15. ESPs with easy to build & customized email templates save your time
16. A/B tests with ESPs can help you improve your campaigns significantly
17. ESP’s analytics should give you the right insights
18. Your provide should be easy to integrate with CRM, CMS & E-commerce platforms
19. ESP should come with strong security to keep your customers’ data secure
Output of using the checklist: Find a suitable provider
Email Marketing Hacks: The Final List —Improve Your Open Rate
Improving your open rate is an ongoing process. You need to constantly experiment to find the right mix. However, ensure that the following elements are in place to consistently achieve high open rates.
20. Your subject line matters way more than your content — spend long enough to create a subject that deserves a click.
21. Personalization is one of the key elements of Email Marketing. If possible, keep your receiver’s name in the subject
23. Find the right time for sending the email through A/B testing
24. Align the expectations of your audience. If they know the email is going to be a short one (1–3 minutes), they might not think much before opening it.
25. Maintain consistent quality to build trust over time.
Final Thoughts on Email Marketing Hacks
Email Marketing is one of the most effective tools for content creators and marketers.
However, it requires a lot of work. With the right email marketing hacks, you can save a massive amount of time and start in the right direction.
