Mastering the Art of Email Marketing: Strategies, Subject Lines, and Avoiding Spam

Is email marketing dead? Not even close. Find out why it’s so important for your modern audiences and how to engage people with it.

Key takeaways

• Use email drip campaigns to optimize your communication strategy, engage leads, and boost marketing content.
• Learn how to craft attention-grabbing email subject lines to get recipients to actually open and engage with them.
• Avoid the dreaded spam filter by understanding the laws and landscape and being intentional.
• Learn just how impactful email marketing still is today, despite the emergence of social media.
• Use all these insights to create a holistic email marketing strategy tailored to get your audience to convert.

Let’s get right to it: email is not dead; quite the opposite actually. Email is still a crucial component of today’s digital marketing landscape. It remains one of the best ways for businesses to directly reach and engage with their target audiences, fostering personalized communication and building lasting relationships. Email lets brands deliver tailored content, promotions, and updates to subscribers, driving brand awareness, customer retention, and sales conversions. 

Email marketing also facilitates metrics tracking, such as open rates and click-through rates, allowing businesses to analyze and optimize their strategies for improved performance and ROI. With the integration of advanced analytics and automation tools, email marketing has evolved into a highly cost-effective and efficient method for nurturing leads, enhancing customer loyalty, and maximizing overall marketing efforts.

That’s why we’re dedicating this article to everything email marketing, combining the core aspects of four of our essential blogs on email marketing into an all-in-one guide to mastering the art of email.

The power of drip campaigns

One concept that will help your email campaigns soar is drip email content. Drip marketing is when you communicate your message over several emails that go out at specific times over a specified period (like drips coming out of a faucet sequentially).

Today’s drip email tools help you harness automation to send out your pre-written messages at strategically planned times. When you segment your target audience, you can send even more relevant content to people when they’re ready to see it.

Here are five uses for drip email content:

1. Follow up on abandoned shopping carts: Many consumers put things in their online shopping carts when they’re interested in buying them, but then they don’t take the leap. You can plan drip campaigns that follow up with these customers via email, reminding them of what they left behind and counting down until any sale or discount is over.
2. Respond to unsubscribers: You can also use automation tools to send out automated “thank you” emails or farewells when people unsubscribe. You can remind them of how they can stay in touch with you on social media or talk about upcoming incentives you have going on.
3. Engage leads and customers: Create a plan for engaging with customers who may have fallen off from communication or never made that final purchase. You can send out simple, friendly reminders so they keep thinking about you. You can show them the benefits of the product they haven’t yet purchased to convince them to take the last step. This helps you stay on their radar.
4. Acknowledge and confirm customer actions: Customers should get an automatic response from you when they do anything on your site, like make a purchase. Saying “thank you” and acknowledging what they did will show them you care and are paying attention.
5. Send welcome emails: Similarly, when someone signs up for your newsletter or becomes a member of an initiative, send out a “welcome” letter that acknowledges them and helps them get introduced to the community. That way, your drip content will remind them of upcoming deals or events and keep them involved.

Your drip email campaigns need to be strategically planned so that people don’t forget about you, but they shouldn’t contain overwhelming amounts of content. Keep things short, sweet, and relevant. 

Next up, find out how to craft subject lines that will make people will want to open your emails.

How to craft irresistible subject lines

One of the biggest challenges for email marketers is getting their emails opened. Think about it: Your target customers get so many emails every day to sift through. They won’t open your emails unless you inspire them to do it with something they care about. Period.

That’s why your subject line is so important. In fact, nearly half of recipients will open emails based solely on the subject line.

So, what can you do? Start with these quick best practices for writing kickass email subject lines:

• Less is more: First, remember to keep things nice and brief. Seriously – just a few words. Sum up your main point and why it matters succinctly.
• Avoid spammy words: There are lots of spam emails out there. They’re constantly coming at email users. These spam messages often use overly salesy words, so avoid these in your subject lines to minimize the chances of yours going to someone’s junk folder. (E.g., words like “free,” “cheap,” “bargain,” and “urgent” may be flagged, for instance.)
• Make it personal: Remember that you’re talking to real people out there. Think about what would get you to open an email. (And what would push you away.) Make your subject line personal and sincere so people connect with it immediately.
• Ask a question: Questions can be great ways to engage and inspire people. Ask something that relates to the pain points your audience struggles with. Ask direct, personal questions that they’re probably already thinking about.
• Make the “why” clear: An email subject line is the perfect place to emphasize the why. Why should the audience care? What will your email teach or show them? What’s the big deal? Don’t make them guess.

Regardless of how great your email content is, it won’t matter if you don’t get people to act with step one: the subject line. 

Remember, also, that you always face the risk of your emails not getting past the spam filter. Find out how to get around that challenge in the next section.

How to navigate the spam landscape

Spam is no joke – in 2022, around 49% of emails around the globe were marked as spam. And spammers continue to upgrade their approaches to keep getting people to click.

Spam filters on email platforms have also gotten more sophisticated. While this is great for avoiding spam, it also poses a big challenge for marketers, whose messages might occasionally get moved to the spam folder automatically. 

Make sure you follow best practices with your email campaigns to avoid any spam issues. For instance, learn about applicable spam laws and how they’re changing over time, like the CAN-SPAM Act from 2003, which established guidelines for commercial emails. Consumers have the right to opt out of emails from companies, and violations can lead to fines. You also can’t use deceptive subject lines, and, if you’re sending an ad, you have to identify it as such.

Only send emails to people who gave you permission to email them. Craft messages that are relevant to your targets and don’t use “sales-speak.” And make sure you’re using a reputable, recognizable email platform for your marketing campaigns.

With all these spam concerns, is email marketing really still relevant? Oh, yeah. Next up, learn why it’s still so important for businesses.

Why email marketing remains ever-relevant

Every communication format has its heyday. With the emergence of digital, marketers put their attention mostly online instead of relying so much on channels like snail mail. Email marketing was a big part of that trend from the beginning. 

But it’s a myth that email marketing is dead. You may hear that “nobody reads emails anymore” and that attention should be on social media now.

However, email marketing is still very relevant. There are an estimated 4.26 billion email users today across the globe, and 99% of email users check their inboxes every single day.

Email marketing remains effective because people are using it regularly, and it’s a more personal way to reach someone than say, Facebook. You can use someone’s full name in an email greeting, deliver them ultra-relevant, interesting content, and make a real connection. An email that shows someone you care about their struggle can hit home much more than a passing advertisement on a newsfeed.

Email campaigns continue to adapt with the rest of the world as technology expands what’s possible. Automation is now a key ingredient of campaigns so you can plan out your content and strategy without having to physically push the “send” button every time. 

You can instantly respond to people when they interact with your website. And you can continue to follow up with leads or customers as they’re making their way through their buying journey.

Now, it’s time to put all of this into practice.

Your comprehensive email marketing strategy

When you can summarize all of the above, you’re on your way to a winning email marketing strategy. Let’s do just that so you understand the most important elements of email:

• Drip emails: Take advantage of email drip campaigns to stay on the minds of your audience members.
• Subject lines: Write compelling, relevant subject lines to inspire people to open your emails.
• Spam landscape: Consider laws surrounding spam and opting in/out, and make sure your content is authentic and never too salesy.
• Email relevance: Remember that most people use email and check their inboxes every day, providing a solid opportunity to connect with them regularly
• Final tip: Remember to incorporate analytics and data you pull from your marketing platform and campaigns to make them even more effective as you move forward.

Master email marketing with the right content

Getting your email campaigns right will help your business grow. Plain and simple. Email is a powerful tool for connecting with your people, inspiring them, and engaging them. 

Of course, success isn’t fully possible unless you have the right content. That’s where ContentBacon comes in. Our experts know exactly how to produce the content you need to accurately reflect who you are as a business and use the right channels for your audience. 

Check out our 7 Free Email Drip Templates to Nurture Your Prospects or reach out to our team to learn more.