If there’s one topic that unites all of our customers, it’s the desire to learn more about email design. Whether it’s design best practices or tips for getting the most out of the Campaign Monitor email builder, this is a topic that you can’t get enough of, and that’s inspired countless blog articles and webinars – which can be found in our resources hub.

One of the benefits of partnering with Campaign Monitor by Marigold is having access to experts across all areas of marketing. So we thought we’d chat to Marigold Art Directors, Noelle and Meghan, to get insight into the design process they undertake when designing an email. From selecting a layout to choosing an image, read their tips for designing an engaging and responsive email. 

Q: What’s the first thing you do when you kick off an email design project?

• Noelle: At the beginning of an email design project, while it’s tempting to dive right into the design process, I take a moment to reflect on the fundamental purpose of design: effective communication. So, the first thing I do is make sure I fully grasp the email’s primary goal and have a discussion about how we’ll measure its success. It’s important to be on the same page with our marketing team because that sets the stage for evaluating what works, what doesn’t, and what we can do better next time. By starting with a clear understanding of the goal, we lay a solid foundation for the project and open the doors to future improvements.
  
• Meghan: As a designer in the Professional Services team, tasked with bringing to life our customers’ marketing strategy, it’s essential for me to understand the goals and brand aesthetic of each client before starting an email design project. To kick things off I always meet with the client to understand their business and brief myself on the “why” behind the project. Knowing why it’s important to the brand to relay the message and why this information is relevant to subscribers can help drive the focus of the design.

Q: What role does content hierarchy play in your process and how do you balance the most important message with the least?

• Noelle: Once the email’s goal is agreed upon, any content serving that goal takes priority in the hierarchy. The email structure and design elements align thematically to support the goal. The primary message at the top of the email should make a substantial impact. Traditionally, this includes a hero graphic, exciting headline, and a quick description, all paired with a bold and prominently-placed call-to-action (CTA). Design styles and trends may change, but effective structures like the inverted pyramid and zig-zag endure!
  
  In terms of design, I play with font size, color contrast, and spacing to emphasize the main message and distinguish it from the rest. This clear hierarchy guides readers through the email, ensuring they don’t miss the main message while still giving them the option to dig into more details if they want.
  
• Meghan: Hierarchy is the most important design tool we have when it comes to email. We know we only have a limited amount of time with each subscriber, and hierarchy is key to making sure they can focus on the most important takeaways of our message. I recommend giving visual priority to the most important information and for this to appear as close to the top of the email as possible, which can be done using large/bold headlines and clear calls-to-action. Secondary stories can be given less visual priority through their placement in the design and slightly reducing the size or emphasis on that information.
  

Q: Do you have any rules you follow when it comes to balancing text and imagery?

• Noelle: Ideally, the copy provided for an email has been edited down to spicy, concise blocks! In those cases, a thoughtful headline with bold visual prominence and a great hero graphic is all that’s needed. However, in situations where more text is needed, I have a few rules I follow to maintain a good text to image balance. First, I scale down the prominence of hero graphics to allow more space for text. I then explore other ways to add visual interest, for example, I consider using color blocking to break up paragraphs or swapping comma-separated lists into bulleted ones. I also look for opportunities to use icons that support different points in the message. These rules ensure that I strike the right balance between text and imagery, helping the reader navigate the content and take the desired action.
• Meghan: The biggest rule I have when balancing text and imagery is making sure that your most important information is communicated through live text, rather than relying on an image. Images can be great at visually captivating an audience, but in some cases not everyone can see or download an image. For this reason, it’s important to test what the email would look like with and without images. If a large chunk of the message is missing when images are off, it’s important to rethink how live text can be utilized to bring to life your key messages and calls-to-action.

Q: What’s the importance of imagery to your design; are images essential for all emails and what’s your process for choosing an image?

• Noelle: To quote Dieter Rams, sometimes “good design involves as little design as possible.” The decision to include imagery in your email depends heavily on the content and purpose of the message. For instance, if it’s a letter from the CEO, the focus might be on the message itself rather than a typical hero image. In those cases, you can create a visually appealing design by including thoughtfully-placed white space and subtle supporting graphics. Paying close attention to type styles can also help establish the tone and hierarchy of the email, particularly when there are few to no graphics.
  
  When an email calls for imagery, I make sure to select visuals that not only enhance the message but also align with our core brand identity. Consistency is key in today’s consumer landscape, and a cohesive brand presence helps build trust and loyalty. As an in-house creative at Marigold, I’ve developed brand libraries containing photography, icons, and other graphics to ensure our brand is represented consistently across all communications.
  
  By choosing images thoughtfully and aligning them with the message and brand, you can enhance the impact of your emails and maintain a strong and recognizable visual identity.
• Meghan: Images can definitely enhance your message and I recommend using them when relevant. When I choose an image, I think through how it relates to the message and how it may be able to visually communicate a tone or experience. Obviously if our goal is to sell a product, we want to show it off through imagery! The biggest trap I see marketers fall into is thinking that they have to use images for every story. If the images you choose don’t relate to your content, they can be a huge distraction and take away from the message you’re trying to convey. Keep in mind that not all messages need imagery, and in those cases you can use other design tools like font size or color blocking to visually enhance the email. Iconography or divider lines can also be a creative way to add visual interest and separate content!

Q: Is there such a thing as too much copy, and what rules should we follow?

• Noelle: In email design, less is (often) more. All content in your email should feel like the “TL;DR” version. On average, we have a short (and somewhat humbling) 8-10 seconds to capture our readers’ attention. So, imagine you have only 8 seconds to make an impact. Keep it short, snappy, and aligned with your brand voice. The primary goal of emails is to get the audience excited and entice them to click and learn more.
  
  If you find yourself with a lot of information to convey, consider directing readers to longer-form content on your blog, website, etc. When planning your email content, always keep those 8-10 seconds in mind and edit ruthlessly to keep it engaging and to the point and then identify where else you’re sending them for more information
• Meghan: Again, relevance here is key. And, at some point there is such a thing as too much copy. Email is great for sending relevant, focused information to our subscribers. When we start giving them too much information to process at once, that’s where we can start seeing a drop off in engagement. Be mindful of how many different topics or details you’re sharing at a given time. Also, sharing pieces of information and linking to an url where the rest of the information is hosted is a great way to limit the amount of content you’re sending and gives you data to see which subscriber is engaging with which calls-to-action.

Q: How many call-to-actions (CTAs) can you include in an email, are there any rules?

• Noelle: Too many CTAs can get confusing and dilute the primary goal. Generally, I suggest having a single, clear CTA that aligns with the main purpose of the email. If additional CTAs are necessary, visually differentiate them by using secondary colors and scaling them down. The goal is to guide readers toward the desired action without overwhelming them with too many choices.
• Meghan: A lot of this depends on the type of mailing you’re sending. I usually don’t follow any universal rules for CTAs, other than making sure that you’re not overwhelming the recipient with too many asks. A lot of this ties into the overall content you’re sharing and making sure it’s focused on one or two topics at a time. If a recipient is being asked to read an article, register for a class, and buy a product all in one email that could lead to unwanted choice paradox and limited engagement.

Q: Does your design approach differ for the type of emails you’re creating, for example: newsletter, event invite, deal or promotion?

• Noelle: My design approach differs slightly based on the type of email being created. Certain categories of emails carry distinct tones that require a nuanced approach to hierarchy and style. For newsletters, I pay close attention to clear headings and subheadings to break up sections and make the content easily scannable. Event invites should focus on generating excitement, using fresh visuals and prominently displaying event details. Deals and promotions drive urgency and require attention-grabbing headlines, compelling images, and clear CTAs. Transactional emails, such as order confirmations or shipping notifications, should prioritize providing the necessary information and any next steps, instilling confidence with a clean and straightforward design.
• Meghan: For me the same basic design principles apply regardless of the type of mailing. Having a solid foundation of hierarchy, headline contrast, and negative space is universal to any design. Where the differences would come in would be around the overall styling to match the tone of the content or to speak more specifically to the audience. For instance, my approach to newsletters would be more around organizing or structuring the information, whereas a special promotion or event may focus more around imagery and color to support just a few details and a CTA.

Q: Any final tips for Marigold customers?

• Noelle:

1. 1. Keep it simple and scannable: Make sure your email is easy to read and understand at a glance.
   2. Use visuals wisely: Images can enhance your message, but choose them thoughtfully and optimize them for fast loading.
   3. Nail your CTAs: Make your call-to-action clear, compelling, and aligned with your email’s objective. 
   4. Test, test, test: Don’t forget to test your email design across different devices and email clients to ensure it looks great everywhere.Have a strong brand presence: Use consistent branding elements like colors, fonts, and logos to strengthen your brand identity.

• Meghan: Always test! Every audience is a little different, so it’s important to know who you’re talking to so you can best design for them. Keep in mind not everyone processes information in the same way, so be mindful of accessibility best practices to make sure you’re effective at communicating to as many people as possible.

Need more help with your email designs? Chat to Meghan or another member of our friendly professional services team. In a specialized, one on one session, our design experts can help you create a custom template, provide recommendations for how to improve your emails for effectiveness and accessibility and give you some expert tips on email design. This is just one of many paid services our team can offer you- Chat with our experts.

The post Tips to Level Up Your Email Design – Q&A with Noelle and Meghan appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

5 Tips to Overcome Email Send Anxiety

Getting ready to share your campaign with customers can be an exciting moment. As marketers, we are proud of the work we’ve done to make an email come together. But, once you hit “send,” the message is out of your hands, and without control anymore, you may feel a little anxiety creep in. So, we’re sharing our five top tips to help you overcome send anxiety, and send with complete confidence.

1. Broken links

A fear of broken links is a warranted one. After all, haven’t we all been frustrated by an email with broken links? Broken links not only make your emails seem unprofessional, but they can also frustrate customers, impact your brand’s reputation, and render your marketing efforts ineffective.

Solution: Begin testing your emails by sending a quality assurance test to both yourself and a colleague to check all the links. Our Campaign Monitor by Marigold solution also helps you send with complete confidence with its Link Review feature, which automatically detects and notifies you of any broken or missing links in your emails. 

And, don’t forget that you can always send an apology email that includes the correct link. Everyone makes mistakes, and the need to send an apology email happens to the best of us.

2. Typos

Typos are simple mistakes, and they usually don’t mess up your overall message, but they can undermine your professionalism. Typos tell your readers that you didn’t invest the time to proofread your messages to them. As a marketer, you want to avoid typos at all costs, but your own mistakes can be difficult to catch.

Solution: Before sending an email, read it aloud slowly and focus on every word. You can also print your email out to read it since reading print on paper allows for closer attention to detail and better comprehension than reading on a digital screen does. Some people also find reading their copy backward helps. But, above all, find proofreading buddies you can send your message to, and find at least one who preferably has some editing experience. 

3. Elements not rendering

When emails don’t render the imagery, colors or fonts, your subscribers likely won’t find the email very compelling, which can also cause them to become disengaged, or even worse – unsubscribe. It’s important to remember that just because your messages render on a specific device or with a specific email provider, it doesn’t guarantee your message will render on all devices or with all providers.

Solution: Some ways to combat this fear include sending quality assurance test emails to several different colleagues that use different email clients to see how your messaging renders, and then try troubleshooting from there. You should always be sure to test your campaign on both desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, our Marigold solutions can help provide insights with our spam testing automated tool, which makes seeing how your email will render on different providers and devices easy. As a backup, be sure to include alternate text on all images in case your images still don’t render.

4. Less than optimal results

There’s a lot of excitement that happens when we send out emails, especially if it’s part of a new campaign. But, marketers can sometimes become anxious about the possibility of bad results because a failed campaign can have far-reaching implications such as wasted resources, low conversion rates, poor brand perception and more. 

Solution: To overcome the fear of less-than-optimal results, first, permit yourself to try things out. Email marketing is all about refinement, so not every email needs to be a smash hit. Gaining insight into what doesn’t work is just as helpful as gaining insight into what does.

To increase your chances of a successful campaign, foremost, have a clear objective and goal for your campaign such as driving engagement, driving sales, driving sign ups or registrations. Ensure the content you’re sending customers adheres to that objective by having a clear call to action. We also recommend A/B testing elements, rather than making assumptions about what content and elements will resonate with your audience. 

A/B Testing elements like the subject line, content, design and timing ensures that you’re providing the content your audience wants to receive, which can lead to higher engagement and more conversions. Campaign Monitor by Marigold makes A/B testing simple and easy.

If you need extra help standing out in the inbox, our intuitive subject line recommendations tool will ensure you’re following industry best practices to maximize engagement.

You can also preview your campaign with live data to ensure the correct dynamic content is showing for the right audience. Always review and analyze every campaign result and look for ways to optimize and improve.

5. Sending to the wrong list

Your lists matter, and you never want to send the wrong email to the wrong group. Sending a campaign to the wrong audience can have serious implications — this mistake can damage your brand’s reputation, result in recipients marking you as spam, impact segmentation efforts, result in poor engagement as well as a poor ROI and more. 

Solution: To avoid these implications, maintaining clean and up-to-date email lists, implementing stringent segmentation practices, and regularly reviewing the recipient lists before sending out any email campaign — all of these steps are necessary. 

Make sure your lists are labeled correctly, and try to follow a clear and logical naming convention that all team members who have access to your account know and understand. Your subscriber list name should also be descriptive and help you easily identify which customers are on which lists. Be sure to exclude potential list members who you may not want to receive the email. Finally, always double-check that you’re sending to the correct list before you send.

Fearlessly press “send”

Feeling anxious before sending out email campaigns is normal, but don’t let send fear stop you from breaking new ground and finding success. Mistakes can certainly happen if you don’t have a checklist, and that’s absolute when it comes to email. Using this list of solutions above, we recommend creating an email send checklist that you and your colleagues can follow before you hit “send.” You’ll be better able to alleviate your fears and feel confident each time you press send.

The post 5 Tips to Overcome Email Send Anxiety appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

If you struggle to write open-worthy subject lines, and your campaigns always seem to be sinking into a pool of failed marketing, don’t worry — you’re in good company because we can help. We think email subject lines should be on the minds of email marketers because they are tied directly to open rates. A subject line starts a reader’s experience with an email campaign, and in an increasingly distraction-filled world, it can also end their experience with it if it isn’t engaging enough.

The most critical factors to keep in mind

Two critical factors to keep in mind when creating your campaigns are your individual subscribers and the evolving trends around email. Never forget — people are actually seeing your emails in their inboxes … so, it’s important to remember that there’s another person on the other end, more than a statistic. The second factor is that brands need to readily adapt to how technology, marketing and conversational trends change over time. The dynamic quality of both human nature and advertising means that subject line best practices will continually evolve, so it’s up to you to stay abreast. 

Six rules for engagement

The goal is to write great subject lines that engage your readers and get your emails opened — Here’s what you should consider when trying to write open-worthy subject lines for noisy inboxes in today’s digital landscape.

1. Keep it short: Subject lines should be as short as possible but still contain enough information to get your message across. Knowing which email clients your subscribers use can be helpful, but this isn’t always possible. Keep in mind that mobile apps like Gmail will generally cut off anything after 40 characters unless the reader drags the notification down to expand the info.
2. Segment your audience: Do not send the same generic subject line to your entire list. Instead, segment your list by different demographics or behaviors to create more relevant email subject lines for unique groups. This segmentation with your email subject lines should definitely help boost your open rates.
3. Get personal: People expect personalized content. Beyond using each subscriber’s name, the best subject lines for open rates are crafted by using unique information you’ve collected about locations or interests. This information should be that which your subscribers have openly shared with you, directly to you — zero-party data.
4. Be specific, yet concise: Which email are you more likely to open? “Yum, mac and cheese” or “Yum, bacon and white truffle mac and cheese.” People aren’t going to take the time to wonder if your email might interest them. Let them know what’s inside right away by getting specific with your subject line.
5. Use language that evokes action: Make your proposition clear from the beginning — how do you want your readers to take action? What do you want them to do? Eat, shop, donate, wear, relax, listen? Use verbs that help readers visualize themselves taking action. However, make sure to avoid spam words.
6. Send emails at the right time: In our 2022 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report, we analyzed over 100 billion emails sent across our platforms in 2021 to get the most comprehensive benchmark data and email marketing stats to date. Considering email statistics by day, there doesn’t seem to be too much variance in how emails perform on a given day. We ultimately found that weekdays, as usual, tend to perform the best. And, the lowest engagement numbers fall on the weekend.

Best days for sending emails

• Best day with highest email open rates: Monday (22.0%)
• Best day with highest click-through rates: Tuesday (2.4%)
• Best days with highest click-to-open rates: Wednesday and Tuesday (10.8%)
• Email unsubscribe rates were virtually identical throughout the week (0.1%)

Worst days for sending emails

• Worst day with lowest email open rates: Sunday (20.3%)
• Worst days with lowest click-through rates: Saturday & Sunday (2.1%)
• Worst day with lowest click-to-open rates: Friday, Saturday, Sunday (10.1%)

While this data is academically interesting, you should carefully consider your own audience and run email tests before blocking entire days off your campaign calendar.

Pivotal points for successful subject lines

• Keep the subject line short — between 7 words and 41 characters
• Make the subject line unique to the recipient
• Take the time to A/B test your subject lines
• Compare open rate data and make adjustments 
• Craft a subject line you would open!

Write open-worthy subject lines that lead to conversions 

To create successful subject lines — test them, optimize them, improve them. Use these essential tips to brainstorm, but don’t take this list as a series of steps for every subject line. Instead, shake up your go-to subject lines, and test some variations on this list to see what your audience responds to best.

To learn more about email testing, check out our blog on A/B testing. Or get the guide, The Ultimate Email Marketing Personalization Checklist. 

The post 6 Essential Tips for Crafting Compelling Subject Lines appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

The money-making power of the internet

With such ongoing innovations in e-commerce, forecasters at Forbes predict that the global e-commerce market will total $6.3 trillion in 2023, and by 2026, the e-commerce market is expected to total over $8.1 trillion. If brands wish to get a slice of this pie, it may be worthwhile to note that AR and VR trends are expected to continue growing in the 2023 – 2024 years and accelerate over the 2023 – 2027 period, giving retailers the chance to enhance online shopping experiences in an exciting way that may bring in a fresh, young audience. 

As the money-making power of the internet radically changes the world economy, the economy of virtual goods generates more than a modest portion of overall global gaming revenue. With the gaming industry expected to maintain its recent growth, possibly becoming worth more than $321 billion by 2026, the market seems to be dripping with opportunities for brands to generate more direct sales. Indeed, in a VR world with billions of users, these goods aren’t simply gaming products — they are the same products brands are marketing, trying to drive revenue with, in real life. While the rise of cryptocurrency continues to find a place in the global economy for the long term, the world of VR is already seeing innovation and development from leading brands, in both virtual-to-physical and physical-to-virtual transactions.

How brands are driving revenue in virtual reality

By creating virtual experiences for shoppers such as product trials and tutorials as well as virtual store experiences like in-store navigation apps and games for shoppers, brands are both enhancing their image and yielding an impressive ROI. Notable examples of brands driving revenue in VR come from companies like Estée Lauder, MAC, Gucci, and Dior, to name only a few. These brands, and others, allegedly created AR “try-on” advertisements that successfully generated direct sales. These “try-on” ads allow app users to use their smartphone cameras to superimpose 3D digital replicas of products onto their bodies. According to The Coin Republic, “Dior’s digital sneakers had 2.3 million views and a sixfold return on advertising investment.” 

As a savvy marketer looking for new ways to drive revenue, you may be thinking this sounds like an excellent brand-enhancing opportunity, but how do transactions in VR work? Depending on which platform consumers are engaging on, where brands have set up shop, and whether users are making real-to-virtual or virtual-to-real transactions — will all determine how money moves across wires. The short explanation is that in some VRs, consumers can link their payment info into the app. In other instances, users are making purchases with cryptocurrencies; however, rest assured that whichever way brands are making cash in VR now — they are actually seeing those dollars in real life. 

Think first — Don’t jump into Decentraland just yet

While the opportunity may seem golden, don’t jump into Decentraland and set up shop just yet. It’s important to remember that consumers have typically used AR and VR for gaming only, so there is a lot to consider when thinking about VR as an interactive consumer experience, in which users actively engage with brands online in real time. 

Only recently, mostly with Mark Zuckerberg’s company’s rebrand to Meta, has VR become more of a social engagement platform, allowing users to participate in VR for reasons other than gaming. Users are shopping, dining, socializing, etc. There is no doubt that money is being spent, and investors are reaping the profits. Domino’s is taking pizza orders in the Metaverse, to deliver actual pizza to customers’ doorsteps in real life, and Gucci, using an NFT method, is engaging shoppers with lower-cost virtual replicas of its products to adorn users’ avatars. 

In a recent article, Reuters reports the Investment Bank Morgan Stanley forecasts that by 2030, the digital fashion industry may rise by $50 billion with consideration to new VR purchasing trends. Yet, this is only a prediction — like many social platforms we have seen over the last two decades, they rise and fall. Those individuals deeply invested in VR, in the Metaverse, in incorporating it into their lifestyle, are fortelling that VR will be the next iteration of the internet — a platform that will change society for generations. 

However, if you casually browse chat boards engaged in by VR users and creators, the overall attitude is that the VR platform is stalling — it’s not growing, and companies’ demands of it will likely outbid its abilities. The start-build-stall pattern driving the engineering behind VR may entirely be its downfall, and as consumers desire more and more from a platform that can simply not deliver, the novelty may quickly dissipate. 

The questions all marketers must ask

Undoubtedly, offering an omnichannel experience is a great way to include and engage a multitude of customers; however, deciding whether to make AR and VR a part of your omnichannel strategy takes major consideration. Some key factors to keep in mind might include questions such as who are my customers and what type of experience would drive their engagement? How can my brand create a differentiated experience? And, does AR and VR offer a unique opportunity to showcase my value proposition?

There are countless opportunities for most industries to try AR and VR and win a high ROI — especially now since consumers are being drawn to it for lifestyle experiences. Will it catch on, will it truly deliver the ROI you desire, or will it be a failed endeavor? These are the first, essential questions every marketer must remember to ask when taking on a very new channel that still sits only as a possibility. 

When it comes to mastering the channels you currently have, look no further than a Relationship Marketing strategy. Learn more in this guide. 

The post Should You Add Virtual Reality to Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy? appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

While we understand the need and urgency for marketers to communicate with their audience, it’s also important to be mindful of the impact these emails have not only on your sender reputation, but also the experience of the person receiving them. 

As your trusted email service provider, the deliverability of your emails and protecting your (and our) sender reputation is top priority for us! We’ve listed some key factors to consider before sending your next email.

Permission to send emails is not evergreen

Permission to send emails can expire quickly as people forget where and how they signed up to your email list. This is especially true if you haven’t been in regular email contact with your subscribers in the last 12 months. People who shopped, dined, interacted with you 1-5 years ago are unlikely to remember who you are, how you collected their email address, and will wonder why they’re suddenly receiving your emails. 

Sending emails to an unengaged list with many inactive addresses will cause engagement and delivery issues like low open rates, high bounce and unsubscribe rates, and potentially high spam complaint rates. These metrics are used by mailbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft, B2B domains) to determine your sender reputation and how to treat your emails. 

A good sender reputation means your emails will be delivered to the inbox and a poor sender reputation will result in your emails being blocked or filtered as spam. 

Audit and segment your database by subscriber activity

Before you send your next campaign we highly recommend auditing your database and segmenting your list based on user activity and engagement. This helps you to determine:

• Your most engaged subscribers who have opened an email or clicked a link in the last 12 months
• Your most recent subscribers who have opted in for your emails in the last 12 months
• Contacts with online activity in the last 12 months, such as online purchases, website visits, account activity, active paid subscriptions
• Your most inactive and unengaged subscribers who do not meet the above criteria for the last 12 months

If you’ve been in regular contact with your list over the last 12 months you can continue sending emails as usual to your engaged subscribers, and you may consider sending a re-engagement email to your inactive or unengaged users. However, if you haven’t regularly emailed your list—sending at least 1 or 2 emails every 6 months—then you will need to carefully ramp-up sending emails to your full list. 

Any subscriber who has shown no activity or engagement in over 12 months should be removed from your list, as sending to these “ghost” contacts will only harm your sender reputation. You also risk emailing spam traps and landing on an anti-spam blocklist.

Ramping-up emails to your full list

Your sender reputation is tied to your sending domain — which is everything after the “@” in your From email address. Depending on when you last emailed your full list and the size of your list, you may need to slowly train mailbox providers that your emails are legitimate and your subscribers want to receive them.

To re-build your domain reputation, send an email to a smaller segment of your list and monitor how your subscribers respond in the next 24 hours. If you see good delivery and engagement metrics, like open rates above 10%, bounce rates under 4% and spam complaints around 0.02%, you can then double the volume for your next campaign and again review the results after 24 hours. 

It is crucial to review your results after every campaign to assess the impact the increase in email volume has on your overall results, and take steps to address any underlying engagement issues before ramping-up to your full list. 

Review your results after every campaign

Your subscribers are the best source of information on how well your emails are performing. Review your campaign reports after each campaign to see how active and engaged your audience is, and also to track any negative signals like a drop in open rate or a spike in bounces of spam complaints.

These metrics highlight any engagement and delivery issues which in turn directly impact your sender reputation and the success of your future campaigns. Campaign Monitor users can also use the Insights section in your account to easily track user engagement over time.

Campaign Monitor Insights

Email delivery and engagement issues are often a symptom of how emails are collected and managed, and reviewing both can highlight the underlying cause of these issues. Are your lists permission based where people have directly opted in for your emails? Is your online form secure from spambot attacks with a reCAPTCHA? Have you set up DKIM authentication for your sending domain? Are you re-engaging your less engaged contacts and removing dormant “ghost” contacts? 

Following these recommended deliverability practices is the best way to maximise user engagement and minimize deliverability issues. 

Wrap up

Your subscribers’ inboxes, similar to your own mailbox, may be inundated with emails right now from brands they were once connected with. Now is the time to think like a subscriber, and send relevant, wanted content to engage your audience and make your emails stand out from the crowd. 

By focusing on your most active and engaged audience, you’re building and maintaining your domain’s sender reputation, and helping your emails successfully land in the inbox. 

Remember to keep your emails personal, helpful, concise, and relevant to show respect for your subscriber’s inbox, build brand loyalty and a lasting engaging relationship. 

The post Land in Your Subscriber’s Inbox appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

This year has brought a renewed focus on nurturing existing customer relationships, by establishing trust, creating lasting impressions and providing value, all in the pursuit of true connection. We believe that connecting with our customers is how we measure success – so this trend, for us, is one that will go well into 2023 and beyond.

We’re proud to say our platform and our customers have conquered this new landscape to successfully connect and convert audiences like never before. But, before we close out on a fruitful 2022, let’s take a moment to look back and recognize the achievements and milestones we’ve accomplished.

Together, we made an impression

This year, Campaign Monitor customers used our platform to send more emails than ever before – 31,985,621,168 to be exact, that were opened up in 248 countries across the world*. That’s some serious reach!

And, you designed 491,373 email templates that made sure you stood out in the inbox.

You embraced technology and leveled up your email marketing game

You harnessed the power of email, A/B testing 140,663 campaigns and setting up 41,382 automated journeys. Think of all the additional engagement and conversion you drove!

Our new product releases made it easier for you to create impactful campaigns

2022 featured some of our most exciting releases to date. We debuted 26 new features that focused on giving you a smarter, faster and of course simpler way to create impactful campaigns that take your marketing to the next level.

Our biggest and most exciting release for 2022 was the launch of Campaign Monitor SMS – which is now available to contracted customers sending SMS to the USA, UK, Australia and Canada, with expanded availability coming in 2023 (watch this space)!

Our monumental SMS launch now gives our customers access to one of the most powerful and effective marketing channels, so they can connect and convert like never before:

• The same intuitive campaign creation interface as email, so you’ll find it easy to get your SMS campaigns up and running fast.
• Increase the speed of return on your marketing investment by encouraging immediate actionfrom your subscribers.
• Seamlessly capture SMS permissions so you can grow your list, boost sales and drive urgency with additional touch points.

But we didn’t stop there. Here are the some of the other feature highlights:

• Subject line recommendations
• Emoji picker
• Assistant improvements
• Recent images
• Email builder improvements

Check out all our product enhancements from 2022, here: What’s New in Campaign Monitor.

You can rely on us

We supported you with a 99.51% delivery rate for all email campaigns sent. And with 99.98% app availability, your experience was seamless with minimal interruptions.

Our crew had your back every step of the way

When you needed support, you loved that we have a dedicated support team, with real technical expertise – and we know this because 90% of you were satisfied with how our team resolved your requests.

We keep you ahead of the curve with best practices

We love creating content to support you in product best practice and help you navigate marketing industry shifts and trends. We look forward to bringing you even more content and connecting as a community through events in 2023, but for now let’s check out some highlights from 2022.

• SMS Best Practices Resources Hub: Our team has done a ton of research on SMS best practices (so you don’t need to).
• Email Academy: Preference Center best practices: We added a new online email marketing course to our Email Academy family
• Signals22: our virtual relationship marketing event, hosted by Marigold, brought you 30 presentations over 4 days mapped to the 4 stages of relationship marketing – Acquire, Engage, Personalize and Retain. Watch the sessions on-demand.
• Deliverability Q&A: We know how important deliverability is to you, so we sat down with our in-house deliverability expert, John Peters, to help you maximize inbox placement and engagement during the busiest time of the year.
• We released over 20 new stylish email templates that help you drive interest and engagement in your email programs. Find them under the ‘latest category’ in the email builder.

And together, we reached new heights

It’s because of our partnership with you that we received industry recognition. Here are a couple of awards we’re proud of;

As a part of the Marigold family, we are extremely proud and honored to be recognized as a 2022 TrustRadius Tech Cares recipient. This award is a true testament to the entire Marigold working towards a more inclusive and responsible business.

Marigold was also selected as one of the hottest marketing tech companies of 2022 by Business Insider and “Best Overall MarTech Company” for the third consecutive year by MarTech Breakthrough Awards.

But it wouldn’t have been possible without you

We’re proud to be a partner who can grow alongside the changing marketing landscape and help you seamlessly connect with your audience, no matter what challenges arise. Whether those changes are the way we consume information, changes to legislation and policies, or even changes to marketing strategies in the current economic climate – we’re always ready to adapt and pivot. Campaign Monitor’s coming Consumer Trends Index will forecast some of these changes expected throughout 2023, so you can confidently navigate the new year (stay tuned for more!).

Every year, we can’t imagine being more inspired than we already are by the marketers who creatively use Campaign Monitor to connect with their customers. But here we are, wrapping up 2022, feeling even more inspired than ever. We can’t wait to see what the next year brings – and we look forward to being a part of your journey in 2023.

*Using Country Codes as the measure ISO3166

The post Campaign Monitor’s Year in Review appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

With the holiday season just around the corner, and the prospect of sending more emails to your subscribers than usual, not to mention the influx they’ll no doubt receive from other brands, we want to make sure you feel prepared and holiday ready.

We sat down with John Peters, Campaign Monitor’s Deliverability Manager and advocate of email sending best practices, to ask him how you should prepare for the influx of emails this holiday season, and how you can maximize inbox placement and engagement at this busy time.

Read on to see how you can make an impact with your email program this holiday season, for all the right reasons.

Q: For those that might not be familiar with deliverability, can you give us a crash course on what it is.

Sure! Email deliverability can be complicated and may, at times, seem part science and part magic.

To demystify deliverability, let’s look at the journey of an email from when someone clicks “send” to the email arriving in the individual recipient’s inbox. We can break this journey down into two main stages.

Stage one is where our system compiles the email and sends it to the mailbox provider like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or business domains. The mailbox provider will either accept the email, or reject it and if the email is accepted we call this successful email delivery.

Stage two is what happens after the email is accepted. There are more automated checks carried out by the mailbox provider’s system, and these checks determine where the email ends up. If the customer has a good sender reputation their email will land in the inbox. Otherwise it will get blocked or filtered to the spam folder. And this is email deliverability.

Q: What can our customers do to influence good deliverability and avoid the spam folder?

I think it’s important to acknowledge that a marketer has direct control over the majority of factors that impact deliverability. For the most part deliverability is about sender reputation and subscriber engagement, that is to say whether a person reacts positively or negatively to their emails.

As such, a marketer can make sure they follow these 5 steps:

1. they have explicit permission and voluntary opt-in to send emails
2. their email content is both expected and wanted by their audience
3. they focus on increasing recipient engagement and reducing the risk of high spam complaints
4. they regularly refresh their lists by re-engaging inactive subscribers and removing dormant ones with no activity over 12 months
5. they authenticate their sending domains and at the very least set up DKIM for the domain they use to send emails

Q: Deliverability is important all year round, but why is it particularly important during the holiday season?

It is normal during the holiday season for global email traffic to increase and peak over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. During this time, marketers send more emails and with greater urgency and mailbox providers are strained to manage the surge in email volume.

In such a peak time, mailbox providers must strike a balance between over-filtering incoming email and placing legitimate emails in the spam folder. Or the mailbox provider may not filter enough emails and let spam through to a person’s inbox.

Marketers want to reach their subscribers’ crowded inboxes (especially at this time of the year), and to do so successfully they need to know the constraints and affecting environment of the email ecosystem. Otherwise they may find that their well crafted and curated content is being filtered and not reaching their subscribers’ inbox.

Q: Is it too late for customers to prepare for the 2022 holiday season?

No, this is the perfect time to prepare for the coming holiday season. Even if your holiday programs have already begun, it’s not too late to follow these deliverability best practices. The savvy marketer knows now is the time to audit their database and review their campaign and mailing reports.

Focus on list hygiene. Permission to send emails isn’t evergreen, and monitoring list hygiene is an ongoing process. If a subset of a list has poor engagement metrics, consider trying to re-engage that particular group.

Sending a “check-in” email to those less engaged subscribers is a great way to see if they wish to remain on your list or if they do not then perhaps it is time to bid them goodbye and remove them from your list rather than damage your sender reputation.

Q: That’s great to hear! What top tips do you have for customers to maintain, and even improve, their deliverability?

Don’t make sudden and unexpected changes to how you send emails, such as changing the “From” email address you use to send emails or changing your branding. These are your calling card which helps people remember who you are and why they are receiving your emails and it helps your email stand out in their crowded inbox.

If you anticipate a dramatic increase in your email volume or sending frequency make sure you have a ramp up plan to accommodate the change in cadence. Mailbox providers treat sudden changes in email volume from a sender as suspicious and may filter your emails to the spam folder or block them.

Make sure you have DKIM set up for your sending domain. Campaign Monitor now has a virtual Assistant that helps customers know if they haven’t authenticated their sending domain.

Included in your Campaign Monitor account is our Insights reporting. In this reporting you can immediately see overall statistics for your campaigns. You can review your results over a period of time, which you are able to define using the date selection tool. This will help you look for trends in your performance over a period of time.

Marketers should closely monitor their email results for any signs of subscriber email fatigue. A drop in engagement will impact your sender reputation, and a fatigued subscriber is more likely to mark an email as spam.

Q: Any other final tips for Campaign Monitor customers?

Landing in the inbox is a privilege rather than a right. If we want to be invited in as a welcome guest, we need to make sure we present ourselves as trustworthy and respectful senders who are mindful of our sending practices and the expectation of our subscribers.

While it’s tempting to maximize sales by sending in higher cadence even to unresponsive subscribers, any small increase in ROI is not worth the longer lasting negative impact to future inbox placement, especially leading up to the post Black Friday/Cyber Monday holiday season.

By following the above practices marketers can increase the quality of their email list, better manage their database and increase the overall effectiveness of their email programs and inbox placement.

The post Get Holiday Ready: Email Sending Best Practices appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Everyone likes getting gifts. But everyone also has that one weird family member. You know, the one who makes you ugly crocheted “fashion statements” for Christmas and gets you underwear for your birthday.

Usually, they have good intentions, but they’re probably unaware and out of touch with what people actually want. In short message service (SMS) marketing, many brands, unfortunately, become just like your Great Aunt Margaret. Someone told them that “Those hip young people like text messages,” and they started sending SMS marketing messages that are the equivalent of a crocheted necktie and tighty-whities.

According to Zendesk, the popularity of using SMS messaging to contact businesses grew by 75% in 2020. However, just like gift-giving, it’s key that you actually give people what they want when they start a text conversation with your brand.

For example, according to SimpleTexting, only 9% of consumers want to hear about your customer satisfaction survey via text. (Which, let’s be real, makes up like 99% of text messages people receive from businesses. Annoying much?) On the other hand, according to the same survey, 35% of consumers would love to get special offers or promotions via text.

Text message marketing can feel invasive and unwelcome if it’s not personalized and valuable to your audience. If you’re still not sure what consumers want to receive, you’re in luck. This guide covers five SMS marketing examples your audience actually wants to receive so you don’t become the marketing equivalent of Great Aunt Margaret. You’ll increase your conversions and your bottom line.

1. Event updates

It’s hard to beat text message marketing campaigns for timely updates you know your audience will see. Americans are constantly checking their phones — about 344 times a day, according to Reviews.org. And McKinsey reports SMS messages have the highest read rates out of any commercial messaging channel, with an open rate of 42%. This combination makes SMS text messages the ideal channel for time-sensitive event communication.

You can use SMS messages to hype event lineups, send ticket QR codes, provide attendees with session time updates, or even provide interactive content during the event.

For example, event attendees may opt in to receive messages, so they can be the first to hear who the headlining speaker is or receive a mobile ticket. And then, once they have opted in, you can notify them of important information via SMS throughout the conference, such as which conference space their sessions are in.

Source

2. Special offers

According to SimpleTexting, 50% of consumers said they would be more likely to opt in to SMS messages from a business if they knew they would receive time-sensitive promotions. Through audience segmentation and marketing automation, marketing teams can personalize the promotions to each consumer, increasing the value and connection to the brand.

SMS marketing for special offers could be as simple as promoting flash sales or as specific as sending a discount code to a customer on their birthday. The key to maintaining the value for the consumer is to use it only for timely or personalized offers, rather than constantly bombarding them with texts.

Source

3. Product launches

Consumers have the world at their fingertips with the internet. If you want your product to stand out from the beginning, you need a unique promotional mechanism. According to a survey by Harris Interactive, 77% of consumers view companies that offer texting more positively (not to mention those impressive read rates we mentioned previously). So, if you want all eyes eagerly on that new product launch, SMS is where you should start.

The timeliness of SMS provides brands with a chance to roll out their products in stages to increase the hype. For example, you should start a launch with a VIP and influencer early-access message before opening sales up to all customers.

Besides the timeliness of SMS, it also has the advantage of having very measurable outcomes. Campaign Monitor’s SMS reporting dashboard shows a comprehensive view of your launch campaigns, including audience responses to both email and SMS. Instead of guessing at interest levels in your new product or the success of your campaign, you can easily assess them at a glance.

Source

4. Community building

SMS messages provide a unique opportunity to build brand affinity by personally connecting with your audience and creating a community around your brand. In this way, you can promote your brand without promoting your brand.

For example, you could send daily health tips or mindfulness prompts if you’re a wellness brand, or links to interactive brand content such as how-to videos and online communities. All of these things promote user-generated content, which 79% of users say highly impacts their purchase decisions, according to Stackla.

Source

5. Donation drives

People get bombarded with organizations asking them for donations. If it’s not the Boy Scout down the street, it’s the fundraiser in the mail or the grocery store clerk asking them to “round up for the cause.” So how do you break through the noise? SMS.

The key to using SMS for donation drives and fundraising is to craft a message that won’t be just banging cymbals in the cacophony of fundraising campaigns. Gone are the days of cold-calling telethons. Today, consumers expect personalized and timely communications. And that is where SMS shines.

For example, you can tailor each message to the individual donor with Campaign Monitor’s subscriber list upload feature and customizable fields. Segment your list by region, income range, age, or any other custom qualifier you choose. Personalize every message with the subscriber’s name for an added personal touch.

With SMS, you can respond within minutes to any community or worldwide crisis, giving people the opportunity to act as soon as the news breaks. You no longer have to wait for the mailer to reach their house weeks later or cross your fingers your social posts reach them. Hit your donor base when it’s still fresh and before they are bombarded with other organizations asking for donations.

Source

Once you have your audience’s attention, it’s important that you give them an easily accessible and immediate way to give. Relying on dated payment options isn’t going to cut it anymore. When was the last time you wrote a check for anything? It’s probably been a while. According to the Federal Reserve, the use of checks and cash is decreasing dramatically YOY, and mobile payments are taking the place of most payments previously made via check or cash. In short, if you want people to donate to your campaign, you need to offer mobile payment options.

Source

Combining SMS and email marketing strategies

There’s no arguing the benefits of SMS marketing, but it has an even greater impact when used in combination with an email marketing strategy. Each serves your customers in a unique way and enhances the impact of the other. What they share in common is the ability to grow your customer base and your bottom line. If you want to learn more about how to use SMS marketing strategies in combination with email marketing, check out our guide.

The post 5 SMS Marketing Examples Your Audience Actually Wants to Receive appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Some people say newspapers are dead, but The New York Times (NYT) isn’t taking that lying down. It has maintained its classic brand and award-winning content while evolving its product to serve a digital audience. Besides its website that serves as a digital news source for its readers, it has curated one of the most popular daily email newsletters in the world. The newsletter, called The Morning, has garnered over 17 million subscribers.

So, how has The New York Times built a newsletter subscriber list over twice the population of New York City? It took the strengths of its centurial newspaper and adapted them to a new platform. It translated attention-grabbing headlines into subject lines. It adapted award-winning photojournalism into newsletter illustrations. And it turned renowned news stories into a newsletter its subscribers eagerly wait for each morning.

While your organization may not be an iconic newspaper, you can apply many of the same principles The New York Times has used to build your own successful newsletter. That is, a newsletter that is engaging and informative, keeps your readers coming back, and ultimately promotes your brand to a captivated audience.

1. Short, intriguing subject lines

Eye-catching newspaper headlines have been a long-standing tradition in the world of journalism, a skill The New York Times has leveraged in its email newsletter subject lines. The Morning features succinct subject lines with compelling descriptions you can’t help but want to open.

The Morning email subject lines are typically no more than four words following the title of the newsletter. They offer enough for the reader to know what the featured story is about but hold back the details, so the reader has to click to find the resolution.

Don’t worry — even if you don’t have harrowing war stories or political unrest to share in your newsletter, you can still curate eye-catching headlines. Start with determining a distinct perspective or value to share with your readers. From there, isolate the most essential concepts or words and think about the goals of your customer.

For example, if your value proposition is a 50% off sale on summer clothing, don’t just share a deadpan subject line that says, “we have a sale.” Instead, offer your customer the tangible and aspirational value of the sale in your subject line. For example, your subject line could be “50% Off Summer Fashion Statements!” This highlights the savings value as well as the goal they can attain by participating (making a fashion statement).

Source. In this issue of The Morning, the subject line only uses two words (and an abbreviation) following the title of the newsletter. And yet, just those couple of words create a striking image in the mind of the reader.

2. Vivid imagery

The first thing you see when you open The Morning is an in-your-face graphic or image. Let’s just say The New York Times definitely takes advantage of its award-winning photojournalists and designers when it comes to producing its newsletter. The image immediately conjures an emotion, making the reader invested right from the start.

The opening graphic in your email newsletter is like the welcome mat to the narrative you create within. Make sure it invites your readers in and tells them what they can expect. Maybe it says, “groundbreaking news” or “innovative ideas.” Or maybe it says, “If you’re pizza, Amazon, or Ryan Gosling, I’m home” (our favorite).

Source. The striking image of grieving loved ones puts a face to the opioid crisis, driving home the individual impact of the headline.

3. Clear sections and clean design

The Morning makes it clear what its readers can expect in each section with descriptive section headers and clear dividing lines. The simple black and white print is not only reminiscent of its newspaper roots but also makes its content easily legible.

So maybe a straightforward black-and-white design doesn’t fit your brand or audience but maintaining legibility is still key. This includes taking into account the 49% of users reading email on a mobile device. Are your emails optimized for mobile? Is your content skimmable? Is the contrast between the font and background stark enough that it’s easy to read?

Source. Each The Morning newsletter opens with a header, the author’s name, and then the lead story, separated by a thick dividing line. Similarly, the rest of the newsletter is broken into sections by a thick black line and section title. The sections are divided by news, opinion pieces, books, Times Magazine content, and games, so the reader can easily skip to the sections that interest them the most.

4. Timely and comprehensive content

The Morning gives readers everything they need to carry on conversations about culture and world events. It features events that are happening currently but also provides resources to understand upcoming news-worthy topics. The newsletter also explores cultural moments in time such as food, literature, art, and entertainment.

Even if your business is not reporting the news, it’s worth taking a note from The New York Times when it comes to timeliness cultural relevance in your content. This might look like making sure your promotions are in line with current holidays, your event reminders give your audience enough notice to act, and your voice and tone are in line with cultural trends.

Source. The Morning features a headlining story each day that highlights a major current event before moving into the culture and entertainment sections. No need to wonder what everyone is talking about around the water cooler when you get The Morning every … well, morning.

5. Authoritative voice and tone

Even the most renowned newspapers in the world have to maintain authority and trust with their readership. Most major news organizations try to distance their journalists from their work to promote the idea of unbiased news. However, The New York Times takes a unique stance in its newsletter by having each one “hosted” by one of its renowned journalists. This builds a personal connection with the reader and establishes trust and credibility by having a respected name on the byline.

In addition to naming the writer, the content is written in a strong authoritative voice and tone. There are no qualifying statements or punches pulled; the writers take a clear stance in every issue.

You may not be a leader in political or cultural opinion, but you do have the opportunity to be an authoritative voice in your industry niche. Own your space, take a stance on industry practices or trends, and challenge the status quo. Make a statement your readers will not only remember you for but come back for.

Source. The New York Times is not above questioning even commonly held beliefs about “science.” No topic or entity is too big for it to address; journalists write with the authority of an organization that leads public opinion.

Create your iconic newsletter

You may not be The New York Times, but you can still create unforgettable newsletters that subscribers will come back for and share. Good newsletters can promote their email enough to build a list, but great newsletters will grow themselves. Get started creating yours today with our easy drag-and-drop templates that will make your newsletter stand out in the crowd.

The post What Makes NYT’s “The Morning” Newsletter One of the Most Popular in the World appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Similar to Farmers Insurance, “we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two” when it comes to email marketing. Every year, we study over 100 billion emails to curate an annual report about email marketing trends and engagement. And do you know what we’ve found? The best time to send an email newsletter varies by industry, audience, and engagement goals. There is no one-size-fits-all time to send an email newsletter.

The core of email marketing engagement is a newsletter tailored to your product, brand, and target audience. To accomplish this, it’s essential to continually test, analyze, and optimize your email campaigns. What does this look like in real-time? Let’s dig in.

Test your emails

The foundation to perfecting email engagement is testing what works and doesn’t work for your audience in every aspect. This includes testing the time of day you send, subject lines, copy, graphics, and other key elements of the email.

Note that this may be different for each audience segment, product, and type of email (i.e., feature announcement vs. welcome email) you send. It may sound overwhelming to test so many things with multiple segments, but thankfully there’s a systematic way to approach email tests that will simplify uncovering trends: A/B testing.

1. Segment your email subscriber list

To segment your subscriber list, divide your email list into smaller lists according to key characteristics, such as demographic, business type, purchase behavior, or location. Segments will allow you to see what has the most impact on each brand audience as well as provide more targeted email marketing in the future.

Ideally, your email marketing platform should have a segmentation tool that will make it easy to do. Here’s how it works on Campaign Monitor’s platform.

2. Form a hypothesis

Once you have segmented lists, it’s time to form a hypothesis, or “educated guess,” just like you would in a scientific test. To develop your hypothesis, first pick a segment of your list to focus on, then pick a single element to test that’s key for that group.

For example, you may make an educated guess about what the outcome would be of changing the time you send welcome emails. Similar to setting a goal, your hypothesis should be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound). In this case, your hypothesis could be “sending welcome emails within 10 minutes of a user joining will increase email open rates by 6% over the next three months with the new user segment.”

3. Split each segment into an “A” and “B” test group

Now that you’ve formed your hypothesis, split the subscriber segment in two: an “A” group for your control group and a “B” group for your test group.

Split the segment equally at random to ensure the results aren’t skewed one way or the other. The easiest way to achieve random group selection is to use an email service provider (ESP) that has built-in A/B testing.

Assess if each group is large enough to provide statistically significant results to ensure the most accurate data. If the groups are too small or not varied enough, the test will be prone to just reflect the results of randomness. Whereas a larger group will increase the accuracy of results by reducing the probability of randomness.

A statistically significant group is determined by a few factors and a lot of math. If you’re not a statistician or just don’t like doing math (because who does?), you can easily find the right size by using an A/B test calculator. A good starting size is usually at least 1,000 subscribers, but again, that can be lower or higher depending on the test and the subscriber list.

4. Create “A” and “B” test assets

To test a specific aspect of your email, create two variations of the same email with just that single element changed to reflect your hypothesis.

For example, create two identical welcome emails, but send one at the time you typically send your welcome emails and one at the time reflected in your hypothesis. Following the hypothesis example above: if you typically send your welcome emails two days after the user joins, send your control email at this time. Your test group email could be sent 10 minutes after the new user joins to test the effectiveness against your baseline results from your control group.

The only thing different between the two emails should be the time you sent them. If you were to test more than one element, it is called multivariate testing. For example, a multivariate test would be if you were testing both the time the email is sent and different subject line. You should only use multivariate testing when you are testing combinations of different elements. And it’s best to implement multivariate testing only after testing each individual element.

For example, after you test and find the most effective time to send your email, you can then combine it with winning subject lines to measure the combined impact. If you attempt to test all aspects of an email at the same time, it can be difficult to determine which is contributing positively or negatively to the overall outcome.

5. Run your test on a platform that can measure results

Now it’s finally time to hit play on your test. Make sure you send your email from an ESP that has a strong analytics dashboard so you can easily measure and assess the results. Remember to isolate all variables except the one you’re testing. So if you’re testing send times, don’t write different subject lines and send on different days of the week or different times of day. Include the same subject lines in both emails, and just change the time sent.

Analyze the data

Once you’ve run your test, it’s time to assess the outcomes and determine if your hypothesis was correct or not. When testing the hypothesis above, for example, look at open rates for each email segment to measure the impact of send time. Whichever group had the highest open rate would be the “winner.”

If you’re using an ESP that has built-in A/B testing, the platform should do most of the hard work for you. For example, in Campaign Monitor’s A/B test analytics dashboard, you can view graphs of your results and conversion values all at the same time.

In addition to analyzing the results as they pertain to the individual test, assess the results in light of your overall email newsletter performance. This will allow you to gain further insights into the potential impact it could have on other email segments. For example, if a personalized subject line increased open rates with new customers, consider running the same test with other list segments.

Optimize based on the results

The data you gather and analyze will only go as far as you implement it. The key to long-term vitality is to implement the changes indicated by the test results as well as continuously iterate on them. Your audience’s needs change, your brand will likely evolve, and, as such, your email marketing campaigns need to adapt. To effectively adapt, A/B testing should be an ongoing practice.

Note that how you choose to optimize your email will have varying impacts. Therefore, it’s essential to set a clear primary goal before making changes to your email marketing. Our research has found that the best day and the perfect time to send an email is not only subjective to your industry but also to your goals.

For example, Mondays, on average, have the highest open rates, but Tuesdays have the highest click-through rate (CTR). So, if your goal is higher open rates, Monday may be a better day. But if a higher CTR is your goal, then a better bet would be Tuesday. All of this is subjective to your industry and audience, so it’s important to test this with your specific email list.

It’s also important to tailor your changes to each audience segment because, again, email optimization is largely dependent on the audience. Sweeping, universal changes to your email marketing are typically less effective. They must be personalized and tailored to each audience segment’s needs to drive the greatest impact. In fact, according to research by Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with a brand that offers a personalized experience.

Uncover the data that will tell you the right time to send an email newsletter for your audience

Campaign Monitor is the email marketing platform built for real marketing professionals. Our email marketing analytics uncover the trends that a winning email marketing strategy is built on.

Discover the trends specific to your audience in your own Campaign Monitor dashboard. You won’t see any gimmicky email functions, cutesy monkeys, or best guesses here. Instead, you’ll get real-time data that gives you a clear direction on what your customers want and need. You won’t just find the best time to send them emails; you’ll discover what makes your audience convert.

The post How to Find the Best Time to Send an Email Newsletter to Your Audience appeared first on Campaign Monitor.