11 Email Marketing Tips to Drive Sales
11 Email Marketing Tips to Drive Sales
Looking to push your business forward, boost engagement, and ultimately drive sales? Then there aren’t too many options more effective and easy-to-enact than ramping up your email marketing. Studies have consistently shown that email marketing can offer a terrific ROI. In recent years, email ROI was generally thought to be a pretty staggering $36 - $40 for every dollar spent, and though it might not be quite at those heights anymore, it’s still considered an essential marketing strategy.
However, as with all marketing strategies, businesses can’t just sling out a few emails and expect results. There’s an art to ensuring that your marketing emails are delivered, read, and engaged with. In this post, we’ll run through some of the best strategies for 2025 and beyond; take them on board, and you should notice that your open rates are improving and that more sales come your way.
Focus on Nurturing, Not Selling
Let’s start with a general tip. While there’s very much a place within email marketing for being more direct with your sales aspirations, it’s best not to be overly focused on this aspect of your emails. A better approach is to view your emails as an opportunity to nurture the relationship you have with your subscribers.
A good way to do this is to think of your subscriber’s experience of reading the email. They’ll get more from an email that’s filled with insights and valuable information than they would from an email that’s overly focused on the “Buy! Buy! Buy!” aspect. Ensuring that your emails are promotional but not overly salesy is paramount for keeping your subscribers on board.
Build Your Audience
You could write the greatest marketing emails of all time, but if you only have a handful of subscribers, then your campaigns are not going to be effective. If you’re not currently taking full advantage of the opportunities presented by email marketing, then your first step will likely be to grow your subscriber list.
There’s no hard and fast way to do this. It usually differs from one industry to the next. The main thing is that you offer your subscribers something in return for their email address. For example, maybe they’ll get 10% off their next order, or you’ll send them a free eBook.
Make it Easy to Unsubscribe
Now, you might wonder why we’re encouraging you to make it easy for your subscribers to, well, stop receiving your emails, but there’s a good reason why. The goal isn’t to have as many subscribers as possible; it’s to have as many engaged subscribers as possible.
You might think that well, who cares if they don’t open your email — they might do one day in the future, so it’s best if you keep them part of your subscriber’s list. But actually, unengaged subscribers can impact your email reputation score, which, if it gets too low, will increase the chances that your emails can get sent to the recipient’s spam folder.
Making it easy to unsubscribe means that uninterested recipients can easily remove themselves from your group. It’s also recommended to periodically prune your list by removing any subscribers who have shown zero engagement for a while; though if you do this, it’s best to send them a gentle email telling them that they’ll be removed if they don’t re-engage.
Be Consistent
Email marketing, like blog writing and social media posting, works best when it’s done on a consistent basis. A periodic email might work, but you’ll get better results if you’re sending marketing emails on a regular basis.
Again, there’s no hard and fast rule about how frequently you should be sending emails. For some businesses, sending emails 2/3 times per week will be best; for others, once a week — or once every two weeks — will be more appropriate.
One smart strategy is to give your subscribers a choice about how many times they receive your emails.
Stand Out
Even the best email marketing messages can get lost in the crowd. After all, there are a lot of emails being sent and received. One study found that the average person received 120 emails each day. That sounds excessive, but it’s probably closer to that number than it is to zero.
As such, anything that helps your email to stand out from the crowd should be highly welcome. After all, an email that’s a little more refined than the others is much more likely to be noticed. Two effective ways to do this are to use BIMI and write engaging subject lines.
Let’s start with BIMI. So what is BIMI? It stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification, and it allows brands to display their logo in the recipient’s email inbox. It’s an excellent strategy for not just standing out from the crowd, but also building trust with the recipient. In an age when consumer trust is more important than ever, BIMI offers an effective way for brands to boost their reliability and connection with their audience.
For your subject line, the key is to be catchy, engaging, and enticing. Subject lines that are 60 characters (around nine words) or less work best, since they help avoid cutoff.
Develop a Tone
There are some instances when adopting a more serious, professional tone is recommended, but that’s usually only when the brand itself is overly serious. In general, it’s best to keep the tone of your email copy conversational and casual. After all, it’s not a board meeting — your recipient will likely read your email after work when they’re sitting on their couch. In that context, a dry, cold, and overly professional email is unlikely to land well.
It’s recommended to read through your email copy out loud before you send it. If it flows naturally (as in, how you normally speak), then it’ll be job done. If it sounds like you’re delivering a technical lecture, then look at making some changes.
Include a CTA
We mentioned above that you should construct your marketing emails with the subscriber’s needs in mind. However, with that said, it’s also completely OK to be self-serving in your emails, too. That’s ultimately the whole point of your emails, after all.
Including a clear CTA (call to action) is paramount for making the most of your marketing emails. If you’ve crafted a great email, then you’ll already have your subscribers interested and on the hook for me. It’s your CTA that tells them what they should do next.
Your CTA could be anything, be it encouraging the recipient to buy now or to sign up for an online course. Whatever it is, make the CTA button subtle but noticeable. Putting it in a box that uses a contrasting color from the rest of the email is a good strategy.
Make Your Emails Mobile-Friendly
There’s a good chance that a sizable portion of your subscribers will view your email on their mobile device. This won’t come as a surprise if you’ve been paying any attention to marketing trends over the past few years. With more than half of all internet traffic coming from mobile, ensuring that your emails work just as well — if not better — on mobile as it does on desktop is paramount.
In all likelihood, the email client you use will include the option to create your emails using responsive design (though always check the final results before sending). Beyond that, it’s all about keeping your subject lines short, using a bigger-sized font, and utilizing plenty of white space (cluttered emails look especially jarring on mobile devices).
Send At the Right Time
If you’ve taken every other piece of advice on this list, then you should have an email that can pack a powerful punch.
But if you’re not sending it at the right time, then there’s every chance that your subscribers bypass the email completely. For instance, no one’s likely to open an email that’s sent on a Friday night. If they receive the email in the early morning on a Wednesday, however, or during their lunch hour, then they’ll be much more likely to click it open.
Personalize the Experience
Personalization has become a big deal in the marketing world, and with good reason: it works. After all, anything that makes the recipient feel more like a valued individual, rather than just another number, than receiving the personal touch.
The easiest way to personalize the experience is to include the recipient’s name in the subject line and at the beginning of the email. You can also send post-purchase emails, birthday offers, product recommendations based on their search/purchase history, and cart abandonment emails.
Respect The Customer’s Time
Finally, one underrated way to boost the quality and engagement of your email marketing strategies is to respect the customer’s time. You’ll have your own interests in sending the emails, but remember that it doesn’t take much for consumers to lose patience, especially in an age when they’re bombarded with marketing materials. Make your emails worth their time, don’t send too many, and you should get all the benefits of a great email marketing campaign.
