Category Archives: E-mail Marketing

Ever sent an email and agonized over what’s a good closing sentence? 

This guide to professional email closings will put those awkward moments behind you.

Packed with clear explanations, funny anecdotes, and a library of ideas and examples, this resource will transform your email endings from an afterthought to a strategic asset.

Find out how to sign all types of emails (and how *not* to sign them) in the guide below.

@twelve3media spiraling is the theme this week #emailsignatures #agencylife #unhingedemail ♬ Funny video “Carmen Prelude” Arranging weakness(836530) – yo suzuki(akisai)

What is an email sign-off?

An email sign-off is the short word or phrase you use before your name at the end of an email.  Email sign-offs convey the tone of a message while signaling the end.

Email sign-off v. email signature: What’s the difference?

An email sign-off is the closing phrase used to signal the end of your message. An email signature is the block of text that contains your name, title, company, and contact information.

Email sign-off:

Best regards

Sincerely

Thanks

Email signature: 

Jane Doe
CEO
JaneDoeFitness.com

Why a good email sign off matters

Closing your email with the right sign off builds better relationships. The right closing line can personalize your communication in ways that boost your response rate and brand sentiment.

A good closing line can help set the tone for future communications. 

For example, a good sign off can do any one of the following:

Convey a positive emotion.

Spark a response.

Establish authority or professionalism.

Show respect or courtesy.

Make the reader smile or laugh.

👉 Nearly all email users (99%) check their inbox daily and spend an average of ten seconds reviewing each brand email. 

Most people do see your email sign offs, so how you end your emails matters.

How email sign offs affect response rates

Thinking of skipping that email sign off in your marketing emails? If so, be warned you may lose potential sales.

One study found that appreciative-style sign offs get as much as a 14% higher response rate than friendly or warm responses.

However, one study doesn’t mean you should tag “Thanks in advance” at the end of every email. Higher response rates rely on many factors, including your message and relationship with the reader. 

Choose closing lines that align with your company’s personality, email content, and target audience. 

And don’t hesitate to experiment! 

Like any other type of email content, the best results come from testing different approaches and monitoring your metrics to learn what’s best for your KPIs. 

How to write a good email sign off

The best way to end an email depends on your message and its reader. If you’re writing on behalf of your company, brand voice guidelines play a heavy role in how you craft emails.

Who is your reader? 

What is the age, location, culture, and mindset of the person(s) you’re writing to?

Think about how the sign off may be perceived by people in different locations, age groups, and cultures.

Source: Reddit

What’s the email context? 

Match the tone of your sign off to the email message. Align your closing with the formation of the email’s content.

What company are you representing?

Follow your brand’s voice and tone guidelines to ensure the sign off fits with its personality. 

What emotion do you want to convey?

Do you want to close your email with a touch of warmth, humor, professionalism — or something else?

Email sign off do’s and don’ts for professionals

Here are the most basic rules for composing a professional email sign off.

Email sign off “Do’s”

Do align endings with your brand voice. Fit your closing line with the overall tone of your company.

Do match sign offs to your email message. For example, use something like “Sincerely” for a formal request and “Thanks” in response to a favor. 

Do consider your reader(s). Current events, personal religious practices, and language variations play a role in how your closing line is perceived.

Do keep it short. Long sign offs are distracting and sometimes annoying.

Do spell-check your email sign offs. Remember to include your sign off line when spell-checking!

Source: Reddit

Email sign off “Don’ts”

Don’t add too much personality. Avoid overly quirky sign-offs that distract from your message.

Don’t use sarcasm. In written communication, sarcasm is easily misinterpreted.

Don’t skip the sign off. Not including a closing line may sound abrupt or feel distant.

Don’t go emoji-crazy. A parade of emojis 😻🥳 🥰🤣🤯 is a turn-off in most professional settings. Don’t use more than one (if that).

Don’t forget to keep it professional. Closings such as “xoxo” or “yeehaw” are not for business emails!

13 Email sign offs to avoid at all costs

If you’re in the habit of using any of these sign off lines, it may be time to make a change.

“Best” is sometimes misinterpreted as abrupt or insincere.

“Regards” feels formal and distant.

“Cheers,” unless you’re British, feels insincere.

“Yours truly” is outdated and overly formal.

“Take care” seems dismissive and overly casual.

“Peace” is overly casual and sometimes inappropriate.

“With all due respect” sounds confrontational.

“Have a nice day” may sound insincere or cliche.

“Take it easy” comes across as too informal and sometimes flippant.

“Looking forward to your response” can feel passive-aggressive.

“Yours sincerely” or “Yours faithfully” is outdated and way too formal.

“XOXO” or other overly-friendly sign offs.

Abbreviations such as “Thx” or “Rgds.”

Source: Reddit

Email sign off examples for every occasion

Looking for ideas for your next formal, funny, or appreciative email? You’ll find these and more in the lists below.

Formal email sign offs

Closing an email with a formal sign off works great for traditionally formal workplaces such as law and finance companies. 

These also work well for formal departments, like Human Resources or legal, within any company.

Sincerely,

Regards,

Best regards,

Respectfully yours,

Thank you,

Warm email sign offs

Warm email closings are a great choice when you want to convey a sense of warmth while still maintaining professionalism.

Warm regards

Thanks,

Cheers,

Have a great day/weekend.

All the best

Friendly email sign-offs

Ending your email in a friendly tone is a nice way to close a conversation with someone you know and like.

Kind regards,

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Have a wonderful day/week

Until next time,

See you there!

Appreciative email sign offs

With appreciation

Thank you for making this possible

Thanks for your consideration

Thanks again

Thanks again, and have a great week!

Ann Handley (one of the most famous content writers on the planet) often signs her newsletter with generous appreciation. 

“Thanks for reading this. Thanks for your kindness and generosity. Stay Sane. Stay healthy. See you again on ….”

Casual email sign offs

Casual closing lines are a good fit for internal emails with colleagues, quick informal messages, and follow-up emails.

Thanks so much

Thanks

Talk soon

All the best

Have a great one

Funny email signoffs

If you know the person well or have a brand that lends itself to humor, a funny email sign off can be a great way to end an email.

Here are a handful of humorous email sign offs to get you started:

May your salad have fries on it*

Hope no one parks in your bike lane*

Avoid the potholes*

May your Wi-Fi be strong and your Monday be short

TIP: Proceed with caution when ending an email with humor.

If you don’t have a close relationship with your reader or live in the same town, there’s a good chance your joke or pop culture reference will land wrong. Proceed with caution when using humor to end an email.

Timeless classic email sign-offs for any occasion

Choose a classic email sign off if you work in a formal setting or are writing to someone you don’t know.

Regards,

Best regards,

Sincerely,

Thank you

In the example below, HR research firm McLean & Company signs off with “Sincerely.” The classic sign off is a perfect fit with its overall brand tone.

Other email sign offs

When closing a unique type of message, match the context to the theme of your email.

Hope to see you there!

Thanks for the feedback,

Excited to get started!

For example, one Growth Tools newsletter included an invitation for readers to join in on an upcoming training session. 

It closed with a CTA, Click here to save your seat, followed by a 2-line email sign off that reads “I honestly CAN’T WAIT! See you there, “

How to end marketing emails

Here are some suggestions, examples, and tips for signing off on marketing emails such as: 

Email newsletters

Welcome emails

Nurture emails

Promotional emails

Abandoned cart emails

Email newsletters

Engage your newsletter readers with email sign offs that prompt engagement.

To encourage interaction, close your newsletter with an open ended question. 

You can follow it with a prompt such as “Hit reply and let me know,”

What’s your favorite?

How’s your week going?

Did you find this resource helpful?

Got any weekend plans you want to share?

What’s one random fact you know that always surprises people?

For example, you might ask: “What’s the best story you’ve illustrated with a chart? What do you think made it work as well as it did? Reply and let me know.”

Welcome emails

Make a good first impression and encourage engagement by signing off welcome emails in a way that makes readers feel glad they joined your list.

Keep your ending short and focused on the main welcome message. Align the tone (playful, serious, caring, etc) with your brand voice.

Close your welcome emails with a line that makes readers feel welcome.

Welcome email sign off examples:

Welcome aboard!

We’re glad you’re here!

Thanks for joining us!

Have any questions? Hit reply!

Get ready for exciting updates!

Business growth and customer experience expert Jay Baer takes a friendly and appreciative tone with the email sign off in his welcome series. 

His sign off is longer than most — but worth every word. 

“Thanks so much. I’ll be back in your inbox soon. Any questions – ever – I’m Jay@JayBaer.com  and I answer every email personally!”

Source: Jay Baer Welcome Email

Nurture emails

Build trust with your readers and keep them engaged with email nurture series sign offs that encourage further communication.

End your nurture emails with a prompt to continue engagement.

Nurture email sign off examples:

Have any questions? Hit reply and let me know.

What are your thoughts on this?

Join the conversation on Instagram.

Happy learning!

In the meantime, check out this [relevant resource]. (Provides additional helpful content)

For example, Bill Mueller of Story Sales Machine signed off his latest email with a question and engagement prompt.

“Have a suggestion on what I should make sure is covered? Hit reply and let me know. Appreciate you.”

Promotional emails

Encourage action by signing off (or opening with) a phrase that encourages action. 

Close your promotional emails with a call to action.

Depending on your email message and the type of business you represent, promotional email sign offs vary quite a bit. 

If you’re promoting a single service or product, you may prefer to sign off with a traditional CTA such as

Buy now

Schedule your free consultation

Try it free!

However, if you’re showcasing multiple products or service packages, you probably already included several purchase-driven CTAs in your message. 

When you’ve already included multiple product CTAs in the message, sign off with a secondary prompt related to something other than your products.

Sales/promotion secondary CTA sign off examples:

Let’s text? Sign up now for insider discounts.

Be in the know! Sign up for texts & get $25 off.

Get social with us [followed by social media icons]

This week only: Register for [event] and receive [gift]. Save your spot.

Download the [name] app.

For example, Zazzle’s call-to-action prompts user-generated content with the line “Love it. Snap it. Share it. #ZazzleMade”

Audible encourages readers to try a free sample by closing with a matching text prompt and CTA button.

“Sample before you stream. Discover a range of binge-worthy content, all in one place. [Listen Now]”

How to end professional emails

Here’s how to close out professional correspondence such as outreach, sales, customer service, and team emails.

How to end outreach emails

Invite further communication and show respect for your reader’s time when writing outreach emails.

How to end an outreach emailLet me know if you have any questions.Would you be open to connecting?Thanks for your time and consideration.Looking forward to hearing from you.I’d be happy to schedule a quick call to discuss further.

How to end sales emails

Encourage your reader to take the next step with a strong call to action when ending a sales email.

How to end a sales emailWould you like to see a demo [schedule a free consultation]?Looking forward to working with you.Let’s schedule a time to chat.I’m available to answer any questions you may have.I appreciate your time and consideration.

How to end customer service emails

Project a helpful and friendly attitude plus show that you prioritize customer issues when ending a customer service email.

How to end a customer service emailThanks for your patience.We appreciate your business.Let’s schedule a time to chat.Is there anything else I can help you with?Please let me know if you have other questions.

How to close an email to a team member

How you sign off emails to team members can affect how they think of you and how they think of themselves. 

Thoughtful email closings reinforce mutual respect and a healthy working relationship.

Source: Reddit

Show respect and appreciation, and add a touch of positivity, when ending an email to a team member.

How to end a team emailThanks for your hard work on this.Thank you for making this possible.Have a great weekend!Keep up the great work!I’m so proud to be a part of this team.

How to use AI-powered tools for better email sign offs

AI-powered email marketing programs can help you compose the perfect email signoff — as you write the email.

AI tools provide ideas, feedback, and proofreading functions that improve the quality of your email messages and your email sign offs. 

Check out how easy it is to use AI-powered features when writing an email.

How to end an email 👍

The best email sign offs have four things in common:

Relevant to the email message

Matched to your brand’s voice and tone

Takes into account demographic differences such as location, age, and culture.

Suits the relationship you have with the reader.

You’ll love how easy it is to take advantage of the latest technology (such as AI suggestions) with AWeber email marketing platform.

Sign up for a free AWeber account today to make composing the perfect email sign off easier!

The post How to end an email: Avoid awkward sign offs and master the close appeared first on AWeber.

Have you noticed a significant number of your email list subscribers are no longer interacting with your content or following your calls to action? Then it may be time to start a re-engagement email campaign!

This can be a super effective email marketing strategy for winning back inactive subscribers. 

After all, one study indicates that the average email list decay rate, which is the percentage of subscribers who become inactive, is between 22% and 30% per year.

This means that, unless you’re cleaning your email list regularly, you’re likely sending a lot of messages into the void, never to be seen again.

However, with re-engagement emails, you can start winning back some of those inactive subscribers. To be successful, though, you’ll need to keep some best practices in mind.

So, in this article, we’ll explore how to write win-back emails. We’ll also provide examples of some effective re-engagement email campaign strategies, from one-off surveys and free resources to entire email sequences.

What is a re-engagement email?

A re-engagement email, also called a “win-back email”, is a message you send to subscribers who have become inactive. 

These emails aim to rekindle the interest of people who have not made a purchase or interacted with your brand for a while.

Re-engagement email campaigns are a great strategy for sparking the interest of inactive subscribers before removing them from your mailing list. After all, emailing unresponsive subscribers with messages isn’t helping them or your business.

Before saying goodbye, however, a win-back email offers one final opportunity to reconnect and rebuild your customer relationship.

Ultimately, your goal is to re-establish a connection with those who seem to have lost interest in your products, services, or content.

Here is an example re-engagement email from the newsletter pros at Marketing Brew. While the three-week inactivity timeline is pretty tight by most industry standards, they do a great job of ensuring their list is truly engaged with their content.

This way, they keep their email list clean, and ensure most of their messages aren’t getting lost in recipients’ spam folders.

How effective are re-engagement emails?

While re-engagement email campaigns are a great way to win back subscribers, you can’t expect every inactive subscriber to become active again.

Most email win-back campaigns have a success rate of 14% up to 29% in the best-case scenario. 

Several email marketing studies have found that sending a series of emails may be more effective than sending just a single email. A re-engagement sequence of three emails appears to be the sweet spot. 

One recent study found that several different tactics will work, but no one tactic significantly outperformed the others.

Later on, we’ll discuss how each of the methods below work, as well as provide a few additional examples. We’ll also tell you how to set up an effective re-engagement email sequence.

Remember though, the method that works best for your business depends on the needs and interests of your unique audience.

How create a re-engagement email

The goal of your re-engagement email campaign is to get people interested in your emails again. 

So, every element of your email – the subject line, the content, and the call-to-action – needs to support that goal.

Re-Engagement email subject lines

For re-engagement email subject lines, the best ones specifically reference your goal: to win back your subscribers!

Here is an example of an email from Tomasz Borys at Kissmetrics:

You can also take a more personal approach, like this email from Threadless:

Both subject lines work well. However, they each grab the reader’s attention in different ways.

A simple “We miss you!” lets the subscriber know that you appreciate their readership. It also feels more conversational. 

On the flip side, “Do you still want updates from us?” is direct and inquisitive. It tells the subscriber that you care about their time and want to make sure they get something out of the relationship.

For more inspiration, consider reviewing your past emails to see what’s working for your specific audience. Look for common themes like subject line length and tone to see what tends to work best for your target audience.

You can also try using personalization, like including your subscribers’ first names in the subject line. It’s no secret that personalization helps you connect with your subscribers and stand out a little more in the inbox. 

For example, the email from Threadless could have gone one step further by saying, “We miss you, Sam!”

Since these details depend on what your audience responds to, try testing different variations and find that sweet spot.

Re-engagement email content

Most re-engagement emails’ content is short – generally just two or three paragraphs. All you need to do is to make the purpose of your email clear: “Do you still want to get emails from us?”

Then, you might consider explaining the value your emails provide. 

Remember, these are people who signed up to receive messages from you but at some point stopped reading. 

They wanted to hear from you before, so how can you get them re-interested in what you have to say? 

Ask yourself a few questions:

What did my subscribers sign up to receive originally?

Am I continuing to send them content based on their original expectations?

Did I change anything in my email strategy that might have caused them to stop engaging with my content?

What can I offer to pique their interest again?

Once you have those answers in mind, it’s time to start writing your email.

Here’s an example of a re-engagement email we sent to our inactive blog newsletter subscribers:

The format is simple, and it makes a good template for any re-engagement email:

You haven’t opened any emails from us in a while

We want to make sure you’re still interested

Click this button to stay on the list

Here’s what you can expect if you remain on the list

That’s all you have to say in a re-engagement email–just one sentence and a few bullet points. After all, the shorter your email is, the more likely people are to read it and click the button.

Getting inactive subscribers up to speed might also help get them re-interested in your content. So, consider adding a short bulleted list of your recent “greatest hits,” such as:

Products

Content

Promotions

Re-engagement email incentives

Speaking of promotions, offering an incentive, like a white paper or coupon code, might also help you re-engage subscribers. 

If you hooked them onto your list with a piece of content in the past, consider how you might be able to repeat that success during your re-engagement email campaign.

Check out this example from Paperworks, a stationary and premium paper provider:

Offering a special discount is a great way to get subscribers interested in your emails again. 

Not only are you giving your subscribers something in exchange for their time and attention, but you might even get another sale out of it as well.

Re-engagement email feedback

To help you learn more about why subscribers grew disinterested in your content, asking them for specific feedback could help fill in the gaps. For example:

Was there something you could have done better for these subscribers? 

What made them stop engaging in the first place?

Asking these questions directly can help you figure out exactly where you can improve your email marketing strategy.

Additionally, if you make a subscriber feel like their opinion is truly valued, they may want to stick around. Plus, this will give you valuable insight into their needs that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.

As you get feedback and notice common themes, you can implement their suggestions in the future.

Re-engagement email call to action

The whole point of your email is to prompt subscribers to take an action, so make sure your emails have a call to action that is bold and clear.

Generally, you’ll want to limit yourself to one call to action in order to increase your click-through rate. However, there are exceptions to this rule.

Ultimately, your CTA should make it easy for recipients to:

Stay on or opt out of your list

Learn more about a product or service

Download an incentive

For example, check out this email and CTA from Grammarly:

While having one call to action is the classic approach, some re-engagement emails examples also include an unsubscribe link. 

For instance, take a look at this email from a PEW, a non-profit organization:

Finally, some re-engagement emails even let subscribers choose to get emails less often, like the example below.

7 Re-engagement email examples

Now that you’ve got a good idea of what goes into an effective win-back email, let’s look at some re-engagement email examples.

The following ideas are great ways to get customers interested in your brand again.

1. Surveys

If your subscribers aren’t responding to what you’ve been sending, try asking them what they would like to get from you. After all, this can help you better understand your audience’s interests and preferences. 

For example, you might send a re-engagement email with the subject line “We miss you! Tell us how we can improve.” Then, for your call to action, include a link to a brief survey. Consider asking questions about:

Their favorite types of content

Products they’re interested in

How often they’d like to hear from you

Ultimately, this feedback can help guide your future email marketing campaigns, as well as show subscribers you value their opinions.

2. Coupons and discounts

If you’re in ecommerce, the classic way to win back inactive customers is to send them a juicy discount coupon. 

Consider making this a dollar off discount rather than a percent off discount. One study of win-back campaigns found that dollar off discounts activated more subscribers.

For instance, you could send an email with the subject line “We miss you! Here’s $10 off your next purchase.” 

Then, in the content of your email, be sure to include your discount code and a call to action directing subscribers to your store.

You might also think about highlighting new or popular products to entice them even more.

3. New products and services announcements

Announcements are ideal emails to send out if you haven’t mailed to your list in a few months. They’re a great opportunity to let recipients know about new products or services you’re offering.

For example, consider sending a re-engagement email with the subject line “Check out our new arrivals!” 

Then, in your email content, be sure to showcase your latest and greatest products with high-quality images, and include a CTA to your online store.

By showing off your most recent arrivals, you can recapture the interest of customers who’ve grown tired of your old line of products.

4. Free resources

Free resources are also excellent to send if you haven’t emailed your list in awhile. 

A high-value digital resource, like an ebook or a course, can be a great way to demonstrate that it’s worth their time to be on your list. 

For instance, consider using the re-engagement email subject line “Exclusive free ebook just for you!” and provide a link to the download.

You should also be sure to highlight the value recipients will gain from the resource, reinforcing the value they’ll get if they remain active subscribers.

5. Customer testimonials

You can use customer testimonials with other types of content mentioned above. For instance, share a few testimonials about a new service you have.

Think about using a subject line like “See what others are saying about our new service!” and include direct quotes from customers.

This strategy can be especially effective in combination with some of the others listed above. 

For example, including testimonials with a new service announcement or special discount can build trust and credibility while encouraging inactive subscribers to re-engage.

6. Limited time offers

Another great way to win back subscribers is by inducing a sense of urgency in your emails. 

For instance, you might offer a limited-time discount or promotion to encourage recipients to take action quickly.

Consider using a subject line like “Limited time offer! $10 off just for you,” and include a countdown timer or specific end-date.

By inducing a sense of urgency, you can get customers to take action quickly.

7. Resubscription Offers

 Re-subscription offers can be a great incentive to get subscribers interested in your product or service again.

For instance, you might use the re-engagement email subject line, “We want you back! Enjoy 30 days of free premium access.” 

Then, include a CTA to your sign-up page where customers can try out your platform again for a limited time for free.

If your product or service is delivering the value the customer desires, there’s a good chance they’ll stick around after the free trial is over.

Re-engagement email campaign sequences

All email lists are different, so what works best in one situation may not work so well in another. One message might do the trick, but you could be more effective by sending two or three emails to warm people up and get them re-activated.

Since these subscribers are already less engaged, aim to keep your campaign short. Send an email, wait a few days, and see who’s interacted with your content.

If they’ve clicked through to your content or stated they want to remain on your email list, then great! They can stay on your list and continue to get your awesome emails.

Here are two re-engagement email examples that were sent a few days apart.

This is the first one. Notice how short it is?

 And here’s the next one, sent two days later:

The sequence of emails above is concise, and also respectful. Ultimately, even if subscribers opt not to re-engage, it’s important to consider what they want.

This way, if they develop interest in your products or services at a later date, you haven’t burned any bridges.

Start winning back subscribers with a re-engagement email campaign

If you take the time to craft a re-engagement email campaign, there’s a good chance you can win back some subscribers.

However, if some recipients haven’t responded, it may be time to say goodbye. And that’s perfectly ok!

You’ve done what you can to win them back, but if they don’t want to receive your emails, it’s better to let them go. Not only will they appreciate a cleaner inbox, but it’ll also help boost your email deliverability. 

Ultimately, this will improve your email marketing in the long run.

Now, we know that sometimes it can be really hard to write your emails. That’s why we created our What to Write in Your Emails guide and course, complete with 45+ email templates. It will save you hours of work every month.

How do you plan on running a re-engagement campaign of your own? Leave a comment below to share your ideas. 

Or, if you already have an AWeber account, watch this video to see exactly how to create and send your own re-engagement emails!

Re-engagement email FAQs

When should you send a re-engagement email?

Many marketing experts recommend that you wait at least three to six months after a subscriber becomes inactive to send a re-engagement email.

However, the proper amount of time can depend on your specific audience.

For example, if your content is time-sensitive or encourages frequent interaction, one to two months may be a better timeline.

You may even consider starting a win-back email campaign during other times. 

For example, if you’re planning a major list cleanup, updating your product or service offerings, or notice declining engagement rates, you might want to consider sending re-engagement emails.

Ultimately, it’s key to think about the behavior and preferences of your unique subscribers, and align them with your business goals.

How many emails should you send in a re-engagement campaign?

As we mentioned earlier, there’s no perfect number of messages to send in a re-engagement email campaign. 

What works best for your business depends on the preferences of your specific audience.

While sending just one email may be best for some brands, other brands may want to design a sequence of two, three, or even four emails.

So, be sure to test out some different strategies with different segments of your audience. This will help you understand how you can best win back your subscribers.

The post Re-engagement email examples: How to win back subscribers appeared first on AWeber.

Rather listen or watch? You’ve got it! 👇

Email design is critical to an effective email marketing strategy. While the actual information you communicate is important, design elements are just as crucial.

After all, studies show that 90% of the information transmitted to our brains is visual.

So, by incorporating email design best practices, you can leave a lasting impression on subscribers, help them remember and trust your brand, and drive more conversions.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a professional designer to create beautiful emails!

In fact, in this article, we’ll cover all the most important email marketing design best practices that anyone can apply, regardless of skill level. 

At the end, we’ll show you a few email design tools to help you start sending gorgeous emails in no time.

Why is email marketing design important?

Email marketing design goes beyond the mere aesthetics of your messages. In fact, design plays a crucial role in how recipients perceive your brand identity.

By giving your email design the attention it deserves, you can help build trust with recipients, get them to engage more, and even drive more conversions.

So, let’s take a look at some of the key reasons you should incorporate email design best practices into your marketing strategy.

1. Create a good first impression

If you’ve put in the effort to get users to sign up for your email list, then it’s key to make a good first impression!

WIth good email design, you can capture recipient’s attention and set a positive tone for their interaction with your brand.

A professional-looking design establishes trust from the outset, ensuring recipients feel like they’re getting the value you promised when they signed up for your list.

2. Drive more conversions

By establishing trust with effective email design, recipients will also be more likely to convert into customers.

So, with the right email design, you can help guide your audience towards the action you want them to take, whether that be making a purchase or downloading a resource.

3. Improve readability and engagement

Incorporating email design best practices is also key for improving the readability of your messages. 

For example, the use of subheadings and bullet points, along with visual elements, like images, can help make your emails more engaging.

A report by Litmus found that people spent an average of just nine seconds looking at an email. So, it’s key that those who open your emails are able to understand the information quickly and easily.

Remember, the easier your emails are to read, the more recipients will be engaged. When recipients are more engaged, they’ll be more likely to convert. 

4. Build recognition with a consistent brand image

One more key reason email marketing design is important is that it can help you build a consistent brand identity.

This is crucial to developing both trust and recognition amongst your recipients.

According to an Edelman report, 59% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand they trust, regardless of the price. Likewise, 67% are more likely to advocate and stay loyal to a brand they trust.

So, to create loyal customers, it’s critical to build a recognizable and reliable brand image. By incorporating email design best practices into your marketing, you can achieve this.

11 Email marketing design best practices

Now that you have a better understanding of why design is so important, let’s look at some email marketing design best practices.

By incorporating these tips into your emails, you’ll be able to send emails that create a recognizable brand identity, build trust with recipients, and improve engagement.

1. Pick the right email design layout

The right email layout can make the difference between a subscriber who takes an action and one who unsubscribes. 

Attention spans are getting shorter, so understanding how people read your emails will help you craft more effective messages.

Knowing where their eyes are likely to go can make your email more readable. Better yet, it can help the reader navigate towards your call to action. 

So, let’s explore a few types of email design layouts to help you do that.

Z-Pattern

The Z-Pattern traces the path of your eyes when reading: left to right; top to bottom.

People will read the first line across, then down and to the left, and back across the right again. When reading in this pattern, it forms a Z-shape.

This email design layout works best when you have a lot of information to communicate. The structure will help your subscribers consume all the information in an easy and logical way.

You’ll often see this type of email follow a pattern where you start with a headline and text on the top left, with an image to the right. Then, the lower left corner will have another image, and across from that will be text. 

This works because:

1. Readers’ eyes are naturally drawn to images. By having the images diagonal from each other, you help subscribers follow an easy-to-read path.

2. It creates a cleaner layout by not having all your text on one side of the email.

Inverted Pyramid

The inverted pyramid is a format used for news stories, but it also works well for emails. This structure grabs attention and focuses on the most important parts of your message. 

It’s good for when you have one thing to tell your readers, and a specific call to action you want them to click on. 

You can use this layout for:

Driving subscribers to your website to read an article

Collecting sign-ups for an event

Encouraging subscribes to purchase a product or service

F-Pattern

Finally, the Nielsen Norman Group first identified the F-Pattern after studying how people’s eyes read a website.

Similar to the Z-Pattern, a reader consumes content from left to right, and then back to the left. However, instead of reading across the second line, they read less. This pattern continues as readers make their way down the email.

This means you should put your most important, attention-grabbing information at the top of your email. 

Then, assume your subscriber is going to skim the rest of your email. Use less text further down in the email, and balance the copy with images on the right.

This email design layout works well when you have a lot of information to communicate. 

You should structure your email with the most important information at the top, and then use bullet points and shorter content further down the email. 

Finally, close with a call to action.

2. Choose the right colors

Select colors that reflect your logo and brand. However, be sure there’s enough contrast for easy reading. Remember, clarity is key!

Text that doesn’t have enough contrast against its background is hard to read.

It’s also a best email marketing design practice to incorporate color psychology. To choose complementary colors, check out this chart about the emotional impacts of different colors.

Free color palette tools like Coolors can also help you create a professional-grade palette in minutes.

Ultimately, this will ensure your emails are better aligned with your brand identity.

3. Leave some breathing room

Densely packed emails may be hard to read. This is especially true on mobile devices, where 49.7 percent of all email opens occur.

Most people scan emails rather than reading them word by word. So, having ample white space between elements makes your emails easier to scan. Essentially, it keeps them from looking visually overwhelming. 

Leaving extra white space has an additional benefit as well: it challenges you to keep your message brief and to only include the relevant details. 

Remember, brevity and clarity are critical to effective email design.

Here’s a great example from TrueCar.

4. Use text as a design element 

Formatting your emails for skimmers and scanners also helps. The most common formatting elements are: 

Subheadings

Short paragraphs

Bullet points

Bolded phrases 

Using visual cues like these will make the most important points of your email easy to find.

Look at this example from Jon Persson of CultMethod. He bolds important elements within the body of his email, while breaking up the copy with bullet points and perfectly-placed headlines. 

Most importantly, each paragraph is short and easy to read.

5. Balance text with images

You should also consider breaking up large chunks of text with visual images. Readers prefer short blurbs of information. So, try incorporating images and lines when possible.

Images help tell the story of what you want to communicate to your subscribers

Just be sure not to overdo it! Instead, follow the 60/40 rule: images should take up no more than 40% of your email.

6. Plan for missing images

Nearly all email services give subscribers the option to hide images. In fact, some even disable images automatically, forcing the user to click a link or press a button to “turn on” images. 

For example, here is how an email with a large hero image appears in Outlook:

Since many popular email platforms block images, you should make sure your email is still readable—and your call-to-action is still clickable—when images are turned off.

Rather than using image-based buttons that hide your CTA when images are turned off, try using a “bulletproof button” instead. This technique combines a background color with a regular text link, providing the illusion of a button that users can see when images are on or off.

Most email marketing services, like AWeber, allow you to easily create bulletproof buttons within your email design layout. 

If the images you’re using are an important part of your emails, make sure you add alt text to the image. This is text that describes what the image is about. 

If you’ve ever laid out webpages or worked with WordPress, you may have added alt text to images before.

When you include alt text, subscribers can still understand what you intended to show them, even if they block images.

7. Pick the right typography

As we’ve mentioned already, making your email easy to read is critical, and your typography is a huge part of this.

So, be sure the font you use in your subheadings and body copy are comfortably readable. Common email fonts include Arial or Helvetica, but you’re not limited to these.

Additionally, ensure you’re using a large enough font size. After all, you don’t want your recipients squinting to try to read your email. For example:

This font size is a 12px, and it can be difficult for people to read

This font size is 16px, which is large enough for most of your subscribers to read without zooming in.

8. Use clear links and buttons

You’ll likely include at least one or two links and buttons in your email marketing design. However, it’s important to make sure it’s clear where all of your links lead to.

For example, instead of writing phrases like “click here”, try using more specific labels.

Something like “buy now” or “get your demo” tell the reader exactly what will happen when they click on your link or button.

For example, in this email from Capital One, their button clearly communicates that when you click it, you’ll be able to view the details of their checking account offer.

9. Attract readers’ eyes

We already mentioned that you’ll want to include some visual elements, like images, in your email design. 

However, it can also be a good idea to add in some creative elements, like a GIF, to really grab your readers’ attention.

If you do opt to include a GIF, just be sure it enhances your message and doesn’t distract from what you want to communicate.

Ultimately, though, small creative touches like this can be a great way to grab attention and engage recipients.

10. Include a call to action

If you’re taking the time to build and send an email to your list, it’s key that you direct your subscribers to take some sort of action when they read it.

Calls to action can include anything from:

Encouraging subscribers to buy your product or service

Directing recipients to download a free resource

Getting recipients to sign up for an event or webinar

Ultimately, you want to engage your subscribers so they take the action you want them to take.

So, be sure to include a CTA that clearly communicates the value it can provide recipients, and make sure it stands out.

11. Send a test email

One more critical email marketing design best practice is to test your email before sending it out to your entire list. This will help you ensure there are no formatting errors in your design.

After all, you don’t want to put in all the effort to design your email only to realize it doesn’t look right in subscribers’ email inboxes.

So, be sure to send a test email to your own inbox first. 

Once you’re positive that it looks the way you want it to, then you can send it out to your entire list.

Email design tools to create beautiful emails

You don’t need to start from scratch to create beautiful emails. In fact, there are tons of email marketing tools that make design a breeze.

So, here are several email marketing design tools to help you get started.

1. Canva

Canva is a free graphic design tool that allows you to create and edit any kind of image. 

Better yet, AWeber has a fully-integrated Canva drag-and-drop button. This means you can create your images in Canva and drag them directly into your AWeber email.

2. Email templates

Sometimes simply getting started is the hardest part of sending an email. This is where an email template can come in handy. 

When you find the right template, most of the work is done for you. All you need to do is customize it to fit your brand by adding your logo and updating the colors. Then you’re ready to go!

AWeber has hundreds of email marketing and newsletter templates ready for you to customize for your messages. These can save you hours of time every week and let you skip most of the heavy lifting of designing your own emails. 

Here are just a few of the templates available. Each template also has at least three color palettes to choose from.

3. Try an email builder

Finally, online tools like Stripo, BeeFree, and Dyspatch also have templates and drag and drop email design editors. They’re similar to what you’ll find in your email marketing provider’s account, but some email designers prefer these tools. 

You can design an email in any of these tools and then import it into your email provider. 

Engage your subscribers with email marketing design best practices

If you’re not a pro designer, building a professional-looking email may seem a bit intimidating. 

However, by incorporating the email marketing design best practices above, you can start creating beautiful emails in no time.

Remember, good email design is critical to building trust, driving conversions, and establishing your brand identity. So, it’s key that you give your design the attention it needs to be effective.

Of course, if you want a custom-designed email or newsletter, we can help with that, too! AWeber offers both custom email templates and landing page designs. 

Full custom designs are $229, or a modification of an existing template is $29. Click here to learn more about our custom design services.

The post Email marketing design best practices: 11 Tips for non-designers appeared first on AWeber.

More than half of all aspiring creators want to go into content creation. That’s more than those hoping to sell products and services. Consider that alongside the fact that most people prefer educational content to entertainment content.

One of the most popular forms of sellable educational content is the online course. A key reason for this is how easy it can be to create one.

But don’t you need a huge following to sell a course? Not necessarily. In 2021, about 62% of online students were taking courses created by people with fewer than 10,000 social media followers.  

You may not need a huge audience to have a successful course, but you need to get a few things right. Today, we’re going to share exactly how to create an online course to sell. You’ll even learn ways to do it without spending a lot of money or taking a lot of time. 

Let’s dive right in.

1. Choose your topic

Want to learn the harmonica? There are dozens of courses on Udemy teaching over 100,000 students how to play. Another big online course platform, Domestika, has 100+ courses just on lettering. A quick online search can help anyone find a way to master indoor shrimp farming or get outdoors for some African animal tracking.

Don’t be shy about picking an unusual topic. Weird is okay, so long as there’s enough of an audience to make your course worth creating. Many people are looking for niche content.

If you’re not sure what you could create a course about, here’s an easy exercise to find out. On a plain sheet of paper, make three columns:

[wptb id=102515]

Fill out the columns for at least five different topics. It’s good to have a few ideas to work with so you can stay open to the course topic most likely to succeed.

Now, ask yourself: What’s the need? What problems exist around these topics? Why haven’t they solved it yet? Did they think it would be too hard, too expensive, too likely to fail? Are other sources missing key information that you can provide?

When you’ve got a few topics and the why behind why someone would take a course about it, you’re ready for the next step. Just don’t skip the why! It’s super important.

2. Choose your audience

The more specific you are about who your course is for, the more likely you are to be successful.

For example, take the topic of “how to talk to your teenager.” Could that be for parents in general, or for single parents, or for single dads, or for single dads who just got a divorce?

People respond to courses that are laser-targeted to their needs. The most common question a prospective buyer (or even a free course taker) will have about your course is, “Is it right for me?” Even if you’ve got a lot of raving testimonials and great course content, everyone who considers your course will still be asking themselves, “Is this course right for me?”

The better you target your audience, the more likely it is that people will feel confident in taking it.

Pro tip: Go find a few popular courses on a public platform like Udemy. Then think about how you could do a course about that same topic but for a specific target market. 

Your target market can be a demographic (urban men 28-35), or people who share a common attribute, like “How to grow great houseplants – even if you tend to kill them.”

3. Confirm there’s a market and interest in your course

Nothing stings more than creating a full, fabulous course that no one wants. And sadly, while this is a common piece of advice, many course creators still ignore it.

Go find at least a few people who say they’d be interested in your course. Here are the three best ways to do this: 

Search for competitors

Go to Udemy or any other major course platform and do a search for what your course could be about. Here’s a sample search on Udemy for “choose a freelance writing niche.”

Google works just fine for this, too. Just Google “[your topic] course” and see what turns up. Also, try a few searches on YouTube and Instagram.

If you find a few courses, try to see how many students they have. Sometimes this is easy; other times, not so much.

Ask

Even if your audience is small, ask them if they’d be interested in your course. Or borrow someone else’s audience. Many Facebook group admins will let you post a question like this in their group, especially if you contribute to the discussions a lot.

If you’ve got a little bit of budget, you can also run ads to your target audience to see if they’d like your course. You might have to do a “dry test” – aka “pre-sell your course” to know how interested people are. Or you can offer a lead magnet that’s basically a slimmed-down version of your course. If the lead magnet does well, people are at least interested in the topic.

Find high-interest topics that don’t already have courses

This is a little riskier, but just because no one’s made a course on a certain topic doesn’t mean you can’t be the first. Just be cautious — if no one has created a course on your topic, there may be a reason.

The best places to find hot topics are via Amazon book searches, YouTube top searches, and (sometimes) hashtags on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Facebook groups can be another rich source of information.

4. Find out what people want to know

This is yet another critical part of how to create an online course to sell. People will go through the entire process of creating a course, write up their sales page, pay good money to send people to that sales page, and…no one will buy.

A lot of things can cause a lack of sales, of course. But it comes down to this: You’re offering something people don’t really want. And so, while picking the right topic and the right audience are key to this, so is including what people want in a course.

This is a little more work than just leaping into content creation, but boy, is it worth the time. Here are the three best ways to get this done:

Talk to potential students

Ideally, you’ll have an email list of people (even a couple hundred people is enough). You’ll have sent out an email asking if anyone is interested in this course idea you’ve got.

Say ten people indicate interest. You get back to these potential students and try to get them on a Zoom call or a phone call to talk to them about what they’d like you to include in the course. Record those conversations if you can. If not, take the best notes you can. If you have to pay them, do it.

Getting people to talk to you directly is the best way to find out what your course should include. You’ll learn an enormous amount about your audience in just a few calls.

Do a survey

Again, you can do this with an email list. Or you can try to get people on social media to respond to a few quick polls.

Go to online groups (Facebook groups are the easiest to find)

See what people are talking about. See which posts get the most engagement. See what people are asking about. 

5. Define the transformation

Sounds dramatic, right? “Define the transformation” means finding a concise way to explain how people will be different after they take your course.

You see, people don’t really care how much content you’ve crammed into your course. They don’t care if you’ve got 90 hours of video and 23 workbooks and 45,000 words of text-based lessons. All that might make them less likely to buy your course.

Most people just want to get from point A (where they are now) to point B (where they want to be). The more efficiently your course gets them from A to B, the more they’ll want to take it.

So, work on how to explain this in a way that’s crystal clear. Do this before you start creating content.

As you’re “defining the transformation,” really what you’re doing is building a path for people through your course’s content. You’re giving them (and you) a goal. You’re also saving yourself so much work.

There’s another benefit to thinking of your course simply as taking people from A to B: It helps you write your sales page and all your marketing materials. But more on that in a moment. 

6. Block out the sections and lessons of your course

Now it’s time to block out your course’s lessons. But first, do yourself a favor: Establish a structure.

Block out three to five major sections of your course, with each section having three to seven lessons. That’s enough material for your course to feel meaty, but still concise enough so people don’t get overwhelmed. And people can definitely get overwhelmed with course content. If you tend to “over-deliver,” be aware of this.

Once you’ve got your course’s sections and lessons blocked out, it’s time to figure out what each lesson will cover. Aim for three to seven key points for each lesson.

Brevity is your friend here, too: People will zone out if a lesson is too long. Try to have your video lessons be 10 minutes or less (15 minutes, absolute maximum), and your text-based lessons no more than 1,500 words. Your students should be able to finish each lesson in your course within about 15 minutes or less.

With 15 minutes per lesson, four lessons in each section, and four sections, you’ll end up with about four hour’s worth of content (15 minutes x 4 lessons for each section = 1 hour for each section). 

That’s plenty of time to deliver a lot of value, but short enough to make your course feel manageable.

Pro tip: Remember how you defined a transformation that people will go through as a result of taking your course? Apply that principle to each section and lesson of your course. You might even open each section by saying, “By the end of this section, you’ll be able to [that section’s goal].” 

The whole “point A to point B” structure will help you create a course that helps your students feel like they’re making progress. That’s a powerful way to keep them motivated so they complete your course, get results, and have a positive experience. In the end, they’ll leave you a great testimonial, and so you’ll sell more courses.

7. Get it out on paper, video, or audio — or all three

You’ve got that outline… now it’s time to fill in the blanks.

Many courses are video-based but also have a text and audio version of each lesson. Your medium depends on your course topic and how comfortable you are on camera. You can do “talking head” videos, create PowerPoint-like slides and record your voice explaining the slides, or have a little inset of yourself so that people can still see you.

If you’ve got a bit of a budget for your course, consider getting your videos professionally edited. This will improve the student experience. 

Also, consider using an audio-to-text transcription service like Otter.ai to make text drafts of your video lessons. If you’re really short on time, take those text transcripts of your videos and hire a freelance writer to clean up the copy so it reads well.

8. Decide whether your course will be free or paid

Free courses are good if you want to get a lot of people into them. You can also use a simple free course to promote a paid course.

If you are doing a paid course, you’ll also need to decide how much it will cost. If it’s more than $400 or so, decide if you’re going to offer a payment plan. Payment plans tend to split the cost of a course into thirds and usually add about 15% of the value of the course for the payment plan. So, if your course costs $397, a payment plan would break into three monthly payments of $147 each.

If you publish your course on one of the large public course platforms (like Udemy), you’re basically offering a hybrid of the free versus paid course. There will be a charge for your course, but it’ll be so cheap – $9.99 – that the risk for the student is very low. 

Courses on platforms like this can make money, but you’ll need hundreds or thousands of sales to generate any meaningful income. That said, a low-priced course on a big platform can be an excellent promotional tool for your work or for a more expensive course you offer elsewhere.

Another play is to price your course super-low or for free when you first launch it. This gets at least a few students who can offer feedback and hopefully, a few really strong testimonials. 

Then you re-launch your improved course, with testimonials, at a higher price. All this takes longer, but will probably get you better results in the end.

Note that paid courses also typically have refund terms. Those terms are essential if your course costs more than even $27. Refund terms can also vary a lot, but they tend to fall into three types of refunds:

No refund

This is the least attractive option for potential students, but there’s no way people will misunderstand the terms. You may need to give prospective students a free lesson or two so they can see that your course is worth the money.

A 7-day refund

This is a suitable compromise for both student and teacher because the students get access to the course and the teacher has clear terms for the refund. The drawback is that some teachers may be concerned that people will speed through the course, download all the materials, and then request a refund.

The “do the work, get the results” refund

For this option, students have to complete the course before they can ask for a refund. The idea is that when a student buys the course, they’re entering into a contract with themselves and the teacher — buying the course is a commitment to do the work. 

Students are eligible for the refund only after completing the course and only if they can honestly say it didn’t work for them. The sales pitch is that this is being offered because you are 100% sure that it does the work, they will absolutely get their money’s worth. You’ll need to spell out the terms of this very clearly or some students may complain.

Once you’ve decided whether your course will be free or paid, and if paid, the terms of the sale, you’re halfway toward figuring out how you’ll deliver (aka “fulfill”) your course. 

9. Set up how you’ll deliver your course

There are four ways to deliver your course. You can:

Use a course builder platform like Thinkific or Kajabi

Host the course on your website with a WordPress plugin (or with Wix or Squarespace integrations)

Publish on a course marketplace platform like Udemy 

Set up your course as an email autoresponder (aka an “email sequence”)

Here are the pros, cons, and costs of each of these options:

[wptb id=102510]

10. Give people a way to sign up for your course

This can be as simple as creating a sign-up form for an email sequence, or it might mean configuring a shopping cart in an LMS learning system on your WordPress site.

You’ll also need to decide if you want to use Stripe or PayPal so people can actually give you money. You might offer both.

Any online course platform like Thinkific or Teachable will have a payment system pretty much set up. You’ll need to add a few things to configure the checkout, and you’ll be done. 

If you’re selling on Udemy or one of the other public course platforms, it’s already done for you. You’ll just need to add which PayPal account or Stripe account to send your money to.

Setting up a sales page for an autoresponder-based course is fairly easy, too. This video walks through exactly how to do it, step by step, in about five minutes. If you wanted to write out a full sales page, clearly that’ll take a little bit longer, but the basic setup to give people a way to buy your course is really pretty easy.

How to sell an online course

The above steps have already shown many of you how to sell an online course. You did the research, tapped into your audience, told online communities about it, and maybe emailed subscribers.

If that isn’t enough or you’d like more strategies to maximize sales, consider these tips.

1. Spend more time on your sales page

If your audience knows about the course but isn’t joining, tighten up your sales page. Ensure the design and copy are attention-grabbing yet appropriate for the topic. 

Next, speak to the reader. Demonstrate your knowledge of their problem in clear, concise language. Lay out exactly how you can solve it. To do this without giving away your best information, provide an overview of the course, such as lesson titles. 

From there, prove you’re trustworthy. Share only the best testimonials and any credentials you may have, and then lay out your pricing. At this point, the prospective student should be able to click and join as soon as they feel the urge, so make it easy.

Finally, display any money-back guarantees or other value benefits. Add an FAQ section at the bottom to further neutralize any resistance. 

2. Take your own course

You can get so wrapped up in every detail of your course that you lose sight of the big picture. Test drive the course yourself, without skipping a single step. 

Gauge the user experience, catch anything that’s missing, and correct any small errors. Once you do start selling, revisit the course and incorporate any feedback or new information that you wish you had at the beginning. It will help keep your content fresh and ahead of the curve.

3. Collaborate with a bigger creator 

You don’t need a large following to sell, but you can benefit from someone who does. Reach out to creators who have an audience relevant to your course. Offer them the course for free and tell their followers about it. 

These collaborations can expand beyond social media. Webinars and podcasts are also prime places to expand your reach, whether you appear as a guest or host your own and invite the bigger creator.  

The benefits of creating an online course

Having an online course can be a life-changing — or at least a business-changing — thing. There are several reasons why:

Online courses save you time 

Whether your course is free or paid, once it exists, you’ve got a way to share your expertise on autopilot. People can take your course while you do other things, like creating your newsletter or playing with your kids. 

And if your course is paid, that also means you can be earning money while you’re doing other things. And as we’re sure you’ve heard; passive income is a pretty awesome thing.

Online courses open doors

Even a simple autoresponder-based course can be a terrific way to promote your work. Free courses can promote paid courses, too. Courses can often serve as marketing tools on their own, especially if you publish on one of the larger platforms.

Online courses demonstrate your expertise

Courses can also be a great way to educate people about how to work with you or to give people a sense of what it would be like to work with you. 

For instance, a graphic designer could create a course about visual branding, or how to design a logo. This would be an ideal way to demonstrate the value of the designer’s work. It also lets the designer help people (and earn money from people) who can’t afford to hire her.

Courses can be ideal complements to other types of content

Many authors create courses that accompany their books. This gives people a way to apply what they’ve learned in the book or to study the topic in more depth. It also gives the author a way to build their email list and make more money from their work. Once they’ve written a book, making a section of that book into a course isn’t hard. 

Those are just a few reasons people are creating courses now. You may discover a few more once you launch your course.

Ready to get started?

So now you know how to create an online course to sell. You really could create a simple course over a weekend — especially if you’ve already got some existing content in other formats, like in a book or blog posts, or even in short videos.

Usually, the big thing blocking people from completing their course is they overcomplicate it. They over-deliver.

So, keep it simple. Create a good, simple course and see how well it works for you and your students. If you’re getting good results from it, then go back and expand the course. Improve on what’s working. 

Do you have any tips or advice on how to create an online course to sell? Share it with others in the comments. 

The post 10 easy steps to creating an online course to sell appeared first on AWeber.

One of the most effective emails you can send to your audience is the abandoned cart email. When sent at the right time, an abandoned cart email serves as a helpful reminder to encourage your customers to complete their purchase. Many people put together a cart but get distracted before checking out. In fact, on average, 70.2% of online carts are abandoned.

That is a lot of lost sales. 

But you can recover many of these sales with an automated abandoned cart email campaign designed to increase conversion rates. 

What is an abandoned cart email?

An abandoned cart email is a reminder sent to visitors who added items to their shopping cart but didn’t complete the purchase. This automated email prompts the visitor to finish their transaction. The best reminder emails are creative and timely, aiming to encourage the completion of the sale. 

Supportive calls to actions (CTAs) included in this email can guide the potential buyers to spend more on upgrades or related products or services. Some abandoned cart emails include special deals or free shipping, but most simply serve as a timely reminder to spark action.

Why abandoned cart emails matter

Shopify found that retargeting a customer with an abandoned cart email increases sales by more than 20% and reduces abandoned cart rates by 6.5%. When customers receive a reminder about their left-behind shopping cart, many return to complete their purchase. The best part? You can automate these reminders!

Why do people abandon online shopping carts?

Understanding why shoppers abandon their carts is crucial for creating a more effective sales funnel. According to Statista, the most common reasons for cart abandonment in the US for 2024 included:

Unexpected costs (shipping costs, taxes, or other charges)

Account setup required

Didn’t trust the site with credit card information

Delivery time was too slow 

Complicated checkout process

Inability to see the total cost upfront

To improve conversion rates, it’s important to be clear about costs throughout the process and reduce the number of steps required to complete a purchase. 

How do you determine your cart abandonment rate?

To determine if your rates improve after implementing an abandoned cart email campaign, you’ll need to calculate your cart abandonment rate. This calculation will serve as your baseline.

The cart abandonment rate is calculated by dividing the number of purchases by the number of shopping carts created during a determined amount of time. Then, subtract this value from 1 and multiply by 100 to determine your cart abandonment rate. 

This is the percentage of interest that didn’t end in a sale. Regardless of your current rate, send out reminders to reduce it as much as possible. 

What happens after cart abandonment?

Since there are many different reasons a shopper may leave the website without completing the purchase, there are also several things likely to happen after the abandonment. According to Statista, UK shoppers who abandoned their carts were most likely to:

Purchase the item from the site at a later date (31%)

Purchase the item from an online competitor (26%)

Changed their mind or weren’t looking to buy (23%)

Went to a physical store to make their purchase (8%)

Abandoned cart emails can potentially prompt a purchase from 80% of those shoppers who are still interested in buying. 

15 Abandoned cart email best practices

Writing a powerful reminder email means following best practices for abandoned cart emails. Here are crucial steps you should follow to get the most out of your reminder emails:

1 – Use attention-grabbing abandoned cart email subject lines

Getting your email opened is a huge step with a cart abandonment email since many shoppers are used to seeing them. The best email subject lines stand out from the rest of the inbox but still make it clear what the email is about. Good abandoned cart subject line examples include ”You forgot something” or “Oops, Did Something Go Wrong?”

2 – Trigger the email within 24 hours 

Statistics show that sooner is more effective than later when it comes to reminder emails. Conversion rates for neglected carts are highest when the email is sent out 30-60 minutes after inactivity. However, those rates plummeted after 24 hours when the lead had grown cold.

3 – Copy should be short & direct

Remind people what they left behind with copy that inspires them to take action. Get to the point quickly with creative and succinct copy by trimming out all the excess. Simply highlighting a key benefit or two could help them finalize their purchase.

Speaking of being direct, check out this example from Nike:

4 – Use images to highlight what they are missing

The brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than text. Images will spark instant reminders of what drew them to your items in the first place. Always include pictures or GIFs of the items they’ve left behind to help provoke a response.

Here’s a great example from Hydrow:

5 – Reinforce the product or service benefits

Retargeting with a reminder email is the perfect time to highlight the product they are considering. Offer your most influential reasons for why they should finish the checkout process on the items in their cart.

6 – Consider a discount or value

If you plan to offer a great deal, the cart abandonment email is a good time to offer it. Even a small discount, like $5 or 10%, can make it more appealing to finish the purchase. People love to find deals, which could be the perfect way to help them decide to buy.

Saatchi Art does just that, plus they add a FOMO (fear of missing out) headline:

7 – Offer social proof with reviews

Providing reviews or testimonials can help motivate your leads to take the leap and make a purchase decision. Word-of-mouth marketing is highly influential, and a genuine customer review has a similar appeal.

8 – Include a call to action (CTA) that fits your goals

The primary goal of an abandoned cart email is to prompt a return and complete the sale. Your CTA should be positioned to drive that action. Use FOMO to encourage urgency, such as “Get it before it’s gone” or “Limited availability.”

9 – Set up an automated feature

You shouldn’t have to manually send out your reminder emails. Set automated emails for cart abandonment to go out after a certain lapse of inactivity.

10 – Segment your audience

Tailor your abandoned cart emails to different audiences by segmenting them into groups based on things like purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographics. Personalization makes your abandoned cart emails more relevant and, therefore, more effective.

11 – Include dynamic content

Dynamic content in your emails displaying real-time product availability, offers and discounts, or product recommendations keeps your emails feeling fresh.

12 – Highlight limited-time offers:

Draw attention to limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency and to nudge recipients toward a purchase. One way to do this is with a countdown timer. These motivational additions to your email are a great way to get your shoppers to act quickly.

13 – Provide clear contact information

When you simply include your customer service phone number, email, and chat, it gives confidence to your potential customers that you are readily available to answer their problems or questions.

14 – Incorporate additional triggers

Use other behavioral triggers alongside your abandoned cart emails to help keep your brand top of mind. Set up triggers when customers revisit your site or add more items to that old cart. 

15 – Test different send times

We already mentioned that it’s important to send abandoned cart emails within 24 hours. But when exactly should you send your abandoned cart email? Every business is different, and that’s why we encourage you to test different send times to find out what works best for your audience.

Abandoned cart email examples

There are all kinds of abandoned cart emails you can consider when creating your own. Here are some of our favorite examples from real brands, showcasing variations of value promise, humor, imagery, and more.

1 – LEGO

What I love about this example:

Fun and engaging graphics

Easy purchase process with “Make it yours in a snap”

Strong positioning of CTAs

Enticing, supportive, and amusing for someone previously browsing LEGO sets

2 – NOMAD

What I love about this example:

Adds a touch of humor with “What Happened? Did your Wi-Fi Crash?”) 

Light-hearted but effective

Relevant CTA –  “Seal the Deal.” 

Clever reinforcement of their 30-day return policy

3 – Dote

What I love about this example:

Another joke reminder — “Your shopping bag has abandonment issues.”

The light-hearted theme continues with “Save these items hours of therapy and give them a loving home.” 

Clean, simplistic, clutter-free design 

4 – Dollar Shave Club

What I love about this example:

Reinforces brand positioning

Offers a bold promise

Highlights several benefits for signing up at the beginning of the email

Large product shot with a natural flow leading the reader to the CTA for more information.

5 – Pepper

What I love about this example:

Offers a small discount to spark a purchase

Features the customer’s most recent cart additions to appeal to potential buyers

6 – Peel

What I love about this example:

Simple and straightforward design

Creates a sense of urgency with “We’re holding the items in your cart for you, but don’t wait too long!”

Clear call to action in a standout color

7 – Gilt

What I love about this example:

Uses the expiring cart threat to spark immediate action

Shows alternative colors of the items in their cart to motivate a purchase

8 – Google Express

What I love about this example:

Simple and direct design

Clearly lists items and pricing from the abandoned cart

Positions the CTA right below the headline for prime visibility

9 – Doggyloot

What I love about this example:

Creates urgency with “Items you added to your cart are almost sold out”

Clear and prominent “RESTORE MY CART” CTA

Friendly and warm sign-off

10 – J. Crew

What I love about this example:

Direct and engaging headline

High-quality image of the abandoned product

Clear CTA with “GO TO YOUR BAG NOW”

Additional CTAs

11 – Whiskey Me

What I love about this example:

Personalized touch with the order number

Simple layout focused on action

Friendly reminder of the item’s details

12 – Huckberry

What I love about this example:

Displays the abandoned item with details.

Provides easy access to assistance from customer support.

Creates urgency by mentioning limited sales and inventory.

13 – 23andMe

Image from Really Good Emails

What I love about this example:

Emphasizes the value of the product with a personal benefit statement.

Clean and simple design, focusing on the message.

Clear and direct headline: “Don’t forget to order your kit.”

14 – Le Puzz

What I love about this example:

Friendly and welcoming headline: “Hello again!”

Bright and eye-catching design that stands out.

Creative and engaging copy: “We found a lost puzzle. Could it be yours?”

15 – Stetson

What I love about this example:

Clean and elegant design.

High-quality product image to remind customers of the item.

Free shipping offer prominently displayed to add extra incentive.

Win back more lost sales with the perfect cart abandonment email

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to target a warm lead and recover lost sales. Set up your abandoned cart email in AWeber for an easy solution with powerful results. If you need help getting started, we have a pre-built campaign.

The post 15 Abandoned cart email best practices to make more sale appeared first on AWeber.

You’ve heard the advice — send personalized, targeted emails, welcome subscribers to your list, recognize customer milestones and celebrations, and so on. 

But did you know there are different types of emails to help you do each of those things?

You don’t have to use all of them, but let this list help you find the best way to reach your audience. Here are 15 types of marketing emails for every purpose.

1. Transactional emails

These emails aim not to market to prospects or customers, but to provide a receipt of an action taken or request submitted.

Examples of transactional emails include order confirmations and receipts, shipping notifications, subscription confirmations, password reset emails, account creation, and more. 

But that doesn’t mean transactional emails have to be boring. For example, check out this transactional email from the sneaker company Allbirds. This email infuses the brand’s personality while reminding customers about its animal welfare and sustainability mission.

2. Welcome emails

The purpose of this email is to kick off a strong relationship. 

Welcome emails are the first email in a larger campaign. A welcome campaign is a series of automated emails that get delivered to new subscribers over the first few days of their subscription. 

These emails should thank readers for joining your list, set expectations around the type of content you will send, deliver your incentive, and send any information they need to know about your or your business. 

Bonus points if you reaffirm the value your new subscribers will receive from joining your list or purchasing your product. The mattress company Casper shows us a great example of this.

Related: Welcome email campaigns: How to onboard new subscribers

3. Nurture emails

A nurture email helps a prospect move through the marketing funnel, from initial engagement to conversion. 

Nurture emails are automated and generally tied to a lead magnet — something you give to people when they subscribe to your email list. These types of emails include targeted content based on the lead magnet they downloaded. The goal is to encourage prospects to convert to customers.

Nurture emails should include valuable content or exclusive offers like discounts. 

Related: Email automation for beginners: See how to get better results in less time

4. Promotional emails

Promotional emails are one-off emails or broadcasts sent to an audience of prospects or previous customers. These types of marketing emails aim to promote a product, service, or limited-time sale. It makes it easy to convert subscribers to customers. 

Promotional emails can also invite subscribers to an event or webinar. 

Check out this promotional email from Freshly, promoting their End of Summer sale. They did a great job showcasing how much money customers save up to their fourth order.

5. Digest emails and newsletters

Newsletters are a type of email that any business, including creators, bloggers, small business owners, and more, sends subscribers regularly. 

Newsletters can include company updates, new blog posts or podcast episodes, relevant articles, or curated news from reputable sources. They can help you establish thought leadership and build a relationship with subscribers with valuable content. 

Plus, if you have a blog or a podcast, you may have an RSS feed. With a tool like AWeber, you can automatically put your content in an email without replicating your efforts.

Watch how:

Here’s an example of AWeber’s customer newsletter. Each week we send high-value content, our most recent three blog articles, bonus tips, and more. 

6. Re-engagement emails

Sometimes, subscribers stop opening and reading your emails. That’s okay — it happens to everyone. 

But that doesn’t mean that those subscribers are a lost cause. Re-engagement emails can help you remind your inactive subscribers about the value that you offer them. 

Restaurant reservation app Resy sent their inactive subscribers an email reminding them how to use the app to find restaurants to dine at.

Pro tip: Are subscribers still not engaging with your messages after sending a re-engagement email? It may be time to unsubscribe them from your list.

This is a good thing for your email marketing. Unloading inactive subscribers increases your open rate. When inactive people who wouldn’t open the message regardless aren’t skewing the rate, it makes it easier to tell when your content does (or doesn’t) resonate with your active audience. 

7. Storytelling email

Storytelling emails are one of the more interesting types of marketing emails. The goals of many emails thus far have been to drive sales or re-engagement. These emails help build your brand story and build deeper relationships with your subscribers.

Stories help people connect. They build emotional connections and let readers relate to you. Author and entrepreneur Ramit Sethi frequently incorporates stories into his daily emails — both his own stories and those of his successful customers. 

Check it out:

8. Targeted emails

Targeted emails involve segmentation — breaking your subscriber list into categories. You can segment based on demographics, prior purchases, interests, or recent engagement with your emails. 

For instance, if you sell apparel, you can send a targeted email promoting a sale on hats to a segment of customers who recently purchased a hat. 

Related: Email tags for marketing 101: Understanding tagging and segmentation

9. Challenge or course emails

Email challenges and email courses can be a lead magnet or even a paid digital product. The idea is to deliver a lesson daily, weekly, or monthly.

See below for a campaign template you can upload to your AWeber account. Use it as a starting point for your own email course.

Get the campaign

10. Cart abandonment emails

Have you ever added something to your shopping cart and then not followed through on a purchase? That’s called cart abandonment. And smart email marketers send cart abandonment emails to remind their customers that they left something behind.

Cart abandonment emails optimize sales. Take abandoned cart emails to the next level by offering a discount on the product that your subscriber was looking at. That can lower the barrier to purchase and your subscriber will likely feel good about your brand after receiving that kind of personalized offer.

See how Food52 called attention to a subscriber’s abandoned cart in this email. 

11. Launch email

These types of emails are used for a very specific purpose: to announce a new product, service, or feature. 

Launch emails are one of the best ways to let interested subscribers know about things that could help them achieve their goals. Plus, tease your launch ahead of time on your website or landing page and let visitors sign up for early updates.

12. Milestone email

Celebrate your subscribers’ successes, birthdays, and anniversaries with a milestone email. This type of email builds brand affinity by recognizing customer loyalty and major accomplishments.

For instance, at AWeber, we like to recognize our customers’ subscriber growth. We know it takes a lot of hard work to build your subscriber base and want to help our customers celebrate those milestones.

To do that, we send milestone badges that customers can share on their social media profiles.

13. Survey email

Survey emails can offer insight so you can create content that resonates with your subscribers. Gathering feedback via a survey email is also one of the best ways to round up testimonials to use as social proof.

See how Ritual uses a survey email to ask subscribers to fill out a short survey. 

14. Privacy policy updates

Emailing subscribers about updates to your privacy policy may not seem important to your marketing strategy. However, transparency and data protection are a huge priority for many conscientious consumers.

Even if you are not legally required to do so, these updates strengthen trust in your brand. Just keep it direct and informative. Unlike transactional emails, where you can assert brand identity, these are strictly business.  

15. Inspiration/educational emails

Inspire or show customers new ways to enjoy your product or service. These types of emails offer free tips and ideas in one message.

For example, if you sell jewelry or apparel, put together a quick style guide for the season. It can work with almost anything you offer as long as you are showing readers how to get the benefit you’re showcasing.

Are you leveraging different types of emails?

No matter what types of emails you send, they help you accomplish your goals. Try a few different types of emails this month and watch as your audience falls into place.

Ready to start sending with AWeber? Get AWeber for free today!

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“To make money, you have to spend money.”

It’s such a common phrase in business that I had to Google who originally said it. It turns out that we can actually trace this quote back to Titus Maccius Plautus, who lived around 200 B.C.

Well, here we are, more than 2000 years later, and it’s still true—to an extent. 

Scaling and growing a business without increasing expenses is a tough puzzle. Thankfully, it’s not impossible. There are ways to do it without making a huge investment. 

One of the best ways for small businesses to scale and grow is through selling digital products.  

Not sure what to sell? Or how to sell digital products? Chances are you have a skill, product, or service that your audience would love — you just need some inspiration. 

Here’s everything you need to know, not just about creating digital products, but also how to sell digital products online—without spending an arm and a leg.

What are digital products?

Digital products are downloads or services that don’t have physical substance. They can be delivered entirely digitally, and the transaction takes place online. 

Think of them as intangible products that hold value—like ebooks, courses, templates, and more.

Of course, some digital products can be printed out, depending on how they’re used and how the buyer wants to use them. 

You may have heard us talk about using ebooks, courses, templates, and other content as lead magnets in the past. And they still can be. It all comes down to your unique business and audience.

For example, if you’re a food blogger, you may want to offer a small 5-recipe guide as a lead magnet to encourage people to opt into your email list. This is a great way to let people try your recipes without them having to commit money just yet. Then, you can sell a recipe ebook with 50 of your top recipes. And you’ll be more likely to sell that book because people know you—all of a sudden that free 5-recipe guide paid for itself.

Pro tip: Offer your email subscribers an exclusive discount on your recipe book. This will make them feel special and valued. 

Delivering digital products saves you the hassle of shipping physical products, storing inventory, and dealing with third-party delivery services. All you need to sell digital products is a reliable email marketing service, an optimized and user-friendly landing page, and a payment processing platform, like Stripe.

The benefits of selling digital products online

Yes, making more money is at the top of this list. But the benefits of selling digital products go so much deeper than that. 

Make more money 

Digital products are a great way to expand your product line and complement your existing products or services. 

Easily scale your business

Finding ways to grow your business is hard—especially if you want to keep costs under control. Creating digital products is an easy way to scale your business without spending too much on advertising, new storefronts, or shipping costs. 

Easily convert followers to customers with a micro-purchase 

Offering a digital download for a small price is a great way to attach value to your product.

A great place to offer a small upsell is on your thank you page. Once someone signs up for your list, send them to a thank you page. Then, mention they may be interested in one of your products or offerings with a small price point. These micro-purchases are a great way for new subscribers to get instant value without committing to a large purchase. 

Reach people worldwide 

Selling physical products has limitations due to shipping and geography. But with digital products, you don’t need to worry about location because you can deliver your products instantly online. 

Best digital products and downloads to sell

The truth is, you can get as creative as you want when selling digital products and downloads. The key is to make sure it’s valuable to your audience. Here are some ideas to inspire your own digital product creations.

Ebooks

Whether you’re a food blogger, fiction author, travel writer, podcaster, or something else entirely, you can create an ebook around your expertise. And ebooks are super profitable—There are some authors out there publishing ebooks on Amazon making $1000+ a month. That’s a statistic sure to get your mind racing.

If people turn to you for guidance in a particular area, then an ebook may be the thing for you to sell. Here are some super popular types of ebooks for you to consider.

Recipe books

Fiction or Non-fiction books

“How to” guides

Fitness plans

Travel guides

Self-help books

Workbooks and planners

Courses

Online courses are becoming increasingly popular.  In fact, a report from Allied Market Research suggests that the eLearning market could reach a revenue of $840.11 billion by 2030.

People live busy lives, and learning on your own time is a major benefit of online courses over webinars or in-person learning. Plus, courses are a great way to earn passive income. Here are a few ways you can build and offer courses to your audience:

Email courses

Video courses

Podcaster Cathy Hellers sells a 12-week course to her audience, teaching registrants how to turn their passion into a career.

Templates

Templates are a great way to save your audience time and money by doing the hard work for them.

Templates are especially useful for consultants, web designers, coaches, and anyone else who can offer expert advice and professionally designed templates. Here are some ideas:

Business planner

Email templates

Blog templates

Calendar templates

Social media scheduling templates

Marketing plan templates

Creative brief templates

Website wireframe templates

Financial planning and budgeting templates

Presentation templates

Fitness planner templates

Meal planning templates

Many small business owners or entrepreneurs don’t have professional design skills, so Creative Market capitalizes on its skills to sell pre-designed website templates to this audience. 

Audio

The market for selling and licensing audio is growing. If you’re a music producer, or just like creating beats for fun, consider using your landing page to sell audio.

Here are some ideas:

Original songs

Beats

Audiobooks

Exclusive podcast audio

Design

Are you a freelance designer? Or, maybe you just have some design skills people would pay money for?

If you have a design eye worth sharing, selling your creations and design services could be incredibly valuable for your audience. Videos, in particular, are in high demand as they are believed to improve organic traffic from SERPs by 157%. YES! If you know how to make great videos at a great price, people will buy them.

But video isn’t the only thing a designer can do if they want to sell digital products. Some things people would be willing to pay for include:

Photography 

Videos

Stock images

Logos

Icons

Fonts

Graphics and infographics

Themes

Memberships

Sometimes, the greatest upsell is access to a community of people who can share their experiences and learn with you. Remember those recipes we talked about earlier? If you spend time building trust and have something great to offer, such as yummy recipes that can save time, you can get to the point of creating a coveted community—that people will actually pay to join! Now that’s what I’m talking about!

See how The Social Broker empowers real estate professionals with the tools and community they need to build a brand on social media. 

How to start selling digital products & make your first dollar online

Start selling digital products and downloads in seven easy steps. 

Step 1: Research market demand

If I were to advise you on anything, I would tell you to spend some time here. Start by making a list of the digital products you are interested in (and where you have some knowledge and expertise—if you don’t know how to turn on the burners of your stove, a recipe-related product is probably a no-go). 

Next, go online and into the community to see if there is a demand for that product. For example, if you came up with an idea and can’t find anything else out there on it, it tells you one of two things:

There is a need and no one has solved for it yet

There is no need so don’t bother

Market research will make sure you spin your wheels in the right places.

Step 2: Create your digital product

Creating your digital product is the first step to making your first dollar online. Whether you’re creating an ebook, course, or something else entirely, you’ll probably need a way to design and brand your product. 

Free tools like Canva are a great option for those who aren’t professional designers.

Step 3: Figure out your price point

Knowing how to price your product can be tough to figure out. You don’t want to set the price too high to the point where people won’t want to spend that much, but you don’t want to undervalue your hard work, either.

A good place to start is by researching what prices other people are offering similar products for. 

You’ll also want to calculate how much you invested in creating the product—in both time and money. Make sure you price your product so you make a profit. Understand, however, that it might take some time before you break even and start to turn a profit.

The exact timing to profitability can depend on several things:

Initial investment cost

Marketing expenses and how well you market your product (if people don’t know about it, you won’t make any money)

Product demand (when determining the right digital product, make sure there is reasonable demand)

Competition pricing (you don’t want to be the cheapest or the most expensive)

Customer acquisition cost

Sales volume

Updates and improvements to the product

Step 4: Set up a landing page to sell your product

Next, set up a place to sell your product. If you want to limit costs and avoid the hassle of third-party e-commerce platforms, a landing page that welcomes visitors to check out your product is your best bet. This landing page can be used to direct your customers to your eCommerce page.

A landing page is a standalone web page designed precisely for marketing or advertising a product or service. It’s focused on one clear and compelling call-to-action. In your case, to sell digital products. Unlike a full website with multiple pages and navigation options, a landing page is streamlined and targeted. 

You don’t necessarily need a full website to start selling, but having one can improve your brand’s credibility and provide more information to your customers. A well-designed landing page can work effectively on its own or complement a full website. And if you’re wondering where to sell digital products, your website is a good place to do so.

Step 5: Promote your product

If you are wondering how to sell digital products, you need to know it’s all about promotion (after product and price, of course). Once your product is ready and your landing page is set up, it’s time to promote it. 

Use social media, email marketing, and your existing network to spread the word. Share engaging content that highlights the benefits of your product and encourages people to make a purchase. You might also consider running ads on platforms like Facebook or Google to reach a wider audience.

Remember, promoting your digital product is not a one-and-done activity. This should be an ongoing exercise.

Step 6: Set up a payment system

To make sales, you’ll need a reliable payment system. Services like PayPal, Stripe, or Square can be integrated into your landing page to process transactions securely. Be sure your customers have a secure way to pay for your digital products. The last thing you want is to offer a payment solution that is not protected, exposing your customers to fraud.

Step 7: Collect customer feedback

After making your first few sales, collect feedback from your customers. This will help you understand what they liked and what could be improved. Use this feedback to refine your product and your marketing strategy. 

This could possibly give you insight into your next digital product, too. And how cool would that be—letting your customers choose your next product? Hello demand!

Remember, happy customers are more likely to recommend your product to others and leave positive reviews.

Now, where to begin?

Ideally, you want to find a platform where you can do everything from one easy location. Well, we have good news for you.

AWeber now offers the ability to sell directly from your AWeber landing page. Ready to sell online today? Learn more about making your first online sale with AWeber Ecommerce.

The post How to sell digital products online appeared first on AWeber.

Email is powerful. In fact, for every dollar spent on email, you can anticipate a $42 return on investment—if you do it well.

But before you can grow your email list, you need a plan. Think of it like this. When you start your work day, do you just take a willy-nilly approach? Or, do you look at your calendar to see what’s scheduled for the day, look through your emails to see what fires are burning, etc? Most people take the latter approach. And that’s what I am talking about—a plan to guide you on what you need to do, when, and why.

With an email marketing plan in place, you’ll have a better sense of what to do and who to target. But having a plan in your head isn’t always enough—you look at your calendar every morning for a reason—to remember what you need to accomplish.

By documenting your email marketing plan, you’re helping everyone on the team stay aligned, marching toward the same goal. And, you make sure that none of the important details fall through the cracks.

Quite frankly, documenting your email strategy means you’ll be more likely to stick with it, reach the right people, and achieve your goals.

Creating the perfect email marketing plan that drives results doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you follow these 8 steps to a successful email marketing strategy.

1 – Choose your email marketing goals

You wouldn’t run a marathon without training for the race. Similarly, you shouldn’t begin planning your email marketing strategy without setting goals.

Before you begin creating goals, take a moment to reflect upon what makes a good goal. Good goals are SMART goals. Here’s what SMART stands for:

Specific: Avoid creating vague goals. Be sure to include details about how you plan to reach your goal(s).

Measurable: You should be able to measure your goals with specific numbers or checkpoints.

Attainable: When creating your goal, consider the resources you have. You need to make sure your goal is attainable with your current budget, time and skillset.

Realistic: Your goal should be challenging, but within reach. Review historical data or research industry benchmarks to determine what this means for you.

Time-bound: Give yourself a date by which you want to complete your goal.

When you create any goal for your email marketing strategy, make sure it aligns with these five guidelines.

Now, let’s define your business’s specific goals.

Not sure what kind of goals to set for your email marketing strategy? Consider your overall business goals for this year and improvements to your email strategy that could help you reach them. Write down a list of the areas where you’d like to improve and create goals from them.

To get our creative wheels turning, you might want to focus on:

Growing your email list 

With a larger email list, you’ll be able to build relationships with more people, tell them about your business, and encourage them to purchase a product or service.

Increasing your email open rates 

If a lot of people aren’t opening your emails, it’ll be impossible to keep them engaged and build a relationship with them. Addressing this problem could help you increase the number of subscribers you’re able to interact with.

Improving your email click-through rates

Good email click-through rates indicate that people like your content and your business, which can impact their purchasing decisions.

Decreasing unsubscribes and spam complaints

Decreasing unsubscribes and complaints can help improve your deliverability and ensure you’re sending engaging, valuable content to your subscribers.

Asking for—and implementing—subscriber feedback

By applying subscriber feedback, you can create more useful emails to your subscribers, which could help you increase open, click-through, and conversion rates.

So, how does this apply to you? Let’s imagine you set this goal for yourself: 

I will grow my email list to 100 subscribers by the end of the year by adding a sign-up form to my website and asking my personal connections to join my list.

This is a great example of a SMART goal. It’s specific because it describes exactly what you’d like to do and how you plan to do it. Since it explains the number of subscribers you’d like to attain (100), it’s also measurable.

While a realistic goal will also vary from company to company, 100 subscribers in a year could be a very accessible goal for someone just getting started with email marketing.

And finally, since this goal gives a specific date by which you plan to complete it, it’s time-bound.

Bottom line: make sure to create goals that are realistic and attainable for you with your current resources and limitations. If your goals are unrealistic, you’re likely to miss the boat. And when you miss the boat over and over again, you stop trying as hard. This is super dangerous territory when it comes to your email marketing strategy.

2 – Define your target audience(s)

After you’ve set goals for yourself, it’s time to determine who your ideal subscriber is and create a persona for this subscriber.

By creating a persona for your ideal subscriber, you’ll be able to attract the right individuals to your email list and send content that’s relevant and helpful. This will guide your email marketing strategy moving forward, from how you grow your email list to how you communicate with your subscribers.

Nick Westergaard of Brand Driven Digital says, “List growth is always key. But it’s not just about quantity. Quality matters. Who are you trying to reach? Who do you want to talk to more? How can you encourage them to sign up for your emails?”

Your customer persona document should answer these questions:

What is your ideal subscriber like? Male or female? Age? Married or single? Kids? Occupation?

What are their interests?

What is their industry?

What are their goals?

What are their pain points and problems?

What could prevent or stop them from buying your product/service?

What type of content do they consume?

To answer these questions and get quality subscribers, you need to know your audience. Once you do, you’ll understand who you want to target and how you can encourage them to sign up for your list. And after they subscribe, you’ll be able to write emails that help them resolve their unique problems.

Create your customer persona

Once you know who your ideal subscriber is, it’s time to create a customer persona that will guide your email marketing efforts. Your customer persona will take the information you gathered from defining your ideal audience and expand upon it.

First, consider what your best customers have in common. You might even want to have a phone or email conversation with a few of these customers. Then, write down all the information you have about your persona in a document or on a piece of paper.

For help creating your persona, I encourage you to use Digital Marketer’s customer avatar (their name for a persona) worksheet.

3 – Find the right email service provider

Deciding which email marketing company to set up and send your email campaigns is a critical step. You need to make sure this company checks all the boxes you need to send beautifully designed emails.  

If you’re already an AWeber customer, you already know about our incredible email marketing platform and award-winning customer service department, available 24/7, so feel free to move on to the next section – Build your email list the right way. 

For those deciding between AWeber and another email service provider, here are just a few reasons why AWeber is the best choice for your email marketing strategy.

Create easy & beautiful emails

You can create your emails using our Smart Designer, an AI-powered email template designer that automatically creates amazing-looking branded emails in just seconds. Or our easy drag and drop email editor which allows you to create custom emails in minutes – no coding required.

100s of email templates

Our mission is to do 90% of the work so you can spend more time building your business. That’s why we have a library of over 600 mobile-responsive email templates for you to choose from.

Email automation

Assign triggers and flows to your emails that deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Some of the best triggered emails include welcome emails, reactivation emails, cart abandonment emails, order confirmation emails, and reminder emails. 

That last one is actually something so many businesses totally forget. And we’re not talking about birthday and anniversary emails. Let’s say you are in the landscaping business. Send customers a polite reminder when it is time to schedule their next service and why. If you’re in the heating and air conditioning space, send an annual reminder to order new air filters for the year, or to have the furnace inspected and cleaned. Customers will appreciate knowing that you have their back—and you’ll get some transactions out of the deal.

Email marketing features

What we talk about here only begins to cover the tip of the iceberg. AWeber’s email marketing features include everything you need:

Industry-leading email deliverability

Automated tagging

Personalized communications

Email split testing

Custom segmentation

Landing page builder

And so much more

4 – Build your email list the right way

Before you can send your emails, you need an email list. If you already have a list, I’m sure you’d like to see that list grow. But how do you do that? And how do you do it in a way that is in your face but not invasive? A conundrum, I know.

Grow your email list

Your strategy to grow your email marketing list may vary, but one thing must be consistent: your customers need to opt-in to receive your emails. Any email sent without permission is considered spam.

Here are some permission-based email opt-in strategies:

Put a signup form on your Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn (if you’re in the B2B space), or other social media pages.

Have a signup form on your website.

Experiment with pop-up forms on your website.

Create a lead generation landing page using AWeber’s landing page builder. Offer something of value in exchange for their email address.

If you have a physical location, attend trade shows, or have a call center, simply ask for a potential customer’s email address.

Have a “Forward to a Friend” link in every email you send.

5 – Create a tracking and reporting document

By tracking and measuring the performance of your email marketing campaigns, you will be able to determine:

Your content performance

Where you need to make improvements

How frequently you should be sending emails

Which lead source is performing the best

The health of your email list

What Needs to be Included?

An easy format to use is Microsoft Excel or Google Docs. Your document should include the following information:

Date of Send

Audience (segments) sent to

A brief summary of the email

Email Marketing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

Number of emails sent

Number of emails delivered

Delivery Rate (Delivered/Sends)

Emails Opened

Open Rate (Emails Opened/Delivered)

Emails Clicked

Click Through to Open Rate (Emails Clicked/Opened)

Opt-outs

Opt-out Rate (Opt-outs/Delivered)

Post analysis comments

Why are email marketing KPIs important?

Each KPI tells a story about your email marketing strategy. Knowing how to read each statistic will help you determine what to test, leading to a more successful email marketing strategy.

Here we will focus on the main 4 email KPIs:

Delivery Rate

Your delivery rate should be in the high 90s. Anything below this number needs to be addressed. A low delivery rate could indicate two things: poor list quality or the wrong email service provider.Address your list quality first. If your sends are segmented by the source they signed up for your list (i.e., a form on your social channels or a landing page), see if one source is the reason for the low delivery rate. Consider cleansing your email list if the low delivery rate appears across multiple segments.

Open Rate

Your email open rate is directly tied to your subject line and possibly your subheader. What is considered a good open rate will vary by industry, but on average, a healthy open rate may be between 15% and 25%.

If your open rate is low, consider testing different subject lines or preheaders to see what style works best with your customers.

Click Through-to-Open Rate

Several factors could contribute to a low click-through-to-open rate, such as your email design, content, call to action—really any element in the body of your email.

It is more challenging to isolate what may be causing a low click-through-to-open rate, so you need to set up some A/B test splits to determine the cause.

Opt-out Rate

We get it. It’s not fun to see people unsubscribe from your list. But, it happens to all of us. 

Generally, a good (low) unsubscribe (or opt-out rate) is below 0.2%. But anything above 1% is a problem. Determining why customers opt-out can be challenging, so be proactive. Set up a survey for people who opt out, asking why.

Example of an opt-out survey

This will help determine how to tackle the issue should it arise. 

6 – Create an email marketing strategy calendar

Creating an email marketing calendar will allow you to map out your strategy. The goal of an email send calendar is to allow you to easily view when you plan on sending emails and to which segments. It ensures that you send the right messages to the right audience at the right time, allowing you to get the most out of your marketing efforts.

Create your calendar so it makes sense to you. Color code different segments or messages to quickly glance at your strategy.

7 – Start sending email campaigns

Once you create your email marketing strategy, it’s time to set up and send your first campaign. Your calendar lets you know the audience and message you plan on sending. 

Email marketing guidelines

Here are a few general email marketing guidelines you should follow when designing your email:

Add a logo to your email. Make sure people know who the email is from.

Have a call to action based on the purpose of your emails

Drive traffic to a landing page

Trigger a phone call

Increase foot traffic

Place an online order

Make sure email laws are being followed for the country you are sending emails to. In the United States there is the CAN-SPAM Act.

8 – Analyze performance

Once the email campaign has been sent, it’s time to analyze the results. Add the results of your campaign to the document you created to track your KPIs. Figure out what worked, what didn’t, and how you can improve the email performance for your next send. 

But be careful to to change too many things at once. If you change up your strategy too much, your customers might get confused, wondering what happened. This can be a sure-fire way to get them to opt-out, even if they previously opted-in. So, be mindful. Look at the metrics that matter most to you, and go from there.

Remember that to optimize your emails, you may need to set up a series of A/B split tests for your next several campaigns. In fact, we highly recommend that A/B testing just become an ongoing part of your email marketing strategy. This will help you stay on top of consumer preferences as they change.

AWeber can help you create and manage your email marketing strategy

So, at this point, you probably know that you need an email marketing strategy. But I get it—getting started can be super overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to be a professional marketer to become an email marketing master. 

That’s why AWeber is here for you. We offer email plans to help you every step of the way. And you can even get started for free! Check out our plans today. And, be sure to follow the AWeber blog for more great tips to help you grow your business.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an email marketing strategy?

So, just what is an email marketing strategy, anyway? And do you really need it for your business? The answer is yes! And email marketing strategy is that set of procedures and guiding principles that you rely on to keep customers and prospective customers engaged through emails. 

Your strategy should align with your organization/s business plan to help you achieve your financial and long-term goals. Ultimately, an email marketing strategy is what keeps your customers engaged in between transactions so that you are top of mind when they are ready to buy.

What are the 7 email marketing strategies?

Gone are the days when email was a batch and blast process. Today, technology allows us to refine our approach to reach the right customers at the right time with the right message. This requires acknowledgment that the same message might not resonate with all consumers. 

Therefore, the seven email marketing strategies include personalization, segmentation, optimization, automation, analyzing responses and trends, prioritizing interactive content, and creating mobile-first and mobile-responsive emails.

What are the 4 Ps of email marketing?

If you’re in the marketing space, you’re probably pretty clear on the four p’s of marketing—product, price, promotion, and placement. And when it comes to email, they’re no different. Ultimately, the entire purpose of your email marketing strategy is to engage customers and consumers to get them interested in purchasing the product or service that you have to offer. Thus, you need to have a compelling product. 

Further, your email needs to communicate some sort of value to the reader—price. The place is the email—it’s the mechanism that you are using to engage with the customer. And, finally—promotion. For email, this is why it is so important to talk about the problems your product or service solves. And, it’s why every email needs some sort of call-to-action. Tell the customer what to do, and make it easy for them.

The post Creating the perfect email marketing strategy: What you need to know appeared first on AWeber.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy once said, “Five times as many people read the headline as the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

Like a headline for a blog post or news article, the subject line for your email needs to capture people’s attention and convince them to open your message. A subject line can make or break the performance of your email, so it’s important to spend extra time crafting one that’s memorable and effective.

Good subject lines get to the point, create a sense of urgency, and are relevant to the subscriber, but it’s easy to make mistakes when writing them. 

Committing these subject line sins can drastically reduce your open rates, but avoiding them is easy if you know what to look for.

Here are 11 of the most common mistakes people make when writing email subject lines and tips to improve them and improve your open rates.

Why are email subject lines so important?

When you send an email, you only get one chance for the intended recipient to open it. And most of that is tied to a great subject line. A well-crafted subject line grabs attention and sets the tone for the rest of the email. It can make the difference between your email being opened or ignored, influencing engagement and conversion rates.

11 Subject line mistakes to avoid

Understanding the common pitfalls can help you avoid mistakes and create compelling subject lines that drive results. Here are 11 subject line mistakes that could hurt your open rates and how to avoid them.

1. Using ALL CAPS 

Imagine receiving an email with a subject line in your inbox: GET 40% OFF YOUR NEXT PURCHASE RIGHT NOW.

You would likely take one of three actions: ignore it, delete it, or mark it as spam. And that doesn’t even account for the annoyance you might have felt receiving such an email.

Before pressing send, keep in mind that USING EXCESSIVE CAPITALIZATION CAN SCARE AWAY SUBSCRIBERS AND KILL YOUR OPEN RATES. 

It can appear like you are yelling and hurting your email performance. So, you should use caps in subject lines very carefully.

Do this instead:

Using caps in an email can be effective on a single word in a subject line. But it also needs to be the right word.

Dick’s Sporting Goods does a good job subtly calling out “MORE”, “BIG” and “NOW” in the subject line examples below.

2. Using too much punctuation!!!!

Taking the example we used earlier, imagine we added punctuation—a lot of it: GET 40% OFF YOUR NEXT PURCHASE RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have limited real estate for your subject line, and multiple exclamation marks can come across as spammy. Special characters, such as * % & # and ^,  have been known to trigger spam filters, so be sure to use them sparingly. 

Do this instead:

Now that we’ve discussed the punctuation mistakes to avoid in your subject line, you may be wondering which characters lead to higher open rates.

The answer? Question marks, exclamation points, and periods. We recommend no more than three punctuation marks per email subject line. When you use too much punctuation, your email looks spammy.

Of course, while this can vary depending on your industry, your audience, and the content of your messages, test multiple subject lines (more on this later) to see which punctuation your subscribers respond to.

Here’s an example of a subject line from Enchanting Marketing:

Using simple language, asking a question, and proper punctuation in her subject line, founder Henneke Duistermaat piques the reader’s interest and entices them to read the message.

Exclamation points, periods, and question marks are all part of a healthy email marketing strategy, so don’t be afraid to mix up the punctuation you use in your subject lines.

3. Using emojis

Okay, we know you might not agree with this one—but we implore you to use emojis sparingly in your subject lines. Yes, emojis can indeed increase open rates. But not always.

The key is to protect your brand image and avoid coming across as cartoony or unprofessional. Emojis work well for some businesses, but they may not be suitable for everyone. 

For example, law firms, financial services, and healthcare providers might want to avoid using emojis altogether to maintain a serious and trustworthy image.

Do this instead:

Match the emoji to your business and use them thoughtfully. If you decide to use emojis, ensure they align with your brand and message. 

It’s also a good idea to test different subject lines with and without emojis to see what resonates best with your audience. For instance, try “🌟 Special Offer Inside!” versus “Special Offer Inside!” and compare the results to find what works for you.

4. Using Spammy Words

Adding certain trigger words to your subject line can activate a recipient’s spam filter, even if your message is legitimate.

To prevent this from happening, avoid certain words, phrases, and symbols like “$$$,” “100% free,” “cash off,” “cheap,” “weight loss,” and “serious cash.” Even if your email makes it into the inbox, it can come across as spammy to your subscribers.

Do this instead:

To ensure your readers take your emails seriously, carefully choose the language in your subject line by avoiding some of the trigger words and symbols listed above.

Finding the right verbiage for your subject line can be tough, especially with the sophisticated spam filters out today. What works for one industry may not work for another. Be sure to try different variations of words to see what resonates best.

I also recommend focusing on specific words that tie back to the content in your email. Check out this example from our friends at Social Media Examiner:

The subject line tells you exactly what you’ll get by opening up the email. And by focusing on that, it eliminates the risk of including words that might appear spammy.

Bonus Tips: Occasionally adding phrases like “Free” or “Act Now” have been shown to improve open rates, but I recommend using them sparingly to avoid diluting their impact.

5. Making It Too Long

Have you ever read an email communication with run-on sentences after run-on sentences? It’s annoying, right? And it might even turn you off so much that you stop reading altogether. It’s not all that different with subject lines.

People receive many emails daily and don’t have time to read a novel when skimming their inbox. The average person receives 121 emails per day, so yours needs to stand out in a good way. Long, rambling subject lines can get lost in the clutter, causing your message to be overlooked or ignored. 

Do this instead:

Aim to get your message across as quickly as possible and cut any unnecessary terms or phrases. Our AWeber team of email experts analyzed the top marketers’ emails and found their email subject lines averaged slightly under 44 characters.

As important as it is to get your message across quickly and clearly, make sure it expresses a complete thought and offers value to the reader – you don’t want to write a subject line that’s too short, either. Avoid one-word subject lines and strive to be helpful and relevant to your subscribers.

Professional photography blogger Courtney Slazinik conveys her message concisely with the following subject line:

By building a message around a numbered list and including the word “secrets,” Courtney offers value and creates a sense of mystery around her content. As a result, this subject line is easily skimmable and irresistibly clickable.

6. Being too generic

Being too generic with your subject lines can be a big mistake. Think about it like this: if you were offering vanilla ice cream, it might not catch anyone’s attention. But if you mentioned a unique flavor like “Salted Caramel Swirl with Chocolate Chips,” people would be more likely to notice and get excited.

Generic subject lines often get overlooked because they don’t stand out in a crowded inbox. They fail to give readers a reason to open your email, resulting in lower open rates and engagement.

Do this instead:

Add some flavor to your subject lines. Make them specific and enticing. For example, instead of “Weekly Newsletter,” try “Discover 5 Secret Tips to Boost Your Productivity This Week.” This captures attention and gives readers a clear idea of what they will gain by opening your email.

7. Writing misleading content

Let’s say you send an email with the following subject: Get an exclusive 50% discount on our entire inventory! But when the reader opens the email, it’s a pitch to sign up for a webinar or free online class.

Not only is this tactic dishonest, but it also tends to backfire. No one likes to be deceived, especially when they receive an email that promises one thing and delivers another. 

You might get people to open your email initially, but this alienates subscribers and can hurt your open and spam rates in the long run. If your subscribers lose trust in your emails, they will ignore future emails and mark you as spam.

Align the content of your email and your subject line to build and maintain trust between you and your subscribers. This is especially important considering Google’s EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) philosophy. Even though email is email and Google is Google, misleading subject lines undermine your credibility and can negatively impact your reputation and deliverability.

8. Avoid using RE or FW in Your Subject Lines

Avoid using RE: or FW in your headers. These tend to trick the reader into thinking the email was part of another conversation, which doesn’t leave a positive impression with subscribers. In fact, it can cause confusion, leaving consumers to wonder if the email was sent by mistake.

Not including this text also gives you more room to work within your subject line, which can be used to convey helpful and relevant information instead. Adhering to EEAT principles and being transparent with your subject lines can foster a trustworthy relationship with your audience and improve your email performance.

9. Lacking urgency

Do you want your readers to open your email now? Or, do you want them to wait for weeks, or months, possibly forgetting they received your email altogether? Subject lines that lack urgency often fall flat because they don’t give your readers a reason to act immediately. Without a sense of urgency, your email can get lost in the shuffle of a busy inbox, reducing your open rates and overall engagement.

Do this instead:

Create a sense of urgency in your subject lines to prompt immediate action. Use phrases like “Limited Time Offer,” “Act Now,” or “Only a Few Spots Left.” 

For example, instead of “New Product Available,” try “Exclusive Offer: 20% Off New Product – Today Only!” This encourages readers to open your email immediately, improving your chances of growing engagement.

10. Including spelling or grammar errors

Subject lines (or any other content in your email) with typos, misspelled words, and misplaced punctuation look unprofessional and can hurt your open rates.

Emails are an opportunity to establish your brand as a helpful source of information. Subject lines with spelling or syntax errors make a bad first impression, and undermine your ability to establish trust with your subscribers.

Do this instead:

To optimize your email open rates, be sure to review your emails for grammar and spelling prior to hitting send. No one will take the time to read your email if the subject line is loaded with grammar mistakes, but basic copy editing can prevent these errors from slipping through the cracks.

Related: How to test emails before you send them

11. Skipping out on A/B testing

You’ve probably noticed that we have mentioned subject line testing a time or two—or five—throughout this post. And there is a good reason for that—because subject line testing is EASY and COSTS YOU NOTHING. Sorry for the all-caps there, but we want to make sure we hit home on this point.

By skipping out on A/B testing, you miss the opportunity to discover what resonates with your audience. Every email list is different, and what works for one might not work for another. A/B testing allows you to compare different subject lines and determine which one performs better, helping you refine your strategy and improve open rates.

Do this instead:

Make A/B testing a regular part of your email marketing routine. Test variations of your subject lines to see which ones get the most opens and clicks. 

For example, you might test “Don’t Miss Our Exclusive Sale!” against “Exclusive Sale – Today Only!” Over time, these insights will help you craft subject lines that are more effective and tailored to your audience’s preferences.

Crafting subject lines that sweep subscribers off their feet

The subject line is one of email’s most important components, so getting it right before you send your emails is a must. And by avoiding the mistakes above, you’ll be well on your way toward improving your email engagement.

Ready to use these tips to write better subject lines? Sign up for AWeber Free today to start writing amazing subject lines.

The post 11 Subject line mistakes that could hurt your open rates appeared first on AWeber.