Best Practices for Email Marketing: Email Variety = Success

As a marketer, you probably know you can send different types of emails to achieve various business goals. Not every email is supposed to be a "hard sell" to your audience unless you actually WANT people to unsubscribe.

Sometimes you want to send emails to help build a relationship that makes you the obvious choice when the time comes for buying decisions.

An excellent guiding strategy will be a mix of content that will educate your audience, keep your organization top of mind, build trust, and drive bottom-line results.

As a refresher, here are some best practices for email marketing: different types of emails you can send to your audience to remain top of mind without alienating them. We'll also tell you what kind of email step we recommend (Simple, Message Testing, or Send Time AI) and whether it should be subject to any Frequency Management rules.

Welcome emails: These emails are sent to new prospects when they sign up for your email list. They should be friendly and welcoming and may include a brief introduction to your brand or business. A clear call-to-action (CTA) can encourage prospects to take further action, such as selecting their desired content in a preference center (giving you a solid foundation for audience segmentation based on the expressed desires of the prospect).

Welcome emails should be sent as a Simple blast without any Frequency Management restrictions. Your new prospect will expect to receive a confirmation soon after their sign-up, and you want to deliver on those expectations.

Welcome emails are also the category with the highest engagement rates (some say UOR for Welcome emails is about 50%, but other sources put that number at over 90%), so make it count!

Promotional emails: These emails are designed to promote specific products, services, or sales. They may include a discount code, limited-time offer, or other incentives to encourage your contact to make a purchase. Be sure to include high-quality product images, compelling copy, and a clear CTA.

Promotional emails are perfect use cases for Message Testing. You can create multiple variations of each email (focusing on one element for each message test, such as different subject lines OR different CTAs), load them into a Motiva Message Testing step, and let your audience's engagement decide the winning message.

Motiva will automatically stop sending the less-engaging emails, ensuring that the highest percentage of your audience receives your strongest messaging. If it's a limited-time offer, be sure to allow message testing to complete with enough time for your audience to act, or consider overriding Frequency Management restrictions.

Abandoned cart emails: These emails are sent to customers who have added items to their cart but haven't completed the purchase. They may include a reminder of the items in the cart and a discount code or other incentive to encourage the customer to complete the purchase.

The content for abandoned cart emails is generally straightforward. Use per-contact Send Time AI without any FM restrictions to capitalize on your customer's existing engagement data for maximum effect.

Re-engagement emails: These emails are designed to win back prospects who haven't engaged with your emails or made a purchase in a while. They may include a special offer or discount code and a reminder of the value your brand or business provides.

As a best practice, you may want to be somewhat vague about the reason for the re-engagement email. For example, if it says, "We noticed you haven't opened or clicked on our emails recently," it may make your prospect feel uncomfortable. Instead, try something like, "Enjoy this discount code as a thank you for being a longtime subscriber!" If that doesn't elicit a response, it's best to use Motiva's Dark Pool Smart Suppress decision service to block them, or consider removing them from your database altogether.

Automated Nurture Campaigns

Automated nurture email campaigns are a series of emails that are sent automatically based on a prospect's behavior or actions. These campaigns are designed to build a relationship with your prospect over time, not necessarily make an immediate purchase.

Nurture campaigns are, by definition, not time-sensitive and are another excellent opportunity to use Message Testing with your standard FM rules. You'll gain valuable insights into what types of messaging resonate with your audience and when they are most likely to engage with your content for future Send Time AI campaigns.

Here are some types of content that work well with an automated nurture email campaign:

Newsletter emails: These emails provide your audience with updates about your brand or business. They may include blog posts, industry news, or other relevant content. Make the content visually appealing and easy to read, and have a clear CTA to encourage subscribers to engage with your brand.

Educational content: Provide your audience with helpful information about your products or services. This can include how-to guides, tutorials, tips and tricks, or industry insights. You can position your brand as an authority and build trust with your audience by providing valuable information.

Customer success stories (case studies): Share stories of other customers who have benefited from your products or services. This can help illustrate the value of your offerings and provide social proof to your subscribers.

Product updates and announcements: Keep subscribers up-to-date with new products, features, or services. This can help maintain their interest and excitement in your brand.

Exclusive content or offers: Provide subscribers with exclusive content or offers they can't find elsewhere, like a personalized coupon code. This can help incentivize them to stay engaged with your brand.

Using these best practices for email marketing ensures that your prospects will stay with you long enough to become valued (and valuable!) customers. Always look for ways to improve your messaging and audience segmentation to keep engagement high. Your bottom line will thank you!

Ready to see what Motiva can do for your marketing? Schedule a demo today!