Creating email templates for different occasions can be a challenge, especially for non-designers. Have you ever wanted to download free HTML templates, then use them for your business?
Actually, finding email templates is not so difficult, but then you need to spend some time adapting them to your own corporate design, with your logo and your brand colors.
How can this process be simplified to make it faster and more effective? We have the solution: the Mailjet email template generator.
How the HTML and MJML template generator works
Creating and downloading free HTML and MJML templates to use later with your business couldn’t be easier. Really.
Just follow the steps below and you’ll have 14 transactional email templates for your business. You can use them to welcome your users, remind them of a forgotten password, give them a summary of their week, or even contact them if they haven’t interacted with you for a long time.
Step 1: Visit the Mailjet Template Generator
All you have to do to start is navigate to the Mailjet Template Generator. If you click on the following picture, you will be directed to our Email Templates Generator:
Enter your web domain in the second step and then click on ‘Generate Emails’. We are going to use Mailjet’s domain name as an example.
Step 3: Confirm and customize your brand elements
Once you have clicked on ‘Generate Emails’, a screen with the following data will appear:
Logo URL (automatically filled): the URL of the logo that will be included.
Company name (automatically filled): the name of the domain.
Color (automatically filled): the hexadecimal color code of the logo.
Facebook URL (empty): link to your Facebook page
Twitter URL (empty): Link to your Twitter page
Linkedin URL (empty): Link to your Linkedin page
The fields Logo URL, company name and color are automatically filled in with the values. Your corporate color is automatically added to the following elements:
Color bar in header
Button
Social media icons
All links
If it’s required, you can adjust the company name and color in this step, and add the links to your social media profiles.
Step 4: Download the HTML and MJML templates for free
Once you have finished customizing the values of your templates, all you have to do is download them.
When you click on the CTA ‘Download templates’, you will receive a ZIP file with the templates in HTML and MJML.
Step 5: Edit the templates as you wish
Now all you have to do is load your templates into the Mailjet editor, assign them a name, and customize the text of each email. You can also directly edit your templates in HTML or MJML, our open source markup language that makes email design easy.
Want a summary? Take a look at this video and find out how to create custom emails and download free HTML and MJML templates for your business.
Free HTML and MJML template models for your business
The Mailjet Template Generator comes with 14 free ready-to-use email templates. Take a look at the templates we’ve created, with the Mailjet brand image.
Double confirmation
We have talked a lot about the importance of double opt-in or account activation emails. Make sure that your users’ email address is correct by sending them a confirmation email after creating an account or subscribing to a newsletter.
Welcome email
Welcome your users with this customizable welcome email template. Simply edit the text, include your links and it’s ready to use.
Password Reset
Have your users forgotten their password and need to request a new one? Stop sending text-only emails and opt for this design with your brand colors.
Password Reset Confirmation
Once the password has been reset, inform your users that the process has been successfully completed. In addition to confirming that everything went well, it will also serve to alert them if someone is trying to change their passwords.
Email news or launch
Surely from time to time you have great news to share with your users or new products to advertise. Use this pre-designed email template to share with your community those new features you’ve been working on for so long.
Start of the trial period
With this email template, you can inform your users of the start of their trial period, and give them the information they need to get the most out of your platform or product.
Notice of the end of a promotion or trial period
Do your users have a trial period or a temporary offer at their disposal when they join your community? Let them know that they are running out of time and give a boost to your conversion with this email.
Trial period is over
The end of a product’s trial period is a great time to remind users of all the benefits they will no longer be able to enjoy, and to encourage them to switch to a payment plan. You can even offer them a discount code to give them that last push they need it.
Support Request Confirmation
If you have a Contact form or a Ticket Support system on your website, confirm to your users that their request has been received with this email.
Thank you email
Do you want to thank your customers for their purchase or send them a satisfaction survey? With this ready-to-use email template, you can do it and improve your relationship with your contacts.
New project or newly assigned task
Many SaaS businesses include the option of collaborating on projects or sharing the use of the platform. If that is your case, you can use this template when the user is added to a new project or assigned a new task.
New user added
Does your platform allow collaboration by creating sub-accounts or roles? Send your new users this email when others invite them to join your tool or a team.
Weekly Summary
Send your clients a summary of their activity during the last week, extracting the data directly from your tool and using this template.
Reactivation email
Have your customers not interacted with you for a long time or have your subscribers stopped opening your newsletters? Send them a reactivation email that will allow you to get their attention again, or determine which users you should remove from your email lists.
Download your free HTML and MJML templates
Go through Mailjet’s template generator and download your free HTML and MJML email templates, customized for your business so you can use them immediately.
To be able to edit and use the email templates seamlessly, you can create a Mailjet account. With our email editor, delivery platform, APIs and SMTP server, you can easily create, send and monitor your emails.
Choosing whether to trust your homebuilt email program to handle all of your marketing and transactional email needs, or to outsource to a third-party service is a hard decision to make. Topics like cost, data & security, and scalability are just a few of the considerations that have to be taken into account when making your choice.
To help you out, Mailjet has put together a handbook that digs deeper into every consideration you’ll have to take into account. Once you know what you’re up against, we then lay out your three options: homebuilt, outsourced, or a hybrid of the two.
Download the full guide The Email Infrastructure Handbook: Homebuilt vs Outsourced to get a deeper understanding of the different options that are out there for your email infrastructure, and the key considerations you have to keep in mind when making your choice.
If you pulled up your personal inbox in another tab right now, how many newsletters do you have in there? One? Four? Over ten? When you love a brand and what they can offer you, it’s second nature to sign up for their newsletter to make sure you’re one of the first to know about new products, sales or updates. Maybe you have some newsletters that you look forward to seeing in your inbox. We’re going to take some time to look at what makes them so hard to resist and hopefully give you a couple newsletter ideas of your own.
What is a newsletter?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines newsletter as “a bulletin issued periodically to the members of a society or other organization.” Pretty vague, but you get the jist. Newsletters are correspondence that businesses send to their subscribers to let them know what’s going on in their company, whether it’s about their product or information about the business itself.
Unfortunately, creating a newsletter probably won’t be as short, sweet and straightforward as the definition is. It will take some time to write, to carefully plan, and will likely evolve over time. But great things take time, right?
However, we’re going to try to make it a little bit easier by giving you some pointers about what makes a good newsletter, and then take a look at some great examples to maybe spark some ideas for your own newsletters. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
What makes a good newsletter?
If you opened up one of the newsletters in your inbox, you could probably pick out a few things that you really liked about them. Maybe the images they use are always unique and eye-catching, or maybe you see your name in there and it makes you want to read more. With all of the possible directions you can take your newsletters, there are a couple practices you’ll want to keep in mind.
Brand your emails
Ok, ok, we know. Right out of the gates, this one seems pretty obvious. But before you skip this section, there is a lot that goes into this concept. Of course, you’ll want to include recognizable branding like your logo, and maybe some images you use for your social media avatars if it applies.
You want your subscribers to recognize your emails because, well, they signed up for them so they clearly want to get them! Side note: don’t go overboard with the branding. Not every inch of the email needs to be branded, just enough to make it recognizable.
Your branding extends beyond the physical appearance of your emails to the address you’re actually sending from. Sending from an address like “no-reply@” or “do-not-respond@” might come off as a little cold to your subscribers.
Instead, sending from an address that has, for example, the name of someone on the email team in your company is a lot friendlier. If receiving your emails are the main point of contact your customers have with you, having a friendly sending address is a great way to set a good first impression as they learn more about your brand.
Bonus points are awarded if the email address accepts replies. It’s a good boost to your sender reputation, as well as fostering goodwill with your subscribers and giving some brownie points to your brand reputation.
While there are different things to consider when trying to decide when to send, whatever day and time you pick, it’s best to keep it on a schedule. It helps you plan out your marketing efforts, and you can test out the best time to send them to get the most opens and clicks. Once you find that sweet spot, why send at any other time?
While we’re on the subject of timing, keep in mind the frequency of your emails as well. I’m sure you don’t like opening up your inbox and seeing five emails from the same company, so you might not want to do that to your own subscribers. Depending on your business, it’s probably best to stick to one or two emails a week, nicely spaced out.
Keeping on with consistency, the layout of your email should get the same treatment. It may be hard to settle on a design, and the occasional shake-up may be called for, but for the most part, it should be recognizable to your subscribers. Changing it up often might cause confusion, and it’s a lot of additional work on your part.
Within the layout of your email design is also all the small details that make it yours. Fonts, images and colors should all carry a level of consistency with them. Looked at individually, they may seem like such small details, but they all come together to create your newsletter (and we know you want to see your creativity and hard work succeed 😉).
Simplicity is the golden rule
No one likes to get a cluttered email. Too much text, out of place images and a layout that doesn’t guide you through the information is just not something that your customers are going to spend time on their lunch break reading. And on your side, an email with no clear direction will result in fewer clicks, and fewer conversions.
Opting for a simpler design, one that contains the necessary amount of text and images, is the better way to go. Creating an email where the reader has to scroll for ages to get to the bottom might make important content go unnoticed, especially if it’s tucked at the end.
A big tip for keeping an email simple is to make it skimmable. With your newsletters, it would be great if your subscribers read every word, but if we’re being honest, they probably aren’t. To help them out, we have a few tips to make your emails skimmable:
Have important text stand out by making it bigger and brighter
Place images strategically because our eyes are naturally drawn to them
Subheads and bullet points are a great way to highlight important points in your text
You can section off content in the design of your email to lead people to your call-to-actions
A simple email with less to distract your readers will make your CTAs stand out so much more. You can lead your readers to better interact with your emails, and hopefully boost your clicks and conversions. We know you have a lot of great and important information to tell your subscribers, but being selective about what you share can help focus your emails.
Now, without further ado, let’s get into some different examples for different industries!
Newsletter ideas for the retail industry
It can be tough to stand out in the retail industry. There are a lot of competing voices out there, and it can feel impossible to get the customer’s attention. One of the ways to do that is to stand out in their inbox! These examples will give you enticing ideas to start catching some people’s attention.
Aldo
Why it works: The simplicity of Aldo’s newsletter is something to aspire to. Right off the bat, you open up the email, and you don’t even need words to know what it’s about. That picture, front and centre, makes you want a new pair of shoes right away. And why not make them “Cassedy”? They definitely have a color you’ll love, just look at that photo 👠.
Because the image already lets us know what this installment of the newsletter is all about, the copy can be short and sweet. And clever, too. Lastly, check out the 40 per cent off offer they give us near the bottom, with their own CTAs to take advantage of it.
Take action: We mentioned it above, and we’ll mention it again. While there are definitely exceptions to the rule, simplicity is one of the best ways to lead your subscribers to get what you want them to out of your newsletter. Keeping text to a minimum, but still managing to convey your message is a skill that can take a while to master, but it is so effective.
When it comes to retail newsletters, your subscribers might not have the time to read an essay about how great your product is, even though we know it is good enough to fill the pages of a book 😉. But, unfortunately, your subscribers will most likely not have the time to read all of that. In that case, keep it short and sweet.
Gamestop
Why it works: There is a perfect balance between image and text. The images are large, and the text is just as big to match. It takes maybe 20 seconds to get all the way through this newsletter, and even less time to understand what it’s all about. The CTAs throughout makes it easy for you to follow through, and the offers make it even easier too. I mean, who doesn’t want more video games?
Take action: What’s the best thing you can do to make an email skimmable? Make the text big and make it stand out from the rest of the email! Think to yourself “what do I want the main takeaway from my newsletter to be?” and then make it rise above the noise.
The structure of your newsletter plays a large role in how skimmable and scannable it will be. Sectioning off the email into smaller, digestible chunks can make it visually clear where the most important information is, and where their eyes should go. For GameStop, they section it off with simple but complementary images, and each section has CTAs that relate with the sections.
MeUndies
Why it works: I’m going to admit something here, and I really hope it doesn’t get me into any trouble: I am not a Star Wars fan (pause for gasps of outrage). With that out of the way, this email by MeUndies makes even me want these Star Wars themed underwear. Right after you open the email, you know what they’re offering you, and at the same time, you definitely want it. I mean, come on, look how cool that GIF is!
Take action: I think you know the first thing I’m going to mention here: the GIF. I’ve grown up on the internet, and GIFs are still so cool to me. That’s how I know they are for your customers as well. In particular, a GIF is a great newsletter idea because it is a really cool way to highlight a visual feature of your product.
Moving further down, the copy is short and sweet, making use of not one, but two of the most famous movie lines in history to carry on the theme. The CTAs are large, and will take you exactly where you want to go after being mesmerized by that GIF for at least half a minute. When taken all together, there is very little to distract from the goal of this newsletter: MeUndies has some awesome new merchandise for you and you’re going to want it.
Newsletter ideas for the tech industry
If you think the retail industry is competitive, get ready for the tech industry. We all have such great ideas, but that might not be enough in today’s world. You need a way to let people know about your great idea, and a newsletter letting people know about promos, updates and guides is an awesome way to do it (and there’s so much more you can do with them, too!)
Airbnb
Why it works: So you downloaded Airbnb a while ago, it’s sitting on your phone in some folder on the third page of your apps, and you have a trip planned back home for a month. Suddenly, you get this email in your inbox and it reminds you of the opportunity in front of you to rent out your place while you take your vacation! Airbnb’s newsletter is subtle, it doesn’t beg you to open up the app and post your property for rent. Instead, it offers you helpful tips and tricks to guide you through the process.
The CTAs are very different in this one because this newsletter is angling to be something that adds value to their email, rather than just make it another one cluttering up the inbox: they’re informing rather than just selling.
Take action: The goal of your newsletters is to get conversions, whatever that may mean for your company. Maybe you want purchases, or downloads, or subscriptions, or simply to spend time on your site. But the best way to do that might not be to bombard them with offers and CTAs, but rather making your newsletter informative and chock-full of useful information that will keep them opening your emails week after week.
CleanMyMac X
Why it works: Take a second to really look at this newsletter. What is there to dislike? The coloring of the email is intriguing, with the icons bright against the dark background. It brings about vibes of developing, or coding and advanced technology, which fits right in with the branding of CleanMyMac. Unlike many other newsletters that clutter your inbox, this one gets right to the point, and gives you the information you need, and the option to have more.
Take action: This newsletter is more than just pretty; it’s also informative. The whole purpose of this email is to inform subscribers of some new updates to the program, but in doing so, it could pull them back to the website. Using your newsletter to update your customers can create renewed interest in your product.
The second thing to check out is the placement of CleanMyMac’s CTAs. One right before the list of updates, and one right after. Ingenious. You might be wondering why, and the answer is because the CTAs have the same goal, but they are placed in different parts of the email journey. Some subscribers might read the whole email, top to bottom, and for those subscribers, there’s a CTA at the bottom for them to learn more. For the slightly busier (or maybe lazier 😴) subscriber, there’s a CTA for them right at the top so they don’t have to waste any time.
Newsletter ideas for the publication industry
Online publications, like blogs, are a big trend that have stood the test of time, even in internet years where there is a new trend every day. For some newsletter ideas for your online writing, take a look at the examples below!
NextDraft
Why it works: I know what I said previously: keep it simple. And in its own way, Dave Pell’s newsletter NextDraft does keep to that rule. There is not much to clutter the email other than a ton of text. But, the text also has a ton of purpose. The point of the newsletter is to highlight the most interesting news of the week, and condense it into a newsletter that’s easy for you to read. I don’t know about you, but for me, it does just that.
There is one really good newsletter idea that might not immediately jump out at you. Can you spot it? They’re tiny, numerous, and imperatively important. They’re the social media sharing buttons. However, in this newsletter, it’s not just that they exist, but that they are placed after each article. It makes it easy for you to single out your favorite breakdown and share it with the world. You get to start a conversation online, and NextDraft gets more exposure with very little effort on both sides.
Take action: I’m sure at this point, you’re tired of hearing about social media. It’s everywhere, and everyone and their mother tells you that you need to have a social media presence. One way to make it a little easier for you is to let your subscribers do some of the work for you.
Adding social sharing buttons in each of your newsletters can get you some great exposure. Whether it’s sharing your latest post, product, or image, make sure to tuck in some social buttons. You don’t just have to stop at sharing on social media, either. Adding an option to share the whole email, send it to another, is also a great way to get your newsletter in front of more eyes.
Quartz
Why it works: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how many words is a video worth? Quartz does a great job of including images and interactives within their newsletters, making it hard to even want to leave the email itself with all of the cool things to look at.
The reason it doesn’t feel overwhelming is because of the layout. Quartz doesn’t shove it at you all at once, but rather lets you scroll through with sectioned off pieces of content that lets you pick and choose what you want to spend your time on.
Take action: Get interactive! If you have the resources to supplement your information with great graphics and videos, go for it. But take a page out of Quartz’s page, and make sure you don’t overwhelm your readers.
You might also want to keep in mind the responsiveness of your email. This means how well it appears on each screen the email might be viewed on, and which inbox it’s opened in. With 51% of consumers unsubscribing from a company’s promotional emails when they don’t look good on their mobile device, the responsiveness of not only the text and layout of your email, but any interactives you add should be at the top of your mind.
Summing it up
As important as newsletters are to your marketing efforts, they’re equally as hard to create. No matter what industry you are in, using one of those tips is going to help you create engaging emails that will improve clicks and open rates, as well as build your growing fan base for your brand. Using a combination of these tips is going to make it even better. So what are you waiting for, get emailing!
Give us a shout on Twitter or Facebook (or both) if you’ve got some examples that you love!
No matter what you’re doing, you want to give it your best, right? With email marketing, giving it your all will result in higher customer engagement, which means more opens, clicks, and maybe even more conversions. We made a list of email marketing best practices to help you focus your efforts to where it counts.
Top 12 email marketing best practices
Following guidelines might not be the most fun thing in the world. You might think it puts a bit of a limit on your creativity. But these guidelines are going to let you be as creative as you want, and see the results you want as well. So let’s get into it!
Best Practice #1: Double Opt In
So someone has just signed up for your emailing list…why would you want to send an email to make sure they want to be on that list? Because double-opt in can reduce your spam complaints right down to well within acceptable levels.
A double-opt-in is an email that is sent out to your new subscriber asking them to confirm their subscription by clicking a button within the email. Mailjet lets you build your double-opt in email and helps you send them out as soon as you have a new subscriber.
You’ll want to keep these emails on the shorter side. Make sure you put your CTA, in this case the “Confirm Subscription” button, at the top of the fold. It’s the main purpose of this email, so make it stand out! But we’ll cover this in more detail later. As for the rest of the email? Let your customer know what to expect, and why subscribing was the best decision they made all day.
Best Practice #2: Test it out
Do you taste a little bit of the food you’re cooking before you serve it to your guests, making sure it’s as delicious as you want it to be? Email marketing functions on the same principal: test before serving!
Testing out your emails before you press send will give you the chance to make sure everything is in working order. We all know the feeling of pressing send, and right as starts its journey to your contacts’ in boxes, you spot a typo. And your stomach drops 😧 Testing is going to help you avoid this feeling.
But don’t just check for typos, also give the links a click to make sure they go where you want, check to see that the photos are rendering correctly, and ensure that you’re not missing any data. The list goes on and on.
Here’s a quick checklist of things to test before sending your email marketing campaign:
Spelling and typos
Links and CTAs
Images show up correctly
Looks great on both mobile and desktop
You chose the right contact list
Sending from the correct address
It’s also a good idea to send it to at least one other member of your team. A fresh pair of eyes that haven’t been staring at the same email all day will be able to catch details that might have slipped past you.
At Mailjet, you can preview how your emails will appear on mobile and computers, as well as send out a test email to anyone you want before you send it out to your entire contact list.
Best Practice #3: Keep the spam in the can
Yeah, we know… this one may seem self-explanatory, but you may be doing some spammy things without realizing it. We’ve got a full blog post on how to avoid email spam filters you should definitely it check out, but we’ve summarized some of the big ‘no-goes’ below.
The biggest and most obvious one is purchasing lists – just don’t do it. It is better to build up a contact list that opted-in to receiving your emails so that you have engaged customers that won’t mark your emails as spam.
Next up, make sure the content of your email is relevant. This may seem obvious, but your customers signed up for your emails for a reason and you want to make sure you’re delivering.
Your subject line is also something to keep in mind; practices, like writing it in ALL CAPS or throwing in far too many emojis🤣🍔🎧💖🔥, can make you look spammy in the inbox. There are also some words that you really don’t want to use if you don’t want to sound the spam alarm.
Cleaning your list means removing bounces, blocks, unsubscribes and inactive contacts from your list so you can avoid being marked as spam by frustrated customers that do not want to receive your awesome emails anymore (they must be crazy 😑).
Speaking of unsubscribes, it’s important that you add an unsubscribe link in every one of your emails, and make sure it is visible! We know that you put in a lot of work to add them to your contact list, and this may seem contradictory to your goal, but we promise it’s for your own good.
Customers that can’t find your unsubscribe link may resort to marking you as spam if they can’t find any other way, and rack up enough of those and you won’t be able to reach any of your contacts, including the ones that love your emails. Additionally, an unsubscribe link is mandatory to remain GDPR compliant, which is something we take very seriously here at Mailjet.
Best Practice #5: On the subject of subject lines
As mentioned before, you don’t want your subject line to look spammy – but there is a lot more to them than that. Ideally, your subject line will be short and sweet, but engaging and enticing.
You’ll want to keep it somewhere between 30-50 characters, keep it consistent with your brand image, describe what your email is about, and make it all but impossible not to click on. Tall order, huh?
There are many different ways to make your subject line stand out in the inbox. Just to give you a few ideas, you can add a couple emojis (being careful not to overdo it 👀), add the recipient’s name to give it a personal touch, or include action verbs that call on them to interact. If it matches your brand image, you can even keep part or all of your subject line the same every time so your subscribers recognize your email when they get it.
Regardless of which tactic you choose, it’s a good idea to test it out to find out what works best.A/B Testing can help you out with this. You can test multiple different subject lines by sending each one to a small group of contacts, and then the best performing one will be sent out to the remainder of your contacts.
Regularly testing your subject lines will help you find what works with your contact lists and improve your open rates.
Best Practice #6: Simplicity is key
You love your brand, and you want to share as much of it as you can with your subscribers, but you might want to hold back just a little bit. Cluttering your emails with as much content as you can actually be counterproductive to your goal of engaging your customer.
Think of it this way: have you ever clicked into a website and just suddenly been bombarded with images, text, and interactives? You had no idea where to start, so you just didn’t start at all, opting instead to click out and find a new website that didn’t assault your eyeballs. Your email should have enough content to be worthwhile interacting with, but not so much that there is no focus to it.
Best Practice #7: CTAs
CTAs, or call-to-actions, are most likely going to be the focus of your email. It is what you hope your subscriber clicks on when they’re scrolling through. Because of its importance, you’ll want it to stand out from the rest of the content.
“How do I do that?” you may be asking. Color, copy, design and placement all play a role in this.
The color should fit your brand image, and make it stand out from the background of the email. The copy is both what is written on the button, as well as the text of the email that surrounds it. Again, it should match your brand image, but it’s also a good idea to get a little creative about it. Average, run-of-the-mill buttons like “click here” and “read more” aren’t exactly eye-catching.
When paired with the design of the button, like shape and size, you could really boost your clicks.
When you’re placing your CTAs, there are some things you’ll want to keep in mind. First off, you’ll want one right when the email is opened, with no scrolling required. With this in mind, you’ll also want one at the bottom, particularly if your email is a little on the long side. When your reader gets to the bottom, you won’t want to have to make them scroll back up to click on your button.
Lastly, don’t go overboard! You’ll have to find a good balance between content, images, and CTAs. Too many might muddle the goal of your email, whether it’s to sell products, get people back on your website, or something else.
Best Practice #8: Adding ‘alt text’
‘Alt text’ is like Casper the Friendly Ghost. Invisible to most, but helpful when you need it! Ok, so the comparison might be a little off, but alt text does function just like that.
You’ve taken lots of time and effort to design an email you know your subscriber is going to love, images and all. But then, when your customer opens the email in their inbox, the images don’t load and there’s just a big empty spot. Some reasons why your images might not be loading are the email client might automatically block images, or problems converting between email formats. This is where ‘alt text’ comes in to save the day.
When the image doesn’t load, your ‘alt text’ will appear in the empty spot, giving your readers an idea of where they’re supposed to click, instead of leaving them in the dark.
Best Practice #9: Keep your branding consistent
Your brand’s image is important, and you want your email marketing to keep that image consistent. The colors, copy, design and tone should all be kept in mind because you want your customers to recognize your emails week after week.
If you’re working as part of a team, it can be hard to keep branding consistent with so many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. That’s why at Mailjet, we made it possible to lock sections so that those will remain consistent from one email to the next. You can lock the header and footer, and let your team take creative liberty over all the rest!
Best Practice #10: Make your emails more relevant
We all know humans are better than robots (at least you do if you’ve seen Blade Runner, The Terminator, Ex Machina, Resident Evil…I could go on). Emails with a bit of personalization in the subject line, like adding their name, for example, have a higher rate of being opened.
The subject line isn’t the only place where you can add a personal touch. Beyond even just adding it in the text of the email, you can also personalize by your customer’s behavior. This is where segmentation comes in.
Segment your customers by age, location, or even favorite products, and then build emails that are specifically made with these groups in mind. Of course, be careful not to get too creepy with it (maybe stay away from subject lines like “Talia, we know what you want and here it is” or something like that…creepy ☹️).
Best Practice #11: Make use of those statistics
So you sent off your email, and now you’re done, right? Nope. This is where email statistics come in, and they’re what’s going to help you make the next email you send out even better.
After you send out your email, review the stats you have at the end of the day, the next day, the following week, even over the course of the next few weeks! A lot can be learned from your email statistics about what your customers like, and maybe even more importantly, what they don’t like.
Stats like open rates, click rates and A/B test results are just the tip of the iceberg. Reviewing your statistics routinely, and then creating and narrowing down email hypothesis that you’ve come up with is a sure way to improve your engagement rate.
And besides, look at it this way: coming up with all those hypotheses and giving them a test will make you feel a little bit like a scientist. An email marketing scientist. 🤓
Best Practice #12: Request feedback
As much as we love statistics here at Mailjet, we also know they can only tell you so much. So how can you dig a little deeper? Why not go ahead and ask your subscribers?
It’s a bit like a quality control test. There are a ton of questions you can ask your subscribers that could give you valuable insight into your sending, and help you understand what you should be placing more focus on. Questions about the kind of content to include, promotions they want to see, products they love and the frequency of the sending are just a couple suggestions.
Summing up
Email marketing can be a daunting task. From the subject line, to the subject of your email, all the way to how to gage how interested your customers are in your campaigns, there is a lot to consider. If you keep in mind these 12 best practices, it will make it easier to know what to focus on, and what to prioritize. From the planning of your email, all the way down to the tracking of the stats, Mailjet can help you make the most of these email marketing best practices.
Do you have any email marketing best practices that you want to share? Let us know on Twitter!
So you’ve decided to get started on an email marketing campaign. Your computer is booted up, you’ve got your notebook opened beside you and you’re already to go… but where should you start? It’s a daunting task, but we have a couple great email examples for you to get you started.
What is an email marketing campaign?
An email marketing campaign is simple in explanation, but can be difficult in execution. Essentially, an email marketing campaign is an email or series of emails that a business uses to communicate with their customers, trying to persuade them to interact with them and/or their product.
Both simple and hard all at the same time, right? Our top picks are going to help you out, so deep breath, get ready to take some notes, and let’s get into it.
What makes a good email marketing campaign?
There are a couple things to keep in mind when planning your email marketing campaign. Every campaign you send out should include these key elements.
Subject Line
Subject lines are only a few characters, even less text than a Tweet, but they have the power to make or break your email marketing campaign. So how does something that small have so much power? Because it is the first thing your subscriber is going to see in their inbox, before they even open your email.
This is your chance to stand out in the inbox. Your subject line should be related to what your email is about, catchy and something your recipient can’t miss, but also true to your brand image. Oh, and do not fear the emoji! Adding emojis in the subject line can be that pop of color that draws your subscribers attention to your email first (and they’re super cute 😸).
Content
Your customers signed up to receive your email marketing campaigns for a reason, and this is your time to deliver on it. The content of your emails should be relevant, and there should be plenty of value in them as well.
Sending offers like promo codes, exclusive content or suggestions for your subscribers are all great way to add value to your emails. Be careful not to make it too cluttered, though. Your message should remain skimmable and your customer should be able to get the big picture right after they open your email.
Timeliness
Picking the right time to send your email is a hard decision to make. Tuesdays and Thursdays are generally the best days to send out your campaigns, but choosing a day and time could depend on if your a B2B or a B2C brand, and what industry you are in.
Regardless of what your answer to that is, we know you want to land in the inbox at the time that’s going to get you the most exposure possible. Picking a date and time, and then being consistent with it, is just as important at the content itself.
Responsive Design
With 59% of emails now being opened on mobile, you’ll want to pay attention to responsive design. What this means is making sure that your email looks just as good on your customer’s mobile device as it does on their laptop.
Our Passport email builder will ensure that the emails you create appear how they should in your customer’s inbox, no matter the device. There are also a couple best practices for responsive emails that you might want to check out before you get down to it.
While designing your email, keep in mind that content is king. This means that adding interactive and eye catching features like GIFs and photos, and paying attention to building a memorable design are important, but make sure it doesn’t outshine the content of your email. When it comes down to it, your content is what your subscribers signed up for in the first place, and you want to make sure your delivering on those expectations. No pressure, though. 😅
CTAs
A CTA, or a call-to-action, just might be the most important part of your email. This is the reason behind your email; it’s what you want your customer to do once they open it up in their inbox.
Whether it’s a button to complete their purchase, follow you on social media, or head back to your website to continue exploring, your CTA should grab their attention. There are a lot of ways to make your CTA stand out from the rest of the email, color and size just being two of them.
You’ll also want to keep the placement in mind, putting at least one CTA above the fold. You want your customers to see it as soon as possible so they know what action they should take within your email.
Don’t forget about the copy that you write to accompany it. The words you choose can make or break a CTA. It has to be hard NOT to click on, and match your brand voice. Sound like a lot? We have some great examples coming up to get you started.
9 of the best email marketing campaign examples
Nike: Clean minimalism
The first thing that catches our eye is the beautiful minimalism of Nike’s marketing campaign. Minimal clutter, minimal text, but just enough to pull you in. A big logo at the top so you know it’s Nike, followed by a bold title that immediately informs you that Nike is about to show you exactly what you need to make this summer a good one. Finally, one simple line of copy that fits perfectly with Nike’s brand voice.
It’s a seasonal email that’s just in time for the summer. It invokes beachy vibes with the towels laid out on an almost sand-colored background. While the main CTA is geared towards men, they also give you the option to check out the kids’ stuff too, in case the whole family needs to get ready for the summer!
PayPal: Enticing copy
If you’re looking for an example of good copy, look no further than PayPal’s email marketing campaign. Quick and witty, it goes right into the purpose of the email flawlessly. We all know what it’s like when you’re out with friends, and you’re trying to figure out the best way to split the bill. The relatability of PayPal’s copy makes it feel friendlier and warmer.
It’s the perfect set up for their CTA. You’ll want to click on it to find out how you’ll never have to engage in that awkward “who’s going to cover the bill” conversation. Further down in the email, in case the copy didn’t quite snag you, they have a graphic to show you just how easy it is to use.
Starbucks: Welcome them to the list
Welcome emails are a great way to say thank you to your subscribers for signing up to your email marketing campaigns. You got them, so now it’s time to wow them. And that’s exactly what Starbucks does with their welcome email by keeping it minimal, but still informative.
In the body of the email, the short and sweet text lets you know exactly what to expect from their future emails. If every email is as simple and digestible (no pun intended) as this one, you’ll be looking forward to their next email in your inbox.
Sending out a welcome email like this is super easy with our Automation feature. Once someone signs up for your newsletter, Automation will make sure the welcome email is sent off to them right away.
The Skimm: Milestone celebration
Milestones are an important part of life, just as they are an important part of brand and customer relations. Well… maybe not as much, but bear with me. Milestone emails are emails that are sent out when the subscriber has reached a certain goal or, in Skimm’s case, been a subscriber for two years.
This kind of email can make a customer feel appreciated. We all love to celebrate a special occasion, right? The best thing about this kind of anniversary email doesn’t require a subscriber to input any new information. With that milestone email, you can also include CTAs to get them back more involved with your brand, like social media.
Tory Burch: The magic of GIFs
GIFs are the closest we can come to the moving pictures in Harry Potter. But beyond that, they’re also a cool little addition to your email campaigns to really catch the eye of your customer. When opened, it’ll set your email apart from all the other text-based ones cluttering up the inbox.
Additionally, the implied exclusivity of the Tory Burch sale can make customers feel special and singled out. The “Private Sale” encourages the customer to take advantage of this opportunity.
Trello: Clever CTAs
Because CTAs are so important to your email marketing campaign, it’s a good idea to make them hard to ignore. There are different ways to go about doing this, but the way Trello does is by writing witty copy for the CTAs. We all know the run-of-the-mill CTAs. The “click here” and the “learn more here” buttons that are the CTA equivalent of oatmeal for breakfast (no offense if you like oatmeal).
Accompanying Trello’s engaging copy are CTAs that are unique and fit with the little descriptions. It may be difficult and take quite a bit more brainpower, but avoiding the temptation to write boring copy of every aspect of your email, not just the CTAs, can really make your campaign stand out.
Microsoft: Interacting with your customers
In this email campaign, Microsoft offered reward points if you answered the trivia question correctly. It’s like being on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, but inside an email! And without the million dollar prize… but still exciting.
While it’s a fun way to engage the customer, offering points that they can then redeem for things like prizes and coupons will keep the customer involved. To get the points, the customer also has to sign into their account, pulling them back to the web page. It’s a quiz that their subscriber will actually want to take.
Typeform: Re-engage
Email marketing campaigns can have many different uses, and one of those can be re-engagement. Maybe your subscriber was originally interested in your product, but life got in the way and they lost a bit of interest. Typeform’s re-engagement email shows you how to try to pull that subscriber back in.
At the beginning, they use a bit of humor to make the tone more conversational. Then, they give you a reason to come back to the site. In this case, it’s a link to the template gallery. A re-engagement email should both give the subscriber a reason to come back, as well as show them what they never knew they were missing.
Cook Smarts: Classic Weekly Marketing Campaign
Let’s just take a second to dissect this weekly newsletter.
Cook Smarts breaks down their email into three main sections to make the weekly reading a little bit easier to digest (get it? 😂). Starting with the menu, Cook Smarts shows you the best of the week so you don’t have to do the digging yourself. They segway into kitchen how-tos, and then into the Tip of the Week. Easy to follow, and easy to see the value in remaining a subscriber of the weekly newsletter.
It’s also a great idea to have a CTA like “Forward to a Friend”, as this one does in the top corner. Emails are super easy to share by (you guessed it) email, so adding this sort ofCTA could boost exposure for your marketing campaign.
How to send great email marketing campaigns with Mailjet
Feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the possibilities? Your email marketing campaigns can take any shape or form you like, and your creativity and vision are your greatest asset. At Mailjet, we can give you the tools so you can flex your creativity:
Drag & Drop Email Editor: After seeing all the examples above, you have a vision for your email marketing campaign. It’s our intuitive email editor, Passport, that is going to help you bring it to life with drag-and-drop sections that lets you bring that vision to life. The best part: you don’t need to know how to code.
Segmentation: Every person is different, so marketing to them like they are all the same might not be the best way to go. This feature allows you to group your contacts into similar interests, demographics, or other criteria. More targeted sending = more engagement. 😎
A/B Testing: Have an email hypothesis? Maybe you think a subject line with emojis will get more opens than one that doesn’t, but you want to test out your idea first. This is where A/B Testing comes in. It lets you test your hypothesis, and send only the best performing email to the majority of your contacts.
Personalization: Robots aren’t nearly as nice to talk to as humans. Personalization can catch your contacts attention, and make them feel like their valued by adding human touch to your email marketing.
Deliverability: If you’re sending emails, we’re guessing you want them to land in the inbox. Our great deliverability will help you get into your contacts inboxes, and your creative email marketing campaign will take it from there.
So you’ve designed your email, you’ve checked it for grammar and spelling errors (don’t forget to do this!), and you’re ready to send. We make sure your emails are responsive no matter what inbox they land in, or what device they’re viewed on.
When you’re building your campaigns, just keep in mind what your goal is. Do you want them to make purchases? Log back in? Give you more user information? Whatever the goal may be, build your CTAs, copy, and overall design to achieve it. Now take a deep breath… and get designing!
Is there an email campaign that stands out in your mind? If there is, let us know on Twitter.
A welcome email can be the beginning of a beautiful relationship – the one between your brand and your customer, of course. Your subscribers signed up for your newsletter because they liked what they saw, and now it’s up to you to give them more of what they want.
What is a welcome email?
A welcome email is the first email your subscribers receive after they sign up for your newsletter. It’s your chance to wow them, to give them a taste of what’s to come, and have them looking forward to your next email.
Why is it important to send welcome emails to your new users?
Beyond a welcome email being a kind and polite way to say hello, they also have some very powerful statistics behind them. Believe it or not, at 50%, welcome emails actually have an unusually high open rate when compared to other marketing emails. They are actually 86% more effective than the average newsletter.
And, saving the best for last, subscribers who receive a welcome email show 33% more engagement with the brand. If that’s not quite enough for you, there is a whole other, more practical reason to send out welcome emails.
That reason is to continue the onboarding process that your subscriber might be right in the middle of. A welcome email could encourage users to do many things, like complete their profile, download content or even complete a purchase. You’ll want to check out your conversion rate for these emails to see how they’re performing.
What makes a good welcome email?
If you’re looking to get started with welcome emails, here are a few ideas to keep in mind.
Ensure it’s timely
As soon as someone signs up for your newsletter, send them that welcome email ASAP! Because they just signed up, it means they’re still online and currently looking at your brand. They are curious enough to want to know more, and your email could pull them in even further.
Our Email Automation feature will help you do just that. You’ll be able to schedule your welcome email to send out as soon as you get a new subscriber with very little effort on your part. We do the work for you.
Keep it brief, but deliver on your promises
You’ll want to engage your audience as quickly as possible, but make sure not to bore them. The content of the welcome email should be relevant, succinct, and provide some sort of value. A welcome email should set your subscribers expectations for the future. It’s the first email they’ll ever get from you, so give them a taste of what’s to come, and try to keep it consistent with the newsletter you’ll be sending out.
Additionally, if you promised something for signing up, maybe a discount code or exclusive content, now is the time to deliver! Give your customers an incentive to keep them engaged in your brand.
Personalize the content
It goes a long way! Use whatever data you have on your newest subscriber, and make that welcome email that little bit more welcoming. If you have their first name, use it either in the subject line, the body of the email, or both. Just using a first name in the subject line can increase open rates by 20%.
The reason behind marketing emails is to turn subscribers to customers, and your CTAs, or call-to-actions, are what’s going to do that for you. You’ll want to keep this in mind when planning out your email. Make your buttons easy to find, and enticing to click on. This might mean making it pop with color, or maybe a cool GIF to go along with it.
Choose the right colors
Color is a good way to grab attention, and hold it. On the flip side, if the color combination is off, it could cause subscribers to lose interest. Because your choice of colors are the first thing your customer will see when they open up your email, you’ll want to make sure the colors you choose reflect your brand. It might seem simple and straightforward, but there is a lot to take into consideration, so we made a guide for you on the psychology of color.
Want to start sending your own welcome emails?
Create an account now and try our email automation.
8 Best Welcome Emails Examples to onboard and engage with new clients
Planning a welcome email and looking for some ideas? Check out these great examples and some of the elements you might want to consider when designing your own ones!
1. InVision – The power of personalization
Why we love it: Big and bold and right at the top, personalization is what starts this email off. There is no better welcome than one that feels personalized just for you, and InVision does just that. And right after it, a bright CTA to get them involved with InVision again. Well done 👏.
Why you should try this: Don’t you love getting personalized stuff? A keychain is a dime a dozen, but your name on a keychain…now that’s a whole new level. Seeing your name on something makes it more valuable to you, and much more likely to interact with it. It’s the same with marketing emails. As we mentioned above, a first name in the subject line can increase open rates by 20%. And that’s just in the subject line. Personalization makes the email more human, and therefore more likely to be opened!
2. Airbnb – What’s next?
Why we love it: Airbnb uses their welcome email to continue the onboarding process. Right after a warm welcome with bright, vibrant colors, the email gives you a couple different options to continue interacting with Airbnb. Completing your profile and adding verifications keeps the subscriber engaged with the brand, and the final CTA gets you back on their webpage with a very on-brand “Get Exploring”. 😉
Why you should try it: What is it that you want your users to do right after they sign up or join your list? Having a clear idea of what you want that ‘next step’ to be will help you keep your users engaged.
If your subscribers have a profile to set up with your company, a purchase to complete, or some settings to choose from, a welcome email is a great way to get them moving through these steps. Not only does it have the potential to give you more information about your subscribers, but it also keeps them interacting with your company and pulls them back to your main site.
3. Evernote – Clear and catchy CTAs
Why we love it: What Evernote does really well here is the CTA. The little bit of text at the top, “You’re going places. Your notes should too.”, gives us a taste of the brand voice right before they give us the CTA to download the app. No need to scroll, it’s all right there for us. If you do happen to take a gander further down in the email, the same CTA is at the bottom. They take all the work out of scrolling back to the top for us, too!
Why you should try it: The CTA is the bread and butter of your welcome email. Don’t get me wrong, thanking your subscribers for signing up is very important to make them feel valued. But, the CTA is what is going to keep them interacting with your company after they’ve opened the email.
The CTAs you include should be bright, enticing and fit in with your brand image. There should be one near the top of the email (above the fold), as one of the first things your new subscriber sees. Additionally, if there is enough content in the email (like Evernote’s), a CTA at the bottom as well is a good idea to keep your customers from having to scroll back up.
4. Casper – Color you want to click on
Why we love it: What’s the first thing you noticed about Casper’s welcome email? I’m willing to bet it was the deep blue color.
On brand, relaxing, with the text contrasting to stand out? Yes, please. The color conveys exactly what the brand is all about, without overwhelming the subscriber. It makes you look forward to future correspondence from them with the hope that each email will be as creative as the first. And the cherry on top? The little sleep-related puns. 💤
Why you should try it: Colors are very important for brand recognition and consistency. I’m sure at some point you’ve opened up an email and immediately deleted it because the colors were just throwing you off. You don’t want your subscribers doing the same, and color goes a long way to keeping them engaged.
There is a lot to consider when choosing colors, like how they reflect your brand, how they look together, if they stand out enough but aren’t too overwhelming. Our psychology of color blog post should be able to help you out.
5. Glossier – Let’s get social
Why we love it: Welcome emails are a great way to introduce new subscribers to some of the other channels you may be operating on, like social media. Glossier does a great job of keeping their text to a minimum, but still promoting a way to further interact with their brand. Showing their Instagram feed at the bottom not only adds to the overall aesthetic, but also entices you to connect with them on another platform.
Why you should try it: So they’ve signed up for your newsletter, and they’ll be getting regular correspondence from you through that. But, moving them onto your social media channels puts you in their orbit even more often. You’ll have more chances for conversion, and the greater the brand recognition the more they interact with you.
6. HelloPrint – The human element
Why we love it: Email can feel so robotic sometimes. It’s in the name: electronic mail. So sometimes the brands that add a human element to their marketing stand out more. Take a look at how HelloPrint introduces the new subscriber to the customer service team. Introducing you to Danny, Mary and Martha puts a face to your brand, and makes them seem more trustworthy in the eyes of a customer. (Also…peep the personalization at the beginning 👀)
Why you should try it: You want people to trust your brand, but it’s hard to trust something that you can’t put a face to. Showing your customers that there are humans behind the machine can make them like you, and want to work with you, a little bit more. Introduce them to some members of your team, like customer service so they can see who they might be working with in the future.
7. Mode – Get them interacting
Why we love it: Never underestimate the value of interactives! In Mode’s welcome email, they include a tutorial video. This email acts as a one-stop-shop to learn more about the brand you just subscribed to, gain some tips and tricks on how to use it, and then get started putting your new knowledge to work! All packed up into a 2 minute video… phew!
Why you should try it: When you hit the inbox, you want your email to stand out from all the other emails fighting for your customers’ attention. A good way to do this is through interactives, like videos, that are hard not to click on. However, make sure that whatever you add to your welcome email, be it text or interactives, adds value. You don’t want to lose your audience by having too much content.
8. Uber – Deliver the incentives
Why we love it: If signing up to your newsletter came with an incentive, you might want to take a couple notes from Uber’s welcome email. The incentive “Your free Uber ride is waiting” is as hard to miss as it is to resist. Following it up with a short explanation of what the incentive includes and topping it off with a CTA that helps the subscriber redeem the reward makes it so easy. SO easy in fact that there’s no reason not to use their product, right?
Why you should try it: Adding incentives like special promos for new users or access to exclusive content can really draw in subscribers. It adds an extra bit of value for signing up for your newsletter and will get them trying your brand. However, if you do offer an incentive, make sure you deliver on it.
What is a welcome series?
So you’ve heard all about welcome emails. Why not take it to the next level and try a welcome series?
A welcome series is a succession of welcome emails that are staggered, instead of sending out just one. Well, why should I send out multiple emails instead of just one? It’s a good question, and the answer is that you don’t want to overwhelm your new subscriber with a ton of info in your welcome email.
Instead of overwhelming them with an extra long email, stagger out the onboarding info so they are more likely to interact with it.
Sending out the first email as soon as they sign up that has some easy, preliminary info to begin the onboarding process would be step one, like a thank you for signing up and a subscription confirmation. Then, the next day, send out email two that has a couple more steps, like maybe set their email and profile preferences, and links to social media. Day three, send out another with popular products or something easy they can try so they familiarize themselves with your product or service.
Sending welcome emails with Mailjet
With Mailjet, it’s easy to send out your welcome emails. It’s even easy to send out a series of welcome emails, if that’s more your style. Our Email Automation tool lets you set up a workflow that will send out an email, or a series of emails, based on a specific action. In this case, subscribing to your newsletter.
To begin, click on ‘Automation’ in the main menu and then click ‘Create my first workflow’.
Select the ‘Welcome’ automation scenario, and fill in the workflow details for the welcome email you’re going to send out. Once that’s done, select the contact list that will be the trigger for you workflow. Don’t forget to hit ‘Save and continue’.
Almost time for the creative part! Click the ‘+’ button to begin designing your email. Right before you head to our email editor, Passport, to begin designing like usual, you will have to choose if you want there to be a delay for sending out your email. We suggest you send it immediately, but it’s up to you.
Now it’s time to get designing. Keep all of our tips and tricks in mind while building your email, and get as creative as you want within Passport. Once you’re all done, you’ll be taken back to the ‘Customize your workflow’ page where you’ll hit ‘Save and continue’.
But hold on a second. Before you activate your workflow, make sure all your emails have been tested and the workflow details have been reviewed. Maybe even get a second pair of eyes to look it over if you can. Once the workflow has been activated, it cannot be modified.
Once you’re happy with it, click ‘Save and activate now!’
And that’s all there is to it!
If you want to send out a welcome series, you would add more emails in the workflow, and set a delay for them to be sent 24 hours after the sign up, or however you want to stagger them out.
Wrap up
Welcome emails aren’t just a way to say hello to a new subscriber (but it’s still a very important part of them!). They are also a way to further engage your customers, show off what your brand is all about, and maybe get them even more involved. From the CTA, to the colors, to the personalization, adding these elements will make sure your subscribers are looking forward to what’s to come.
What’s the best welcome email you’ve ever received? Let us know on Twitter.
Spring cleaning is a drag. We get it. But just like it’s important you get rid of all those broken pens and loose paper clips in your desk, it’s also important to give your email list a thorough cleaning. The good news is you won’t need a vacuum for this one.
What is email list cleaning?
Email list cleaning means removing old or inactive contacts from your email database, be it contacts that are no longer engaging with your emails or dated email addresses that are no longer active and might return bounces, blocks or might have even become spam traps.
Cleaning your email list is really quite simple. It’s pretty much exactly what is sounds like: looking over your email contact list and updating it as you see fit. That means getting rid of old, outdated contacts. Just like getting rid of those old pens in your desk.
But wait a minute…isn’t it the more contacts on your list, the better chance you have for a higher opening rate? Actually, that’s not quite true. Removing contacts from your list might seem scary. After all, you put in work to get them there in the first place. But placing your focus in nurturing the contacts who love your brand is the better way to go. Then you’ll be able to show them what your brand can really do.
Why should you clean your email list?
Simply put, because it can impact your deliverability. That’s a fancy way of saying ‘the number of emails that make their way into your contacts’ inboxes, instead of the Spam folder’. Why should you care about this? I’ll tell you why.
Three words, four syllables: Increase Open Rates.
The way ISPs (Internet Service Providers) learn is from your statistics. They take a look at your open rates and try to gage from there how interested your contacts are in the content you’re sending them. If your open rates are low, this tells the ISP that your contacts aren’t interested.
You need to clean your email list to ensure that the ISP doesn’t take a look at your low open rates and say “This is not valuable, send to spam.” (Tip: it’s more fun if you read it in a robotic voice). If this happens, your open rates will decrease even more, fewer people will be reading your emails, and the ISP will continue to mark it as spam. It’s a vicious cycle, we know.
By cleaning your email list, you’re ensuring your open rates, which is the ratio between emails sent and emails opened, are better. Now, this won’t affect the total number of contacts that read your email; if 4 out of 100 open your email, the number will remain the same if 4 out of 50 contacts read it. The potential ROI from this campaign might remain the same, but email list cleaning will affect your reputation with the ISP. And this is key 🔑.
You don’t want a bad reputation (despite how cool the song by Joan Jett is). The worse your reputation is with an ISP, the more often your mail will end up in spam. Then, because your emails are ending up in the spam folder instead of the inbox, the number of contacts reading your email will be reduced, along with your ROI and engagement. Email list cleaning is what’s going to help you avoid this.
There’s another reason to clean your list (as if you haven’t been convinced yet). By putting your time and focus into contacts that love your brand, instead of subscribers that never interact, you can build better relationships with your active customers. Focusing on the contacts that love your emails lets you create content that suits their needs and interests, which can lead to better conversion rates. You’ll have better customer satisfaction, and higher revenue. It’s a win win.
How to spot a need of email list cleaning
You should always clean your list from blocks, bounces and spam complaints after you send an email, but even if your emails are arriving in your contacts’ inbox, you might still be in need of an email list cleaning.
Basically, the way to figure out if you need to clean your email list is to keep an eye on your open rates. What you’re looking for is an indication that they are starting to go down. If you see that they are decreasing over time, it might be time to clean that list.
Old contacts can be a couple of different things. It could be contacts that are uninterested or disengaged in your brand. These are those people that never open your fantastic emails and don’t know what they’re missing.
If it’s not them, it could be bad email addresses that your messages bounce back from (the WORST). Take a look over your email list with these two types of contacts in mind and start to scrub that contact list clean. Metaphorically, of course.
How to clean your email list (no cleaning supplies necessary)
Ok, you convinced me, I know why I should clean my contact list and I’m ready to begin. But where do I start?
Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.
To clean your email list, you can use two methods:
Remove blocks, bounces and unsubscribes after every email campaign.
Use segmentation to target inactive users.
Cleaning your list after every email campaign
We promise it’s not as much work as it sounds. After each campaign, take a look over your stats. You’ll want to look for unsubscribes, bounces and spam, and remove them from your contact list before sending another campaign. Diligence is key to cleanliness!
But, what else can you do to optimize your email contact list? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Cleaning your list every few months
You can also segment your list based on the engagement of your contacts. Look for the contacts that haven’t opened your email in the past 3 to 6 months, and send them a ‘we miss you’ reactivation email.
It’s like checking in on an old friend. You send them a little message to see if you still have anything in common, and if they don’t respond… all that’s left is to move on and remove them from your contact list. Because, let’s face it, if they haven’t engaged with you in the past 6 months, the message they’re sending is pretty clear. They’ve lost interest in what you’re offering. But the good news is you are freeing up time and effort to focus on catering to the contacts that can’t get enough of you.
5 Ideas to maintain a healthy email list
1. Use a double opt-in
A double opt-in means that when a customer signs up for your mailing list, you fire off an email asking them to confirm their subscription by following a link in the email. Setting up a double opt-in system helps you prevent fake email addresses from entering your database. This means that only those that are interested in receiving your content will confirm the subscription, and there will be fewer bounces, blocks, etc. Think of it as a first defense for a cleaner and healthier list.
2. Ask your contacts
It can be hard to tell if your contacts are simply not interested in what you’re sending them, or if they love it but just don’t feel like taking further action with it. A way to separate these two audiences is to ask questions. We have a couple ideas for how you can do this. So go on, don’t be shy.
You can ask your contacts to vote in a poll, with a question about how much they are enjoying your content, or maybe what they would like to see more of. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love a good poll?
Request some feedback on something you’ve sent, a new format you’re trying out, or anything else you’re curious about.
Ask your contacts to set their own communication preferences directly within the email. You can ask about preferred frequency, topics they might be interested in, etc.
Offer your contacts the ability to easily make product or feature requests.
Once you’ve sent out a round of these emails, filter out the contacts that are still not engaging with your content. Voila! Cleaned.
3. Start a re-engagement campaign
Remember when we were talking about those ‘we miss you’ emails? That’s a re-engagement campaign. Low engagement in your content doesn’t necessarily mean that your contacts aren’t interested in your brand, it could just mean they aren’t too interested in the content you’re providing. So before you scrub them from the list completely, see if you can pique their interest a bit. We have a few ideas for you:
Offer a free gift, or maybe a discount (no one can resist free stuff). But be careful with this one. It has potential, but what you really want is for your contacts to be interested in the content you’re providing, rather than just re-engaging for the freebee.
Give them a special perk, or maybe access to special content. Everyone loves to feel special every now and then.
Another tip is to take a quick glance at the calendar. Sometimes, people love your content, they’re just being bombarded by emails because of the time of year. Like during the holiday season when they don’t want to open even one more email. Just make a note to re-engage with these contacts later on.
4. Make it easy to unsubscribe
It’s never a good idea to hide your unsubscribe link from your customers, or to make the process of unsubscribing difficult, time-consuming or confusing. If they can’t find your unsubscribe link, or don’t want to take the time, they may just mark you as spam. You don’t want that, and we don’t want that for you.
We know it may seem backwards to offer your clients an easy way for them to leave. But, if you’re providing your contacts with quality content (which we know you are), then they won’t even look at that unsubscribe button. Just make sure to make it worth their time by providing worthwhile content.
5. Never buy email lists
Repeat after me: I will not buy email lists. Good. Now say it five times fast.
It may seem like a quick and easy way to build up your sender list, but don’t be fooled. It’s far better to build up your own list of subscribers that chose to receive your content.
A bought list is usually poor in quality. They aren’t targeted for your brand, so you’re not going to get good value from interacting with them.
They could also have something called spam traps in them. These are email addresses that used to be valid, but will now get your IP address blacklisted for sending to them.
So before you go to buy that list, remember all those annoying emails you got that you rolled your eyes at and sent to the junk folder. That’s not where you want your emails to end up.
How to clean your list with Mailjet
Manually cleaning your list would be really time-consuming, so we made it easier for you. With just a couple of simple steps, you’re on your way to a sparkling clean list.
The first thing you’re going to want to do is click on the title of the last campaign you sent out. Scroll down until you see ‘Show me the reports’ and click on that, too.
Then select the ‘Status’ drop down menu, and take your pick. You’ll mostly want to focus on the Unsub, Spam and Bounced options.
Once you’ve selected one of those options, click on the button ‘Export to a list’ at the bottom of the page. When that new box opens up, in the left drop-down menu, you’ll want to select the contact list that you want to clean up. In the right drop-down menu, select ‘Remove contacts’. Now take a deep breath, and press the ‘Export’ button.
That’s all there is to it. You are now a few contacts lighter.
We hope you feel refreshed and organized after cleaning up your email contact list. If you have a few cleaning tips, whether it’s for email lists or the office, share them with us on Twitter.
