best email marketing for successful campaigns 

If you’re searching for the best email marketing strategy to generate more revenue for your outdoor brand or non-profit, you’ve come to the right place!  We’ve jam-packed this blog with easy, actionable steps to help you be more strategic and improve your email marketing.  

Did you know that whether you sell bicycles or board shorts, email marketing converts better than social media??  It’s also the best way to remind potential customers about a product they might be interested in, to make a donation, or if they’ve left an item in their cart!

Therefore, this email marketing blog will focus on how to design your email, the types of automated emails you should set up, when to send your emails and at what time.  We’ve also included a whole section on brand partnership emails and brand collab emails as we get this question a lot from our clients about how best to handle.  But first, got a question that can’t wait??  Drop us a line! 

email marketing fun facts

Now then, here are a few quick facts about the best email marketing campaigns:

• More than 60% of emails are opened from a mobile device

   

• The average open rate for marketing emails is 20-25%, however since the Apple iOS 15 update, we’ve seen rates as high as 45% on average!

   

• Tuesday is the best day to send!
  

Did you know that more people are opening emails from their mobile phones than from their desktop computers?

best email marketing: 10 tips to sending better emails

We are big fans of DIY tips!  And the best email marketing is often done in-house.  Therefore, here are steps you can implement today to improve your emails!

1. SET UP YOUR EMAIL AUTOMATIONS

All of the best email marketing platforms will allow you to set up automated emails.  Whether you use SalesForce Marketing Cloud, Shopify, Klaviyo, Mailchimp or others, you will have automations available.  Keep in mind, they may be called email automations, but can also be referred to as customer journeys, drip campaigns, push notifications, etc.

Here are just a few examples of email automations you can create:

• Welcome email 
• Abandoned cart email
• Reengagement email
• Repeat customer email
• Email nurture series

While email automations are labor-intensive it is worth your time to set these up!  Think about how you receive that reminder email from a brand you like, “Looks like you’ve forgot something…don’t worry, we saved it for you.”  It may seem cheesy but it is effective!

2. BEST LENGTH FOR EMAILS: Keep ‘EM short

Your readers will spend an average of 2-10 seconds reading your email.  So, keep ’em short and to the point!  If your subscribers see long paragraphs of text, will they keep reading or unsubscribe?  Will they save your email for later, but then never read it?

Therefore, here are a few tips to tighten up your email copy: 

• Use no more than 3 main sections per email. 
• Keep each section to 2-3 sentences max. 
• Create calls to action and linked text. 
• Direct traffic to your website to read a full blog or view product specs!
• Make it easily skimmable! 

finding it hard to trim that email campaign Copy? 

If you do have a lot to say, then revisit your email goals and your email frequency.  Perhaps you need to send a weekly email instead of 2x per month?

As an example of a short and sweet email we love, see AFAR Magazine‘s Daily Wander email below.  We receive 1-2 a week (you can receive them daily if you’d like), and we open them 99% of the time to read about new destinations, travel tips, and get inspired!

Other things we love about AFAR Magazine’s emails:

• There’s big, beautiful imagery
• A small amount of text
• Links to read more if you’re interested
• 2-3 main sections
• Even a weekly trivia question!

Here’s another example of a section in AFAR Magazine’s recent email that caught our attention:

As we’re in Europe at least once a year, you bet we’re clicking to Read More…especially because we want to be at Tour de France this summer!!

3. use visuals throughout your email campaign

Even the best email marketing campaign you roll out may not be as exciting and eye-catching as a travel piece.  Therefore, use visuals throughout your email. These can be graphics, embedded videos, lifestyle images, ambassador spotlights, and product shots.

In addition, unique, branded graphics at the top of each section can give your readers an easy way to identify the topics covered in your email.  Remember, your emails must be easily skimmable!  Not good with graphic design?  Or not familiar with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop?  Try Canva! 

Remember to use alt tags and link each image in your email back to your website so your readers can learn more about that image quickly!

In addition, visuals could also mean a colorful section divider and calls-to-action (CTA) buttons.  More on these in a bit!  However, keep your paragraph text to black or grey to make it easy to read.  Lastly, leave white space to give your readers’ eyes a chance to rest! 

4. segment your email list

Segmenting your email list can help you to customize your message, target specific audiences, and improve your conversion rates!  Here are a few ideas for list segmentation for your email campaigns:

• Location segmentation: send different emails based on the location of your readers!
• Send a more personalized message, or a promotional offer from your Founder to your most active subscribers.
• Resend to non-openers: resend your monthly email (a few days later) to anyone that has not opened it. Remember to change both the Subject Line and preview text.

Here’s an example of a graphic we created for our clients at Source Endurance, a coaching company that offers training plans, camps, and one-on-one coaching.

5. include calls to action in your emails

A call to action or CTA in your email campaigns helps your reader learn more, buy your product, or make a donation.  Don’t assume they will click on your website link, and search for the items mentioned in your email.  Or make their way to your donate page, and make a gift.

Instead, give your reader highlighted (or underlined) links to click on, and CTA buttons in each section.  Include these throughout the email.

Another reason we strongly recommend adding CTA’s?  The new email privacy protections in place for Apple iPad or iPhone users!

6. Up Your Font Game

Although Arial and Times New Roman are the most common fonts, today there are thousands of options to choose from!  Use an easy-to read font for the email paragraph text.  A sans-serif is best here, one without those little ‘feet’ hanging off the letters.

A serif font, the ones with the ‘feet’ or cursive in nature, can be used for titles or headings.  But, ensure it’s legible on both a desktop and mobile phone.  All email platforms will let you preview your email before you send it!

Another tip is to play around with font size.  A 10 or 12-point font might be great for your internal text only emails.  However, for your email marketing campaigns, we suggest bumping up the font size to 14-point or 16-point at a minimum!  This is because so many readers will check their email from a mobile phone. 

Also keep in mind, if your audience skews a bit older (50+) they might find a small or cursive font very hard to read!

A sans-serif font and a larger font size makes Recreation.gov’s email easy to read. In addition, the CTAs give you even more incentive to engage! 

7. create short, intriguing subject lines

Here’s where you can really make an impact in your email campaign open rates.  Take some time to word-smith that Subject Line!  And, use no more than 6-9 words. 

In addition, you can use CAPITALS to help your email stand out in someone’s inbox.  Words like SALE, SAVE 50%, COMING SOON, and SAVE THE DATE all work very well.  Use emojis sparingly, 1 is often enough.

Lastly, make sure to include some preview text to let your reader know what else you’ve included in your email that might make them open it. 

8. best days to send marketing emails

Are you also wondering what the best days are to send a marketing email?  Well, we see the highest open rates on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. 

However, if we are launching a weekly sale or a holiday campaign, we may drop emails on other days as well.  

Here’s a quick example of why the subject line and an emoji or two can help. Which email in my inbox above stands out to you the most?  Yes, I remembered to get a Valentine’s Day gift! 

9. best times to send marketing emails

What time should you send your email?  We typically send marketing emails between 7-10am.  However, consider what time zone you are sending your email to.  If most of your opens come from the east coast or Europe, set your email campaign to drop during their early morning hours. 

If you use Mailchimp, tools like Time Warp or Time Optimization are amazing!  Mailchimp not only helps you determine the best time to send your email based on previous email results, but they can also drop your email at the same time in each time zone.  Therefore, everyone on your list will get your email campaign at say 8am their time.

10. create ways for people to sign up for your email list

Now that you’ve got lots of DIY tips to send the best email marketing campaigns, how do you plan to grow your list??  It’s okay if you haven’t thought of this yet! 

After you’ve set up a list or created a new audience in your email marketing platform, you need to establish methods to add new people to the list in the future.  Here’s a few ways we add new people to email lists for our clients:

• Social media posts that send readers to a newsletter sign-up landing page (and yes you should sign up for our newsletter if you’re not already on the list!!)
• Point of purchase option for email list sign-up (in store or online)
• iPad stations at events and conferences
• Newsletter sign-up box in your website footer (a must!!)
• Website pop-up

Whatever you decide, make it easy for potential customers to opt-in, as well as opt-out should they decide your emails are no longer relevant.

 11. EMAIL MARKETING x BRAND PARTNERSHIPS

Okay, I know we said Top 10, but this goes to eleven because it’s that important.  People know a brand partnership email when they see it in their inbox.  They can smell it a mile away.  ‘Yeti + Red Bull’, ‘Burton and Big Agnes’, ‘Surfline x Solento Tequila Collab’, ‘Tour de France and STRAVA Sweepstakes’. 

While brand partnerships can help boost your brand, and expose you to hundreds or thousands of potential new customers, tread carefully when it comes to sending a brand collab to your loyal email subscribers!  

Branded Email Partnerships

need help with your email MARKETING?

Need help getting started, or want us to create and manage your email marketing campaigns?  Let’s chat!  Also, check out other posts we’ve written about email marketing:

• How Your Email Marketing will be Affected by Apple’s iOS15 Updates
• How to Send Better Emails
• Types of Email Marketing Services 

To learn more about what we do on the regular, follow Top Rope Media’s adventures on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Until next time, happy emailing!

– Meredith McConvill, Top Rope Media

Need a refresher on how to send better email marketing campaigns?  If so, we’ve boiled down the process to 8 easy steps!  These steps will help you be strategic, keep focused, and improve your email marketing.

Is Email Marketing Dead?

First, rumors of the death of email as a marketing tool are nothing new.  In fact, the numbers tell a much different story:

• Two-thirds of customers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message.

   

• When it comes to customer acquisition, email is 40X more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined.

   

• Globally, for every $1 spent on email marketing it returns $36. That is a 3600% ROI!*
  

At Top Rope Media, we firmly believe in the power of email marketing.  Therefore whether selling surf lessons or snowboards, email is a channel that converts.  Before we dive in, if you have a question that can’t wait, drop us a line!

drop us a line

EMAIL MARKETING Example: Summer Cycles, A More Personal Approach

The email marketing example below is from an email campaign we created on behalf of Summer Cycles, a custom bicycle shop in Del Mar, California.  They work with more high-end, ‘luxury’ cycling brands like Pegoretti, Gaulzetti, and Seven Cycles. 

In addition to selling bicycles, service, and repairs, we needed to build out their brand identity.  Tell stories.  Introduce people to the owners, Jeff & Craig.  We did this through blogging.  So, the email not only provides us with a distribution channel to share our blog, it allows us to hand-craft a message that showcases services, promotions, and let the readers feel like Jeff & Craig were speaking directly to them.  This in turn generated higher open rates and click-through rates than our regular newsletters!   

With Summer Cycles, we want their emails to sound very personal, like the owners, Jeff and Craig are writing directly to you.

8 Steps to Creating great email campaigns

You came here for action steps, and without an email marketing platform, you will not get very far.  Therefore, let’s look at email marketing software.

1. Choose Your Email Marketing Platform

We recommend Mailchimp more than any other platform.  Why?  You can get started fairly quickly on you own.  Or with our help, thanks to easy-to-use templates for email campaigns, pop-up forms, and landing pages.

In addition, you can often start with Mailchimp for free, or sign up for one of their reasonable monthly packages!  These, and many other reasons, are why we are a Mailchimp Partner and have been using the platform for over 10 years with close to 2 dozen clients! 

BEYOND MAILCHIMP

Looking for something besides Mailchimp?  Or want a platform that is integrated with your CRM or fundraising platform?  Then there are other options.  We have clients that use Every Action, MemberLeap, HubSpot, Marketo, Constant Contact, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Infusionsoft.

However, compared to Mailchimp, many of these email marketing platforms are quite expensive!  In addition, if you choose to go with one of these more robust systems, ensure that someone will manage this for you.  Need help with this process?  Give us a holler!

Who’s Managing Your Email Marketing?

Why do we recommend that someone manages your email marketing other than you?  Because we often have clients that come to us with an email marketing platform already set up but is seldom used.  They are wonderful people and have the best intentions.  Sometimes they’ve set this up through their website host or a deal they bought into.

In most cases, they’ve uploaded an email list, or have their customer’s email addresses automatically pushed to a list.  However, they often do not have the time to create and send out two emails per month.  Never mind use all those insights into their customers that they’ve been collecting on the platform!

You may be in the same boat here. Therefore, we recommend reviewing your goals, your monthly budget and the time you have available each week to work on this.  Only have about 2 hours per week?  Start with Mailchimp, or another easy-to-use platform like Constant Contact.

example: moving kradl’s email marketing from wix to mailchimp

Our clients at Kradl, creators of a bicycle storage device that lifts your bike up to the ceiling with no electricity, used Wix for both their website and email marketing.  However, there was no way for us to track loyal customers or frequent email openers.  In addition, we could not segment our list to target people who did not open.  Furthermore, we could not see who opened the campaigns most often, what part of the country they were from, etc.

As their list was under 2,000 subscribers, we set Kradl up on Mailchimp, imported their email list, and began sending emails for free!  Again, spend some time researching each platform.  Determine what your pricing will be to get started based on the size of your email list, and how often you plan to email them.

If your products costs $149, a plan for $14 per month may be well worth it, especially if you are converting even just 2-3 customers with each email campaign you send!  

2. Establish Your Goals

Is your goal to generate more sales?  Book appointments?  Do you want to tell your brand story to potential customers?  Maybe you are a non-profit and have important more longer form information you need to convey weekly to your member base?

Whatever the case may be, the goals you establish will usually be a combination of brand building and revenue-generating items.  The most effective goals are measurable through a specific metric.  And, are focused on content that delivers high value to your audience.

Example: Goals for Summer Cycles

As an example, with Summer Cycles, our email goals included:

• educating consumers about why they should invest in a custom bicycle
• increasing the booking of bicycle fit services and repairs
• introducing readers to Craig & Jeff
• selling custom-built bicycles

 Your emails should be a good mix of sales and services offered, along with good story-telling about the brand, your ambassadors, and fans.

3. Build A List By Giving People A Way To Sign Up For Your Emails

In some cases, you may already have a list of emails from individuals who have made purchases from you in the past.  Or, perhaps you have been using a CRM or similar platform to collect email contact info.

Whatever you do, make sure you have permission to send emails to those individuals first.  There are a ton of reasons for this.  But, more than anything, you want to establish a highly engaged list.  Those that want to hear about your latest blog or holiday promotion.  Not flag you for sending them something they never signed up for.

For more information on setting up email marketing permissions and things like General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), check out our blog posts: How Does GDPR Affect Me and How to Prepare My Website.

SECURING MARKETING PERMISSIONS AND GDRP 

In addition, make sure to check out how Apple’s new iOS15 update will affect your email campaigns.

email sign-up and opt-in examples 

After you’ve aggregated your list in Excel, a Google sheet, or Mailchimp, you’ll also need to establish a method to add new people to the list in the future.  What are some common ways to let people know you are going to be sending out awesome content via email?  And, to give them an opportunity to opt-in?  Here’s a few:

• social media posts that direct people to an email sign-up landing page 
• point of purchase option for email list sign-up
• iPad stations at event activations
• Newsletter sign-up box in your website footer
• website pop-up

Whatever you decide, make it easy for potential customers to opt-in, as well as opt-out should they decide your emails are no longer relevant.

An example of a simple landing page created in Mailchimp that you can share on other marketing channels, like LinkedIn or Facebook, to drive more email signups!

4. Commit To An Email Frequency

Will you be sending emails 3 times per month?  Once a month?  Or, once a quarter?  The rate at which you distribute emails depends on a number of factors.  Therefore, here’s some tips on how often to send emails:

How often does your audience want to hear from you?

You may already know who your audience is, and as a result, know how often they want to hear from you.  Most likely, it is not every day.  But, probably more than once every quarter.  If you are unsure, start with a goal of 1 email per month.

Do You Have meaningful and relevant content?

Ok, this one is probably the most important.  Maybe you have an army of brand ambassadors generating a ton of content that your audience is hungry for.  Or, your business is built on limited quarterly product releases. 

Perhaps like a non-profit we work with, the San Diego Mountain Biking Association, you have trail access issues that need to be communicated to your membership on a weekly basis. Regardless, you should identify the 1-3 items that are driving your content production and determine how these should drive email frequency.

Are you writing a weekly blog or Vlog?

Each time you publish a new blog or vlog, you can have this set up to automatically send out an email to your customers and fans!  Read more about how to share your blog posts with Mailchimp.

5. Email Automations

Create a set of automated emails that kick in when someone signs up or is added to your list.  These will most likely begin with a Welcome message and include an educational piece about your company or the products you sell.

With some clients, we set up a series of Educational emails.  For example, with the American Avalanche Institute, after the welcome email, a week later a subscriber will get a gear check email with a short video that shows them how to check their backcountry gear to ensure it’s ready for their next trip!

Other email automations you can set up:  

• Abandoned cart emails
• Recommended product email (based on a previous purchase)
• Re-engagement email
• Emails to request a review or testimonial  

Here’s Shopify’s take on the Best Email Practices, including some great ideas for email automations.

6. create your emails and test them

First, set a deadline for your email to drop, and work backward from there.  Then, determine when you need assets (photos, video, copy, links, landing pages) to meet those email campaign deadlines.  We recommend creating a content calendar and sharing it with everyone on your team so that they know when the emails will drop.  You can also use a content calendar to track PR campaigns, social media posts, and events!

Once you have all the approved assets, and the copy, add these into the email template.  If you are starting from scratch, use one of templates available within your email platform, purchase an email template design, or ask for help! 

Tips to create good emails:

• Use no more than 3 sections per email.  Why?  Your readers will spend an average of 12 seconds reading your email.  
• Keep each section of your email to 2-3 sentences max. Make it skimmable! 
• Create clean section headers by using dividers and images at the top of each section.  Then, use alt tags and image links so readers can learn more about the image quickly!
• Include good CTA’s (calls to action) throughout the email.  CTA’s include both highlighted links and buttons.
• Leave lots of white space or negative space to let the reader’s eyes rest. 
• Use easy-to-read fonts that compliment each other.
• Select complimentary colors for dividers, headings, buttons, and within the images you select.  However, keep your paragraph text to black or grey to make it easy to read.
• Create short but intriguing Subject Lines and Preview Text. No more than 6-9 words for your Subject Line. Use an emoji for emphasis on your Subject Line. In addition, you can include capitalized words in your copy like SALE, NEW, SAVE, COMING SOON, HOLIDAY SPECIAL, etc. to grab attention of your readers.

Too Much Copy? 

If you are constantly trying to cut down paragraphs of copy, then revisit your email goals and your email frequency.  Perhaps you need to send a weekly email instead of 2x per month?  Or, maybe you send a monthly general newsletter that’s more sales focused, and then a more personalized one that’s written from the owners or CEO of your company?

preview and test your email campaign

Either way, once you draft your email, preview it on both desktop and mobile.  Most email opens happen on mobile devices these days.  Send test emails to your boss, your co-worker, anyone that can review and provide feedback before you click to your full list. 

See what your emails look like in Outlook vs. Gmail.  And keep in mind, Outlook will not render images, so use those Alt tags! 

7. best times and days to send your email

Clients always ask, what are the best days and times to send an email?  Well, we see the highest open rates when we send email campaigns on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  However, if we are launching a weekly sale, or a holiday campaign, we may drop emails on Sundays as well.  

What time should you send your email?  We typically drop email campaigns between 7-10am.  However, consider what time zone you are sending your emails to.  If most of your opens come from the East Coast, and you live on the West Coast, set your emails to drop earlier during their morning hours. 

You can also use Mailchimp’s tools like Time Warp or Time Optimization to not only determine the best time to send, but also drop your email campaigns at the same time in each time zone.  Therefore, everyone on your list will get your email campaign at say 8am their time.  Pretty sweet!   

8. measure the results of your email campaign

• First, stick to a schedule of creating and sending your emails for 2-3 months. 
• Second, pay attention to your email campaign metrics.  Do these fall short of your industry’s standard open rates?  Do they surpass them?  Once again, with Apple’s new iOS15 update, your open rates will be inflated, so you will want to account for this.
• What links are people clicking on the most?
• Are you trying new things over time? Asking for feedback?  
• Did you resend your email to non-openers? Meaning did you segment your list and resend your email to anyone that did not open the first email?  We often do this sales and marketing emails.  However, before resending, you should change the Subject Line and Preview Text.
• If your open rate and click-through rates are still well below the industry average, revisit your email goals and review your email list.

need help with your emails?

Need help getting started, or want us to create and manage your email marketing campaigns?  Let’s chat!  Also, check out other posts we’ve written about social media and paid advertising:

• 8 Easy Steps to Kickstart Your Online Advertising

• How Your Email Marketing will be Affected by Apple’s iOS15 Updates

• Using Photography and Videography to Marketing Your Business

• How to Find the Right Brand Ambassadors and Influencers for Your Brand

• 15 Ways to Create Higher Conversions Using Facebook Ads

To learn more about what we do on the regular, follow Top Rope Media’s adventures on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Until next time, happy emailing!

– Meredith McConvill