Email Marketing Best Practices for Your Directory Business That Drive Results

Though the last decade saw a whole slew of predictions that email marketing is going to die, we saw the opposite scenario. For your information, Email was first invented in 1971 and it has been almost 50 years yet it is still unbelievably surging in popularity since its inception.

The worldwide figures for email users grew to 3.9 billion in 2019(*1). Furthermore, by the end of 2021, the number of worldwide email users will be over 4.1 billion(*2). With so many users from across the globe, it can be concluded Email marketing will still be alive and it will continue to benefit digital marketers be it a blogging site or an eCommerce site.

Today, we will be discussing email marketing best practices for your directory business to grow your traffic and maximize your sales. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Why Email Marketing Best Practices Matter to Your Directory Business

According to Campaign Monitor, the ROI for email marketing can be as high as 4400%. That’s $44 for every dollar spent on an email marketing campaign.

It should not be an exaggeration if we say email marketing best practices are in the heart of digital marketing. Because it brings results in the quickest time possible with the highest ROI.

Now, as we are writing email marketing best practices for directory website, you need to know the average open rate and click rate among different industries:

Feeling demoralized? Well, if you consider 16.65% open rate and 1.92% click rate, it may seem the lowest. But, the cost of sending emails to 10000 people is pretty low. And if nearly 5 people purchase your service, then it’s enough to make break-even. That’s how amazingly email marketing works.

So, what are the email marketing best practices for your directory business?

Now, if you want to take the growth of your directory business right through the ceiling, we encourage you to go through the following ideas:

1. Don’t purchase contact lists.
2. Sending emails at the right time
3. Creating a consistent email schedule
4. Steer clear of using ‘No-Reply’ in the sender’s email address.
5. Sticking to fewer than three typefaces.
6. Optimizing the email’s preview text.
7. Including an email signature.
8. Keeping the main message and call-to-action above the fold.
9. Personalizing the email greeting.
10. Keeping your email 500-650 pixels wide.
11. Putting your logo in the center or upper-lefthand side of the email.
12. Using incentives to increase open rates.
13. Using emojis to make your subject lines stand out
14. Using auto-responders for opt-ins.
15. Testing your Email campaign
16. Writing compelling (but concise) subject lines.
17. Avoiding JavaScript from the Codes
18. Leveraging the power of humor

1. Don’t purchase contact lists.

The reason this tip tops our list for email marketing best practices is that when you are purchasing emails it’s not going to resonate with your business tone. Sounds surprising, right?

That’s because you are highly likely to get an audience list that is completely from a different source. Meaning, you did not interact on behalf of your business with those clients whatsoever. Hence, your email may end up in the spam folder or they will simply mark your email as spam rather than buying something being convinced by your copy.

In addition, buying email lists and sending emails to them is not GDPR-friendly either. That means you must take consent before reaching out to your visitors especially if you are in the European Union. Thus, it is one of the best practices in email marketing you can follow.

2. Sending your emails at the right time

Among other email marketing best practices, sending emails to your audience at the right time can be a game-changer to get the best open rates. So, what’s the best time and day to send your emails to your audience to get the best email rates?

Well, if you search for the answer on Google, it will advise you to send your email on Tuesday at 10 am.

Then again, this idea is circulating the web for a couple of years and everyone is using the same advice from Google. And the result? Your email will get lost in the crowd.

So, as an email marketing best practice, what you can do is that you should be sending emails immediately before or after the peak hour. Try to send it either from 8 am to 9 am or 11 am to 12 pm. In addition, try to do an A/B test or split test to determine which time span works better for you.

And the same concept works for the day. Besides, what works for others may not work for you. So, the best solution is to try to send emails every working day and see which works better for you.

So far, at Directorist, we have got the highest open rates on Thursday at 9 am. However, Tuesday is still admittedly the second-highest at the moment for us.

3. Email Marketing Frequency Best Practices – Creating a consistent email schedule

Don’t get me wrong! Your audience will simply forget your brand if you don’t send emails on a regular basis.

So, wage your email campaigns 2-4 times a month if you want to abide by the best email marketing practices. However, don’t bombard your audience’s inbox more than once a week because it can irritate them.

And the results? Your audience may reward you with lots of unsubscriptions, throwing in the spam folder, or at least with a performance drop in the open rate.

4. Steer clear of using ‘No-Reply’ in the sender’s email address.

Many email marketers and companies in the US comply with CAN-SPAM, a longstanding piece of legislation. According to the CAN-SPAM guideline, you are not allowed to use “No-Reply” in your email address (For example, no-reply@yourcompany.com).

The use of the “No reply” phrase in your address or in your copy prevents the recipients to take further action like unsubscribing or interacting with the sender. This violates the protection of the CAN-SPAM law. Furthermore, people are less likely to read an email that has been sent via such an email address including the “No reply” phrase. Remember, people always love to interact more with emails having a human touch. So, you should steer clear of using ‘No-Reply’ as an email marketing best practice.

5. Stick to fewer than three typefaces.

A matured and expert email marketers do know using too many font styles or typefaces can actually distract the readers rather than poring over.

Simply put, you should not junk up your email copy using more than two typefaces or too many bold fonts, etc. to pass the email marketing best practices.

Try not to use more than three typefaces or fonts, italic, bold, or color in your text. Remember the less clutter you have in your email copy the more conversions you will get in return.

6. Optimize the email’s preview text.

Optimizing your email’s preview text may actually save your email’s death sentence, i.e., not opening at all. Usually, before a user opens an email copy, the preview text of an email pulls in the first few words from the email body and places it next to the subject line.

So, check and double-check your email’s preview text to whether it brings any demotivating words from the email body to make sure you are following the email marketing best practices.

For example, if your email’s preview text pulls in texts like “Not displaying correctly?” then before opening the email the recipient might think that the email has already an error and skip the mail let alone open it.

7. Include an email signature.

As we already mentioned people always love to interact with humans. Even though you are sending automated emails on behalf of the entire marketing team, people will still tend to see an email copy containing the sender’s signature.

Thus consider adding a signature to your email copy to ensure email marketing best practices as people are much more inclined to get emails from human beings.

8. Keep the main message and call-to-action above the fold.

Keeping your main message and call-to-action above the fold increases the chance of success. That said, people are much more inclined to bounce from your copy without scrolling down to see your entire copy.

Therefore, it is recommended you place your CTA and main message above the fold as the email marketing best practices. Also, repeat your CTA at least three times and evenly throughout the email copy in different formats and in various places.

9. Personalize the email greeting.

When you are sending emails, you should send relevant emails to the relevant visitor group. For this reason, you have to segment your email group beforehand to ensure you are following along with the email marketing best practices.

Next up, send your personalized emails to the group. Personalized means, you should include the name of your recipient in the subject line of your email including addressing words like Dear [Name of the recipient] or Hi [Name of the recipient].

No matter how engagingly you write your email copy, you can not grab their attention unless you personalize your copy with specific names.

But that does not mean you have to personalize every email separately. With advanced email marketing tools, you can do that using automation. Consequently, every recipient will get personalized emails.

10. Keep your email 500-650 pixels wide.

Scrolling (particularly horizontal scrolling) hurts the readers physically. Surprised?

Well, if you get an email that asks you to scroll horizontally, won’t you get a little irritated?

Any email template wider than 650 pixels will ask your recipient to scroll horizontally. This problem deteriorates if the intended reader uses a mobile phone device.

So, you need to minimize the cumbersomeness of your email by optimizing its width to ensure email marketing best practices.

11. Email marketing subject line best practices – Put your logo in the center or upper-lefthand side of the email.

No matter what type of email you are crafting, putting your business logo in the copy builds trust and awareness of your brand.

The best practice for email marketing is to put your logo is on the upper left corner of the email copy above the content of your email. However, you can also keep the logo right on the upper center to meet design purposes.

12. Use incentives to increase open rates.

Believe it or not, if you offer lucrative discounts or any other benefits in the subject line, people are prone to open your email with more than 50%. It is one of the best practices in email marketing.

Here are three incentive-focused subject lines “First time shopping, we will cover the shipping “Last chance to redeem 25% discount code” or “Spend $500 or more to save $50”.

Then again, you should not bombard your clients’ inboxes with promotional copies. Rather you should send emails that link to your blog’s value-added content. Only then can you send promotional ones.

Makes sense, right?

13. Email marketing subject line best practices – Use emojis to make your subject lines stand out

A simple yet effective strategy to look your email stand out from others is to use emojis. As the influx of emails from different senders make the recipients’ inbox overflowed, you really need them(emojis) to stand apart.

We have seen 4% more success in the open rate with the same email in two sample groups. So, why not use them?

14. Use auto-responders for opt-ins.

Your subscribers will usually forget the fact they opted-in. Hence, you should reward them with an auto-responding email containing bonus material as a reminder.

The auto-responder email should be sent out to the subscribers within either 1 day or 5-day intervals after the subscriber registers.

15. Test your Email campaign

It may seem a cliche tip but trust me missing data broken links or wrong images have been a regular phenomenon for email marketers.

Thus it is always recommended you check your email preview with the solution you are using. The best practice is when you send a test mail to a small group of people within your company colleagues to ensure everything is working fine.

16. Writing compelling (but concise) subject lines.

Since a good subject line is the most important aspect while writing an email copy, you have to optimize it with the industry standard.

Usually, any subject line beyond 50 characters, will face cut off due to the limited viewport of the devices. So, you should keep your subject line between 30 to 50 characters(including spaces) limit.

17. Avoiding JavaScript from the Codes

Generally, email uses HTML for content structure and unlike webpages, most email applications will block JavaScript from your copy. Email applications block JavaScript codes for the sake of security concerns.

Thus, if you are to copy any HTML code and paste it in your copy, make sure to remove JavaScript. Typically, JavaScript is placed in between the <Script></Script> tags.

18. Leverage the power of humor

When you are using humor in your email copy, you are practically controlling the emotional state of your visitor’s mind.

This way, you can literally make him open the copy and prod him or her to take any action from the main body.

End Lines on Email Marketing Best Practices

Now, you may be wondering how to comply with these tips effortlessly? Not to worry! Because you are covered with a host of freemium email marketing tools already out there in the market.

Make sure to pick the right solution for your business. We recommend you start with the free ones, then go to the premium ones to get the best results.

We hope these email marketing best practices will help you get more open rates and more conversions. Mention not, we will be updating these best practices with time. So, you are requested to visit this page every now and then to stay ahead of the curve!

So, what are you waiting for? Email away!

Finally, if you liked our posts, don’t forget to subscribe to our blog so that we can notify you once any post is published. Directorist is now on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn! You can also join the Directorist Community for sharing your thoughts and experiences relating to the directory niche. Come and join us to see what we’re up to.

References:

*1. https://financesonline.com/number-of-email-users/

*2. https://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Email-Statistics-Report-2017-2021-Executive-Summary.pdf