7 Best Email Marketing Software (March 2023) – Forbes Advisor

Email marketing has a few moving parts, but successful campaigns boil down to these six factors:

1. Use tools designed for email marketing

You cannot run an effective email marketing campaign using a standard email service. Yes, you can send bulk and burst emails from Outlook, Office 365 and Gmail. However, none of the email list building and maintenance tools, list segmentation, attractive email templates, campaign reporting or cleaning features are listed.

To get business building results, you need software designed specifically for email marketing or customer relationship management (CRM) with email features. We explore some of the main options for these below.

2. Actively build your email list

Start building your list by collecting customer email addresses during your sales process or customer interaction. However, don’t limit your email list building opportunities to just these communications.

You can entice potential leads and customers into giving you their email address before they spend a dime with you. The secret is to use lead magnets. These are valuable freebies like ebooks, webinars, checklist downloads, free trials, and coupons.

Promote lead magnet items on your website, landing pages, social media channels, etc. to get new email subscribers and you need to sign up for an email to download or receive the freebie. If the prospect finds value, they’ll happily provide their email address and opt-in to your exchange’s email list.

3. Divide your list by user opinion

Segmentation divides your email subscriber list by user interest and is a key strategy for email marketing success. Using segmentation, you can target content to specific subscriber groups and deliver real value to readers. Campaigns that use segmentation have higher costs and lower unsubscribe rates compared to sending a general message to all subscribers.

You can segment email subscribers in a variety of ways, such as purchasing history, website interaction, and lead magnet types. Most email marketing solutions even allow you to add engaging questions to your subscription emails.

Most email marketing tools have customizable email signup forms that help you build segmented lists, like this one from Mailchimp.

Many email marketing tools integrate with website and retail platforms for automatic segmentation based on sales history and website interactions.

4. Involve your readers at every step

Once you’ve got your email subscriber list, you’re ready to create and send content that delivers value to your segmented subscribers. Here, you have five opportunities to engage subscribers and entice them to open, read, and take an action in your email.

1. From line: Your business or promotional name that subscribers know and trust.
2. Subject Title: A short phrase that catches their eye as they scan their inbox.
   Pre-Subject Line: Supports the subject’s additional incentive to open the email.
3. Email Content: A short and humorous message such as a promotion, news update or announcement.
4. Call to action (CTA): Buttons or highlighted links redirect clicks to your purchase pages, registration forms, or any action you want subscribers to take.

When you send your emails, it affects engagement, opens, and clicks. Most experts agree that email marketing should hit inboxes at 10 am or 2 pm on weekdays. The data shows that Mondays have the highest open rates at an average of 22%, while weekend open rates drop by 20%.

5. Measure email marketing campaign results.

After your email marketing message is sent, you can review key metrics including the number of email bounces, how many subscribers opened your email, and how many clicked on your CT links and buttons.

If you follow the rule of sending at 10 am or 2 pm, within eight to 10 hours you will have a good picture of your campaign’s success. About a day later, a new email came in to open.

Email tracking and measurement opens and CTA clicks help you measure what message is working for your audience. A/B testing different email “from” lines, subject lines, pre-headers and CTAs will help you fine-tune which phrases and offers your readers will click on.

6. Clean, rinse and repeat

Malicious emails happen. It’s just part of the process. This means that the email you sent could not be delivered to a bad email address format, a blocked email, or a fake email address. To maintain the health of your email list and improve overall reach, corrupt emails should be removed or scrubbed from your list.

Most email marketing systems make this step easy. Once the scraping of bounced emails is complete, you’re ready to jump to step four and run another campaign on your schedule. Remember to use what you’ve learned from past campaigns to improve your message each time.