
Best Email Marketing Practices: A Complete Guide to Successful Campaigns
Email marketing success depends on creating compelling, readable, and deliverable campaigns. Here's how to achieve this:
Subject Line and Preview Text
- Keep subject lines specific and under 75 characters
- Highlight clear benefits or offers
- Use questions to spark curiosity
- Ensure accuracy to maintain trust and comply with regulations
Message Content Best Practices
- Focus on one topic per email
- Include a clear call-to-action
- Maintain consistent brand voice
- Add links to your website or products
Styling Guidelines
- Use color accents for calls-to-action
- Choose light backgrounds with dark text for readability
- Keep design simple and focused
- Select appropriate fonts and colors that match your brand
Image Guidelines
- Use descriptive file names for alt text
- Accept only .jpg, .gif, or .png formats
- Keep images under 500KB (20MB maximum)
- Include supporting text in case images don't load
- Maintain consistent image dimensions within sections
- Maximum resolution: 120 megapixels
Email List Management
- Only include willing subscribers
- Add subscription options to your website
- Avoid purchased lists
- Remove invalid or outdated addresses
- Consider list cleaning services for large databases
- Regularly review and update subscriber lists
Legal Requirements
- Include visible unsubscribe links
- Display valid physical business address
- Comply with anti-spam laws (CAN-SPAM, CASL, PECR)
- Verify sender domain
- Use legitimate email addresses
Campaign Optimization
- Send test emails before launching
- Track performance metrics
- Experiment with sending times
- Use A/B testing
- Incorporate personalization through merge tags
- Maintain consistent messaging across all communications
Following these guidelines helps ensure your email campaigns reach subscribers' inboxes and achieve your marketing goals while maintaining legal compliance and subscriber trust.