Did you know the average person receives over 120 emails per day? Standing out amongst so many emails can feel impossible, but this is exactly what you need to do to access the incredible benefits available from email marketing.
Fret not, though. Success in email marketing is within reach, whether you go it alone or with the help of an expert email marketing automation agency.
In this blog, we’ll explore the prospective rewards of email marketing, the best practices that govern how you deliver your email automation, and the benefits of partnering with a specialist agency with experience in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Let’s get started.
HubSpot Email Marketing
Done right, HubSpot email marketing is incredibly powerful. Let’s look at some stats:
-
-
- The average email campaign generates $38 for every dollar spent: an ROI of 3800%
-
-
-
- For customer acquisition, email is 40% better than Facebook and Twitter combined
-
-
-
- 86% of customers want to receive at least monthly communication from brands
- 86% of customers want to receive at least monthly communication from brands
-
Here’s the thing, though. Done wrong, email marketing can be catastrophically bad.
So if you want to avoid massive unsubscribe numbers, low engagement, and potentially even legal consequences you need to do one simple thing: adhere to best practices.
Thankfully HubSpot’s email marketing tools make this easy, and our marketing automation services let you tap directly into this lucrative channel.
Let’s learn a little more about each.
HubSpot Email Marketing Best Practices: GDPR
On 25th May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation - or GDPR - was implemented. This colossal piece of legislation covers a lot of areas, but its main objective was simple: to give individuals more control over how their data is collected and used.
After an initial flurry of activity by businesses making sure they were compliant, things have settled into a new normal of sorts.
Individuals can opt out of cookies, can request businesses reveal which data they have collected, delete it on request, and much more.
For email, the ramifications have been huge - take a look at our blog to learn more about GDPR and compliance.
Before starting with email marketing you need to get your ducks in a row:
-
-
- Assign a trained Data Protection Officer, or someone internally tasked with compliance
-
-
-
- Update your privacy policy to be fully GDPR compliant
-
-
-
- Understand whether you need to adhere to any other legislation, for example, the CCPA
-
-
-
- Manage your leads and contacts correctly, ideally through a management system like HubSpot
-
HubSpot Email Marketing Best Practices: Lead Management
With email, one size most certainly does not fit all. Sending the same email to everyone in your database is a quick way to see those unsubscribe numbers shoot up.
Instead, you need to curate campaigns to the wants and needs of specific audience segments. And lead management is the way to do this.
Here’s what you need to know:
-
-
- Segmenting out your contacts by demographic, stage in the buyer journey, purchase history and other metrics lets you refine communications by tailoring emails to their needs
-
-
-
- Lead qualification ensures the people you’re emailing are likely to be receptive to the emails they receive
-
-
-
- Data cleansing keeps your contact information fresh and relevant, to save you from reaching out to people who have long since lost interest
-
HubSpot Email Marketing Best Practices: Refresh Your Audience
Customer personas sit at the core of the HubSpot methodology, and the idea is simple: by having detailed, up-to-date models of your customers, you can curate content accordingly.
Both parts of that description are crucial:
-
-
- A lack of detail means you’re essentially guessing what your customers want and building emails around that, rather than what they actually need. Guess which is more effective?
-
-
-
- Outdated personas mean that your emails are rooted in the past rather than the present and that your messaging has likely drifted away from being relevant
-
Thankfully, refining your customer personas isn’t overly complex.
Make sure to do this every so often to ensure your messaging is still on point.
You can check out our Customer Profile Templates to help you refresh your audience insights, or read our Customer Profile best practices if you need a starting point.
HubSpot Email Marketing Best Practices: Avoid Being Flagged as Spam
How often do you check your spam folder? Have you ever noticed an email that wasn’t spam sitting there after being mistakenly flagged, or do you just hit ‘Delete all’ every once in a while?
For the majority of users, it’s the latter.
This means that if your emails are being marked as spam, they’ll probably never be read.
Thankfully there are a few ways to avoid ending up in the spam folder:
-
-
- Think about volume: Use segmentation to send focused campaigns rather than emailing your entire database every time
-
-
-
- Think about content: Avoid terms frequently associated with spam. Some of these are easy - viagra, gambling, etc - but others are less so: SEO is a term that frequently triggers spam filters
-
-
-
- Think about links: Too many links can increase the risk of being flagged, so only include the most relevant ones
-
-
-
- Think about verification: Some email platforms request that you verify domain ownership before you can send
-
-
-
- Think about personalisation: Using variables to personalise emails increases the chance of them being read and reduces the likelihood of spam reports - fewer spam reports from users means your emails look less suspicious
- Think about personalisation: Using variables to personalise emails increases the chance of them being read and reduces the likelihood of spam reports - fewer spam reports from users means your emails look less suspicious
-
If your domain is flagged - it can be hard to rectify things: a crucial reminder of the need to follow best practices throughout your email marketing rather than trying to do it retroactively.
HubSpot Email Marketing Best Practices: Quality Content Only
We touched on this in the previous section, but quality really is important.
Proofread, then proofread again, then get someone else to proofread. Check all links point to the right place. Use consistent fonts and formatting, and make sure your emails are legible on all devices. Make sure you're meeting search rater guidelines - and of course - keep it white hat.
If thousands of people are going to receive your email, make sure it’s flawless.
Ever Considered Using a HubSpot Email Marketing Agency?
These 5 best practices are part and parcel of our email marketing automation service. As a HubSpot Partner Agency, we are held to high standards, and we ensure adherence to all best practices throughout our campaigns.
Our content? Always phenomenal.
Our expertise? Comprehensive and fully up-to-date.
Our performance? We are focused on one thing: results. Our five-star rating and HubSpot Platinum Partner accreditations speak for themselves.
If you’d like to take your email marketing to the next level, request a consultation with our HubSpot email marketing experts today.
