Usually, people make resolutions for self improvement. While trying to be a better person is a worthy endeavor, how about striving to be a better email geek? Setting your email marketing goals for 2025 can help you do that.

There’s no doubt that some of these goals will look familiar. They’re almost as perennial as going to the gym more often, cutting back on carbs, and not using the word “literally” all the time. But bear with us as we explain exactly why these five areas of email geek improvement should be on your list this year. (We’ve got research to back it all up.)

1. Improve your email accessibility

This is an email marketing goal that 99.9% of us should think seriously about. Literally.

For the third year in a row, the Email Markup Consortium (EMC) conducted a sweeping study that found 99.97% of emails it analyzed had accessibility issues defined as “Serious” or “Critical.”

Some of those email accessibility issues include:

• Failing to use the <lang> attribute.
• Forgetting to set the role of <table>s to presentation or none.
• Not writing alternative text for all important images.
• Relying on color to identify links in emails.

The good news is that these issues and many others are easy to fix. Email teams just need to prioritize email accessibility in 2025.

Why this email marketing goal matters

Many email accessibility improvements support the inbox experiences of subscribers using screen reading software to engage with your campaigns. However, designing and coding accessible emails makes it easier for everyone to engage with what you’re sending – not just those with vision or mobility impairments. Improving accessibility leads to better overall email engagement.

Another reason accessibility is an important email marketing goal involves laws both old and new. In the U.S., we already have the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 2025, the European Union will also enact accessibility legislation. The EU Accessibility Act mandates that online experiences like email be accessible for people with disabilities.

Check out Megan Boshuyzen’s comprehensive guide to email accessbility for expert advice. Sinch Email on Acid provides Accessibility Checks as part of our email QA platform. You can also get accessibility testing features with Parcel’s free plan.

Check out an on-demand session from Email Camp 2024 where Megan interviews EMC admins Naomi West and Alice Li about the 2024 Accessibility Report.

2. Be less annoying and more relevant

We’re not trying to say your beautiful email campaigns are annoying… but maybe some of your subscribers are starting to feel that way.

While accessible emails are one way to be conscientious of contacts with specific needs, this email marketing goal applies to everyone on your list. We all know that inboxes are cluttered and people are busy, yet brands still manage to get plenty of ROI from email marketing. However, if we overdo it and fail to consider the needs of recipients, email becomes a less effective channel.

People stop engaging and start ignoring emails that do not resonate. Want to make a change in 2025? List segmentation, A/B testing, meaningful personalizations, email preference centers, and carefully considering your sending cadence are all ways to make your email strategy more relevant (and less annoying).

Why this email marketing goal matters

Sinch Mailjet surveyed consumers around the world for the report The path to email engagement 2024. Results reveal that these are the top three reason why people choose to unsubscribe from a brand’s emails:

1. Too many messages from the brand (19.8%)
2. No longer interested in the offerings (17.9%)
3. Email content is irrelevant to me (17.3%)

Combined, those three reasons for unsubscribing from a brand’s emails represent 55% of the total. However, other reasons on the list also reflect things that annoy and frustrate subscribers.

Keeping people engaged with relevant content keeps them from unsubscribing. But once your emails get annoying, even contacts who opted in could decide to make a spam complaint. You don’t want that to happen.

In 2024, new sender requirements from Gmail and Yahoo clarified the threshold mailbox providers use to decide when enough is enough. They say all senders should try to maintain a spam complaint rate below 0.1%. That’s just one complaint for every 1,000 emails. Furthermore, your complaint rate should never reach or exceed 0.3%. At that point, mailbox providers will likely see you as a spammer.

3. Drop the dead weight from your email list

Hanging on to subscribers who don’t want what you’re sending them is like clinging to a relationship that’s gone sour. While many New Year’s resolutions involve dropping a few pounds, your email marketing goals for 2025 should include a plan to lose those unengaged contacts.

After that, you should strive to maintain a healthy email list. Think of it like losing the weight and keeping it off. One way to accomplish this is with an email sunset policy.

With a sunset policy, you remove subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails after a specific period of time. You can also segment those contacts on a different list and simply send them fewer emails.

When Sinch Mailgun surveyed senders about their list building and hygiene practices, they found that only around 24% of respondents use a sunset policy.

Why this email marketing goal matters

A list with outdated and unresponsive contacts drags down your email engagement metrics. Mailbox providers will notice if not enough people are opening and clicking your campaigns. Good engagement is a positive signal that boosts your sender reputation. But low engagement suggests people don’t like and don’t want your emails.

That’s why proactively unsubscribing contacts who stopped engaging makes a lot of sense.

In the video below, Sinch Mailgun deliverability experts Nick Schafer and Ashley Rodriguez explain how sunset policies work and why they should be part of your list hygiene process.

4. Strengthen your email authentication practices

This kind of strength building involves no weightlifting at all. However, you may need someone in your organization with technical expertise and knowledge of email authentication protocols.

Google and Yahoo put the spotlight on email authentication practices this year when they announced that SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) would be a requirement for all senders. Plus, the mailbox providers also wanted bulk senders to start using DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance).

The goal of these authentication requirements was to make the email inbox a safer place for users of Gmail and Yahoo Mail. Google’s Neil Kumaran told cyber security writer Davey Winder it worked. Here’s what Gmail is seeing since enforcing the new bulk sender requirements:

• 65% reduction in unauthenticated messages sent to Gmail users.
• 50% more bulk senders started following best security practices.
• 265 billion fewer unauthenticated messages sent in 2024.

Why this email marketing goal matters

Email authentication protocols are at the frontlines of the fight against phishing attacks in the inbox. DMARC in particular is very good at preventing email spoofing. That’s when bad actors impersonate your brand. Stronger authentication protects both your subscribers and your brand’s reputation.

However, Gmail and Yahoo only required that senders use a DMARC policy of p=none at a minimum. The problem is – the p=none policy tells mailbox providers not to do anything with messages that fail SPF and DKIM authentication. That means malicious emails could still make it to the inbox, and your sending domain still isn’t fully protected.

Unfortunately, many subscribers are content with doing the bare minimum. Sinch Mailgun’s State of email deliverability 2025 report found 61.2% of those currently using DMARC with p=none won’t enforce a stronger policy unless it’s required. An additional 13% have no plans to update at all.

If you’re not enforcing DMARC with policy of p=quarantine or p=reject, that should be one of your email marketing goals this year. And if you don’t, there’s a very good chance Google and Yahoo will make DMARC enforcement a requirement soon.

In fact, that’s exactly what people in the know from those companies told us during Email Camp 2024. Check out the panel discussion with Marcel Becker of Yahoo and Dan Givol of Google to hear for yourself.

5. Expand your communication horizons

New Year’s resolutions that encourage you to travel and explore, pick up a new hobby, or learn something new are often the most fun and fulfilling. While email geeks love email, 2025 may be the year to break out of the inbox and experiment with other communication channels. It’s always smart to diversify your skillset.

Don’t get us wrong. Email is still relevant. It’s just that there are also other options that certain subscribers may sometimes prefer or may be more ideal in specific situations. For example, SMS can be a faster, easier way to receive 2FA messages and one-time passcodes (OTPs). Brands need to determine the right customer communication mix for the people they’re serving and the purpose of the message.

In many cases, email and SMS marketing make a really good pair. They can complement each other as part of the same campaign or automation. The art and heart of customer communication from Sinch also found that email and SMS are the most preferred channels among consumers.

If you use email and SMS/MMS for marketing and customer communications you already have your bases pretty well covered. Plus, for small businesses looking to expand their strategy, SMS can be very affordable.

Why this email marketing goal matters

Beyond email and SMS, there are other emerging communication channels that are worth exploring. For example, adoption of WhatsApp in the U.S. is increasing, and it’s already quite popular in other countries.

There is also RCS (Rich Communication Services) to consider. This protocol is poised to take text messaging to a new level. In 2024, Apple joined Android in supporting RCS with iOS 18. While iPhone users are already noticing a better texting experience, brands are getting excited about RBM (RCS Business Messaging).

RBM campaigns have the potential to increase trust, branding initiatives, and interactivity through mobile messaging. Imagine all the things you’d like to do with an interactive email but are way too hard. There’s a good chance you could do it with an RBM campaign.

Learn more about what RCS has to offer from Katie Brennan and Isabella Rahm in this exclusive presentation from Email Camp 2024.

Reach your email marketing goals in 2025

People use all sorts of tools and tricks to help them stick with their New Year’s resolutions. From apps that track your progress to accountability partners, anything that keeps your eye on the prize is a worthy investment.

You need the right tools and partners to help you reach your email marketing goals too. Sinch’s product portfolio has what you need. Literally:

• Sinch Email on Acid is here to help you deliver perfection (or as close as you can get) with an email QA platform equipped with everything from 100+ client and device previews to accessibility checks. And every plan comes with unlimited testing.
• Sinch Mailjet is a versatile email service provider (ESP) that’s ideal for many marketing teams. Take advantage of features like forms and landing pages to grow your list the right way, and use Mailjet’s AI assistant to boost your productivity and creativity.
• Mailgun Optimize is a complete email deliverability suite from Sinch Mailgun with a variety of tools built to help you reach the inbox. That includes reputation monitoring, email validations, and inbox placement reports that predict your deliverability before you hit send.

Looking to expand your approach to customer communications in 2025? Sinch can support your organization’s needs as you pursue an omnichannel communication strategy. You can also take a free evaluation to learn more about where you can enhance the way you reach your customers.

The post 5 Email Marketing Goals for 2025 appeared first on Email on Acid.

Plenty of retailers, and many others who invest in marketing this time of year, have either already launched important email campaigns or they will be hitting send very soon. While you may have been planning your Black Friday marketing strategy since January, there’s still time to make some last-minute adjustments and fine tune your approach.

Whether it’s your overall communication strategy or your sending frequency, new BFCM survey results from Sinch will help you make some smart moves and deliver what consumers want this season.

Insights on Black Friday/Cyber Monday marketing

Sinch surveyed 1,200 people from the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, and Australia to get some details on consumer preferences and expectations around Black Friday promotions and customer communications. These are some of the key findings:

• Most consumers (almost 57%) expect to hear from brands about Black Friday at least one month before a promotion launches.
• More than 61% of consumers chose email as a preferred channel for hearing about Cyber Week promotions. That makes it the most preferred channel.
• Having a multi-channel approach is an effective way to optimize holiday campaigns:
  • 48% of consumers say they’ll go straight to a brand’s website to find promotions.
  • 44% prefer seeing holiday promotions on social media.
  • 45% of consumers choose at least one mobile messaging option (SMS/MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram) as a preferred channel.
• Nearly 80% of consumers get value from personalized recommendations in holiday promotions. That means going beyond basic first name personalization in your holiday email campaigns.
• Order confirmations, shipping updates, and delivery notifications are vital to the customer experience this time of year. More than 94% of consumers say transactional messages are important during holiday shopping.
• Interactive holiday campaigns could help boost email engagement. More than half of survey respondents said they’d be likely to engage with campaigns featuring interactivity and multimedia.

See more of Sinch’s survey findings and other eye-opening Black Friday statistics in the infographic below:

When Sinch conducted similar research on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2023, nearly 70% of consumers chose email as a preferred channel. Despite an 8% decline from last year, email is still Numero Uno. But it’s clear that consumers have a variety of ways they want to hear from brands over the holidays. As we explained earlier this year…. email is still relevant… but it’s got some company.

One of email’s newest neighbors is Rich Communication Services (RCS), which became much more widely available after Apple announced support of the messaging protocol in iOS 18. RCS Business Messaging (RBM) is poised to transform the ways brands communicate with their customers on mobile devices. It has the potential for interactive, app-like experiences that at least 51% of the people Sinch surveyed are likely to engage with.

But rather than try and explain an RCS campaign to you, it’s probably easier for you to see how can impact your marketing strategy. Check out this customer story from Sinch about a food brand from France that already took advantage of RCS for holiday marketing.

Your Black Friday email marketing checklist

When it’s peak marketing season and you’re competing against thousands of other companies vying for consumer dollars, sending expertly-crafted emails with irresistible offerings will help you stand out among your competitors and capture your readers’ attention. 

But there’s more to a great Black Friday email strategy than sending out stellar emails. In this checklist, we’ll cover 11 important questions to ask before you launch email campaigns for Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

1. Are you building your list for Black Friday? 
2. Do you have the right sending cadence? 
3. Are you optimizing send times? 
4. Do you need a holiday IP warmup? 
5. Have you checked email list hygiene? 
6. What’s your Black Friday subject line strategy? 
7. What’s your Black Friday CTA strategy? 
8.  Are you taking any big swings this Black Friday? 
9.   What’s the plan for personalization and segmentation? 
10.  Are you split-testing content and design?
11.  How will your Black Friday emails look when delivered? 

1. Are you building your list for Black Friday?

It’s not too late to start adding new subscribers to your email list. The excitement around Black Friday and Cyber Monday can prompt potential customers to signup so they can take advantage of what you’re offering for the holidays. Here are some ideas for growing your list of Black Friday shoppers:

• Use social media to drive signups. When posting on your social media channels, instead of linking to your website homepage, link directly to your email signup form or a landing page specifically geared for capturing subscribers.
  
• Refresh your website opt-in forms. On your website, change up the language and offers used in your opt-in forms. You might reference Black Friday specifically, offer a free download, or entice signups with the promise of special VIP discounts. Use fresh imagery and A/B test offers throughout the weeks leading up to Black Friday.
  
• Make sure website visitors have the option to subscribe from multiple places. Email signup opportunities don’t have to be restricted to pop-ups and landing pages. A few other places you can offer visitors the chance to sign up are:
  • Contact forms
  • Checkout pages
  • Account registration forms
  • Comments sections
  • Blog posts
  • Product pages
  • The footer of your website

Want to learn more about how to build your email list the right way? Check out our article, How to Grow Your Email List Organically for Better Deliverability.

2. Do you have the right sending cadence?

When should you start sending Black Friday emails and how frequently should you send them? Our survey of consumers found there’s quite a spread among people’s opinions about the right time to start talking to them about holiday shopping.

Two weeks before Black Friday might be a good sweet spot. But, if you’ve strategically segmented your list based on email engagement, you could try sending to your most-engaged subscribers even earlier. They’re likely the ones hoping to hear from you sooner rather than later.

Let’s get tactical… Divide your email campaigns into three phases: pre-holiday, during-holiday, and post-holiday. Use a marketing calendar to map out your sending schedules.

How often should you send? When Sinch Mailjet surveyed marketers in 2021, they found that a combined 60% of them planned to send Black Friday emails multiple times a week or even several times a day.

If you’re increasing sending frequency over the holidays, pay attention to your email marketing metrics as the season progresses. When unsubscribes start climbing and open rates start declining, it could be a sign you’ve pushed things a bit too far.

3. Do you need a holiday IP warmup?

If your normal email frequency is more like once a week or once a month, now is a good time to warm up your sending IP before ramping up your email volume for the holiday season. Failing to do so could send the wrong signal, make you look spammy, and cause deliverability issues.

Dramatically increasing your send cadence can make your IP reputation look suspicious when you haven’t warmed it up. There’s no point in spending hours of effort on extensive Black Friday email marketing campaigns if those emails go straight to the junk folder, or – worse yet – are blocked entirely by mailbox providers. 

4. Have you checked email list hygiene?

Warming up your IP isn’t the only pre-holiday checkup you should do. BFCM campaigns are some of the biggest efforts of the year – make sure they make it to the inbox with a solid deliverability strategy. 

While email list hygiene is important all year long, you should pay extra attention to it before starting any big email campaign pushes. In Sinch Mailgun’s State of email deliverability 2025 survey, more than 39% of email senders said they rarely or never practice email list hygiene. If you’re in that 39%, you may want to carve out a few days to dedicate to this task before your pre-holiday campaigns start.  

5. Are you optimizing send times?

In a perfect world, your Black Friday email campaign would hit consumers’ inboxes right before they decide to check their email. That would mean your message is sitting right on top, ready to be opened and clicked.

If you can segment your list by location, you can optimize sends for different time zones. However, different people have different email-checking habits. That’s why machine-learning technology like Send Time Optimization (STO) gives you a real advantage during a time when inboxes are filling up like stuffed stockings over the fireplace.

STO is an automated method of delivering emails based on when subscribers are most likely to engage. Mailgun’s users experienced an average of a 5-10% increase in clicks by using STO. 

STO services are also much less time-intensive than manual scheduling, giving you more time for designing, testing, and optimizing other aspects of your campaigns.

6. What’s your Black Friday subject line strategy?

With all the competition in the inbox, you’ll need to invest more time in copywriting a catchy, attention-grabbing subject line.

You might be inclined to think Black Friday is the time to go over the top in your email campaigns. But if you don’t usually use all caps, emojis, or exclamation marks, now is not the time to start. Not only can they trigger spam filters, it just seems like you’re yelling. 

So how do you get people to open your BFCM emails? 

• Stay on-brand, but get creative within your brand identity. 
• Create a sense of urgency (FOMO). 
• Position your subject line as a question.
• Put the hook or a cliff-hanger in your pre-header.
• Keep your subject short and to the point.
• Lead with an enticing, personalized offer.

You don’t have to stoop to the lows of “one weird trick,” but think about the value you’re offering. Is it a discount? Something exclusive for subscribers? A limited-time offer? 

Put the most important information upfront, and leave a little room for the imagination. Ask questions, start a conversation, and focus on the emotional connection first, rather than a “Me, me, me!” message.

Need some high-quality ideas for subject lines to test? Check out our Best of Black Friday email examples.

7. What’s your Black Friday CTA strategy?

High open rates are great, but you also want your Black Friday weekend email recipients to click through to the product page where they’ll, hopefully, make a purchase. Most of us are used to seeing offers with a “buy now,” “shop now,” “get X now,” “learn more,” or “download your free ebook” call-to-action button – boring.

Try thinking of creative ways to emotionally hook your audience with your call to action while staying true to your brand. Use catchy phrases that might resonate with the culture of your customer base. Don’t be afraid of puns, pop culture references, memes, or industry jargon if you think your subscribers would “get it.” 

The actual words may not even be as important as eye-catching visuals. Using roll-over or hover effects on buttons, animated GIFs, and bold color schemes can also increase engagement.

The effectiveness of your CTAs will largely depend on how relatable and interesting they are to your audience. Keep an eye on what others in your industry are doing with their email CTAs, push your creative boundaries, and if you’re stumped for ideas, we’ve got an article on how to write creative CTAs for Better Email Engagement that will definitely inspire you.  

8. Are you taking any big swings this Black Friday? 

Do you have new products, bigger sales, expanded services, or exciting features you’re launching as part of your Black Friday email strategy? Now might be the time to use some new techniques to add fun and excitement to your email campaigns. 

Experiment with creative elements like countdown clocks, inventory counters, animations, interactive content, or other elements like email gamification. Using these creative treatments can help them stand out from your other email campaigns and grab recipients’ attention. 

9. What’s your plan for segmentation and personalization?

As you put together your offers, think deeply about which subscribers they’ll resonate with, and why they’re receiving each email. Remember, in the days leading up to Black Friday, your subscribers are going to get hundreds of emails from a variety of brands – not just yours.

Before the holiday shopping season begins, think about what defines an active vs. unengaged subscriber. Starting as early as possible – ideally September – reach out to your disengaged subscribers by running a re-engagement campaign. Ask them their preferences for BFCM emails, and develop new segments around their responses and engagement.

Other ways you can segment subscribers include:

• Demographics: Gender, geographic location, family/household
• Behavior: Shopping preferences, average order value, purchase frequency, browsing vs. shopping, current cart profile
• Early birds and procrastinators: Target based purchase patterns from previous years
• Deal seekers: If a discount is what’s going to get them to purchase, look at what offers worked in the past, and segment that group accordingly

Don’t overlook your newest subscribers. They may not know your brand and offerings as well as some of your longtime customers, so consider adding a specific BFCM welcome email series, especially if you’re also running top-of-funnel marketing campaigns.

Once you’ve created your segments, don’t forget to personalize your emails. We’re not just talking about “Hi, <first name>.” There are a variety of ways to personalize your messaging. Here are just a few:  

• Personalized product recommendations. For BFCM, personalized product recommendations are the name of the game. Mailjet’s survey found this was one of the most-used advanced tactics for Black Friday email campaigns.
• Use survey responses to personalize email content and offers. During the holidays, your typical customers may not be purchasing for themselves – it’s a gift-giving season, after all. Send a survey ahead of time to your subscribers to figure out who they’re looking to purchase gifts for, and segment and message accordingly.
• Use dynamic content. Dynamic content in email is an extremely powerful tool to improve engagement and conversions. Dynamic content is any information that displays conditionally based on a set of rules such as subscriber behavior, product availability, or even the weather. Just about anything in your email can be dynamic – subject lines, offers, recommended products, and more.

10. Are you split testing content and designs?

Without testing you won’t really know what offers, designs, and messaging work best to get your subscribers excited to open, click, and make a purchase. You can follow all the “best practices” you want, but every audience is different.

Sinch Mailjet’s Black Friday survey revealed that only 22% of senders split-tested their emails. The most successful email marketers are more likely to be implementing these tactics (32%), but that’s still vastly underusing one of the most helpful techniques for ensuring the success of your Black Friday email strategy.

To improve opens and click-through rates of your holiday email campaigns, try split testing your:

• Subject lines
• Email copy
• Imagery
• Offers
• CTAs
• Overall layout and design

Even if you’re not split-testing every single email for BFCM, make sure you have your A/B testing ready ahead of time. Know what works, and what doesn’t, so you can execute quickly and efficiently come game time.

11. How will your Black Friday emails look when delivered?

No matter how good your offers are or how compellingly you craft your subject lines and CTAs, if your email looks like a mess when recipients open it, they might not click through. 

Inconsistent rendering across email clients, browsers, and device types is a pain point that all email marketers face. It can derail your Black Friday email strategy if you don’t test your emails to ensure they display well no matter what platform they are opened on.

Test your email templates and campaigns ahead of time and ensure that CTAs work, images are optimized, and that your emails are accessible to everyone on your list – even your Outlook subscribers. 

Sinch Email on Acid offers unlimited testing on major clients and devices. That means that email teams can preview campaigns as many times as needed before launching. Find out more about why you should test every email campaign. 

The post Black Friday Email Strategy for 2024: New Consumer Insights appeared first on Email on Acid.

Red and green are absolutely everywhere during the holidays – on signage, in decor, in magazines and catalogs, on websites, and in emails. In fact, you’ve probably used this color combination in your own holiday marketing campaigns. However, according to Healthline, about one out of twelve men and one out of 200 women have red-green color blindness. 

It’s the most common color vision deficiency (CVD) in the world, and it could represent a significant portion of your subscribers. So how exactly does this affect your holiday email campaigns and what can you do to create more accessible holiday emails?

What is red-green color blindness?

People without color blindness are able to see and tell the difference between three colors: red, green, and blue. Nerves in the retinas of our eyes called “cones” perceive the colors, send a message about them to our brains, then convert them into color vision.

People with red-green color blindness are born with either no cones to perceive red or green, or simply a shortage of those cones. All About Vision lists four ways this occurs:

• Red-blind (protanopia) – Red can’t be seen.  
• Green-blind (deuteranopia) – Green can’t be seen.
• Red-weak (protanomaly) – Some red is visible; green and blue are normal. 
• Green-weak (deuteranomaly) – Some green is visible; red and blue are normal. 

So, depending on the type of color vision deficiency a person has, they might see things that are red and green all in a kind of murky green tone. Or they may have trouble differentiating between shades. 

How people with color blindness see the holidays

Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of an email subscriber with color blindness. How would this person experience your holiday email designs? First, here’s how someone with a color vision deficiency might see one of the most popular figures at Christmastime, Santa Claus. Notice how the vibrant colors are muted and there’s no clear distinction between red and green. The jolly old elf looks a little more like the Grinch, doesn’t he?

Now, it’s true that someone who’s dealt with red-green color blindness their entire lives may be accustomed to seeing Santa like this. However, the color choices you choose to use over the holidays and throughout the year could affect the way certain subscribers engage with your emails.

The impact on holiday email designs

Take a look at a couple of holiday email campaigns through the lens of someone who is color blind. Here’s a campaign featuring the famous red cup from Starbucks.

Notice that pretty much everything is red or green. A red, white, and green holiday cup sits on top of a background that fades from green to red. Now check out the filtered version of this email that simulates how someone with protanopia sees the campaign. This holiday email certainly doesn’t have the same impact for someone with red-green color-blindness.

Here’s another holiday email that uses lots of red and green in the design. This time, however, there’s an important element that red-green color blindness could affect – the email’s call-to-action (CTA), which is green and stands in stark contrast to all the red. That’s an effective way to draw attention to the button and increase the click rate, but it won’t have the same impact for subscribers with a color vision deficiency.

The example below shows how someone who struggles to perceive the color green (deuteranopia) sees this email campaign. That CTA button doesn’t have quite the same pop, does it? There’s really no contrast at all. Of course, this isn’t the end of the world. But when every click counts, it’s worth considering how color choices and accessibility go hand-in-hand with email engagement.

We’re not trying to say you should never use red and green in holiday email campaigns. However, it’s wise to avoid using those colors for important elements or to convey essential information. That’s solid advice for the entire year – not just the holidays.

Using certain combinations for your email campaign’s text and HTML background colors, for example, could render the message unreadable for certain people. A good email accessibility best practice is to avoid using color to convey meaning.

Tips and alternatives for accessible holiday emails

Inclusive email marketing means keeping subscribers of all types in mind as you design and develop templates and campaigns. So, it’s worth considering ways to create holiday email campaigns without focusing too much on red and green.

Here are a few brands that found other ways to deliver emails that are merry and bright.

1. Rely on holiday-themed copy and icons

Instead of sharing holiday cheer through color, consider using things like symbols. Think wreaths, candy canes, snowflakes, gifts, and stockings. Apple did this in a really unique way in one of their email campaigns:

Though they stuck to their typical brand colors, they turned their products into wreaths and snowflakes, highlighting the holidays in a fun way.

Bicycle accessory brand Rapha didn’t even get close to traditional holiday colors in this email. Yet, it still captures the spirit of the season because the copy makes it clear what their gift guide is all about.

The brand uses phrases like “bike bells ringing” and “all the trimmings” to get in the festive spirit without typical red and green color schemes.

2. Consider other holiday color combinations

There are other colors that can communicate that Christmassy feeling.

You might use blue and white to depict a snowy scene, silver and gold for a classy Christmas, or black and white in Black Friday emails. Not only will this make things easier for your entire audience to consume your emails, it can also help you stand out from the hundreds of red and green emails they’ll get this season.

BarkBox embraced this concept in their holiday email:

They went with a blue color scheme, adding white snowflakes and music notes to make it seem wintery. It still feels festive but works for everyone on their list.

3. Use patterns or textures

Patterns and textures are another great way to add holiday flair without using red or green. Create your own, branded pattern or find a great texture from a stock library. BathLife used a classy gold pattern as the background of their holiday email:

This design choice is sort of like creating your own gift wrap for an email. Find out how to code background images in email so you can pull of a look like this.

4. Use more than color to distinguish links and CTAs

The goal of most holiday email promotions is to convince your contacts to click links and CTAs that send them to a landing page on your site.

While it may be tempting to make your links red or green this holiday season, make sure you’re distinguishing them in other ways, too. Consider adding an underline, an arrow, or another symbol to make links stand out.

To someone dealing with color-blindness, your green or red buttons may look the same as the rest of your email. But you want them to stand out. So think of other ways to highlight them:

• Make them big
• Add an icon
• Include a border
• Switch up or emphasize the font
• Place them in their own area of the email

And of course, writing creative email CTAs can do a lot to boost your clicks. Instead of “Buy Now” or “Read More”, write CTA copy that gets a laugh, makes a promise, or stirs up curiosity in your subscribers.

How to see what color blind subscribers see

The best way to know that your emails look good for every single one of your subscribers is through pre-deployment testing. That’s where Sinch Email on Acid shines. The accessibility features in our email readiness tool check your email for color contrast, code for screen readers, title attributes, alt text, and other accessibility factors. You can even preview the email with filters that display different color deficiencies.

Enjoy unlimited testing with every one of our plans. That means you can preview campaigns on more than 100 clients and live devices, and you can do it as many times as you need before hitting send. That’s not a holiday promo, my friend. It’s just how we do things around here.

The post How People with Color Blindness See Your Holiday Email Campaigns appeared first on Email on Acid.

Of course, it never hurts to double-check your Black Friday email marketing strategy. If you believe in Murphy’s Law, you know that anything that can go wrong, certainly could go wrong (and probably will).

If you’re “the worrying kind” of email marketer, we’ve got a few potential problems you may not have on your list yet.  And if you’ve got more of a “let the chips fall where they may” kind of an attitude, here’s why you should be more concerned with your Black Friday email performance.

Why Black Friday email marketing matters

We probably shouldn’t have to tell you why Black Friday and Cyber Week are such a big deal. (Oh! See what we did there?) But these astronomical numbers are kind of a tradition. And after all, the holidays are all about traditions. So, here goes…

The biggest reason why Black Friday emails matter is because there is a lot of money on the table in terms of consumer spending. According to Adobe Analytics, U.S. shoppers are expected to drop $240.8 billion during the 2024 holiday shopping season. That’s an 8.4% year-over-year increase from 2023.

A sizable chunk of that holiday consumer spending happens during Cyber Week with noticeable spikes on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Interestingly, Cyber Monday typically outpaces Black Friday, but the day after Thanksgiving is when things really start cooking.

The reason Black Friday email marketing matters so much in all of this is because email is the most preferred channel for receiving promotional communications from brands.

We’ve got plenty of original research to back this up. Let’s take a look at what the surveys say…

Consumer preferences for brand communications

According to Sinch Mailgun’s report, Email and the customer experience, 75% of consumers in the U.S. UK, France, Germany, and Spain chose email as a preferred channel for promotional messages.

Almost as many of those survey respondents (74%) chose email as a preferred channel for transactional messages. And transactional emails are unsung heroes of Cyber Week. They keep your customers informed about their purchases and shipments during the hectic holiday season.

You may notice that text messaging was the second most popular option among these consumers. A new study from Sinch, The art and heart of meaningful customer connections, found different yet somewhat similar results.

Rather than selecting all channels they preferred, Sinch’s survey asked U.S. consumers to pick just one preferred channel for brand communications. In this case, 40% of people picked email while text messages came in second at around 22%.

So as an email marketer, this should be reassuring. Your holiday email campaigns are going to drive tons of BFCM results and revenue. When the company breaks things down after everyone gets back from break, you’ll be the hailed as a hero,  right?

But wait… it’s not that easy compadres… and you know it. The challenge email marketers face is getting good engagement in those increasingly crowded inboxes.

Sinch Mailjet’s report, The path to email engagement 2024, found that 49% of consumers only open a few emails from brands on a typical day and 8% don’t open any at all.

Let’s be honest, Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t exactly “typical days.” Consumers may be more likely to engage with promotional emails on these days. However, it’s also true that there will be more emails in their inboxes during Cyber Week and beyond.

To get the most out of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday email campaigns, you need to be on top of your game. You don’t want silly mistakes tripping you up.

12 Black Friday email mistakes marketers must avoid

While there are plenty of ways to make Black Friday mistakes with email marketing, we’re going to focus on a dozen different issues that could be disastrous. Before you hit send on your Black Friday campaigns, make sure you’ve addressed these possible problems.

1. Unresponsive Black Friday emails

Once upon a time, there was a difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, people poured into shopping malls and big box stores, trampling each other for deals. On Monday, people slacked off at work while taking advantage of online promotions. Now, we’ve mixed it all together into an entire week of consumerism.

Today, not only does even more shopping happen online, it happens on mobile phones. More than half of online holiday spending is attributed to mobile. Adobe Analytics forecasts $128.1 billion of that $240.8 billion will be mobile spend.

You know where this is going. If you expect good Black Friday email performance, those campaigns better be responsive and mobile-friendly. Sinch Mailjet’s email engagement report found more than 70% of consumers primarily use a mobile device to check email.

Unfortunately, coding responsive emails is still a top challenge for many email teams. In fact, Sinch Mailjet’s Inbox Insights report found it is the top design and development challenge.

A smart move is to take a mobile-first approach to email design and development. That means thinking about how your campaigns look and function on smartphones and then adjusting those layouts for desktop. The best way to do this with email code is to use min-width media queries to adjust for screen size rather than max-width (IYKYK).

2. Generic Black Friday email subject lines

Everyone is going to write Black Friday email subject lines with urgency. And they’ll all be talking about sales, discounts, BOGO offers, and limited supplies. If your Black Friday email subject lines sound the same as every other special offer out there, your campaigns will be easily ignored.

So, you’ve got to get creative. Maybe that means personalizing subject lines, using emojis, or taking advantage of preheader text. But “Our Black Friday Sale Starts Now” may not do the trick.

According to Sinch Mailjet’s consumer research, people say the brand or sender name is the most important factor when deciding whether to open an email. However, nearly 80% of those surveyed also indicated the promise of a discount in the subject line was at least somewhat important.

If you can work details of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer into a concise, clear, and compelling subject line, that might be the best way to cut through the noise.

Need some ideas? Here are several Black Friday email subject lines we like:

• Crate & Barrel: Leftover turkey can wait. Black Friday can’t.
• Groupon: The Black Friday VIP List 👀 Use code BLACK30
• Gap: TGI-Black Friday — 50% OFF EVERYTHING. ALL. WEEK.
• Victoria’s Secret: Black Fri-YAY 🙌 Buy One, Get One 50% OFF
• IKEA: [Firstname], escape the Black Friday chaos
• Timberland: 👇Better Than Their Deals☝️ Up To 40% Off

While you’re working on those creative Black Friday email subject lines, don’t forget about writing creative calls-to-action (CTAs) too. The design and copy of those CTA buttons needs to encourage your customers to click and tap their way to your website for some shopping.

3. Dark mode color inversion

A lot of Black Friday email templates contain… well, the color black. A little on the nose, sure. But according to color psychology, black is also a good way to convey luxury and exclusivity.

If you’re familiar with dark mode email development challenges, you already know that some email clients will automatically invert the colors you’re using in your HTML email background. That means it is possible that a dark background could be inverted into a light background when a recipient has dark mode turned on.

That’s not the effect you wanted, and it’s not what subscribers using dark mode want to receive either.

Now, most email clients will recognize that you’re already using a dark theme. However, Outlook 365 may not, and Gmail may mess with some of your colors too.

One way to handle this problem is to make use of the media query prefers-color-scheme: dark. This detects if the email recipient has dark mode turned on, and lets you tailor your CSS styles for dark mode.

However, be aware that Gmail does not support prefers-color-scheme. For some expert advice on how to handle dark mode and Gmail, check out these tips from Rémi Parmentier.

4. Inaccessible holiday email designs

We are big proponents of email accessibility around here. People with disabilities may be even more likely to do their holiday shopping online. So, it’s the responsibility of email marketers to ensure that the inbox experience is inclusive to all.

That includes coding accessible emails for those using screen readers. But another important consideration is color blindness.

Red-green color blindness is the most common. It impacts 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. And what are two of the most popular colors to use during the holidays? Yep – red and green.

Black Friday email campaigns don’t have to be holiday-themed, but many are. While you don’t need to eliminate red and green in your email designs, try to avoid using those colors to convey meaning or in a way where important information gets lost. Get more tips on designing accessible holiday emails for people with color blindness.

5. Image-only Black Friday emails

Another accessibility issue with Black Friday marketing campaigns is an abundance of image-only emails. It’s a bit shocking to see how many big brands are sending promotional emails that are one giant graphic with no live text.

Screen readers can interpret the alt text of an image. But it’s highly unlikely you’ll be communicating an entire email campaign in image alt text (not to mention it’s a bad idea).

According to acccesiBe, more than 7 million Americans use screen readers. That’s around 2% of the population, which may not sound like a lot, but it could represent a sizable chunk of your list that can’t engage with image-only emails.

Besides accessibility, some subscribers may have image downloading turned off. That happens by default in Outlook inboxes. If your entire message is in the image, campaign performance could be disastrously disappointing.

6. Blasting instead of segmenting

A Black Friday email blast to every subscriber on your list might make sense in some situations. However, in most cases, you’ll be able to deliver more relevant holiday shopping promotions with segmentation.

Take advantage of the zero- and first-party data you’ve collected through your website and online forms to understand what kinds of Black Friday email promotions and products different segments will find engaging. Don’t forget that lots of people are shopping for others rather than themselves.

Can you segment for parents and grandparents buying gifts for kids? How about spouses trying to find the perfect presents for their significant other? Past purchase behaviors can also inform what subscribers are interested in buying this time of year.

Even geographic locations can help you decide what to promote in Black Friday emails. For example, subscribers in Florida and Arizona may not be as interested in warm and cozy winter sweaters compared to the Minnesotans on your list.

7. Black Friday email and landing page mismatches

What happens after online shoppers click on a Black Friday email CTA? Sure, you did your job as an email marketer. But if the website experience doesn’t jive with the email campaign, your results in terms of online sales may suffer.

Emails and landing pages need to work together to effectively earn conversions. Now’s the time to make sure the assets you’re using in Black Friday emails match what subscribers see when they land on your ecommerce site to shop. Here are a few quick tips:

• Use similar or complementary graphics, imagery, and messaging.
• Reiterate the coupon code or offer from the email on the landing page.
• Make sure your landing pages are mobile-friendly and accessible too.
• Continue the personalized experience from the inbox on the website.

If your email and web teams work separately, this is a good time to break down those silos and start collaborating on Black Friday digital marketing strategy together.

Most importantly, make sure your emails do not send subscribers to the wrong landing page – or worse yet – a 404 page.

8. Inaccurate Black Friday email metrics

When the insanity of Black Friday subsides, the next item on the agenda will be evaluating how your campaigns performed. You’ll want to attribute as much as you can to the email channel. But marketing metrics can get messy if you’re unprepared.

One important way to track email marketing performance is with UTM parameters on links in your campaigns. Make sure you’re on the same page with the web or data team about what those parameters should be, including how UTMs are formatted.

Beyond tracking the email channel, what else do you want to know? If you’re sending multiple campaigns, use parameters that help you identify the success of one email from another. You could even track whether subscribers are clicking on specific elements like buttons, text links, or product images.

Another challenge with tracking Black Friday email performance relates to increased privacy measures from mailbox providers. Yes, we’re still talking about Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). These features can inflate open rates, making it unclear how well your subject line really worked. However, you may be able to use email analytics to see which subscribers are using MPP.

Discover how Sinch Email on Acid can help you find out which of your subscribers are using Apple’s MPP. Once you know, you can segment those contacts so you can review their metrics separately, giving you a clearer picture of open rates.

9. Ignoring abandoned cart emails

The holidays are hectic, and everything goes into full gear right after Thanksgiving. Black Friday shoppers are getting tons of emails, visiting loads of websites, and inevitably… some items will get left in their online shopping carts.

If you aren’t already using abandoned cart emails, now is a good time to start. And if you do send these reminder emails, you may want to adjust your strategy for Black Friday. That could mean different messaging that adds urgency to bring people back before a promotion ends. Or it could mean adjusting the timing of these automated messages. Maybe your abandoned cart emails need to be sent sooner – before the shopper makes a purchase somewhere else.

According to TechReport, the global cart abandonment rate (CAR) is over 75%, and it’s at its highest during holiday shopping. Abandoned cart emails can help with that.

According to statistics from the ecommerce personalization platform, Bariliance, abandoned cart emails see open rates as high as 49%. So, nearly half of those messages get opened. The average click rate is close to 9% and the typical conversion rate (meaning a recovered transaction) is around 8%.

10. Transactional email deliverability issues

When your brand does earn those Black Friday sales, email comes into play once again. Transactional emails keep your customers informed with order confirmations, shipping updates, and more.

These messages can be extremely important during the holidays when getting a package on time matters more than ever. But what happens when transactional emails land in spam or get blocked from delivery? That’s a huge Black Friday mistake.

One way to prevent transactional messages landing in spam is to separate transactional mail streams from promotional emails using separate subdomains. For more on this approach,

A sudden spike in email volume and sending frequency during Black Friday may also prompt mailbox providers to filter your messages into spam, especially if you’re using a new IP or domain. So, an IP warmup may be necessary first.

Get more Black Friday email deliverability advice in a free, on-demand webinar from Mailgun.

11. Failing to follow new sender guidelines

Speaking of email deliverability, Gmail and Yahoo announced new bulk sender guidelines this year that you better be following if you want to reach inboxes on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

These updated sender requirements are designed to make the inbox a safer and all-around-better place for email recipients. Here are three of the most important things to know.

1. Use email authentication: Bulk senders (aka anyone sending mass email marketing) must use the SPF and DKIM email authentication protocols. You also need to implement DMARC using a policy of at least p=none.
2. Make it very easy to unsubscribe: Bulk sender must have one-click unsubscribe functionality following what’s known as RFC 8058. This lets your contacts unsubscribe from inside their inbox provider’s user interface – not just that little link in the footer.
3. Keep spam complaint rates low: Senders should try to keep user-generated spam complaints below 0.1% (that’s 1 out 1,000 emails sent). Your spam complaint rate should never reach or exceed 0.3%.

Gmail and Yahoo are two of the most popular mailbox providers. Unexpected deliverability problems to either one this time of year would definitely be a Black Friday email disaster.

12. Forgetting to test and preview Black Friday emails

One of the most common email marketing disasters involves problems with email client rendering. The way your Black Friday email looks in Apple Mail might look quite different in Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or AOL inboxes.

Emails can also render differently based on the mobile operating system as well as when dark mode is turned on. But unless you know how to sneak inside other people’s inboxes, you probably have no idea how everything looks after delivery.

Thankfully, there is a way to help prevent these disasters during Cyber Week. Email Previews from Sinch Email on Acid let you see how your big holiday campaigns render in more than 100 clients and live devices. That’s how you can find out if you need to make code or design adjustments before launching a Black Friday email. Unlike your other options, every Sinch Email on Acid user gets unlimited testing.

Optimize Black Friday emails with Sinch Email on Acid

Our email quality assurance platform does a whole lot more than show you inbox previews.

Sinch Email on Acid also helps you optimize everything from inbox display and email images to deliverability and email accessibility checks. You can even run a final check for typos and accidental profanities (yikes!) and get detailed analytics that help you measure Black Friday email campaign performance.

There’s still time to run your Cyber Week email campaigns through our pre-send email testing software. Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to find out how beneficial our email testing tools can be.

The post Black Friday Email Marketing 2024: Avoid These 12 Disastrous Mistakes appeared first on Email on Acid.

The more things change, the more things stay the same. High school kids still get stereotyped as jocks, nerds, rebels, goody-two-shoes, and outcasts. Humans love to put labels on everything, right?

So, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Let’s slap some labels on our favorite email clients and mailbox providers and imagine what they’d be like if they attended Inbox High together and we were the vice principals.

The Breakfast Club of email clients

Have you ever watched The Breakfast Club and sympathized a little with Vice Principal Vernon? (No? Just me?). After all, he had to show up for detention on Saturday too, and what’d he do wrong?

Dealing with email client rendering issues has got to be almost as annoying as babysitting unruly teens with raging hormones. And just like Breakfast Clubbers Brian, Bender, Andrew, Allison, and Claire – each email client has idiosyncrasies you must take into account before you hit send.

Here’s where we think major mailbox providers and email clients would land if they were one of the typical high school stereotypes.

Gmail: The Jock

Every high school has that over-achieving, multi-sport athlete who is good at just about everything. They even get pretty good grades – although we all know the teachers go easier on the kids who are good at sports.

Like jocks, Gmail has some skills that other email clients don’t. For instance, AMP emails allow you to bring interactivity to Gmail inboxes, but not many other email clients support the framework yet. Jocks also tend to throw their weight around a little. Like for instance, how Gmail led the way in implementing new rules for bulk senders if they want to avoid the spam folder.

Getting your message clipped in Gmail is the email geek equivalent of a getting a wedgie or a swirly from a high school jock.

Of course, there’s also the “dumb jock” stereotype, and sometimes Gmail seems to fit that too. Like why is it that a Google service like Gmail doesn’t support Google web fonts? And why does Gmail cause so many dark mode email development challenges?

From the email developer’s perspective, there’s no ignoring Gmail. Without a doubt, a significant portion of your subscribers are using this email client regularly, So, that means finding ways to deal with problems like message clipping and hyperlink colors.

Check out these articles:

• Developing HTML Emails for Gmail: 14 Tips for Coding
• Gmail Email Clipping | How Developers Can Avoid It
• AMP Emails vs. HTML: What Gets Higher Conversion Rates?

Apple Mail: The Popular Girl

If people were voting for the prom queen of email clients, it would have to be Apple Mail. Thanks in part to the popularity of iPhones, there are a ton of people using Apple Mail to view their emails. But how popular is it?

According to an article on Apple Mail demographics from Sinch Mailjet, it could be as much as 54% of the contacts on your list. Kate Nowrouzi is VP of Deliverability and Product Strategy at Sinch Mailgun. She says that, among Mailgun’s users, more than one-third of opens were occurring on Apple Mail.

Speaking of open rates, like any self-respecting popular girl, Apple Mail cares a lot about respecting privacy.

The arrival of Apple Mail Privacy Protection (AMPP) threw many email marketers for a loop. But AMPP didn’t mean the death of email. We all found ways to adjust, and stronger privacy protection is better for everyone.

The nicest thing about Apple Mail is that it offers more support for HTML and CSS features. The website Can I Email places it at the top of its Email Client Support Scoreboard. No wonder everyone loves it.

Check out these articles:

• Find Out if Your Subscribers Use Apple Mail Privacy Protection
• 7 Tips for Designing and Developing Emails for the iPhone
• How to Use Media Queries in HTML Emails

Outlook: The Troublemaker

Shouldn’t a Microsoft product like Outlook be considered a nerd and not troublemaker? Obviously, you can be a little of both. Go ahead and ask any email developer you meet. The Outlook email client causes just as many headaches for email devs as Ferris Bueler did for his school principal.

It’s probably safe to say that at least 80% of the time when someone asks why you have to go out of your way to code something in an email, it’s because of Outlook. You’ll find it all the way at the bottom of Can I Email’s scoreboard of email clients. As of this writing, Outlook for Windows (the desktop versions) only supports 52 of the 219 CSS and HTML features that Can I Email is tracking.

For example, the main reason email developers use tables for layout is thanks to Outlook. Concerns around using GIFs in email marketing can also be blamed on Outlook. Many issues with blocked images and padding/spacing can be traced back to Outlook as well. However, Outlook inboxes are home to many B2B subscribers. Plus, anyone who still uses a Hotmail address (they do exist) is viewing their emails in Outlook, too. 

But here’s the thing… Like the classic high school movie trope where the nerd is actually cool, the plain girl is actually beautiful, Outlook may go through a transformation. A new Outlook for Windows could mean the end of all those troubles the Word rendering engine has caused.

So, like a high school troublemaker with hidden potential, you just keep working with Outlook and believe the wayward email client changes its ways someday.

Check out these articles:

• Outlook HTML Emails: How to Fix 11 Common Rendering Issues
• How to use GIFS and GIF Fallbacks for Outlook Emails
• How to Create Excellent Emails for Outlook.com

Yahoo Mail and AOL Mail: The Hipster and the Trendsetter

Hipsters take pride in their appreciation for things that are outside of the mainstream. They liked that band/movie/style everyone likes now before it was cool.

Back in the ‘90s, AOL Mail was the biggest email provider in the world. It had 9 million users in 1997. Today, there are around 4 billion people using email across the globe. For those of you keeping track at home, 9 million is 0.00225% of 4 billion. 

Still, you have to give AOL credit for its role in email history. People got hooked on their inboxes thanks in part to that irresistible “You’ve got mail!” notification.

Also in the ‘90s, Yahoo! saw the rise of webmail coming and acquired RocketMail, which was one of two of the world’s first free webmail services. There’s no denying Yahoo! was an internet pioneer, and its email service was a big part of that. But sometimes pioneers die of dysentery along the Oregon Trail.

Yahoo Mail may not have the same size user base as the big three email clients (Gmail, Apple Mail, and Outlook). But it’s a been somewhat of a trendsetter. Yahoo was right there with Gmail introducing new rules for email senders in 2024. It also supports AMP for Email, which is good news for those who love coding interactive emails.

While AOL and Yahoo Mail aren’t the most popular kids in school anymore, email marketers and developers still need to keep them in mind. There are still 1.5 million people paying for an AOL subscription. And Yahoo Mail still has well over 225 million users.

It’s unlikely that subscribers using these email clients make up a very large portion of your list. But if you strive for email perfection, you should keep an eye on how campaigns render in these mailbox providers too.

Other email client characters

Even smaller email clients could represent other stereotypical characters in a teen comedy.

For example, it’s easy to picture Thunderbird as the classic nerd archetype. It’s an open source email client that Mozilla developed to pair with its Firefox browser. Mozilla stopped supporting it in 2014, but the community kept it alive, updating the software and making donations. It’s since become part of a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. We love it when the nerds win in the end. There are still around 25 million people using the Thunderbird email client.

Samsung Email is like the quiet shy kid nobody notices at first. It works a lot like Apple Mail in that users can get messages from different mailbox providers and email addresses in one place. It obviously comes pre-installed on Samsung phones and has some features that its users really like, including a simple and intuitive UI. 

Then, assuming this is an American teen comedy, there are a handful of email clients that are like quirky foreign exchange students.

• Web.de is Germany’s top email client with 17 million customers.
• Free.fr is a French telecommunications company with a popular webmail app.
• Libero.it provides an Italian webmail service with around 11 million users.

Of course, the big three email clients (Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook) are also very popular in regions besides North America. But if you’re developing emails in Europe or for a global company, it’s smart to pay attention to these smaller email clients as well.

The final exam for email clients

We realize comparing your work in email marketing to a cranky high school principal isn’t exactly flattering. But try to think of yourself more like Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell. He always wanted what was best for the kids. Or maybe you’re more like Dumbledore, trying to get a bunch of young Hogwarts students under control.

At some point, you’ve got to put these email clients to the test. That’s where an automated pre-send platform like Sinch Email on Acid is an excellent solution. With email testing, you can preview your campaigns on the most popular clients and devices.

Using Email on Acid is like having the best hall monitor in history. You’ve got someone keeping an eye out for issues so you can prevent those troublesome email clients from rendering your campaigns the wrong way. 

Sinch Email on Acid also helps you optimize for inbox display, accessibility, and deliverability. Take advantage of the free trial and see how it works today!

The post What if Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo, and Outlook were High School Stereotypes? appeared first on Email on Acid.

HTML email developers and digital marketers love to flex their creative muscles with branding, design, and interactivity. Let’s be honest, it’s fun to show off sometimes. Still, a simpler approach to email marketing may be a better choice in certain situations.

So, when should you go all out with HTML emails, and when should you keep it simple? Let’s explore the dynamics of HTML vs plain text email and how each can be used to your advantage.

What is a plain text email?

It may surprise you, but many of the personal, one-to-one emails people send are not plain text emails. That’s because the true definition of a plain text emails is that it is extremely… well, plain. If you add a link, bold some text, or import an image, it’s no longer plain text.

A plain text email is an email format that contains only text and no HTML or rich media elements. This means no graphics, no logos, no funky GIFs, or interactive features – just the words, baby. Plain text emails are formatted using a standard, default font and the text content-type such as this: "text/plain; charset=us-ascii". They are straightforward and focus solely on the written content. A plain text email is a lot like a basic SMS message.

What plain text emails do not include

The easiest way to understand plain text emails is to be perfectly clear about what you cannot do with them. Plain text emails lack several features that are common in HTML emails. They do not support:

• Images: You won’t find any logos, product photos, or banners in plain text. It should go without saying that GIFs, animations, and multimedia of any kind are not supported either.
• Custom fonts and colors: Text appears in the mailbox provider’s default font, without any color or size variations. A truly plain text email won’t even have any bold or italics.
• Links: You cannot hyperlink text. An email with a clickable link technically isn’t a plain text email. Of course, that’s going to include your email CTA buttons. Any call to action in a plain text email would not be clickable. You can, however, include full URLs and major mailbox providers will often transform them into something clickable.

To your subscribers, the key difference between HTML vs plain text emails lies in the presentation. HTML emails use code to create visually appealing layouts that can include various elements as well as dynamic content and personalization.

In contrast, plain text emails are stripped-down versions that focus purely on the words. Sometimes, that may be helpful. Other times, it may be very important to show something in an email marketing campaign.

Visual examples of plain text vs HTML emails

To make our point, let’s look at some examples. Below, you’ll see two screenshots of plain text emails. The first shows how a plain text email might show up with nothing but text. The next illustrates how mailbox providers may take full URLs in a plain text email and make them live so they can be clicked.

Now, here are two examples of HTML emails. The first image is a section from one of Megan Boshuyzen’s famous Sinch Email Camp emails. It has a background, images, formatted text, and clickable buttons. The second example looks like a plain text email. However, you’ll notice it has hyperlinks, bolded text, and includes a logo. So, it’s actually a simple HTML email.

HTML vs plain text emails: Pros and cons

Each of these email formats has strengths and weaknesses, making them suitable for different purposes and audiences. Let’s look at some of the specific advantages of plain text emails compared email campaigns featuring visuals, links, and interactivity.

Pros of plain text emails

1. The authenticity of plain text: Plain text emails often come across as more personal and authentic. They resemble one-to-one communication, which can be effective for building trust with recipients. In short, it may feel a little less promotional.
2. Simplicity and consistency: There’s less to worry about when it comes to how different email clients render the content of plain text emails. Since there’s no formatting to break, plain text emails are displayed consistently across all devices and clients. The only difference is the font will change depending on the mailbox provider.
3. Accessibility: Plain text emails are more accessible for people using screen readers and other assistive technologies. The lack of complex formatting makes them easier for screen reading software to interpret for individuals with visual impairments.
4. Fast loading and delivery: With no images or complex code, plain text emails load quickly and are less likely to encounter issues that can affect loading times. Plain text emails may also work better on devices like smartwatches.

Cons of plain text emails

1. Lack of branding and design: Without any logos, color schemes, or other branding elements, plain text emails miss out on a significant branding opportunity. This is a disadvantage when consistency and boosting brand awareness is part of your goal.
2. Limited tracking capabilities: True plain text emails can’t include tracking pixels or other elements used for monitoring open rates and email engagement metrics. This makes it much harder to measure the success of a campaign.
3. Limited engagement potential: Plain text emails may struggle to capture attention or convey complex messages effectively, as they lack the visual appeal and interactivity that can engage recipients.
4. Limited personalization: Unlike HTML emails, plain text emails cannot include personalized content based on dynamic data, such as the recipient’s name or purchase history, which can limit their effectiveness in targeted campaigns.

Pros of HTML emails

1. Rich media and interactive elements: HTML emails allow marketers to include images, buttons, and other interactive elements. This can make emails more engaging and visually appealing, helping to convey messages more effectively.
2. Brand consistency: HTML emails enable the use of brand colors, fonts, logos, and styles, ensuring that every email aligns with the company’s brand identity. This can enhance brand recognition and increase engagement. That’s a sign of a strong sender reputation.
3. Advanced tracking and analytics: HTML emails can include tracking pixels and other tools to monitor open rates, click-through rates, and other engagement metrics. This provides valuable data for refining and optimizing future campaigns.
4. Personalization: HTML emails can be personalized with dynamic content, allowing marketers to tailor messages based on recipient data, such as names, locations, past purchase, and more. This could significantly improve and email campaign’s relevance and effectiveness.

Cons of HTML emails

1. Potential rendering issues HTML emails can be rendered differently across various email clients and devices. This can lead to design inconsistencies, with elements appearing broken or misplaced if not properly coded. Unfortunately, that could easily hurt engagement metrics and damage trust with a sender’s brand.
2. Increased development time: Designing and coding HTML emails can obviously be more time-consuming than sending plain text emails. HTML email development requires specialized skills and tools. This can be a significant resource investment, especially for more complex designs.
3. Accessibility challenges: While HTML emails can be made accessible, it requires a little extra consideration and work. Without proper attention to coding accessible emails, your campaigns may be challenging for people with disabilities to read and navigate.
4. Dark mode and design: Another common inbox challenge for digital marketers is coding dark mode emails. While plain text emails will be easy to read in light or dark mode, and HTML email design can become messy and unreadable.

Deliverability: Plain text emails vs HTML with images

For quite some time, there was a belief that including a lot of images in an email campaign might increase the risks of being filtered into spam. That led some senders to assume that plain text emails would achieve higher inbox placement rates than those with lots of design. That is mostly untrue.

Using images shouldn’t negatively impact email deliverability. In fact, if your designs enhance the experience and drive higher engagement rates, that’s a positive sign to mailbox providers. It shows people are interested in what you’re delivering, and your sender reputation will improve.

The reason, however, that images could be spam signal is because image-only or image-heavy emails may be trying to hide something. The true intent and contents of a deceptive or malicious message aren’t as easy to notice when disguised in a graphic. Still, it works both ways. While scammers may try to spoof your brand in an email, they can also use what look like personal, plain text emails (with one malicious link).

The difference between plain text and simple HTML emails

The disadvantages of plain text emails vs the upside of HTML emails may seem pretty huge. Email marketing efforts will fall flat if your subscribers can’t click, and you can’t track much of anything. But, at the same time, the challenges of coding HTML emails with lots of design and interactivity does get overwhelming.

What if you could have the best of both worlds? Not every email campaign needs to be a digital work of art. And even if you disagree – it could be a minimalist work of art.

Sometimes, you want the simplicity and accessibility of plain text, but with a touch of branding and tracking capabilities. Enter the “simple HTML email.” These emails use minimal HTML and CSS coding to achieve a clean, straightforward design while still allowing for some branding elements and interactive features.

When does a simple HTML email makes sense?

While there’s a time and place for showcasing your creativity and email coding skills, certain types of messages may work best in their simplest form. Here are some contenders for simple HTML emails.

1. Transactional emails: For messages like order confirmations or password resets, a simple design helps ensure clarity and focus on essential information.
2. Internal communications: Company announcements or internal newsletters often benefit from a simple layout that prioritizes the message over design elements.
3. Newsletters with light branding: When you want to maintain brand consistency but avoid overwhelming the reader with visuals, a simple HTML layout can balance both goals.
4. Event reminders and follow-ups: These emails can keep the focus on the key details, like dates and locations, without unnecessary distractions.

Here’s the difference between a plain text transactional email and a simple HTML email for an order confirmation. The second example is still very basic, but it includes enough code and formatting to make the experience just a bit better.

Then again, maybe that sort of simplicity is not your style. If you want to set your customer experience apart in the inbox, adding some flair to transactional email designs could make those everyday touchpoints more memorable.

Tips for creating simple HTML emails

1. Limit the use of images and media: Don’t overdo it with your images. This will ensure quick loading times and reduce the risk of accessibility issues.
2. Use web-safe fonts: Stick to standard fonts that are widely supported across email clients. Be aware that even Gmail doesn’t support all Google fonts. Learn more in our article on email safe fonts.
3. Focus on clear, concise content: Keep your message straightforward and easy to read.
4. Include a plain text alternative: There’s a very good chance your email service provider (ESP) already does this for you automatically. If not, consider providing a plain text version of your HTML email.

Some recipients may prefer plain text when they’ve got a slow internet connection or when email clients can’t render HTML properly. Allowing subscribers to view an email in their browser may also help with that problem.

Here’s an email marketing example that showcases a simple HTML email design. There are a few design elements, including an image, button, and background. But its also formatted like a letter, which feels simple and personal.

What performs better?

Will an impressive interactive email get more people to click and convert? Not always. Even email geeks may prefer campaigns that keep it simple. That’s what Naomi West of the email coding platform, Parcel, found out when she tested different versions of her emails.

Check out the session below from our Sinch Email Camp: Mission Control archives to hear more from Naomi and Emily Ryan on the power of simplicity in email marketing. Find out why simplifying your emails can often improve performance.

Keep in mind… the fact that Naomi tested it first is key. The only way to really know how your list will respond and how different versions will perform is to A/B test and find out for yourself.

Even simple emails need to be tested

Even if you’ve kept your HTML email design simple, rendering issues can still occur. Different email clients can display HTML in varied ways, leading to potential problems with layout, fonts, or images. That’s why it’s crucial to test and preview your email campaigns before sending the to your subscribers. It’s the best way to see how your emails display in on hundreds of different clients and devices.

Sinch Email on Acid offers a comprehensive pre-send testing solution that allows marketers to preview their work in various inbox environments. This ensures that your message looks great and functions correctly, no matter where it’s viewed. With features like email previews, spam testing, and analytics, Sinch Email on Acid helps you deliver flawless emails that engage and convert.

By understanding the strengths and limitations of both HTML and plain text emails, you can make informed decisions that align with your marketing goals. Whether you’re aiming for high engagement, brand consistency, or simple, authentic communication, there’s a right choice for every campaign. And remember, always test your emails before hitting send to ensure the best possible experience for your everyone on your list.

The post Can a Plain Text Email be Better than HTML? appeared first on Email on Acid.

My second grader simply wanted to know why the heck I use this thing called Gmail. To him, mobile messaging is the form of digital communication that’s most familiar.

The little guy actually already has his own Google account with a Gmail address. He also has older brothers, which means he’s begging me to let him use TikTok and Snapchat (not happening). Plus, he’s got his own device with Messenger Kids installed so he can chat with friends and family. Email just isn’t on his radar… at least not yet.

Things like this might make you wonder about the future of customer communications. Will email still be relevant in another 10 years? Or could other channels move in and take email’s place because of these darn kids?

Is email marketing dead? Survey says…

Don’t start worrying about your email marketing career just yet. A recent survey from Sinch asked U.S. consumers about how they prefer to hear from brands, and email consistently came out on top. You can see all the results in the ungated report, The art and heart of meaningful customer connections.

Earlier this year, our friends at Sinch Mailgun also released some research showing that around 75% of consumers in the U.S., UK, France, Germany, and Spain want transactional and promotional messages delivered to their email inboxes. What’s interesting about these new findings from Sinch, however, is that they compare channel preferences for specific situations.

Is email still relevant for transactional communications?

While Mailgun’s survey let respondents select all the channels they like using for customer communication, Sinch asked consumers to choose the single channel they most prefer.

Even though email was always the most popular option for transactional messages, other channels seem to be nipping at its heels. For example, 37% of consumers selected email as the top channel for receiving order confirmation messages. However, 23% chose SMS and another 9% chose MMS for order confirmations.

You’ll notice that when Sinch combined results from all mobile messaging channels, they surpassed email preferences by 5%. The survey revealed similar consumer preferences for delivery notifications and invoices/receipts.

SMS creeps a bit closer to email when it comes to receiving user verification messages for things like two-factor authentication (2FA). Speediness and convenience play a role here. SMS messages are delivered almost instantly. Even when people are already on a desktop device, it can be much easier to check your smartphone than navigate to your email inbox for those digits.

That’s likely why 27% of consumers chose SMS for receiving verification codes while around one-third preferred email. For the verification messages question, 45% of U.S. consumers would choose a mobile messaging channel.

The takeaway here? Transactional emails are unsung heroes of the customer experience, but they aren’t the only way to deliver information to customers. Email is still a relevant way to distribute transactional messages. Yet it’s wise to consider the benefits of other channels as well as the preferences of a considerably large group of consumers.

Is email marketing still relevant for promotions?

Promotional emails are a part of consumers’ daily lives. Most of us even have a dedicated tab for them in our inboxes. Mailgun found around half of consumers claim to check that promotions tab every day.

Receiving promotions via messaging channels is still a bit unfamiliar to some people. Many view their text message inbox as a place for peer to peer (P2P) communication with personal contacts. That viewpoint, however, is likely changing.

After becoming a paying customer, 39% of consumers surveyed would choose email as a place where they’d prefer receiving promotions from brands. When it comes to other channels, 21% chose SMS, 10% picked MMS, and a combined total of 40% of consumers would prefer a mobile messaging channel over email for promotional messaging.

So how should you take this? We’d say it’s an indication that consumer habits and opinions are quite varied. While email is effective for many customers, for others, reaching them on other channels may be their ideal customer communication experience.

Personalized promotions can occur on a variety of marketing channels. Consumer opinions on the best place for receiving personalized recommendations look similar to promotions in general. Email and all messaging channels combined tied at 39%.

While the email inbox is a very personal place, you could argue that text messaging is an even more personal communication channel. It’s also much easier to use messaging channels for conversational marketing, which includes two-way, automated communications and personalization.

SMS chatbots are one way that brands are accomplishing this. Chatbots can even serve as personalized shopping assistants, actively making suggestions and recommendations while answering questions about everything from shipping time to finding the right product fit. Sinch’s survey found that troubleshooting and answering questions were the most common reasons for interacting with a chatbot. However, 9% of consumers want chatbots to act as a personal shopping assistant. As interactions with AI become more common, this trend could become more of a consumer expectation.

Do businesses think email marketing is dead?

Sinch’s Customer connections report also included a survey of U.S businesses. When asked about the channels they’re using to reach people, email stood out. Still, it’s clear that many businesses are thinking beyond the email inbox.

While 92% of businesses use email for customer communication, 73% use SMS and more than half use social messaging channels such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

So, most businesses still see value in email marketing, but it’s also obvious that the majority are at least adopting a multichannel communication strategy.

Even WhatsApp is a channel more than a third of U.S. businesses are using. This could be to reach customers in regions where the app is very popular. But statistics show WhatsApp’s popularity in the U.S. is growing.

Do top marketers think email is dead?

There’s one more group with opinions on how to reach customers – thought leaders in the world of digital marketing. Partly due to challenges with reaching people via organic social media, it’s tough to find many people who’d diss the email channel.

Here are a few thoughts from names you’ll likely recognize: Rand Fishkin, Ann Handley, and Seth Godin.

While Rand Fishkin is known most for his influence on the SEO community and his audience research tool SparkToro, he’s well respected by marketers of all types. In a blog post proclaiming the undying power and reliability of email, he points out that average open rates have stayed around 20% or more for two decades. You can’t say the same about engagement on other channels.

If you’re not investing in an email list, you’re almost certainly missing out. That TikTok/Instagram/Threads/Twitter/LinkedIn following you’re building? Statistically it’s better to trade 1,000 new followers for a single email subscriber. That’s how lopsided the value-exchange is.

Rand Fishkin Founder, SparkToro

Everybody loves Everybody Writes author Ann Handley, founder of MarketingProfs. Ann is also well known for her email newsletter. Even though more than 90% of businesses use email to reach people, she believes the channel is still undervalued. Ann Handley explains more about the importance of email in the video below.

I think email, in particular, is so important. It is vastly undervalued by most companies… Email is the only place where people and not algorithms are in control.

Ann Handley Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

Finally, there’s no one more revered than the pioneering sage of marketing, Seth Godin. He literally wrote the book on ethical email marketing practices in 1999 with Permission Marketing.

A few years ago, Seth was nice enough to give us his thoughts on the future of email. Truth be told… he’s not entirely optimistic, but he is realistic. In Seth’s opinion, this is not about consumer preferences. It’s about how we use (or abuse) the email channel as marketers.

Email’s an open API, and that will probably doom it in the long run. But if enough marketers stand up and make it better, not simply louder, there’s a shot…

Either you’re a spammer or you’re not. Either you’re regularly skirting the edges, trading lists, hustling people, writing click bait subject lines, evading policies and skulking around. OR, you’re being clear and open and delivering messages that are anticipated, personal and relevant.

The test is easy: If you didn’t send out your emails tomorrow, would people contact you to find out what happened?

Seth Godin Best-selling author/Entrepreneur/Teacher

Only you can prevent the death of email

There’s no doubt that shifting consumer behaviors may prompt businesses to expand into other channels, and it’s true that Gen-Z uses email less than older consumers. There’s a good chance that will change as Gen-Z starts “adulting” more and email becomes more of a convenience and a necessity. But if anything kills email, it won’t be text messages, Slack, or teens using social media. It will be senders and email marketers who deliver the death blow.

Email remains relevant because it can still provide plenty of value, especially when hearing from brands. Unfortunately, the reason it’s so hard to “stand out in the inbox” is because email inboxes are so full of noise.

Here are a handful of ways we can all be better email marketers:

1. Respect your subscribers’ privacy, time, and opinions.
2. Use email to make their lives easier and working with you more convenient.
3. Deliver delight to your subscribers’ inboxes (not just deals).
4. Make authentic, meaningful customer connections through email.

Of course, all these things are tough to accurately measure with opens and clicks, but the ROI is there. Email can be a channel that helps your brand earn trust and attention. First, however, we need to carry out our end of the bargain with consumers and deliver the value we promised them when they opted in.

Why consider other customer communication channels?

As much as we love email, there’s no need to choose just one marketing and communication channel to rule them all. You’re more than an email geek. You excel at customer communications. So, it’s wise to diversify your skillset.

There are exciting things to come. That includes RCS business messaging (RBM), which will allow brands to deliver engaging, interactive, mobile experiences that even the best email developer could only dream of. On the other side of the spectrum, the speed and simplicity of transactional SMS could be an easy way to improve the customer experience.

Sinch is currently offering a free evaluation to help you uncover the gaps in your communication strategy. Take the assessment today and get a personalized report based on your industry and current communication mix.

The post Email Marketing is Still Relevant – But It’s Also Got Company appeared first on Email on Acid.

Okay, okay. We didn’t actually do that. We mostly Googled a bunch and asked for recommendations. Regardless, if your ears itch to be filled with the sounds of cluttered inboxes, automations, and A/B test results, this list will provide you with hours of enjoyable insights.

The truth is, making a podcast involves lot of hard work. Many of the shows we originally listed before updating this article for 2024 have ceased production or shifted gears to broader topics. Support your fellow email geeks and their creative projects by listening and subscribing.

Here are 12 of the best email marketing podcasts in no particular order…

1. Email’s Not Dead

Jonathan Torres and Eric Trinidad host Email’s Not Dead from Sinch Mailgun. This in-depth, interview style podcast features heavy hitters in the world of email. It’s also produced (and includes special appearances) by the unforgettable face of Email Camp, Thomas (T-Bird) Knierien.

Email’s Not Dead often takes a lighthearted look at serious topics, including a focus on email deliverability. In the most recent season, Jonathan and Eric spoke with Marcel Becker of Yahoo about new rules for bulk senders in 2024. Season 5 also features an episode dedicated to M3AAWG (Messaging Malware Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group), an industry group dedicated to fighting abuse in the world of email and mobile messaging.

Be sure to explore the full archive, because Email’s Not Dead brings on many of your favorite email geeks. That includes Jay Oram, Megan Boshuyzen, Chad S. White, Alison Goottee, Laura Atkins, Brad Gurley, Guilda Hilaire, and Naomi West – just to name a handful of their recent guests.

• Listen to Email’s Not Dead on Spotify
• Listen to Email’s Not Dead on Apple Podcasts

2. Email Swipes

Got a swipe file for email marketing campaigns that’ve impressed you? Email Swipes with Nikki Elbaz is the audio version you’ve been waiting for. Nikki is an expert email consultant and copywriter who brings true email geeks on her podcast to explore what goes into creating their big ideas.

Nikki takes you behind the scenes to learn about the skills and strategy it takes to bring successful email campaigns to life. She and her guests talk about their interesting email experiments. That includes, for example, how a toy brand used nostalgia to improve the performance of abandoned cart emails. Nikki also interviewed our own Megan Boshuyzen about one of her notorious April Fool’s emails and how to code quizzes using AMP for Email.

• Listen to Email Swipes on Spotify
• Listen to Email Swipes on Apple Podcasts

3. The Email Marketing Show

From Email Marketing Heroes, this aptly named weekly podcast includes insights from hosts Carrie Wilkerson (an email consultant in Texas) and Kennedy (a one-named email expert in the UK). The Email Marketing Show delivers “practical, yet brutally honest email marketing advice” every Wednesday. This is one of the longest-running email marketing podcasts out there.

A recent episode from this duo explores how to build a lead magnet email sequence that gets subscribers to love you. Other interesting topics include everything from list building tips and how to stop procrastinating to email strategies that shouldn’t work (but absolutely do).

• Listen to The Email Marketing Show on Spotify
• Listen to The Email Marketing Show on Apple Podcasts

4. Inboxing

Another email consultant with a great podcast is Hillel Berg. His show, Inboxing, includes interviews with plenty of recognizable names in email marketing. That includes designers like ActionRocket’s Ben Clay, deliverability specialists like Alyssa Dulin, and CRM/retention experts like Val Geisler – just to name a few.

Inboxing explores the best in email marketing. Check out the episode crowning the Email of the Year (EMOTY) for 2023. We’re proud to say an Email Camp campaign from our team made the short list. While we didn’t win, it’s an honor just to be nominated. Who did win? You’ll have to tune in to this email marketing podcast to find out.

• Listen to Inboxing on Spotify
• Listen to Inboxing on Apple Podcasts

5. Email After Hours

Sender Score delivers this “quick and candid” email marketing podcast that strives to answer your burning questions about how to give subscribers what they really want. Email After Hours includes regular hosts Danielle Gallant and Guy Hanson as well as special guests.

A recent episode featuring Eric Stelle of Mapp Digital explores the pros and cons of the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in email marketing. In other installments you can listen in to a discussion on the elements of successful email design, learn about the benefits of strict data protection laws in Germany, and get tips on using the email channel as an entrepreneur.

• Listen to Email After Hours on Spotify
• Listen to Email After Hours on Apple Podcasts

6. That InboxArmy Podcast

Scott Cohen and Garin Hobbs host this email marketing podcast covering hot topics that are sure to hit home. From the challenges of using video in email marketing to the intersections between email and social media, That InboxArmy Podcast needs to be on your list of stuff to listen to soon.

In the inaugural season of their podcast, Scott and Garin brought our Sr. Email Developer, Megan Boshuyzen, on the show to talk about developing interactive emails. Another episode we recommend checking out is Garin’s explanation of the difference between using operational and performative AI in email marketing.

• Listen to That InboxArmy Podcast on Spotify
• Listen to That InboxArmy Podcast on Apple Podcasts

7. The Email Marketing Chronicles

Every email geek has a story to tell and on The Email Marketing Chronicles from Smaily, you’ll hear stories of success to inspire you. Hosts Tanel Brand and Viivika Lumberg get those stories out of some very successful email marketers.

Recent podcast guests include Scott Hardigree, founder of Email Industries, and Kath Pay of the agency Holistic Email Marketing. If you’re building a career in email, take some advice from folks who’ve walked that same path.

• Listen to The Email Marketing Chronicles on Spotify

8. The Full Inbox

Looking for some suggestions to help you stand out from all of the email clutter? Peyton Fox of Spark Bridge Digital has a show for you. Her email marketing podcast, The Full Inbox, includes Peyton’s takes on topics such as simplifying email design and the power of using both email and SMS for restaurant customer communications.

Recently, this email marketing podcast dove into the anxiety-inducing subject of planning for Black Friday emails in July. Peyton’s expertise lies in ecommerce as she’s worked with hundreds of brands.

• Listen to The Full Inbox on Spotify
• Listen to The Full Inbox on Apple Podcasts

9. Everything Email

Here’s another solo-show of an email marketing podcast that provides quick tips from an industry veteran. Each episode of Everything Email with Ken Countess is between 5 to 10 minutes long. And – as Ken’s about page states – “He has probably forgotten more about marketing than you’ll ever know.”

Ken provides his take on topics such as whether or not you should reuse old emails, the importance of omnichannel communications, and why email marketing is a bit like parallel parking.

• Listen to Everything Email on Spotify
• Listen to Everything Email on Apple Podcasts

10. Easy Email Marketing

Rounding out a trio of advice podcasts is Yael Keon and her show Easy Email Marketing. From what we can tell, Yael has been producing this email marketing podcast since 2021, and three years is like 30 in podcast years. Congrats, Yael!

Easy Email Marketing is a bi-weekly podcast that promises to help you build a quality list of subscribers, serve them with “open-worthy emails,” and convert those email subscribers into sales. Yael uses her own experiences as an email marketer to guide her listeners. That includes a recent behind-the-scenes episode on how she used email to drive sales in her business.

• Listen to Easy Email Marketing on Spotify
• Listen to Easy Email Marketing on Apple Podcasts

11. Email and Coffee

Coffee no doubt fuels many email marketers and it’s also consumed by long-time email mastermind, Joi Brooks, and some of her guests on this email marketing podcast. Here’s how Joi uses a good cup-of-joe as a metaphor for email marketing:

We’ll have what she’s having.

Joi’s show, Email and Coffee, has been putting out interviews with email geeks and business leaders for several years. Among her recent guests are Emily McGuire with insights on email strategy and Randy Levy on finding meaning in your work. Megan Bushoyzen also showed up to talk about email development with Joi. (Megan’s really been hitting up the email marketing podcast circuit as you may have noticed.) Occasionally, this podcast veers away from the topic of email into other areas of interest.

• Listen to Email and Coffee on Spotify

12. The Future of Email

Last but not least on our list of email marketing podcasts is The Future of Email. Campaign Genius founder Dr. Matthew Dunn hosts this guest-driven conversational podcast that touches on email marketing as well as broader marketing and copywriting topics.

You’ll hear from both marketers and product developers as they talk about their journeys in and around the world of email. That includes people like Anna Levitin of Powtoon, agency CEO Melanie Balke of The Email Marketers, and CEO of Revenue Labz Sam Saifi.

• Listen to The Future of Email on Spotify
• Listen to The Future of Email on Apple Podcasts

Bonus podcasts for email marketers

While there are email marketing podcasts that have stopped putting out new episodes, they are still worth checking out. We love Najmah Salam’s YouTube show Email Breakdown, for example. The Flowium podcast Email Einstein announced they were rebranding and went on hiatus this spring. The podcast formerly known as Inbox Besties with Kate Doster broadened its scope and became Do the Brave Thing.

Sinch Email on Acid’s web series Notes from the Dev: Video Edition has also been on hiatus. But we hope you’ll check out past episodes with tips and tricks from top email developers.

If you’re a fan of narrative podcasts driven by a mix of interviews and storytelling, we highly recommend Shoestring from our friends at Sinch SimpleTexting.

Shoestring is a unique marketing podcast that strives to solve real problems for real small businesses. In each episode, you’ll hear about the challenge the business is facing. Then, the team brainstorms ideas and pitches them to the small business owners. There’s a pet store looking to build it’s list of SMS subscribers, a watersports company’s email segmentation strategy, and a rage room that needs to drum up more business. Each episode takes you on a little journey and could help you come up with some creative ideas of your own.

• Listen to Shoestring on Spotify
• Listen to Shoestring on Apple Podcasts

Looking for even more recommendations? Shoestring co-host Alfredo Salkeld compiled a list of 31 podcasts for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups. So, clean the wax out of your ears, pop some headphones in, and start listening.

The post 12 Email Marketing Podcasts to Check Out in 2024 appeared first on Email on Acid.

The short answer is “No.” Did you expect something else from us?

There may be some very good reasons to launch a LinkedIn newsletter. However, there are some significant differences between email newsletters and what a LinkedIn newsletter help you accomplish. Plus, there are different ways to use LinkedIn newsletters:

1. The way LinkedIn wants you to do it.
2. The way we think you should probably do it.

We’ll explain more as we explore LinkedIn newsletters and how they differ from email newsletters.

What is a LinkedIn newsletter?

Assuming you use LinkedIn semi-regularly, we’re willing to bet you’ve received messages from people and brands inviting you to subscribe to their newsletters. These newsletters are native to the LinkedIn platform, meaning that’s where they’re built, published, and consumed. LinkedIn newsletters have been around for a few years, but they’ve been gaining traction in 2024.

Here’s how the social platform describes its newsletters:

In other words, a LinkedIn newsletter is a type of LinkedIn article that your followers can subscribe to. Proponents of these newsletters say they’ve helped their brands gain followers and increase engagement on LinkedIn.

How LinkedIn newsletters work

We’ll spare you the step-by-step instructions in this article, because those are easy to find. But you can check out Andy Crestodina’s tips in the video below.

What you need to know is that you basically create a LinkedIn newsletter much like you might lay out a blog post, adding copy, links, visuals, and calls to action. It’s up to you what goes into your LinkedIn newsletter, but you’ll need to give it a name and focus on a certain topic.

Then, you’ll need to convince your LinkedIn followers to subscribe to it because current followers will not be automatically subscribed. It’s also possible for someone to subscribe to your LinkedIn newsletter without being a follower.

When you publish a LinkedIn newsletter, subscribers will get an email notifying them of the latest edition, a notification on LinkedIn, and they may see it in their feed. After your LinkedIn newsletter launches, you’ll also be able to see some basic analytics for each edition and performance over time.

LinkedIn vs email newsletters in your marketing mix

The most important thing to realize is that LinkedIn and email newsletters represent two different strategies: your social media strategy and your email marketing strategy. That said, it’s likely they’ll serve a similar purpose: content distribution to a targeted audience.

In marketing, different media and methods are often classified as four distinct types: Owned, Earned, Shared, and Paid.

• Owned media is best described as your articles, reports, landing pages, videos, etc. – anything that lives on your website. You’re in control of it.
• Earned media is most often connected to public relations and media relations. It’s the coverage you get as well as good old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing and even customer reviews on other sites.
• Shared media is essentially social media. It’s how you share/distribute your Owned media or interact with your target audience using content that’s built for a specific social media platform.
• Paid media is self-explanatory. It’s your digital ads, promoted posts, sponsored content, etc. – any time you pay to reach an audience.

There is definitely some overlap between these types of marketing media (hence the Venn diagram). For example, there are ways to use social as Paid media, and you could classify followers sharing your content as Earned media. Owned content often feeds into the other three medias. So, where does email marketing fit into this model?

Why we need another media type

Many marketers would describe the email channel as Owned, but that’s not entirely accurate.

You don’t exactly own your email list since contacts should be able to unsubscribe at will. Plus, as we are quite familiar, you don’t have complete control over the way different email clients like Outlook and Gmail display your campaigns or how mailbox providers choose to filter what you send.

Chad S. White, author of Email Marketing Rules, wrote about this conundrum.  He suggests a different classification for email – Granted media. Chad includes other forms of messaging here too, such as SMS and MMS, as well as organic search marketing (also known as search engine optimization or SEO):

“The defining characteristic of granted media is that it is brand content distributed via an open platform, which gives the platform great reach but at the cost of having many masters, which are active participants in the channel.”

Chad S. White Author, Email Marketing Rules

Another good way to classify email and mobile messaging channels could be Permission media. While SEO doesn’t fit here, permission-based marketing accurately describes email and SMS marketing experiences. Customers and contacts opt in, giving you permission to deliver content and campaigns to their inboxes.

Challenges with email and LinkedIn newsletters

The point we’re trying to make here is that email and social media are entirely different worlds. However, they intersect at the point of distributing content to the right audience.

The problem with social media is that organic reach on these closed platforms has dwindled to a trickle. In fact, if you’re sharing links to your website in social posts, the algorithms are designed to reduce impressions/reach. That means most of your followers won’t even see what you’ve shared, and it’s why you’ll find major brands with 400k followers only getting LinkedIn reactions in the double digits.

The problem with email marketing is that inboxes are crowded and improving email engagement is challenging. It’s easy to miss email newsletters among the many promotional, transactional, and personal messages (not to mention spam) in the inbox.

Those two problems are exactly why LinkedIn newsletters are so attractive to many marketing teams. They help get your brand’s content in front of more eyeballs while promising to improve reach and engagement on LinkedIn.

Our friends at Sinch Mailgun recently launched a LinkedIn Newsletter called Mailgun News. So, even top email brands see the value of this social media tactic. One significant benefit over email is that your subscribers on LinkedIn can react, comment, and interact with your newsletter on the platform. This creates a stronger community while helping you learn a little more about your audience.

But be aware… LinkedIn newsletters come with a bit of a catch.

Why LinkedIn really wants you to use their newsletters

The reason organic reach has declined and social media is no longer an ideal channel for publishing content is clear. Maybe you’ve also recently noticed that the way LinkedIn displays links to external content in newsfeeds has changed. It shows much smaller visuals from the content. That is… unless you pay to promote it.

These social platforms want their users to stay on the platform where they’re more likely to interact with paid ads, which are the business model behind social media.

The same is true for Google. That’s why it delivers answers at the top of organic search results so that users don’t have to click through to learn more. It’s also the idea behind Google’s AI-powered generative search, and why Head of Search Liz Reid said to “let Google do the Googling for you.”

But we digress… Back to LinkedIn newsletters.

LinkedIn wants you to create content on its platform that keeps its users on LinkedIn and has other benefits for them (not always you). For one thing, maybe you’ve noticed LinkedIn articles showing up in search results more often. Unlike posts, search engines like Google are indexing articles and LinkedIn newsletters.

Maybe you see this as a good thing. But what’s really happening is you’re helping LinkedIn with search visibility when you could be helping your own site. You may be taking what could be Owned content and turning it into Shared content.

If that’s what you want to do, fine. But maybe the real question you should be asking is “Why not both?”

4 strategic recommendations for LinkedIn newsletters

We aren’t here to tell you not to use LinkedIn newsletters, nor do we believe that email newsletters are the only channel where you should distribute your brand’s content. There could be a way to get the best of both worlds.

Here are a few tips for using LinkedIn and email newsletters together:

1. Think content syndication, not publication

If you’re publishing longform content on LinkedIn that also lives on your website, consider only posting part of it. Pick a jumping off point in the article that generates curiosity and drives users to your blog for the rest. If you watched Andy Crestodina’s how-to video above, you’ll see he also recommends this approach.

At the very least, make sure your original articles live on your website for a time before you syndicate them on LinkedIn as well as Medium and other places.

When you send email newsletters, the most common strategy is to write teasers of your articles, announcements, launches, and other content. You write creative CTAs that encourage the click. Your LinkedIn newsletter should function the same way.

Since your LinkedIn newsletter subscribers will get an email and in-app notification, there’s less of a concern about reduced reach from an algorithm. So, don’t worry about adding links.

2. Reduce content redundancy

Avoid distributing the same content through LinkedIn and an email newsletter at the same time. You may have some dedicated fans who subscribe to both channels. If you can deliver a different experience, they’re more likely to stay subscribed to both.

If you have enough fresh content, you can divvy it up between channels. Or you could have different frequencies for email and LinkedIn newsletters. One may be a monthly roundup and the other a weekly update.

Another good way to keep things fresh is to divide the responsibilities among marketing teammates. A social media specialist can handle the LinkedIn newsletter while an email marketer takes care of the inbox version. Just be sure to knock down those silos and communicate with each other about what’s being distributed and when.

3. A little exclusivity just might work

Here’s the part of the article where we contradict ourselves a little bit. Honestly, there’s no one right way to do anything. You’ve got to find a strategy that works for you.

In some cases, creating content specifically for a LinkedIn newsletter may be exactly what you need. Native content is the way to go if you want to get the most out of social media these days.

For example, you may have a thought leader in your organization who could write a dedicated LinkedIn newsletter every week. You could also use a LinkedIn newsletter to curate and share relevant content from other sources in your industry.

Of course, these same strategies can work for your email newsletter. Giving people exclusive content they won’t find anywhere else gives them a reason to subscribe.

4. Don’t put your eggs in one basket

Unlike your email list or a platform like Substack, you can’t take your audience with you. Don’t ever forget that LinkedIn is the one in control. They can change the rules of the game at any time. Relying too much on a LinkedIn newsletter could become a problem.

A lot of small businesses and online influencers who built followings on platforms like Facebook are now regretting it. You need to invest in your Owned media properties, including your website and original content.

These days, it’s wise to diversify your sources of web traffic – because you can’t rely on any one channel – even (and maybe especially) organic search. If you’re too dependent on a single source, you may find yourself in a sticky situation. That’s why omnichannel communication is so important. LinkedIn newsletters are simply an additional touchpoint in your omnichannel marketing mix.

LinkedIn newsletters vs email newsletters: What’s the difference?

Welcome to those of you who skipped the rest of the article to find this comparison table. We realize that this is kind of like those recipe blog posts that go on and on before giving you the goods. Sorry, but we had some stuff to get off our chests.

Here’s a clear breakdown of how LinkedIn newsletters differ from email newsletters:

Why email newsletters matter more than ever

While there may be good reasons for your marketing strategy to include a LinkedIn newsletter, there’s no denying the power of the email channel. Sinch Mailgun’s report Email and the Customer Experience found around 75% of global consumers prefer the email inbox for both transactional and promotional messages.

Here’s something to think about… How does LinkedIn entice people back to its platform to view your newsletter? They send those subscribers an email! If LinkedIn knows that email is an ideal way to drive traffic, you should be doing the same.

As channels like organic search, social media, and paid digital put the squeeze on brands and content creators, email remains a constant source of success. That’s likely why Sinch’s Customer Connections report found that 92% of U.S. businesses it surveyed use email to reach customers. Compare that to 56% who are using Facebook/Instagram messaging and 47% who use other social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter/X.

If you’re looking for a way to create engaging email newsletters, check out what Sinch Mailjet has to offer. Beyond a variety of templates, you’ll also find solutions for segmentation and A/B testing as well as tools to build forms and landing pages.

And if you need a way to review and optimize your email newsletters, Sinch Email on Acid is a trusted email quality assurance platform. Use it to preview how your emails render on 100+ clients and devices before you hit send.

The post LinkedIn Newsletter vs Email Newsletter: What’s the Right Strategy?  appeared first on Email on Acid.

As an email marketer, maybe you’ve noticed some buzz around leaked Google search documents and assumed that’s got nothing to do with your job. You’re not wrong. But even if they are indirect – there are plenty of connections between email and SEO.

SEO and email marketing are two distinct practices, and they often come into play at very different parts of the customer journey. However, email and SEO do intersect, and there are ways people who focus on these areas can help each other out.

Let’s take a look at how email marketing and SEO can work together.

The basics of SEO

We’re probably safe to assume you know what email marketing is all about. But let’s briefly explain how search engine optimization works.

Put simply, SEO is the practice of optimizing a website for better visibility and engagement on search engine result pages (SERPs). The goal is usually to improve search rankings and drive organic traffic by appearing as close to the top of “Page 1” results as possible.

Now, when we say “search engines” we’re mostly talking about the big one: Google. By some estimates, Google has more than 90% of the global search market.

Ask anyone who’s spent time working on SEO and they will tell you their job is part science and part art. That’s because, while we know some things about how Google ranks web pages, much of it is a bit mysterious. Google uses a complex algorithm, which it is constantly tweaking and updating. Google also doesn’t want people manipulating search rankings (and people have definitely tried over the years).

More recently, thanks to that Google leak we mentioned in the introduction, it’s come to light that Google may be telling people one thing and doing another.

5 important SEO concepts

While there are many different signals and technical aspects of web content that affect SEO, the factors below are some of the most common considerations for optimization:

1. Keywords

When you type a search query into Google, the search engine looks for those words (keywords) among the many pages it has in its index. Then it returns a list of results that should be relevant and helpful to the searcher. Sometimes the query is a very specific word, other times it’s a more complex phrase, and people will also enter actual questions into the search bar.

That’s a very simplistic explanation of how it works, but it will do the trick.

Those who practice SEO research the keywords that have significant volume (number of monthly searches). And they try to add those keywords in the right places the right number of times. For example, keywords in the <title> tag can influence rankings. But overusing keywords in an unnatural way can look spammy and manipulative, which Google does not like and could hurt SEO efforts.

2. On-page optimization

You can also optimize web pages in other ways. That includes writing meta descriptions that describe the page in the search results and encourage searchers to click on it. The alt text for images may include keywords that help visuals rank in a Google image search. A page’s URL can be optimized with relevant keywords too.

On-page optimization includes the creation of web content that is easy for both site visitors and search engines to consume. When it comes to the user experience, having a website with pages that load quickly and are optimized for mobile devices is a big deal if you want good search engine visibility on Google.

Google has search bots that crawl the web checking out pages, consuming the content, and traveling to new pages via links before reporting back to Google’s index. Organizing web content with h-tags for subheadings helps search bots understand the main topic of the page. Internal links between pages on a site help bots crawl, discover, and index new content.

Speaking of links… This next one is a pretty big deal.

3. Backlinks

External backlinks have always been important in SEO. They are a signal that someone other than your brand thinks your site, content, or products and services are worth trusting and considering.

When Google got its start, the founders were inspired by early search engines for academic papers that relied on citations. The more a paper was cited in other pieces of research, the more likely it was to rise to the top of results. Those citations were like endorsements.

Backlinks work in a similar way. In most cases, when more sites link to a web page, the more likely it is that search engines will see the page as important and worthy of visibility (or good rankings). It’s even more helpful if a backlink comes from a site that’s very authoritative (like CNN), or is related to your industry. Of course, backlinks can be manipulated too, which is one reason why Google’s algorithm has evolved so much.

4. Content quality (E-E-A-T)

In recent years. Google has told site owners that it is placing less importance on things like links and keywords and emphasizing the quality of the content on web pages.

To define what that means, Google came up with its E-E-A-T guidelines. E-E-A-T stands for Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Google has said that E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor connected to the search engine’s algorithm. Google actually hires people known as “quality raters” to manually review content based on a set of criteria. In essence, Google is evaluating whether the brands and the people/writers behind web content know what they are talking about.

How much E-A-A-T truly impacts rankings is now somewhat in question. Here’s what Rand Fishkin had to say after reviewing the Google leaks:

This does not mean marketing teams should stop focusing on content quality. But it could indicate that brand reputation authority is very important.

5. Topical and brand authority

Here’s how topical authority works. Google likely thinks that Email on Acid has authority and expertise around topics like email coding and email marketing strategy. But if we suddenly started posting BBQ recipes to our blog, it’s unlikely that search engines would rank the content very high. Our recipes may be delicious, but our brand doesn’t have authority on that topic.

According to Rand Fishkin, the recent leak indicates your brand could be one of the most important factors, and that has nothing to do with technical SEO:

Authority in SEO is a little like sender reputation in email marketing. They’re both connected to your domain.

When it comes to email deliverability, if mailbox providers see you as a trustworthy sender that gets good engagement, you’re more likely to land in the inbox. In SEO, if Google sees your brand as a recognizable name and a trustworthy source for important information on a topic, your site may rank better.

Could your domain reputation with Gmail impact how Google views and ranks your website? There’s no direct connection between send reputation and domain authority (that we know of). But there are bound to be some strong correlations and There’s no evidence of that.

But let’s get back to the main question: How do search and email interconnect?

Content: The connection between SEO and email marketing

At first, it’s not easy to see the connection between email marketing and SEO. They seem like two different worlds.

The links you put in emails won’t boost your rankings. Your campaigns aren’t likely to show up in search results. Visitors from organic search are often at the beginning of a customer journey while email subscribers tend to be somewhere in the middle.

Content marketing is where SEO and email marketing cross paths.

Email marketers need content for newsletters, nurture campaigns, onboarding, company/product update messages, and more. Search engine marketers need quality content to establish topical authority, earn backlinks, and rank for the keywords their target audience uses.

Email marketers and SEOs have a similar goal: Get people to click on the content featured in emails or search results so customers, subscribers, and prospects visit the website. And once people get to the website, both types of specialists want visitors to engage and convert.

So, that’s where email marketing and SEO intersect. But how can these two strategies support each other?

3 ways SEO supports email marketing

If you’ve got silos in your marketing department, it’s time to knock those babies down. When different teams with different focuses share data, insights, and strategies, good things happen.

Let’s start with the ways strong SEO supports an email marketing strategy.

1. Organic traffic and list building

Because SEO is a “top-of-funnel” marketing tactic, the organic traffic it drives to a website represents something very important to email marketers: potential subscribers.

A new website visitor could easily represent a new, qualified email contact. If someone lands on content from a Google search, and they love what they find, they’re likely to want more from your brand. So, articles and landing pages that attract significant organic traffic should include a call-to-action or form that lets people subscribe to your emails. That’s how SEO helps you grow your email list organically.

It’s also a key step in connecting with people at the start of a customer journey and moving them down the funnel to the next step.

2. Segmentation and lead nurturing

Once visitors from organic search subscribe, SEO and email marketing can work together to make communications relevant and persuasive.

If you know what pages a prospect visited before they subscribed, you can use it to inform your lead nurturing strategy. For example, if people land on an SEO article about a specific problem, you can continue the journey as you send emails with helpful advice that addresses the same pain point.

You could also segment those who subscribe to your emails based on the category of content they visited. For example, if your brand targets both B2B and B2C audiences, you could have different signup forms on content based on the audience it was written for. Then, you can be sure to send the right welcome emails and follow-up messages to those contacts.

3. Subject line ideation

The keyword research that SEO specialists conduct can help email marketers increase their open rates. SEO-optimized headlines may even inspire email subject line strategy.

Sometimes, we get caught up using industry lingo that fails to resonate with the people we’re trying to reach. Keyword research helps marketers understand the language real people use when they’re solving problems, researching a product, and making purchase decisions.

If you use that sort of relatable language in your subject lines, as well as throughout the body of the email copy, your campaigns are going to resonate with subscribers.

Title tags are similar to subject lines while meta descriptions for web pages are a little like preview text. SEOs work to craft page titles and descriptions that encourage clicks when they show up in search results. So, evaluating the titles and descriptions that get the most clicks from Google can help email marketers get creative with subject lines and preview/preheader text.

3 ways email marketing supports SEO

There are also many ways that a search engine optimization strategy can benefit from email marketing insights, especially when it comes to content.

When Sinch Mailjet surveyed thousands of senders around the world, results suggested the most important way email contributes to business success is through content distribution. Nearly half of all respondents said amplifying content through newsletters and customer education was a top three email objective.

Here’s how content distribution becomes a key connection between email marketing and SEO.

1. Establishing expertise, authority, and trustworthiness

As mentioned, Google evaluates quality content based on the E-A-T principle (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness). But how do you get recognized as an authoritative and trustworthy expert?

Thought leadership content as well as original research are two of the best ways to show the world your brand has something to say and that it’s worth listening to. Email is one of the best ways to get that content in front of the right people.

Email gets the word out. It drives relevant traffic to your expert content, which in turn and over time builds trust and authority for your brand. As your subscribers consume your content and hear about your unique solutions, they’ll start talking about what you do and what you create.

The Google leaks suggest the search engine is using data from its Chrome browser

Eventually, search engines like Google will take notice and realize that your brand is producing authoritative content featuring trustworthy experts. That leads us to our next connection between email marketing and SEO…

2. Natural link building

When email marketers distribute original, quality content that follows Google’s E-A-T guidelines, valuable backlinks are going to come naturally. And those external links are going to do wonders for SEO.

A natural backlink is one that gets placed on another website without a brand asking or paying for it. So, links from guest posts aren’t really natural, and neither are links you ask co-marketing partners to place for you. These backlinks still have some value, but Google is usually smart enough to know the difference.

There are undoubtedly contacts on your email list who have their own websites or blogs. That means they have a way to create backlinks. There could also be people on your list who are in your industry but aren’t competitors. Interesting thought leadership ideas and stats from original research in the content you distribute via email increase the likelihood of earning backlinks from those contacts.

You may even be able to identify subscribers who are online influencers or satisfied customers who act as brand evangelists. Email marketers could create a separate segment of those “influencer contacts” and create campaigns encouraging them to share the stuff you’re sending. By the way, while Google often says social media shares don’t have a direct SEO connection like backlinks do, there is a correlation between shares and better rankings.

3. Understanding the audience

Just as email marketers can get ideas for subject lines and newsletter content from search analytics, the behaviors and preferences of email subscribers can inform SEO efforts. For example, the subject lines with the highest open rates could help SEO content writers figure out how to create title tags that get more clicks from search results.

There’s also a good chance that much of the content subscribers engage with in your email newsletters is the same kind of content that people are searching for online. So, when an article gets a lot of clicks from the newsletter, it’s a sign that more on that topic will be good for the SEO strategy.

Yet another way to use email to help SEOs (and everyone in the company) learn more about the target audience is to straight up ask subscribers questions. A survey sent to subscribers’ inboxes could inquire about the topics they find most interesting, the biggest problems they’re trying to solve, or how customers found and chose your brand. An SEO specialist can use that information to attract the right kind of prospects through organic search traffic.

As with most areas of marketing, there’s some psychology in email marketing and SEO. When you understand your target personas, you’re improving your knowledge of their demographics and psychographics.

What’s your email optimization strategy?

Here’s something else email marketing and SEO share: The need to optimize content for improved performance. That’s right, we’re talking email marketing optimization (EMO). We know, we know. “Emo” is not really a marketing acronym it’s a moody youth subculture and music genre.

The point is – you do need to optimize email campaigns before you hit send. We’re happy to offer two solutions that help you put your best email forward.

Sinch Email on Acid is a pre-send email testing platform that helps you catch mistakes and rendering issues before they cause big problems. That includes reliable email previews that show you how campaigns will look on all the major clients and devices. But Email on Acid also helps you improve inbox display and accessibility while catching issues with things like links and typos.

Mailgun Optimize is a suite of best-in-class email deliverability tools. Senders can use Email validations to conduct list cleaning and validate new contacts at signup. Mailgun Optimize also monitors blocklists and spam traps, provides reports on inbox placement, and more.

Use Mailgun Optimize to make sure your emails make it to everyone on your list and use Email on Acid to make sure campaigns look great when your subscribers open them up. That’s a double-whammy of email marketing optimization.

The post Email Marketing and SEO Strategies: What are the Connections? appeared first on Email on Acid.