Email marketing

Improve your Email marketing with our hub page

Use our hub pages as a reference to get up-to-speed on all the main digital marketing techniques. They will help you quickly understand how to make the most of the technique through definitions and recommendations on our member resources and blog articles covering strategy, best practices and the latest statistics.

Some have said Email marketing is dead. Far from it! We're sure there's a lot of life in yet. It's still a primary way of engaging customers and combined with marketing automation to deliver more relevant communications, it's one of the most popular topics for Smart Insights members.

Recommended resources

1. Free download: Email marketing trends in 2017 - see the types of innovation that are happening in Email marketing today.

2. Statistics: Email marketing statistics - our compilation of the measures that matter

3. Article: Segmentation and targeting options - how to create a layered targeting approach

4. Paid guide: Email marketing strategy - how to create a strategic approach to email marketing

5. Paid guide: B2C and B2B Marketing automation guide - best practices for implementing the martech

Email marketing quick guide

Email marketing success factors

These are factors which we think are are important to look at for effective Email marketing. These focus on managing your in-house list, but many apply to rented lists also. They are in the form of questions email marketers should ask either when planning a new email marketing strategy or reviewing existing strategies.

Questions to review

Achieving permission marketing. Which incentives are used for different audiences to acquire new e-mail addresses?
Which forms of Email marketing to use for acquisition. For example rented lists, co-branded campaigns, acquisition centres, ads in third-party e-newsletters and triggered emails which are automatically sent in a sequence following registration to encourage conversion.
E-mail value proposition. What content, offers and features can you offer within different forms of email marketing such as e-newsletters and standalone or solus emails or eblasts?
Targeting and personalisation. How do you target your emails to deliver relevant offers and content for different audiences?
Deliverability.Ensuring that your emails are delivered to the inbox of recipients and aren't classed as SPAM 'false positive'.
Renderability. Ensuring that emails are readily viewable in different email readers such as Outlook and also webmail readers such as Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Creating effective templates. These need to achieve 'inbox cut-through', i.e. stand out from the many other permission-based e-mails received. The form of creatives and calls-to-action need to be designed so that they achieve AIDA - Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action in the short time that recipients view e-mails. Templates also need to be designed to maximise deliverability and renderability.
Email marketing integration. How should email marketing be integrated with other media, in particular direct mail this is sometimes known as 'right channelling'.
Right Touching. What is the right frequency of email marketing combined with different forms of offer and content which maximises sales and branding objectives, but does not cause email fatigue leading to unsubscribes and lower response?
Testing and measuring for email marketing. Are emails creative, targeting and offers testing sufficient to maximise response and do the pre-send tests check correctly for deliverability and renderability issues?
Resourcing Email marketing. Should emails be sent from an in-house server or outsourced to using an email service provider (ESP)? How should you select the best email service provider for you?

Email marketing definition

Email marketing involves permission-based email broadcasts either to customers (or prospects) on an in-house list or prospects on third-party list (list rental).

When devising plans for email marketing communications, marketers need to plan for:

Outbound e-mail marketing , where e-mail campaigns are used as a form of direct marketing to encourage trial and purchases and as part of a CRM dialogue;
Inbound e-mail marketing , where e-mails from customers such as support enquiries are managed.

In our articles, we focus on outbound email broadcasts and integration with other channels.

Recommended member resources for Email marketing

Toolkits on

B2B startup digital marketing plan workbook and case study

Ebooks on Email marketing

Online training on

Marketing templates on Email marketing

Related statistics

The main email marketing statistics, which everyone wants to compare are engagement measures (open and click rates), best time of day or week to send an email and email frequency.

Tools & Software

When you're selecting software for email marketing the main service categories to consider are marketing automation or E-CRM software and email service providers (ESPs).

Email Vendor Selection (http://www.emailvendorselection.com/email-service-provider-list) has great advice on selecting the right email vendor

Best websites on Email marketing

We recommend these sites as the best blogs to find out more about email marketing:

Be Relevant Be Relevant (www.b2bemailmarketing.com) The European perspective from Tamara Gielen who is an independent consultant works for eBay in Belgium where she works as an Email Marketing Manager.
Deliverability.com (http://blog.deliverability.com/) Multi-author blog from ESPs of the latest developments in deliverability
Direct Marketing Association UK Email blog (http://dmaemailblog.com) Best collection of writing on best practice within UK plus the Email Marketing Council (http://www.dma.org.uk/sectors/emk-introduction.asp) have other essential resources such as the UK National Benchmarking Report and the Best Practice Guide.
Email Experience Council blog (www.emailexperience.org/blog). The premier resource for US-based Email marketers. Resources (www.emailexperience.org/email-resources) on the main site are, of course, relevant for everyone.
Email Marketing Reports (www.email-marketing-reports.com) is an extensive collection of articles on all aspects of opt-in email compiled by Mark Brownlow.
Email Monday (http://www.emailmonday.com) Produced by consultant Jordie van Rijn, this blog is full of practical insights on the latest developments such as mobile email marketing for example.
Email Vendor Selection (http://www.emailvendorselection.com/email-service-provider-list) Great advice on selecting the right email vendor
Email Audience () Multi-author blog from with tips and tricks for improving Email Marketing results
Email Marketing ROI ((http://www.EmailMarketingROI.com)) A handy Email ROI calculator to quickly get insight into one of the most important metrics in your email programme.
Exact Target Blog (http://blog.exacttarget.com/blog/the-exacttarget-blog) An active blog from this US ESP.
Email Gallery is a great benchmark for email templates in different categories such as enewsletter, 2 column, etc: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/gallery.
Return Path In the Know Blog (http://www.returnpath.net/blog). Latest developments in deliverability.
(http://www.pure360.com/whitepapers). Email marketing Best Practice Guides
SilverPop Resources (http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/index.html) One of the best collection of reports on best practice and subscriber behaviour, some of which are incorporated into this report.

Key techniques for Email marketing

These are the related techniques which we recommend as important for managing Email marketing effectively. View these hub pages giving details on best practices, statistics and examples for these techniques: