With new EU legislation now in force, accessible email marketing has stepped into the spotlight, making inclusivity not just a best practice but a must-have for every campaign. In this article, we will give you the lowdown on the European Accessibility Act, outline best practices for accessible email marketing, and show you how to meet the new marketing standards.

What is the European Accessibility Act (EAA)?

The EAA aims to make tech, products, and services more accessible for everyone. The goal is to make society more inclusive by removing inconsistent rules across EU member states. For email marketers, it’s about making sure everyone can access your online content.

This is a sweeping new regulation that came into effect on 28 June 2025. But it’s not the only one marketers need to know about. Other laws and guidelines to be aware of include:

• Americans with Disabilities Act (USA)
• Equality Act (UK)
• Disabilities Discrimination Act (AUS)
• Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (JAP)
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Why accessibility matters

One in six adults worldwide has a disability. Yet the accessibility of online content is often overlooked. Some common disabilities that impact email engagement include:

• Dyslexia: Affecting approximately 780 million people globally
• Vision impairments: At least 2.2 billion people have near or distance vision impairment
• Color blindness: Color vision deficiency (CVD) affects around 300 million people worldwide
• Cognitive impairment: Over 55 million people globally have a cognitive impairment
• Situational disabilities: Temporary injuries like broken fingers can limit interactions with digital content

Accessible marketing also helps people with older devices or limited internet access. Slow connections and outdated technology can impact a person’s online experience. Accessible email design helps you overcome these challenges. So, if you’re not thinking about accessible emails, you’re missing a huge proportion of your potential customer base.

What accessibility requirements apply to you?

For digital marketers and email marketers specifically, the EAA outlines features businesses must incorporate. These include:

• Alternative text for images
• Keyboard navigation
• Adjustable font sizes
• Text-to-speech and speech-to-text functionalities
• Captioning and audio descriptions
• Accessible customer support services

The effects of the EAA extend further than just improving accessibility. Marketers need to rethink how they design and deliver online experiences, including email.

Why is accessible email marketing important?

Let’s dive into some of the top benefits of accessible email marketing.

1. Broader reach

When your emails are accessible, everyone can receive and understand your message. This seriously extends the reach and impact of your marketing. Inclusivity helps you reach more customers and shows how you value every subscriber.

2. Improved engagement

Studies show that accessible emails can double conversion rates and boost engagement by 18%. Accessible design and copywriting help keep subscribers connecting with your marketing. Easy-to-click CTAs and easy-to-read copy are essential for accessibility and conversions.

3. Better brand reputation

Accessible marketing shows you put your audience first. It builds trust, fosters loyalty, and tells subscribers you understand their needs. By meeting the needs of your whole audience, your brand image will flourish.

Accessibility best practices for email marketing

Email Markup Consortium’s (EMC) research into email accessibility found that 99% of emails contained “serious” or “critical” issues. But the good news is that many of these issues are easy to fix. All you have to do is follow the best practice principles laid out in the WCAG.

Email design best practice

1. Balance text and images

Subscribers with low or no vision must listen to your email using a screen reader. When designing emails, ensure written content delivers the main message of your campaign. Image-based emails (where the copy is part of an image) are not accessible. If the message is lost with images switched off, then screen readers can’t read it either.

2. Use clear and readable fonts

Choose simple, readable, sans-serif fonts (like Arial, Verdana, or Roboto) at a minimum size of 11–14px. This helps ensure that the text is easy to read for all subscribers.

3. Use plenty of white space

Adding padding and white space around your visual elements and copy reduces visual clutter. It also improves the experience for subscribers with cognitive or visual impairments. Think about your line spacing, too. It’s recommended to have a line height that’s 1.5x more than your font size.

4. Be thoughtful with your use of color

Make sure color isn’t the sole method of delivering important information. This isn’t accessible to readers with color blindness or low vision. There should be a high contrast between the colors in your email, especially between the copy and background colors. Aim for a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text between your text and background. You can check your color contrast using this contrast checker.

5. Add alternative text to all images

Every image should have concise, meaningful alt. text. This helps subscribers who use screen readers or have images turned off still get the full context of your message.

6. Create a responsive and mobile-friendly email template

Design email templates that adapt to any device or screen size. Large, tappable buttons and scalable images make navigation easier for everyone, especially on mobile devices.

7. Use accessible GIFs and animations

Never auto-play audio or video, and avoid flashing or fast, animated content. Any flashing elements should meet the three-flashes-per-second rule to prevent triggering seizures. If you include media, also be sure to include captions and transcripts for accessibility.

8. Use semantic HTML and clear language tags

If you need to edit your email template using HTML, use proper HTML and language tags. This helps screen readers interpret and pronounce content correctly. E.g.

• <header>
• <footer>
• <main>
• <html lang=”en”>

Email copy best practice

1. Write accessible copy

Use plain language and define any technical terms. This supports people with cognitive or learning disabilities, as well as those reading in a non-native language. You can check the accessibility of your copy using the Hemingway App (Grade 9 is the average reading score for adults).

2. Use descriptive subject lines

Write subject lines and/or preview text that summarize the email’s content. Avoid vague or strange wording to help subscribers understand the email’s purpose and improve open rates for everyone.

3. Use descriptive link and button labels

Replace generic phrases like “click here” with descriptive copy that explains the action or destination. For example, “Download the guide” or “Shop tracksuits”. Do this for in-copy links and buttons. This clarity benefits all users, especially those relying on assistive technologies.

4. Plan content with a logical structure

Use headings (H1, H2, H3) to break up your content and guide readers through your message. A well-structured email improves readability and helps screen readers navigate the content better.

5. Avoid all caps

Don’t use uppercase text for emphasis or headings. Text in all caps can be difficult to read, especially for users with dyslexia. It can also lead to misinterpretation by screen readers, thinking they are acronyms. Use bold or larger font sizes instead to draw attention.

6. Use copy instead of images of text

Always use text blocks for important messages. Screen readers can’t read images of text, and they may not scale correctly across devices.

How to make your emails EAA-compliant

Laid out in a list, the best practices for accessible email marketing feel like a lot of work. But that isn’t the case. Making your emails accessible is easier than you think, especially with the right tools and a step-by-step approach.

1. Conduct a template audit

Start by reviewing your existing email templates. Check for:

• Alt text for all images: Ensure every image has concise, meaningful alternative text.
• Fonts and readability: Stick to no more than two fonts in a single email, and make sure it’s readable for everyone.
• Color usage and contrast: Are the color combinations in your emails accessible?

2. Use Dotdigital’s built-in accessibility features

Dotdigital offers a range of features to help you create accessible emails, including tools for alt text, responsive template design, and accessible HTML. These features streamline your compliance efforts and ensure your emails reach everyone.

3. Review and update templates regularly

Accessibility standards and best practices evolve. Regularly audit and update your email templates to stay compliant and provide the best experience for all subscribers.

Conclusion

Making email marketing accessible isn’t just about following the rules laid out by the EAA; it’s about connecting with your community. When emails are accessible, you show that you care about everyone, no matter their abilities. This creates a space for real interaction with your content.

By following some simple best practices like using alt text, choosing easy-to-read fonts, and being smart with color choices, emails become more inviting. This focus on inclusivity helps build trust and loyalty with our customers, showing that their experience matters to you.

More like a gathering of minds than a typical seminar, the session explored topics like practical goal setting, what it means to be bold with your email strategy, and how relevant messages can inspire customer loyalty. Read on to find out our top takeaways from the day.

Be SMART about your GROWTH

Have you heard of the GROWTH framework? The GROWTH framework is a super scalable approach to planning and executing your marketing activities. You can use it for everything from top-level strategy to single-run campaigns because it helps you stay focused, data-driven, and agile. Here’s how…

What is the GROWTH framework?

GROWTH stands for:

• Goals: Without clear goals, you can’t measure success. Setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals will increase focus and accountability
• Reason: Understanding the ‘why’ keeps you focused on the customer needs and business value
• Observe: Review your current efforts to prevent duplication and reveal opportunities for optimization
• Work the plan: Execution without a plan leads to inefficiency, creating a clear roadmap keeps you on track
• Test and learn: Experimentation drives innovation and continuous improvement, so never be afraid to try something new
• Hone and optimize: Regularly refine and adapt your plan for long-term success and better ROI

The power of SMART objectives

Businesses that plan their marketing efforts are 538% more likely to achieve their objectives – but only if marketers have clear goals. SMART objectives like “increase newsletter sign-ups by 15% within the next quarter” will produce better results than simply aiming to “improve engagement.”

To turn objectives into results, marketers should embrace a culture of testing and continuous improvement. Every campaign is an opportunity to learn. Try these top testing tips:

• Test one variable at a time
• Set a clear goal or objective
• Define your success metrics before launching
• Use (Dotdigital) testing tools to help
• Document everything you learn, even if it fails

For more on smarter testing, check out our guide on the A/B/Cs of split testing.

Be brave enough to try something new: Insights from The Royal Ballet School

Maddy Carroll, Audience and Insights Executive at The Royal Ballet School, shared how she used automation to take her email strategy to new heights. Here‘s her story: 

Starting with a blank canvas

Maddy joined the marketing team at The Royal Ballet School shortly after the brand onboarded with Dotdigital. As a result, she inherited something of a “blank canvas” – there were no automations, messy mailing lists, or outdated segments to work her way through. Seeing this as an opportunity instead of a setback, Maddy decided to make the most of her untouched customer data.

Building a foundation for growth

1. Segmentation and integration
   Maddy’s first move was to segment her audiences according to location and interests, and connect Dotdigital to the school’s ecommerce platform. This helped her to track interactions like donations, purchases, and class sign-ups and use that data to inform her campaigns. 

2. Automations that free up time
   With insights into customer interactions, Maddy was able to build automations based on recent engagements and purchase behavior. This freed up her one-person team to focus on high-impact initiatives and creative outreach.

3. Testing, learning, and evolving
   Automation is a great place to test and experiment with your email strategy. When you start small, you can monitor results as customers flow through. If there is an issue, a typo, or a broken journey branch, the program can be paused and issues resolved quickly. As Maddy explains, “it never feels like a big risk.” 

Top advice for marketers

Maddy’s top piece of advice was simple: “Be really brave and don’t hold yourself back.” Do your research, prepare thoroughly, and take the leap to experiment with automation. Agility is key, especially for small or one-person teams. A willingness to adapt and try new approaches can lead to seriously good results.

What customers really want from your brand

The loyalty divide report found that while 78% of consumers feel brands are personalizing their marketing well, only 23% find those messages relevant. Your audience wants more authenticity and relevancy from their favorite brands. Here’s how you can close that gap:

1. Segment and personalize across channels

Email remains the top choice for 61% of consumers, but other channels are gaining ground. Gen Z is more open to push notifications, while Millennials are 34% more likely to engage on messaging apps like WhatsApp – segment and target customers to reach each group on the channels they prefer.

2. Choose the right rewards

Points-based programs and cashback are super popular, but Gen Z and Millennials also value gifts and freebies. Free shipping and birthday discounts are also top drivers of loyalty, so take the time to discover what your customers really want.

3. Identify your brand loyalists

The report revealed that brand loyalists – those are your most dedicated repeat customers – are often women, over 40 years old, who like receiving freebies, birthday rewards, and free shipping. Engaging this audience consistently with value-driven content will see them flourish and grow.

By taking the time to get to know your audience and adapting your approach, you’ll inspire deeper loyalty and keep customers coming back.

Discover hidden gems inside Dotdigital

Even if you’ve been using Dotdigital for years, there are always a few features that slip under the radar. But these sweet little hidden gems can make a big difference to the success of your marketing campaigns. These are some of the standout tools and tricks shared at our event:

1. Personalize without preferences

You don’t always need a full preference profile. Use link groups and campaign tags to target customers based on recent actions, like grouping all donation links to spot interested subscribers, or tagging campaigns to easily identify engaged audiences. This makes segmentation simple, even with limited data.

2. Prevent personalization fails

Avoid awkward “Hi {First_Name}” moments with dynamic content blocks. These let you personalize messages when you have the data (like “Hi Jenna”) and skip it when you don’t, so every customer gets a seamless experience.

3. Manage links even after they’re sent

Never panic over a broken link again. Dotdigital’s link manager lets you update campaign links even after sending, and highlights which URLs are valid or invalid, so you can fix issues before customers notice.

4. Easy image editing in-house

You can resize, filter, and add alt text to images right inside the platform using our image manager, saving you a trip to external editors. Plus, when you add alt text in the image manager, it updates the alt text for that image everywhere. 

5. Streamline cross-channel campaign creation

Creating cross-channel campaigns doesn’t have to add to your day-to-day workload if you use AI to convert your emails into SMS campaigns. With WinstonAI, you can create an SMS based on your top-performing email campaigns with just the click of a button.

The good news is that these features aren’t really hidden. They’re right on hand to help you manage and optimize your campaigns every day. With these tools, it’s easier than ever to personalize your campaigns, manage your content with confidence, and reach customers across multiple channels.

That’s a wrap

The best marketing results come from staying curious and keeping your audience at the heart of every decision. The stories, strategies, and practical tips shared at our event show that even small changes, like refining your segmentation or testing a new channel, can spark big wins. Good marketing isn’t about ticking boxes or following trends. It’s about real connections, creative thinking, and having the confidence to try something new.

So, keep experimenting, keep learning, and, most importantly, keep it connecting. Because when marketers share successes and learnings with other marketers, that’s when the magic happens.

Did you know that 75% of people plan to celebrate Father’s Day this year? This staggering figure makes it an excellent opportunity for you to increase customer engagement during this special occasion.

When is Father’s Day?

Father’s Day is an occasion celebrated in many countries across the world to honor fathers and father figures. It is typically celebrated on the third Sunday of June in several nations, including the US and UK. In 2025, it will fall on 15 June, 2025. 

However, it may have a different date in other countries. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to double-check the specific date for your target audience before planning any Father’s Day-related events or email campaigns.

Father’s Day subject lines

Father’s Day is a special occasion to celebrate the love and support of all the amazing dads out there. To make your Father’s Day email campaign more memorable, we have put together heartwarming subject line ideas with emojis.

Exclusive Father’s Day deals
Your dad’s favorite gift awaits
Go above and beyond for dad this Father’s Day
Cheers to dad: Fabulous Father’s Day offers
Win big: Father’s Day giveaway
Father’s Day: Find the perfect gift for your superhero
Dress to impress: Stylish Father’s Day wardrobe
Mouthwatering Father’s Day recipes
Dad’s day out: Fun activities for Father’s Day
Celebrate your #1 dad: enjoy 20% off this Father’s Day

If you’re struggling to come up with catchy email subject lines for your Father’s Day email marketing campaign, consider using our WinstonAI’s generative AI feature.

Our writing assistance tool can help you craft new subject lines, adjust the tone, shorten or expand text, and rephrase your content. Additionally, you can leverage WinstonAI to add emojis to your emails, making them more lively and attractive to your recipients.

To provide you with more content inspiration, we have also rounded up five Father’s Day email marketing examples that can help inspire you.

1. Showcase your collection this Father’s Day

Father’s Day is a great opportunity to flaunt your collection and offer customers the best gift options for their fathers. Sock Fancy is a perfect example of a company that does this efficiently in its promotional email.

Sock Fancy’s Father’s Day email does an excellent job of showcasing its unique sock collection while providing a 15% discount. The email design is clean and colorful, highlighting the fun and quirky patterns that would make a perfect gift for Dad.

Here’s why Sock Fancy’s email campaign is so successful:

1. Eye-catching visuals: Sock Fancy uses vibrant images of its sock collection to grab customers’ attention. This makes it easy for potential gift-givers to find the perfect pair of socks for their Dad.
2. Clear offer: By prominently stating “15% off” in the email, Sock Fancy ensures that customers are aware of the special discount available for Father’s Day. This motivates customers to make a purchase.
3. Personal touch: Sock Fancy’s email highlights how customers can customize socks for Father’s Day, adding a personal touch to the gift for their dad. This unique feature makes the gift even more special and shows that Sock Fancy cares about its customers’ needs.
4. Call-to-action: The email includes a clear call-to-action that directs customers to the website to purchase the socks. The button to shop now is prominently displayed, making it easy for customers to navigate to the website and complete their purchases. You can even position the call-to-action above the fold in your emails to immediately grab the attention of customers.

2. Embrace authenticity this Father’s Day

Customers today seek authentic brands that are transparent, consistent, and true to their core identity. When a brand shares the values and beliefs of its customers, it is more likely to engage with them and gain loyal advocates. 

One way to be authentic with your audience on Father’s Day is by sharing your company’s stories. Lovely Skin is a great example of this approach. The brand showcases its staff and their fathers’ stories in an engaging email campaign that resonates with its audience. 

Here’s why Lovely Skin’s email campaign is successful:

1. Genuine stories: By sharing relatable, real-life stories about employees and their fathers, Lovely Skin establishes a genuine connection with its audience, presenting the brand as authentic and trustworthy.
2. Emotional connection: The heartfelt stories evoke emotions and resonate with customers on a deeper level, prompting positive brand associations and increasing customer loyalty.
3. Engaging visuals: The email design is simple yet appealing, featuring images of staff members and their dads, which successfully hold the reader’s attention and encourage them to read the stories.

3. Last-minute gift guides with versatile options

Creating a well-curated gift guide is an excellent strategy to attract the attention of last-minute shoppers and enhance the overall impact of your Father’s Day campaign. Gift guides provide customers with a convenient and quick way to find the perfect gift for their dads.

Lululemon’s Father’s Day email campaign is a great example of how to effectively use last-minute gift guides.

Lululemon’s Father’s Day email campaign is a prime example of how to effectively utilize last-minute gift guides. Here’s what makes the brand’s approach so successful:

1. Clear focus: Lululemon presents its “six best Father’s Day gifts” in an easy-to-read and visually appealing format, quickly guiding customers to the best gift options.
2. Product highlights: The gift guide showcases a variety of Lululemon’s best products, capturing the interest of different types of customers searching for the ideal Father’s Day gift.
3. Gift card option: Recognizing that some customers may prefer to give their fathers the freedom to choose their own gift, Lululemon includes the option to purchase gift cards. This adds versatility to the brand’s gift guide and caters to a wider audience.
4. User-friendly experience: Lululemon makes Father’s Day shopping easier than ever by incorporating a ‘Learn more’ call-to-action (CTA) button. This CTA simplifies the user experience, directing customers to access the gift guide, purchase their chosen products, or opt for a gift card effortlessly.

4. Give your customers the chance to opt-out

It’s important to acknowledge that not all customers may be comfortable receiving Father’s Day promotional emails. Giving them the chance to opt-out of such content shows empathy and respect towards their personal circumstances, which is important to maintaining a positive relationship with them. 

Brewers Fayre’s Beefeater restaurant chain is a great example of a brand that thoughtfully offers customers the option to avoid receiving Father’s Day promotional material.

Here’s why Brewers Fayre’s opt-out approach is so effective:

1. Emotional sensitivity: By providing an opt-out option, Brewers Fayre demonstrates understanding and consideration for customers who may find Father’s Day content emotionally challenging.
2. Customer experience: Offering the opt-out choice empowers customers and enhances their overall experience with the brand, fostering a positive association.
3. Retaining subscribers: By allowing customers to opt-out of specific content, rather than unsubscribing completely, Brewers Fayre retains its subscribers and ensures they stay connected for future campaigns.

5. Entice customers with alluring copywriting

Captivating copywriting is an essential element in attracting readers and creating a memorable Father’s Day experience. The right choice of words and tone can stir excitement and anticipation, motivating customers to celebrate with your business.

Chili’s Grill and Bar showcases the power of compelling copywriting in its Father’s Day email campaign. Here’s what sets the brand’s approach apart:

1. Emotional appeal: The email begins with a heartfelt statement acknowledging the importance of dads, eliciting emotions and making the reader feel valued and connected.
2. Persuasive messaging: Using captivating phrases such as “give Dad a well-deserved day,” Chili’s Grill and Bar effectively entices customers to partake in Father’s Day celebrations at its restaurant, boosting the likelihood of engagement.
3. Clear call-to-action: Chili’s Grill and Bar adeptly encourages customers to take action with a prominent “Celebrate with us” button. This accessible feature enables readers to effortlessly plan their Father’s Day festivities at the restaurant, creating a seamless user experience.

Craft your successful Father’s Day email marketing campaign

Crafting a successful Father’s Day email marketing campaign requires careful planning and attention to detail. By taking inspiration from the examples provided, you can create an impactful campaign that resonates with your audience. Remember to plan, stay true to your brand’s voice, and show appreciation for the dads in your audience. Wishing you a happy and successful Father’s Day campaign.

After all of your hard work writing engaging copy and designing a visually appealing email, you need your recipients to open your campaign. If they don’t all that work has been for nothing.  

Fortunately, there are certain things you can and should always consider when crafting compelling email subject lines. 

We’ve compiled a list of 16 essential tips to help you create the best possible email subject lines and ensure that your email campaigns stand out in the inbox.

1. Know your audience

It feels like it goes without saying, but for any marketing campaign to be successful, you need to know your audience. If you don’t know this, then you don’t know how you should be approaching, addressing, and marketing to your audience. 

Knowing your audience will help you to devise subject lines that will work for you. That really is the first step – knowing who you’re sending the email to and why, is essential in helping you decide where to start with your subject line. 

2. Personalize, personalize, personalize

If you want to increase your open rate, it’s important to personalize your subject lines. You can grab your reader’s attention by using data fields to pull in information about the customer, like name, location, or other relevant information. 

Additionally, targeting your message to the right audience is crucial. Personalization not only makes customers feel valued and understood, but it also provides useful content that can make their lives easier. In an inbox full of generic messaging, personalization can set your email apart.

Remember, though to not overuse personalization. The best way to explain the use of personalization in email subject lines would be ‘less is more’. While the odd usage is okay, repetitive or irrelevant usage can turn recipients off. 

We also have to remember that consumers are far savvier about the email marketing practices of brands than in the past. 

Overuse of first name personalization in subject lines can make recipients blind to the tactic. 

Still, consumers expect some form of personalization in your email marketing, so it’s important to change it up and try different tactics regularly.

3. Set clear expectations

Time is precious, so you need to make sure that you’re front-loading your email subject lines with the benefits. Make it clear what the recipient gets from opening your email. 

Additionally, being clear with your audience from the beginning strengthens the relationship between you and your customers and prospects. If your subject lines always deliver on their promises when the recipient opens the email, they’ll know to trust you.  

For example, if your email is about the new summer product line that your brand is launching, make sure you put that in the subject line! Trying to be too clever with your subject lines could lead to them tanking. 

The following examples are clear and to the point: 

• Our new summer range is here, look and shop now 
• Available now: summer styles 
• Shop our new summer range today 

If anyone opens these emails, they should know exactly what they’re going to see.  

4. Don’t mislead the reader

Following on from the previous tip, you don’t want to mislead your readers, as that can be damaging to your relationship. 

Don’t promise anything in your subject lines that your email doesn’t deliver on. Not only is this disingenuous, but it’s also spammy. If you take this approach your email campaigns will be winging their way to spam folders in no time at all. Either that or your hard-earned subscribers and customers will be searching for that unsubscribe link. 

One misleading tactic that I’m genuinely surprised to be still seeing from brands is the classic ‘RE:’ approach, to make you think it’s a reply to an email that you’ve already sent or received before. 

It may get you opens, but it also gets deletes, spam reports, and low click-through rates. 

5. Be relevant

Relevancy is key. Whether it’s your email copy or your subject lines, shoppers will only answer your emails if it’s going to benefit them.

Don’t be vague or mysterious. Intriguing subject lines might generate good open rates, but your end goal is click-throughs and conversions. And you’re not going to get those if your email isn’t related to your subject line. In the long run, this could actually be detrimental to your brand. By misleading them, you could erode their fragile trust in you.

So, keep your subject lines related to your key message. It’ll increase the quality of opens and consequently improve your click-through rate.

6. Keep your subject lines short and snappy

Nearly 50% of all emails are now opened on mobile devices. This brings another issue for you to deal with when writing engaging subject lines for your email marketing campaigns. Smaller screens mean less space to work with. 

With most mobile email clients, you’ll probably only have around four or five words before your subject line is cut off. 

Therefore, it’s important to make your subject line pop in those first four or five words. If you can make a strong subject line in just four or five words (or less) then do it. 

7. Vary email subject line length

Many email clients like Gmail and Yahoo cut subject lines when they’re being viewed by web-based readers. Usually, the cut-off point for this is around the 55-character limit. Mobile inboxes, on the other hand, commonly cut off subject lines at about 30 characters.

To ensure that your subject lines are making an impact, be sure to check your campaign reporting. This will help you identify the device on which your customers are opening. Then, you can plan your email subject lines around this suggested length.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you must strictly stick to these character limits. One of the best parts of working on subject lines is the ability to experiment. Don’t think about it as trial and error – think of it as trial and trial and trial until success.

8. Avoid spam words

It’s every email marketer’s nightmare to have their hard word flagged as spam. With 333 billion emails sent and received every day around the world, it’s increasingly difficult to stand out from spam.

After all the work that goes into creating a fully optimized email marketing campaign, you don’t want to be the one in five that gets caught by the spam filter.

Spam filters are constantly checking for specific triggers that indicate an email might be spam:

• Specific word choice
• Messages in ALL CAPS
• Emails without an unsubscribe button
• Links to unknown or questionable websites
• Colorful, hard to read, and different sized fonts
• Stay away from heavy use of exclamation marks!!!!!!!! 
• Avoid overzealous use of currency signs ($$$$$ or £££££, for example) 

Typically spam filters look for suspicious words or phrases associated with scams, schemes, free gifts, and more.

What to avoid:

• Spam words that make exaggerated claims and promises, e.g. #1, 100% satisfied, earn money, free consultation, and satisfaction guaranteed.
• Words that create unnecessary urgency and pressure, e.g. act now, apply now, get started now, please read, while supplies last, and more.
• Spammy words or words that imply shady or unethical behavior, e.g. cancel at any time, no hidden charges, meet singles, etc.
• Words that are considered jargon or typically used in legal documents, e.g. as seen on, bonus, certified, cheap, join millions, this message contains, a quote, and more.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t EVER use these words in your emails. It just means to use these words and phrases responsibly.

The best performing email subject lines have included words like ‘reasons’, ‘introducing’, ‘discover’, and ‘recent’. This indicates that customers are looking for content that inspires, such as ‘introducing our new range. They want brands to do more than simply push a product, they want you to sell it.

9. Emojis have their place

Emojis have found their way into almost every aspect of everyday life. Heck, they even made a truly awful movie about them. So, don’t be afraid to give them a whirl in your email marketing campaigns.  

Back in the day, early emoji adopters certainly stood out in their recipients’ inboxes. But slowly marketers have come to realize that these cheeky little icons can help you catch the reader’s eye.  

So, when used effectively, emojis can help your subject lines stand out. Econsultancy summed up its recent research into emoji usage in subject lines, noting that an emoji ‘makes a good subject line better’, or ‘makes a bad subject line worse’. 

So again, you need to ensure that you’re using emojis in the right way for them to be effective. 

It’s important to consider some pros and cons when using emojis in subject lines.  

Pros: 

• They can help your email subject lines stand out. 
• They’re more emotive. 
• You can use them to get a point across without the need for words. 
• Especially useful for mobile. 
• When used properly, they can add context to your email subject lines (again, useful for mobile). 

Cons: 

• Improper use can be detrimental. 
• Inconsistent rendering across mobile devices, platforms, and email clients (a good resource to check the differences is Emojipedia – The ‘grimacing face’ emoji is a great example of how emojis can look very different cross-platform). 
• Some audiences won’t like them (which takes us back to the first tip – know your audience). 
• Irrelevant use can be confusing – is it immediately obvious what the emoji is, and why it’s being used? If the answer to either is no, don’t use it. 
• Some emojis can have multiple meanings, so make sure you understand any and all meanings before you use them.  

10. Tell, don’t sell

Steer clear adding unnecessary descriptive adjectives to your subject lines. Words like ‘amazing’, ‘unbeatable’, and ‘stunning’ actually do very little to convince recipients to open.

Our Global benchmark report revealed that false urgency in subject lines doesn’t perform well. Words that were once considered to inspire action are driving inaction. Especially in retailer sectors, words like ‘exclusive’, ‘days’, ‘ends’, ‘save’, ‘extra’, and ‘last’ were the worst performing. 

Keep it simple and tell readers what they can expect from your email. There’s no need to make grand promises and oversell what is simply a new product launch, event, or mid-season sale.

Once again, this will improve the quality of your opens. When it’s clear to the reader what’s inside you’re giving them more reason to convert.

11. Show some personality

Most of the subject lines that lead me to open emails in my inbox are either to the point or have a bit of personality shining through. Adding personality to your subject lines can be a powerful tool in getting recipients to open. 

This tip relies heavily on your brand’s tone of voice. Are you a playful brand? Can you be cheeky? Are you a leading authority in your field? Your tone of voice is your brand personality, so you must have a clear understanding of it before you start writing your subject lines.  

Even better, if your tone of voice allows you to have some fun with your subject lines, then do it. As long as you keep it relevant, it opens up a world of limitless possibilities for your subject lines.  

12. Ask questions

One of the best ways to get a customer to complete an action is to pique their interest and curiosity. Asking a question in your email subject line is the perfect way to do this. 

If you’re a retailer, it can be as simple as asking whether the recipient wants to see your new collection, or even better, receive a discount on their next order, like this: 

Hi Tosan, do you want 20% off your next order? 

Or if you’re a B2B business, you can ask a question that is relevant to some content that you’ve produced, as we did with our global benchmark report: 

How do your results compare to the competition? 

The reader’s natural curiosity is enough to make them want to click. When they do, it’s up to you to make sure you keep them curious enough to click through the email. 

13. Include a call to action (CTA)

You want customers to complete an action. That’s why you’re emailing, so why not be clear about what you want? Positive action verbs are a good option as long as you’re careful not to come across as spammy. Think along the lines of “get yours,” “discover,” “save”, “join us”, and “book today.”

If you’re worried about coming across as a spam sender (we’ll be covering how best to avoid this later), then try making key benefits or propositions the CTA in your email subject line. If the key benefit of shopping with you comes from your offer of free shipping, push this in your subject line. If you’re offering student discounts, shout about it to drive opens.

Essentially, you should be thinking, “What will drive my readers to convert?” Whatever the answer, try running with it in your email subject line.

14. Overcome writer’s block with artificial intelligence (AI)

If you’re looking for a way to take any email subject line to the next level – say hello to WinstonAI. This innovative tool uses cutting-edge Microsoft Azure GPT3.5 technology to help you come up with the perfect subject line that will make your campaigns stand out from the crowd. 

Plus, WinstonAI can even analyze your past campaigns to learn your preferred tone, wording, and structure. This can help you free up time when you’re stuck figuring out what the perfect subject line is. 

15. Write your subject line last

To ensure your email subject line is clear, relevant, and engaging enough to convert, you should be writing it last.

After you’ve finalized your email design and written your copy, you’ll know the exact message you’re trying to communicate. With that in mind, deciding what to include in your email subject line will be much easier.

16. Test your subject lines

Perhaps the most important tip of all is to make sure that you’re always testing your subject lines and measuring their performance and impact. 

What worked well for one segment may not work for another, and what worked yesterday may not work today. Therefore, it’s crucial to continuously test and measure the impact of your subject lines. By A/B split-testing your email campaigns, you can identify what works best and tweak your subject lines accordingly to get the best possible performance from your campaigns. 

Here’s a handful of things that you should consider when testing your subject lines: 

Don’t get caught up in what you think your recipients expect 

While, to a certain extent, you do have to predict what your recipients want, that doesn’t mean you know what they’re expecting. Keep them on their toes with your campaigns, and they’ll become more inclined to open your emails. 

Don’t be cautious 

Playing it safe is fine if you want to do okay. But most of us want to do better than okay. So that means throwing caution to the wind with your subject lines and stepping out of your comfort zone. It’s okay to brainstorm some really ridiculous subject lines, before scaling them back to something that you are happy with. 

Monitor what works and what doesn’t 

Make sure you’re tracking any tests that you’re doing so that it’s easy to look back and see which type of subject lines worked best. Otherwise, you’ll end up not knowing which types of subject lines work best for certain types of campaigns. 

Don’t stick with a subject line that worked once, or worked well two years ago 

While it may be easy to stick to the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, this doesn’t really work with email subject lines. While you may want to stick to a certain formula if you’re sending regular, consistent email campaigns, you should also consider that recipients will get used to seeing the same types of subject lines. In time, they could become blind or oblivious to them. 

One approach you can use is to ensure that the first part of your subject line identifies the type of email you’re sending, before specifying the content it contains. 

Let’s say you send a monthly newsletter to your subscribers, but all you do is change the month. So, your subject line looks like this: 

May Newsletter 

It’s not the most inspiring or eye-catching subject line that you can use here, is it? 

This is where emojis can be useful. You can add context to them, and over time your recipients will begin to associate that emoji with a certain campaign. 

Seeing as we’re talking about a newsletter campaign, let’s use the newspaper emoji. 

Then you also add a callout to some specific content that’s included in your newsletter. This will make the subject line different every time, while still being clear about its contents. 

Put these elements together, and you end up with a subject line that looks like this: 

May Newsletter: email tips, cookie update, and features

Sure, it’s a lot longer, and the full subject line will likely be truncated on some displays, but it’s better. By using an emoji and adding clear information about what the email contains, it’s already more appealing to the recipient.

Key metrics to track to measure success

While a high open rate might feel like a win, understanding how well your subject lines are really performing means looking at a few key numbers. These metrics offer deeper insights into whether your compelling headlines are actually leading to engagement and results. Here’s what you should be tracking:

• Open rate: This is the percentage of people who opened your email out of everyone it was sent to. It’s the first indicator of how well your subject line grabbed attention.
• Click-through rate(CTR): This shows the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your email after it was delivered. It tells you if your subject line led to further engagement with your content.
• Click-to-open rate(CTOR): This metric looks at the percentage of people who clicked a link out of those who actually opened your email. It helps you understand how relevant your content was to those your subject line attracted.
• Conversion rate: This tracks the percentage of recipients who completed a desired action (like a purchase or sign-up) after clicking through from your email. It’s a key indicator of whether your subject lines are driving business goals.
• Unsubscribe rate: This is the percentage of recipients who opted out of your email list after receiving a particular campaign. A sudden spike could indicate issues with your subject line or content.
• Spam complaint rate: This critical metric shows the percentage of recipients who marked your email as spam. High rates can damage your sender reputation.

Now you know how to write email subject lines

By experimenting with these subject line tips and analyzing your audience’s response, you can identify what resonates best with them. Remember to keep it concise, intriguing, and relevant to the content of your email. With practice and persistence, you’ll be able to consistently write subject lines that grab your audience’s attention and improve the success of your email marketing campaigns.

And let’s be honest, a fresh start with a new ESP can be really exciting. But figuring out where to even begin with the whole migration process? That can feel a bit overwhelming.

The good news is, if you plan carefully and take a structured approach, switching ESPs can actually be a pretty smooth transition, and it can seriously set your email marketing up for some major wins. That’s why we’ve created this one-stop ESP migration checklist – your go-to guide for navigating the whole thing, from start to finish.

The ultimate ESP migration checklist

Okay, so an ESP migration definitely needs a methodical approach. Following these steps, which we’ve broken down into key phases, will help you make a successful move to your new email service provider.

Phase 1: Planning and strategy

This first phase is arguably the most important. Getting this right upfront can save you from some seriously costly mistakes and makes sure your entire ESP migration is totally aligned with your business goals.

1. Define your migration goals

Before diving into technical details, clearly articulate why you’re switching your ESP. Are you looking for more advanced automation features that your current provider lacks? Is it all about cutting costs? Maybe you’re struggling with emails ending up in spam folders, or you need integrations that your old platform simply doesn’t support.

Writing these goals down gives you a clear direction for the whole migration, influences which new provider you choose, and helps you figure out what to prioritize during the move. Having those clear objectives ensures you pick an ESP that truly solves your problems and sets you up for success.

2. Audit your current ESP setup

You can’t move things effectively if you don’t know what you’re moving. It’s worth conducting a thorough audit of what you’re currently working with in your existing ESP, such as:

• Documenting lists and segmentation: Make a note of all your active email lists, how you’ve segmented them (by persona? By engagement? By purchase history?) and any tags you’re using
• Inventory of assets: Create a complete list of all your important email templates, content blocks you reuse, landing pages you’re hosting with your ESP, and website sign-up forms
• Mapping automations: Carefully document all the automation workflows you have running (e.g. welcome emails, abandoned cart reminders, re-engagement campaigns, etc.). Jot down the triggers, the logic, the timing, and all the emails involved in each. Screenshots or even flowcharts can be a lifesaver here
• Identifying key metrics and data: Figure out which past performance data metrics (like open rates, click rates, conversion data, list growth) will help compare future results to current benchmarks after the migration is complete
• Listing integrations: Itemize all tools connected to your ESP, such as your customer relationship management platform (CRM), your ecommerce platform, your analytics software, any customer data platforms (CDPs) you’re using, and any other marketing tech platforms. Knowing how these connections work is crucial for the success of your new ESP

3. Select your new ESP

Now that you have a clear idea of your goals and understand your current setup, it’s time to find the right email service provider for you. Take some time to research different options and keep in mind your specific needs. Here are a few important factors to consider:

• Features: Does the platform provide the segmentation, automation, testing, and reporting tools you’re looking for?
• Ease of use: Is the interface user-friendly for your team? You want everyone to feel comfortable navigating it
• Pricing:  Does the pricing structure work for your budget, and does it scale reasonably as your needs grow?
• Scalability: Can the email marketing service expand alongside your business and growing contact list?
• Support: What kind of customer support can you expect? Look for options like email, phone, chat, or even a dedicated Customer Success Manager. Check reviews to see what others say about their support experience
• Integration capabilities: Can the email marketing platform easily connect with your current tools, like your CRM or ecommerce systems? If possible, ask for demos or trials so you can get a feel for the service before making a commitment

4. Establish a timeline

Migrating to a new ESP is a big undertaking, so it’s important to create a practical timeline that outlines each step and highlights key milestones. Start by breaking down the tasks you identified in your audit and assign them to specific team members. 

For example, the Marketing Manager can handle the overall strategy, the Email Specialist can work on recreating templates, and IT can take care of the domain name system (DNS) changes. Don’t forget to schedule regular check-ins to make sure everyone is on track and to keep the project moving forward.

Phase 2: Pre-migration tasks

Once your plan is complete, it’s time to get your data and systems ready for the actual move. Skipping these steps can lead to some serious headaches down the line.

1. Clean your email list

This step is essential for making your ESP migration run smoothly and for keeping your sender reputation in good shape. Before you export any of your contacts, clean your email list. Get rid of or suppress:

• Hard bounces (invalid email addresses)
• Subscribers who’ve been inactive for ages (haven’t clicked or opened anything in 6-12+ months)
• Any known spam trap addresses
• Unsubscribes (make sure these are on your list of people you don’t want to email)

If you need to, use a list validation service to help with this. Starting off with a clean, engaged email list in your new ESP is absolutely crucial for getting good deliverability from day one.

2. Backup everything

Just assume you won’t be able to get anything from your old ESP once you’ve left. So, create full backups of all your important data and assets before you start the migration:

• Subscriber lists: Export all your contacts, including any custom fields, how they’re segmented, when they opted in, and how engaged they are
• Suppression lists: Export those lists of unsubscribed people, bounced addresses, and anyone who’s complained. This is super important for staying compliant
• Email templates: Save the HTML code or design files for all your main email templates
• Automation logic: Take screenshots or make diagrams that show the structure and rules of your workflows
• Performance reports: Export any past campaign stats, list growth data, and any other reports you might need for future reference or comparing performance

Store these backups somewhere safe and make sure they’re easy to access.

3. Inform stakeholders

Keep all relevant team members in the loop about the ESP migration process and timelines. This includes your marketing colleagues who rely on email campaigns, the sales team who might use CRM integrations, your IT team who might need to help with technical aspects (like DNS), and your customer support team who might get questions if anything goes wrong. Clear communication helps avoid surprises and makes sure everyone works together smoothly.

4. Set up your new ESP account

Start configuring the basic settings in your new email service provider. This means setting up your account profile, adding your team members with the right permissions, setting your default sender names and addresses (“from” addresses), and putting in any company information the platform needs. Also, take some time to get familiar with how to navigate around and use the dashboard.

5. Plan for IP warming (if applicable)

If you’ll be using a dedicated IP address in your new ESP (instead of sharing one with other senders), you’ll need to warm up that IP. This is a process of gradually increasing how many emails you send over a few weeks to build a good reputation with internet service providers (ISPs).

Make a detailed warming plan, often starting by sending to your most engaged subscribers. Most good ESPs will give you specific advice and schedules for this – it’s a good idea to follow their recommendations closely.

Phase 3: The migration process

This is where you actually move your data and rebuild everything in the new ESP. Take it one step at a time.

1. Import subscribers

Start transferring your contacts. Upload subscriber lists into your new ESP. Be really careful to map custom fields correctly so you don’t lose any valuable data. Import your suppression list (unsubscribes and bounces) first, or make sure the platform has a way to handle this during the import, so you don’t accidentally email people who shouldn’t be contacted. Double-check your list counts after importing to make sure everything’s accurate.

2. Recreate assets

Now, rebuild the things your subscribers see and interact with:

• Email templates: Use the new ESP’s editor to recreate your main email templates. This keeps things consistent and makes sure they look good on mobile. You could import HTML, but often rebuilding them in the new platform gives you better compatibility
• Sign-up forms: Recreate your website sign-up forms using the new ESP’s tools and replace the old forms on your website and landing pages. Test them to make sure new subscribers are being added to your lists correctly
• Landing pages: If you used your old ESP to host any landing pages, rebuild them in the new platform or your own website’s content management system (CMS)

3. Rebuild automations and workflows

Using the notes you made during your audit (back in Phase 1) carefully recreate your automated email sequences (such as your welcome series, nurture campaigns, abandoned cart reminders, etc.) in the new ESP. Pay close attention to the triggers, delays, any “if this, then that” logic, and the specific emails used in each step. Test these workflows thoroughly before you set them live.

4. Set up integrations

Reconnect your new email service provider to all your other business systems. This usually involves setting up connections to your CRM, your ecommerce platform, your website’s CMS, your analytics tools, and any other relevant software.

Follow the integration guides provided by your new ESP and the other tools you’re connecting. Test that data is syncing correctly – for example, make sure new customers from your online store are being added to your ESP, and that email engagement data is flowing back to your CRM, if that’s something you need.

5. Configure authentication (DNS records)

This is a technical step, but it’s essential for getting your emails delivered. You’ll need to update your domain name system (DNS) records to tell internet service providers (ISPs) that your new ESP has permission to send emails on your behalf. This involves adding or changing sender policy framework (SPF), domain keys identified mail (DKIM), and possibly domain-based message authentication, reporting & conformance (DMARC) records.

Your new ESP will give you the exact record values you need to add through your domain registrar or domain name system (DNS) provider. Give these records some time to update across the internet (this can take up to 48 hours, though it’s often much faster).

Phase 4: Post-migration

The main migration is done, but you’re not quite finished yet. This phase is all about testing, keeping an eye on things, finalizing the move, and getting your team ready.

1. Thorough testing

Before you start sending out big campaigns or fully relying on your automations, double-check everything:

• Send test campaigns to an internal “seed list” (a list of colleagues using different email clients like Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) to check how your emails look and if all the links are working
• Trigger every single automation workflow from start to finish to make sure the logic, timing, and email delivery are all correct
• Submit test entries through all your new sign-up forms
• Verify that data is flowing correctly through all your integrations

2. Execute IP warming plan (if applicable)

If you created an IP warming plan back in Phase 2, now’s the time to put it into action. Start by sending small batches of emails to your most engaged subscribers, and then gradually increase the volume each day or week, following the schedule you created. Keep a close eye on your deliverability metrics during this.

3. Monitor performance closely

Keep a really close eye on your key email marketing metrics and deliverability in your new ESP, especially in those first few weeks after the migration:

• Deliverability rates: Watch out for bounce rates (both hard and soft bounces)
• Engagement metrics: Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and how well your emails are converting
• List health: Track unsubscribe rates and complaint rates

Compare these numbers to what you were seeing in your old ESP. If you notice any significant drops in performance or any deliverability issues, reach out to your new ESP’s support team right away.

4. Run parallel systems (optional but recommended)

For a short time (maybe a week or two), you might want to keep your old ESP active. This can help you catch any last-minute sign-ups or act as a backup in case anything unexpected happens. Just remember to send all your outgoing emails exclusively from the new ESP to avoid confusing people and to properly warm up your IP address, if you’re doing that.

5. Decommission your old ESP

Only cancel your account with your old provider when you’re 100% sure that your new ESP is working perfectly, all your data and assets have been moved over correctly, your integrations are functioning, your performance is stable, and you’ve finished warming up your IP (if that was necessary). Double-check that you have all your backups before you pull the plug.

6. Train your team

Make sure everyone on your team who will be using the new ESP gets proper training. Help them get familiar with the new interface, the features, the template editor, the segmentation tools, and the reporting dashboards. 

Give them access to any help documentation, or set up training sessions with the ESP vendor if they offer them. A well-trained team will be able to take full advantage of the new platform right from the start.

Choose Dotdigital as your ESP

Dotdigital delivers a comprehensive, all-in-one marketing platform, empowering you to create personalized, data-driven experiences with significant results. Here’s how:

• Hyper-personalized campaigns: Engage customers with dynamic content that adapts to individual behaviors, driving higher conversions. Imagine emails that greet by name, recommend based on browsing history, and tailor offers precisely
• Cross-channel engagement: Extend your reach beyond email. Unify SMS, WhatsApp, social media, and landing pages for a consistent, engaging customer journey across all touchpoints
• Actionable customer insights: You can use Dotdigital’s advanced reporting to uncover deep customer behaviors, segment your audience, and optimize your strategy for maximum impact
• Scalable growth platform: Confidently grow your marketing efforts, from startup to enterprise, with a platform built to handle complex journeys and high volumes
• Dedicated support: Dotdigital provides exceptional customer service, including professional services, dedicated customer success managers, email designers, marketing strategists, and deliverability experts. The dedicated support team is available to guide you through every step, from onboarding to campaign optimization
• Superior deliverability: Landing in inboxes is so important for email success. Dotdigital offers advanced tools and expertise to ensure your emails reach their intended audience, maximizing your campaigns

Don’t rush your ESP migration

Switching ESPs can feel like a race against the clock. You’re probably eager to get all those new features up and running, and maybe you’re even hoping for a quick boost in your marketing results. But here’s the thing: rushing this process is almost always a recipe for poor results. You might end up losing valuable data, messing up your automations, or even damaging your sender reputation – and that’s a tough one to fix.

Think of your ESP migration as a marathon, not a sprint. Take the time to plan things out properly, follow the checklist, and test everything thoroughly. It’s about doing it right, not doing it fast. A smooth, well-executed migration sets you up for long-term success, giving you a solid foundation to build your email marketing on. 

Investing that extra time upfront will save you from a whole lot of stress and potential problems down the line. So, take a deep breath, pace yourself, and focus on getting it right. Your future marketing self will thank you for it.

In this blog, we will dive into email and SMS, investigate customer preferences, and offer tips on using these channels effectively to enhance engagement and improve customer satisfaction. Understanding what your customers prefer can help you develop a more effective communication strategy and achieve better results. Let’s get started.

What is the meaning of SMS marketing?

SMS marketing involves sending promotional messages or alerts directly to customers’ mobile phones via text messages. It’s personal, it’s fast, and it gets right to the point. Marketers love it because it’s a super direct way to talk to customers.

Key benefits of SMS marketing

So, why is SMS marketing so effective? Here are some key reasons:

Cost-effective

Sending a text message is generally cheaper than making a phone call. This cost efficiency allows you to handle a higher volume of inquiries and communications without significantly increasing your expenses. It’s an affordable way to reach a large or global audience quickly.

Universal

Almost everyone has a mobile phone, making SMS a highly accessible communication channel. Unlike other forms of digital marketing that require internet access or social media accounts, SMS can reach people regardless of their data plan or online presence. This universality ensures that your message can be delivered to a broad audience.

Convenience 

Text messages are convenient for both you and your customers. Recipients can read and respond to texts at their convenience, without needing to interrupt their activities to take a call. This flexibility makes SMS a preferred method of communication for many people.

Less email overload

Email inboxes are often cluttered with promotional messages, newsletters, and spam. SMS provides a refreshing alternative, allowing your message to stand out without getting lost in the noise of an overcrowded inbox. This can lead to higher engagement rates.

Higher customer satisfaction

If customers are already accustomed to receiving customer service via SMS, they are more likely to respond positively to marketing messages sent through the same channel. SMS marketing can be highly effective for promoting time-sensitive offers, flash sales, and personalized updates.

Ideal for time-sensitive alerts

SMS is perfect for sending time-sensitive alerts, such as appointment reminders, delivery notifications, and urgent updates. The 94% high open rate of text messages ensures that important information is seen promptly by recipients.

Personalized updates

SMS allows for personalized communication, which can be tailored to individual customer preferences and behaviors. Personalized messages can increase engagement and drive better results, as customers are more likely to respond to content that is relevant to them.

These benefits make SMS ideal for time-sensitive alerts, appointment reminders, and personalized updates. Its universal reach ensures your message gets delivered, even to customers without internet access.

Disadvantages of SMS marketing

While SMS offers many advantages, it’s important to be aware of certain considerations. Due to character limits, SMS is best suited for concise messages rather than in-depth content. Additionally, the format offers less design flexibility compared to email. It’s also wise to be mindful of message frequency to ensure a positive customer experience.

By understanding the pros and cons of both channels, you can make informed decisions about when to use email or SMS. In many cases, combining the two can help you maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

What is the meaning of email marketing?

Email marketing, on the other hand, involves sending promotional messages, newsletters, and targeted campaigns to a group of individuals via email. It’s versatile, budget-friendly, and perfect for sharing more in-depth information and beautiful designs.

Key benefits of email marketing

So, why is email marketing useful? Here are some key reasons:

Detailed content

Email marketing allows you to share comprehensive information with your audience. Unlike social media platforms or SMS messages that have character limits, emails can include detailed text, images, and links. This makes it easier to convey complex messages, provide thorough explanations, and include multiple calls to action.

Cost-effective

Email marketing is generally more affordable compared to other marketing channels. The costs are primarily associated with subscription plans for email marketing services and any additional features you might need. This makes it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes, especially small businesses and startups with limited marketing budgets. 

Also, email marketing delivers impressive returns. For every dollar spent, businesses earn an average of $42 in return, making it a cost-effective choice for reaching a broad audience. This high ROI is a key reason why 30% of CMOs, according to the Dotdigital CMO tracker, identify email as their top channel for ROI.

Design flexibility

Emails support a variety of rich media, including images, videos, and interactive elements. This flexibility allows you to design visually appealing and engaging emails that can capture the audience’s attention. Whether it’s a promotional campaign, a newsletter, or an announcement, the design possibilities are vast.

Long-term relationships

Regular communication through email helps build and maintain long-term relationships with your audience. By consistently providing valuable content, updates, and personalized messages, you can foster trust and loyalty. This ongoing engagement keeps your brand top-of-mind and encourages repeat business.

Measurable results

One of the significant advantages of email marketing is the ability to track and measure results. Most email marketing platforms offer analytics tools that provide insights into open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and more. This data helps you understand the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve future efforts.

Targeted marketing

Email marketing allows for precise targeting and segmentation. You can tailor your messages to specific groups within your audience based on their preferences, behaviors, and demographics. This targeted approach increases the relevance of your content, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Automation capabilities

Email marketing platforms often come with automation features that streamline your marketing efforts. You can set up automated email sequences for onboarding new subscribers, nurturing leads, or re-engaging inactive customers. Automation saves time and ensures that your audience receives timely and relevant messages.

Personalization

Personalized emails tend to perform better than generic ones. With email marketing, you can personalize your messages by addressing recipients by their names, recommending products based on their past purchases, and sending tailored content that matches their interests. Personalization enhances the customer experience and drives better results.

Disadvantages of email marketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool, but today, marketers face some challenges, especially regarding consumer privacy. Changes like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and stricter data protection laws have changed how we measure and run campaigns. However, these challenges can be managed with the right tools.

One major issue is deliverability. Sometimes, emails get blocked by spam filters, which means fewer people see your messages. To combat this, it’s essential to choose an Email Service Provider (ESP) with a strong reputation for deliverability, such as Dotdigital. Our platform has features that improve deliverability, making it more likely that your emails will reach your intended recipients.

Another challenge is email fatigue, which happens when people receive content that isn’t relevant to them, leading to disengagement. The key to preventing email fatigue is personalization. By effectively utilizing personalization tools, such as those offered by Dotdigital, you can make sure that your emails are relevant and engaging for each recipient. This can reduce the chances of people unsubscribing or marking your emails as spam. 

Best use cases for email vs. SMS

Understanding when to use email and SMS can refine your communication strategy and increase engagement. Let’s explore some use cases.

When to use email

Long-form content

Email is an excellent tool for sharing detailed and informative content. Whether you’re providing product updates in a detailed newsletter, introducing new collections, or sharing loyalty program information, email allows you the space and flexibility to communicate effectively.

You can send welcome emails to make a strong first impression and begin building relationships. Sharing educational resources provides valuable information that helps nurture these relationships over time. Additionally, staying in touch with your audience keeps them engaged and builds trust through consistent updates.

Promotions and newsletters

Email is highly effective for promotions and newsletters. It enables you to showcase offers, discounts, and updates in an attractive format. Unlike SMS, email can incorporate rich media such as images and videos, making it particularly well-suited for marketing campaigns. 

You can also use email to attract new leads by offering exclusive deals or free resources. This strategy not only boosts conversions but also helps to strengthen long-term customer relationships.

When to use SMS

Time-sensitive alerts

SMS is unmatched for urgent communications. Its near-instant delivery ensures your message reaches customers when it matters most. Whether you’re announcing a flash sale or sending appointment reminders, SMS grabs attention with its 98% open rate.

The character limit forces concise messaging, making it perfect for quick updates. Additionally, SMS bypasses spam filters, ensuring your message gets delivered directly to mobile phones.

Personalized updates

SMS is highly effective at creating personalized experiences. For instance, if a customer has left a product in their cart, you can send a customized message prompting them to complete their purchase. 

This message could be a multimedia message (MMS) that visually showcases the items left in their cart. MMS messages have a conversion rate of 30%, which is significantly higher than that of standard SMS, making them a powerful tool for driving conversions.

Combining email and SMS for a stronger marketing strategy

Why choose just one? Think of email and SMS as a dynamic duo, working together to make your marketing even stronger.

Why a multi-channel strategy works

Reaching customers across platforms

Adopting a multi-channel strategy allows you to connect with your audience wherever they are. By combining email and SMS, you can leverage the strengths of both platforms to ensure your message reaches a wider audience. SMS excels in immediacy, while email provides depth and detail. Together, they create a seamless communication experience that caters to diverse customer preferences.

Boosting engagement with complementary channels

When you combine email and SMS, you amplify engagement. Email offers the space for detailed storytelling, while SMS grabs attention with its high open rates. This synergy boosts response rates and strengthens customer relationships. For example, you can send a promotional email and follow up with an SMS reminder to drive conversions.

How to integrate email and SMS

Integrating email and SMS marketing isn’t just about using both channels; it’s about creating a cohesive, customer-centric experience. Here’s a deeper dive into how you can effectively combine these powerful channels:

Define your target audience

Before you begin any integrated campaign, you must have a crystal-clear understanding of your audience. Go beyond basic demographics. Delve into their psychographics: what are their interests, pain points, and preferred communication styles? Analyze their online behavior, purchase history, and engagement patterns across your existing channels. 

This data will inform not only who you’re reaching but how you’re reaching them. For example, younger audiences might prefer quick, direct SMS updates, while older demographics might appreciate the detail and context of email.

Set clear marketing goals

Integrated campaigns should have specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. Define what success looks like. Are you aiming to increase immediate sales with flash sales via SMS, or are you nurturing long-term relationships with detailed email newsletters? 

Perhaps you want to reduce abandoned carts or improve customer retention. Each goal will dictate the appropriate channel and messaging. For instance, an abandoned cart campaign might start with an immediate SMS reminder, followed by a personalized email with product details and a discount code.

Segment your audience

Segmentation is the cornerstone of effective integrated marketing. Don’t just segment based on demographics; segment based on behavior, preferences, and engagement levels. Use customer data from your CRM, website analytics, and past campaign performance. For example, segment customers who have recently made a purchase for personalized follow-up messages via SMS, or target inactive subscribers with re-engagement emails.

Choose an email and SMS marketing platform 

Selecting the right email and SMS marketing platform is important for a seamless and effective integrated marketing strategy. It’s not just about finding a tool that handles both email and SMS; it’s about choosing a solution that empowers you to create cohesive, personalized, and high-performing campaigns. Here’s what to look for, and why Dotdigital stands out:

• Native integration: Our platform is built with native email and SMS capabilities, ensuring seamless communication and data flow. This eliminates the need for clunky integrations and reduces the risk of data silos.
• Advanced automation and personalization: Dotdigital’s robust automation tools empower you to create multi-channel customer journeys. Trigger SMS alerts based on email interactions, or initiate personalized email sequences following SMS engagement. Deliver the right message at the right time, every time.
• One-click email to SMS: You can use tools like Dotdigital’s WinstonAI to make it easy to convert email campaigns into SMS messages with just one click. WinstonAI does the hard work for you, suggesting SMS campaigns with 160 characters or fewer that align perfectly with your email content.
• Global reach and compliance: You can reach your customers wherever they are. Dotdigital’s global SMS capabilities, coupled with stringent compliance with regulations like GDPR and TCPA, provide peace of mind. Deliver your messages with confidence, knowing you’re adhering to international standards.
• Exceptional Support: Dotdigital’s dedicated support team provides expert guidance and resources to help you maximize the platform’s potential. From onboarding to ongoing optimization, we’re committed to your success.
• Scalability: Whether you’re a startup or a global enterprise, Dotdigital scales with your ambitions. Our platform is designed to handle your evolving marketing needs, ensuring consistent performance and reliability as your business grows.

By choosing Dotdigital, you’re not just selecting an email and sms platform; you’re partnering with a company that’s committed to your success. Dotdigital provides the tools, expertise, and support you need to create integrated email and SMS marketing campaigns that drive results.

Create a consistent brand message

Consistency is key to building brand trust and recognition. Ensure your brand voice, tone, and visual identity are consistent across both email and SMS. While the format may differ, the core message should remain the same. Use consistent language, imagery, and branding elements to create a seamless customer experience. For example, if you use a casual, conversational tone in your emails, maintain that tone in your SMS messages.

Test and optimize

Testing is not a one-time activity; it’s an ongoing process. Conduct A/B tests to determine the most effective messaging, timing, and channel combinations. Test different:

• Subject lines and message copy: See which versions resonate best with your audience.
• Send times: Determine the best times to send emails and SMS messages.
• Channel combinations: Experiment with different sequences of email and SMS messages.
• Call-to-action buttons: Test different CTAs to see which ones drive the most conversions.

Use the data you collect to refine your strategy and continuously improve your campaign performance. Regularly analyze key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to identify areas for improvement.

Start using both email and SMS today

Choosing between email and SMS isn’t about picking one over the other; it’s about using both to your advantage. By matching your messages to what your customers like and how they interact, you can keep them engaged and build better relationships.

Keep an eye on your results, try different things, and adjust your strategy as needed. The best campaigns focus on making the customer experience great by sending relevant and timely messages through the channels they prefer.

Central to these changes are initiatives such as Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and Link Tracking Protection, along with global data protection laws. These developments have necessitated a re-evaluation of traditional email metrics, particularly open and click rates. So, is technology truly undermining email marketing, or is it simply prompting us to adapt?

The evolving landscape of email marketing

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), introduced in iOS 15 (September 2021), shook the marketing world. It stopped senders from accurately knowing when recipients opened emails on Apple devices. This was done by pre-loading email content, regardless of whether users actually opened the messages. The result? Artificially inflated open rates which means this metric no longer reflects true user engagement.

Here’s how it works: MPP is estimated to be enabled on about 97% of Apple iPhone devices. When a user with MPP enabled receives an email, Apple’s servers automatically download the email’s content, including the tracking pixel used to record opens. This process occurs whether or not the recipient actually views the message. As a result, Apple Mail users began showing nearly 100% open rates. While this may seem like a marketer’s dream, it actually creates a nightmare for accurate measurement.

In 2023, Apple extended its privacy features with Link Tracking Protection. This stripped tracking parameters from links in emails opened on Apple Mail. This made it harder for marketers to track user journeys and attribute conversions. Many email links use UTM parameters and other tracking codes. These codes help marketers understand which campaigns drive traffic and conversions. With these parameters removed, the connection between email engagement and website behavior became much harder to establish.

These changes were not isolated. They were part of a broader privacy movement. This movement included:

• GDPR in Europe, with its strict requirements for consent and data minimization.
• CCPA and other US state-level privacy laws, give consumers more control over their personal information.
• Similar regulations emerging globally, from Brazil’s LGPD to China’s PIPL.
• Growing consumer awareness about data privacy and increasing expectations for transparency.
• Similar privacy initiatives from other tech giants like Google, phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome.

The timing of Apple’s changes was particularly relevant as marketers were becoming more sophisticated with email automation and personalization—techniques that relied heavily on open tracking. Many marketers had invested significantly in platforms and strategies that suddenly faced these fundamental challenges.

The marketer’s dilemma

Marketers who relied on open rates as a key performance indicator have faced significant challenges due to recent changes in email tracking. These challenges extend beyond simple reporting issues:

• Unreliable metrics: Open rates became artificially inflated, making it difficult to gauge true engagement. Many marketers experienced a sudden spike in open rates from 15-25% to 40-60%, leading to confusion about actual performance.
• Disrupted automations:  Email sequences that relied on opens for triggering actions needed re-evaluation. For example, re-engagement campaigns intended to send follow-up emails to non-openers failed to work properly because most recipients appeared to have opened their emails.
• Segmentation challenges: Lists used to categorize “engaged” and “unengaged” users based on open rates have become less accurate. This inaccuracy affects everything from managing sender reputation to list cleaning practices.
• A/B testing complications: Testing subject lines based on open rates is no longer reliable. Many marketers have used this practice over the years, only to find their testing strategies compromised.
• Deliverability concerns: Some email deliverability practices relied on engagement metrics, including opens, to maintain good inbox placement. The artificial inflation of these metrics required new approaches to maintaining sender reputation.
• Revenue attribution struggles: Businesses that depend on email for revenue generation find it more challenging to link email campaigns to sales without reliable tracking from email clicks to website conversions.

The marketing industry has shown remarkable resilience. Despite initial fears that these changes might signal the end of email marketing, both marketers and technology platforms have embraced them.

At Dotdigital, for instance, we’ve shifted our focus to click rates and other engagement metrics. To make sure these clicks and engagements are actually from humans and not just automated systems, Dotdigital offers Non-Human interaction (NHI) filters.

Think of these filters as a way to clean up your reports. They’re designed to spot and remove activity from things like security programs that automatically check emails. This means when you look at your engagement numbers, you’re seeing a more accurate picture of how real people are interacting with your emails.

By turning on the NHI filter in your Dotdigital settings, you can have more confidence in your reports. They become more reliable because the filters use a smart system to tell the difference between human behavior and likely machine activity. This helps you get a clearer understanding of what your audience is truly engaging with.

Thriving in the age of data privacy

Yes, Apple’s shifts have undeniably changed the email game. But email isn’t going anywhere, it’s thriving. Our 2025 Global Benchmark Report shows that email sends are up by 23.9% globally. This is a clear indicator that email maintains its status as a key channel for brands. 

We also know that 73% of consumers still prefer email as their primary marketing channel. That’s because email offers something unique: a direct, personalized, and permission-based connection.

The good news? The email industry; both marketers and tech platforms, has embraced the changes. The industry has actively chosen to work with, rather than against, the tech giants to align on this new approach. Where MPP could have thrown us off course, marketers and platforms have adapted and strengthened. We’re trading vanity metrics and focusing on what really matters – engagement.

Here’s how to make the most of email in a privacy-focused world: 

1. Deepen customer relationships

Go beyond the transaction. Focus on building genuine connections with your subscribers to ensure the channel remains a favorite. Deliver value by creating high-quality, engaging content that provides real value to your subscribers. Engagement relies on your emails offering something to the subscriber. 

Make sure not every email is pushing a sale or an action and add in editorial, content-based sends to your email calendar. This could be a letter from your founder to celebrate a business milestone or relevant national day, behind the scenes glimpses of your latest photoshoot, and so on. 

Make it a two-way conversation. Ask your customers for feedback and analyze their preferences and engagement patterns to understand what they like. Then, provide content that aligns with their interests. By offering engaging content, not just calls-to-action, you can deepen customer relationships and maintain the value of your emails.

2. Personalize, personalize, personalize

In a similar vain, personalization is key to keeping your audience engaged with your emails. Move beyond basic name personalization and delve into more sophisticated and impactful personalization. Understand your audience’s preferences, behaviors, and needs, and personalize your messaging accordingly. Use dynamic content to deliver personalized experiences that resonate with each individual subscriber at scale.

3. Prioritize first and zero-party data

As third-party cookies decline, first-party data becomes increasingly valuable. This type of data is collected directly from your customers through their interactions with your brand, such as purchases, website activity, and customer service interactions. Since this data is owned by you, it remains unaffected by external changes, such as updates from Apple.

In addition to first-party data, zero-party data is also important. Zero-party data refers to information that customers willingly share with you, such as through surveys, forms, and preference centers. This type of data is incredibly valuable because it reflects customers’ explicit interests and preferences.

By prioritizing both first-party and zero-party data, you can build a strong and reliable dataset that you own. This information can drive your strategy, enabling you to create targeted and effective campaigns that resonate with your audience. Be sure to regularly collect and update this data to maintain its accuracy and relevance.

4. Think beyond the inbox

The digital landscape is constantly changing, and putting all your eggs in one basket can be risky. Circumstances often shift unexpectedly, so it’s important to future-proof your connections by amplifying your email marketing with cross-channel tactics

Integrate email with other channels like SMS, web personalization, and push notifications to create a seamless cross-channel customer experience. This allows you to reach your audience across multiple touchpoints and maintain consistent engagement. While email is a key channel for engagement, diversifying and broadening your reach is only a good thing and future-proofs your reach from any more changes to the way we work now.

5. Measure what matters

It’s time to ditch the vanity metrics and embrace the data that truly reflects your email performance. 

Clicks

Clicks are the gold standard for measuring email engagement. Unlike opens, which can occur passively, clicks indicate that subscribers have taken intentional action. They reflect a genuine interest in your content and are a more reliable measure of engagement.

With increasing link tracking protection measures traditional open rates are becoming less accurate. These protections often mask or block the tracking pixels used to register opens. However, clicks remain a direct and verifiable action.

By setting clicks as your primary engagement metric in Dotdigital, you gain a clear and accurate picture of how your audience interacts with your email content, even amidst evolving privacy landscapes. This allows you to:

• Pinpoint high-performing links: Identify which content resonates most strongly with your subscribers.
• Optimize for engagement: Refine your messaging and offers based on concrete click data.
• Maintain reliable reporting: Secure accurate insights regardless of link tracking protection.

You can also track:

• Conversions: Go beyond the click and track what happens next. Are subscribers completing purchases, filling out forms, or taking other desired actions? This reveals the real impact of your emails.
• Track over time: Track your opens and clicks over time, as long as there isn’t a huge change in external factors (e.g. another big iOS update), these metrics will all be impacted in the same way month to month and send to send. This means you can still see if your emails are seeing more or less engagement over time and from campaign to campaign.
• Revenue attribution: Don’t just focus on single touchpoints. Analyze the entire customer journey to understand how email contributes to revenue generation.
• Deliverability: Keep a close eye on inbox placement and spam complaints to ensure your emails are reaching your audience.
• List growth: Monitor your subscriber list growth rate to ensure your audience is expanding. A healthy growth rate shows your strategy is attracting new, interested customers.
• Churn: Activity track your unsubscribe rate and understand the reasons behind subscriber loss. High churn may indicate problems with content relevance, email frequency, or list quality, all tied to your email strategy. 

By focusing on these metrics, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your audience’s behavior and the effectiveness of your email strategy.

Benchmark your way to strategic advantage

To gain a deeper understanding of industry trends and benchmarks, check out Dotdigital’s Global Benchmark Report. This report provides invaluable insights into how your email performance compares to others in your industry and region.

Use it to identify areas for improvement, set realistic goals, and track your progress over time. By benchmarking your performance, you can make informed decisions and optimize your email strategy for maximum impact. Consider this report your best friend and ultimate strategic marketing tool.

The bottom line

Tech changes have undoubtedly transformed email marketing, but they haven’t killed it. Instead, they’ve spurred innovation and a focus on genuine engagement. By adapting to these changes, you can build stronger, more trusted relationships with your audiences. Accepting, understanding, and adapting to these changes has made sure that email marketing is evolving with consumer attitudes, rather than being rigid and getting left behind.

That’s where Dotdigital’s email campaign design review service can help. Our team of skilled email designers will carefully evaluate the design of your recent campaigns, offering valuable insights, practical feedback, and personalized recommendations to boost your email marketing performance.

Why choose Dotdigital’s review service?

Dotdigital’s design review service offers a range of benefits to help you optimize your email campaigns. Here are just a few of the ways our service can help you succeed:

Optimize for busy seasons

During peak emailing periods, every message matters. Our review service fine-tunes your campaigns to effectively engage and convert, maximizing your return on investment.

Stay ahead of the curve

Our review service covers all aspects of email design, from image usage and “above the fold” content to mobile rendering and layout. This ensures your emails comply with the latest best practices, keeping you ahead of the competition.

Boost performance metrics

Discover where your contacts are clicking and receive actionable tips to improve the effectiveness of your CTAs and links, ultimately driving more revenue from each campaign. 

Improve email client compatibility

We understand the challenges of ensuring your emails look great across different email providers and devices. Our team will provide insights on the necessary adjustments for optimal rendering in Outlook, Gmail, mobile devices, and more. This guarantees that all recipients see your emails exactly as you intended, regardless of their email client or device.

Benefit from expert insights and continuous improvement

Our team will provide a detailed written report containing insights, tips, and suggestions specifically for email design improvement. Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity for a one-hour consultation to explore the findings in detail. This ongoing support will assist you in:

• Enhancing your email design and achieving stronger results
• Applying best practices for email design and content
• Improving your email campaigns for greater effectiveness
• Keeping up with the latest trends and technologies in email design

What we look for in a campaign review

At Dotdigital, we focus on a comprehensive approach to email design. We look at every aspect of your email design, starting with the overall layout and structure.

• Readability: Is the email easy to read and understand, even at a glance?
• Visual appeal: Is the design visually appealing and engaging?
• Mobile optimization: Is the email responsive and optimized for viewing on mobile devices?
• Call to action: Are the CTAs clear and compelling?
• Relevance and personalization: Is the email relevant to the recipient and personalized to their interests?

Our recommendations

Based on our analysis, we offer specific recommendations for improvement, including:

• Layout and structure: Modifying the layout or structure of the email to enhance readability and flow.
• Visual elements: Using different images or adjusting their size and placement to boost the visual appeal of the email.
• Copywriting: If your content has numerous typos, we will point them out. If your content is lengthy, we recommend shortening it.
• Call-to-actions (CTAs): Enhancing the CTAs to make them more prominent and effective.
• Personalization: Incorporating personalization to make the email more relevant to the recipient.

Our expertise

Our team of email designers brings years of experience collaborating with clients from various industries. We truly understand what it takes to craft effective email campaigns that deliver results.

Book a campaign review today

Don’t let subpar email design hinder your marketing efforts. Using Dotdigital’s design review service gives you access to expert insights and actionable recommendations to optimize your campaigns.

Black Friday evolution

Initially Black Friday was only a holiday in the USA, marking the day after Thanksgiving. Research now shows that globally, 95% of consumers are aware of Black Friday, with the USA still leading at 97%.

Remember when Black Friday was the big day for in-store sales and Cyber Monday was the day for online stores? Now, Black Friday is the big event across the board and Cyber Monday feels like more of a last chance saloon offering the same or weaker promotions – with the added element of dwindling stock, of course.

On the Dotdigital platform, Cyber Monday email send volumes were down by 17.8% compared to Black Friday – proving that Black Friday itself is where marketers and consumers are focusing.

BFCM is a big deal here at Dotdigital, we know how important this time is for our customers so it means all hands on deck to ensure everything runs smoothly. This means our Customer Service team need to be alert and ready to help, and our servers need to be ready to handle the uplift – and there was quite the uplift.

An upward trend

We always expect a busier time over the BFCM weekend and throughout the entire month of November. To add some context, this year the number of emails sent in November was 13.6% higher than total emails sent in October.

Despite the term ‘Black Friday fatigue’ being thrown around over the years, it doesn’t appear to be slowing down – at least for marketers. On Black Friday alone, our platform sent out over 365 million emails.

Black Friday saw the highest number of emails sent and beat last year’s record with emails sent on Black Friday itself up 7.7% YoY.

Total email sends over the BFCM weekend were up 15% on 2023, and SMS sends were up a huge 22% – we’ve been saying SMS is a channel on the up.

How AI is assisting marketers during BFCM

To speed up our response time to busy (and likely stressed out) customers in need of support, we employed AI to answer direct queries where suitable on our live chat function. Doing this cuts down on waiting time for our customers and frees up our team to answer more complex queries.

We’re pleased to report this was a success and over the BFCM weekend, 204 queries were immediately answered by our live chat AI. We know AI isn’t for everyone or every situation, so for anyone wanting or needing to speak to a human, they only needed to wait 84 seconds before being connected to a member of our friendly Support Team.

As well as our live chat AI, the Dotdigital platform has inbuilt generative AI in the form of WinstonAI to offer support to marketers from within the campaign builder.

Interestingly, when looking at the four days that comprise the BFCM weekend, Cyber Monday saw the highest use of our generative AI tools. This included use of WinstonAI’s subject line assistant, grammar check, and copy rephrase. It’s safe to say that by Cyber Monday, marketers were tired and out of witty copy ideas – we totally feel you.

The most important number

All of these numbers are encouraging from a marketer’s point of view. It demonstrates that the holiday many businesses rely on for sales is showing no signs of slowing. Every one million emails sent produces the equivalent emissions to charging your smartphone over 2,000 times. That’s for one million, and our platform alone sent 823 million over the BFCM weekend.

That’s a lot of emissions – thank goodness we’re carbon neutral. You can read more about our sustainability pledge, including our commitment to become net-zero by 2030 here. We value marketing, but not at the cost of the planet – we’re proud to recognize the bigger picture, always.

Caring about and actively working to mitigate the ongoing climate crisis is something that matters to today’s consumers. By using green suppliers such as Dotdigital, you can prove to your customers that you align with their values. If you’re a Dotdigital customer, be sure to shout about the fact your emails are carbon neutral – just chat to your Customer Success Manager for help adding this information to your email footers.

Partnering with Dotdigital makes achieving sustainability goals easier and one less thing to worry about, whilst doing right for the planet.

Until next year.

Methodology

Figures for this Black Friday debrief came from data pulled from the Dotdigital platform from 00:00 on Friday, November 29 to 23:59 on Monday, December 2. This data includes insights from over 40 industries to provide a comprehensive representation of the BFCM weekend around the globe.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the power of email marketing lists and share eight proven strategies to help you grow and expand your list effectively.

What is an email marketing list?

An email marketing list is a curated collection of email addresses belonging to individuals who have expressed interest in your brand. These subscribers voluntarily provide their contact information, often in exchange for exclusive offers, news, valuable content, or other incentives.

Advantages of building an email list

Building your email list is a game-changer for businesses of all sizes. Here’s why it’s a marketing essential: 

• Direct communication: With email, you can reach your audience directly in their inbox without worrying about social media or SEO algorithm changes.
• Cost-effectiveness: Email marketing is relatively inexpensive and offers a higher return on investment than other marketing channels.
• Personalization: You can segment your audience and deliver personalized content using email lists.
• Ownership: Unlike social media followers, your email list is owned by you, giving you more control over your marketing efforts.
• Measurable results: Email marketing provides detailed metrics for tracking open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
• Relationship building: Regular, valuable emails help build trust and loyalty with your audience over time.
• Scalability: As your list grows, so does your potential reach and impact, without necessarily increasing costs proportionally.

Three email email list best practices

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when building your email list:

1. Get a reliable email service provider (ESP)

Choosing the right ESP is important for successful email marketing. An ESP, like Dotdigital, is a platform that enables businesses to manage and execute their email marketing campaigns effectively. Dotdigital offers a comprehensive set of features that a good ESP should provide:

• User-friendly interface for creating and sending emails, with drag-and-drop editors and customizable templates.
• Advanced segmentation and personalization capabilities to target your audience more effectively.
• Robust analytics and reporting features, including real-time tracking and performance metrics.
• Compliance with anti-spam laws and data privacy regulations ensures your campaigns meet global standards.
• Integration with your other marketing tools and platforms for a seamless workflow.
• Scalability to accommodate your growing list and evolving marketing needs.
• Automation tools to streamline your email marketing processes and improve efficiency.
• Deliverability services to ensure your emails reach the intended inboxes.
• Cross-channel marketing capabilities, allow you to extend your reach beyond email.

2. Keep your email list healthy

Maintaining a healthy email list is important for the success of your email marketing 

campaigns. Here are some best practices to keep your list in top shape:

Regular cleaning

Remove inactive subscribers, bounced emails, and unsubscribes promptly. This housekeeping improves your deliverability rates and ensures your awesome messages reach people who actually want to hear from you.

Re-engagement campaigns

Before you hit that delete button on inactive subscribers, why not try to rekindle the flame? Launch targeted campaigns with special promotions or ask for feedback to rekindle their interest.

Double opt-in

Want to ensure only the most interested subscribers join your list? Implement a double opt-in process. It reduces spam complaints and boosts your overall list quality.

Segment your list

One size doesn’t fit all in email marketing. Divide your subscribers into smaller groups based on demographics, behavior, or preferences. This allows you to send more targeted, relevant content. The result? Higher engagement rates.

Monitor engagement metrics

Keep an eye on open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. These metrics can help you identify areas for improvement in your email marketing strategy.

Update subscriber information

People change, and so do their preferences. Encourage your subscribers to update their info and preferences regularly. This way, you’re always sending the right content to the right people.

Handle unsubscribes promptly

Make it easy for subscribers to opt-out if they want to. Process unsubscribe requests immediately. It might seem counterintuitive, but this actually helps maintain a positive brand image and keeps you on the right side of anti-spam regulations.

3. Never buy an email list

Never buy email lists. Focus on organic list-building strategies that attract genuinely interested subscribers. This approach may take more time, but it will result in a higher-quality email list and better long-term results for your email marketing efforts.

You’ll get poor quality leads

Those bought lists? They’re often filled with outdated or inaccurate information. You’ll end up with high bounce rates and low engagement. Not exactly what you’re aiming for, right?

You’ll lack consent

Think about it – the people on these lists haven’t given you permission to contact them. Sending them unsolicited emails can damage your brand reputation and lead to spam complaints.

You could face legal issues

Many countries have strict anti-spam laws like GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act. Violating these by sending unsolicited emails can result in hefty fines. That’s definitely not in your marketing budget.

Your deliverability will suffer

Internet service providers (ISPs) and email service providers (ESPs) are smart. They’ll likely flag your emails as spam if you’re using purchased lists, harming your sender reputation. You want your emails in inboxes, not spam folders, right?

You’ll waste resources

Sending emails to uninterested recipients is like shouting into the void. It wastes your time, money, and effort – resources you could be using on organic list-building strategies instead.

Your targeting will be ineffective

Purchased lists lack the crucial segmentation and personalization data you need for effective email marketing campaigns. Without this, you’re essentially shooting in the dark.

You risk exposing yourself to malware

Some purchased lists contain email addresses used as spam traps. Using these lists could potentially expose your systems to security risks. That’s definitely not worth the risk.

Instead of buying email lists, focus on organic list-building strategies that attract genuinely interested subscribers. Yes, it might take more time, but the payoff is worth it. You’ll build a high-quality email list that delivers better long-term results for your email marketing efforts.

Eight email list building strategies

Now that we’ve covered the basics of email marketing lists and best practices, let’s dive into the heart of the matter: how to organically build and grow your email list.

1. Optimize your website with a signup form

It’s important to think of your website as your digital storefront, as it’s the perfect place to start collecting email addresses and growing your marketing lists. To capture the attention of your target audience, you can integrate a data capture popover to high-traffic areas such as your homepage, blog posts, or even within the checkout phase. You can use these smartly timed overlays to invite new visitors to sign up for your marketing emails.

When adding forms to your website, consider including attractive signup incentives such as a discount code or exclusive member access for email subscribers. This way, you not only gain their email address but they also get something in return. It’s a win-win situation.

2. Create gated content

Gated content refers to resources such as ebooks, whitepapers, or exclusive webinars that are only accessible to users who provide their email address, fill out a form, or complete a survey. By requiring users to provide their contact information, gated content can help expand your contact lists, which can be a valuable asset for future marketing campaigns and sales efforts.

Dotdigital’s pages and forms are powerful tools that can be integrated into your website to create custom landing pages that capture essential customer data and insights. This data can be used to personalize your marketing campaigns and improve your overall customer experience, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates. 

Creating gated content can help marketers generate leads, build brand awareness, and position themselves as experts and thought leaders in their industry. By providing valuable resources that are only accessible to a select group of users, you can establish trust and authority with your target audience, which can lead to increased loyalty and advocacy over time.

3. Leverage social media

If you want to increase your email list subscribers, leveraging social media is a great way to do it. You can promote your email lists for marketing through your various social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

One way to do this is by pinning a tweet or creating a Facebook post that highlights the benefits of subscribing to your marketing list. Make sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) and a link to your signup form in the post. This will make it easy for people to sign up and become part of your email community.

Facebook lead ads can also help you attract new subscribers. You can directly sync contacts from your Facebook lead ads into your Dotdigital account. Facebook lead ads are connected to an ‘instant form’ that collects customer information, such as email, phone number, and custom preferences. Once customers click on your ad and fill in this form your data is seamlessly synced. From there, you can add these contacts to a nurture campaign to engage your new audience.

4. Offer a customer loyalty program

Another effective way to encourage people to subscribe to your email marketing list is by offering them a customer loyalty program. By providing limited-time offers or special deals that are reserved for subscribers, you create an enticing incentive for potential customers to sign up and be part of your email marketing list.

This strategy not only helps increase the perceived value of your product offering but also helps build strong relationships with your existing customers by rewarding their loyalty. When your subscribers feel like they are getting something special that others are not, they are more likely to remain engaged with your brand and continue to open and interact with your emails.

To make the most of this strategy, it’s important to ensure that the discounts and promotions you offer are relevant and valuable to your target audience. Consider what types of offers would be most appealing to your subscribers and align with your brand’s values and messaging. Additionally, be sure to communicate the terms and conditions of the offer, including any expiration dates or limitations, to avoid any confusion or disappointment.

5. Host online events and webinars

Hosting online events and webinars is a great way to engage with your audience and provide them with valuable information. By offering live Q&A sessions and other interactive features, you can create a sense of community and build trust with your audience. Additionally, hosting online events provides an opportunity to collect email addresses, which can be used for future marketing efforts.

To ensure maximum attendance, it’s important to promote your events across various digital channels, such as social media and blog posts. You can also use Dotdigital tools to manage registration and send reminder emails to those who have signed up. When promoting your event, make sure to choose a compelling topic that piques their interest and curiosity, and communicate the benefits of attending.

6. Encourage referrals from existing subscribers

One effective way to grow your email marketing list is by encouraging referrals from your existing subscribers. Word-of-mouth marketing can be a powerful tool, and by incentivizing your current subscribers to refer their friends, family, or colleagues, you can tap into this potential. 

Consider developing a referral program that rewards both the referrer and the new subscriber with exclusive discounts, bonus content, or access to members-only events. This not only helps expand your email marketing lists but also fosters a sense of community among your subscribers. 

To make your referral program even more effective, you can also provide your subscribers with pre-written messages or social media posts that they can easily share with their network. This can help ensure that the referral process is as seamless as possible and increase the likelihood of new subscribers signing up. 

7. Optimize your email sign up process for mobile devices

Mobile devices have become an integral part of our lives. With more and more people accessing the internet through their smartphones and tablets, it’s important to optimize your email sign up for mobile devices.

To ensure that your sign up popovers are mobile-friendly, you need to make sure that they are responsive, functional, and fit mobile screens. You should also ensure that your signup forms are adaptive and easy to fill out on a mobile device.

By optimizing your email sign up process for mobile devices, you can ensure that your marketing lists grow with new subscribers. This will help you reach a wider audience and increase your chances of converting them into loyal customers. 

8. Strengthen your email lists with marketing automation

Email marketing automation is a powerful tool that allows you to communicate with your audience through personalized and targeted emails. This helps to strengthen the relationship between your subscribers and your brand. With the right approach, you can use automation to retain your existing subscribers and attract new ones, ultimately strengthening your email marketing list.

Here are three ways you can use email marketing automation to strengthen and nurture your email list:

Automated welcome emails

Make a great first impression with new subscribers by sending a personalized welcome email. This initial touchpoint allows you to thank subscribers for joining, highlight the value they can expect from your future communications, and prompt them to whitelist your email address. Welcome emails generally have high open and click-through rates, making them an essential component of your email marketing strategy.

Behavior-triggered emails

Dotdigital’s email marketing automation platform allows you to send behavior-triggered emails based on a subscriber’s specific actions, such as browsing history, previous purchases, or form submissions. By delivering personalized messages tailored to each subscriber’s needs and interests, you provide value, which in turn enhances engagement and helps retain your existing subscribers while adding new ones.

Re-engagement campaigns

Keep your email list active by initiating re-engagement campaigns targeted towards inactive subscribers. You can even use Dotdigital’s remail feature to automatically resend a campaign with a new subject line to anyone who hasn’t engaged with it after a set number of days. This can help you rekindle a subscriber’s interest and prevent your email list from stagnating.

Remember to monitor and analyze performance

To achieve long-term growth, it’s essential to regularly monitor and analyze the performance of your marketing list-building strategies. This involves analyzing the results of your campaigns to determine how engaged your list is and how well your tactics are delivering high-quality leads. By doing so, you can gain valuable insights into what is working and what is not, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your marketing efforts.

It’s also important to experiment with new ideas and techniques to ensure that your email lists for marketing continue to grow and generate the desired results. This can involve A/B split testing different email copy and subject lines, or exploring new channels for list-building. By continually testing and refining your approach, you can stay ahead of the curve and ensure that your marketing efforts are always effective and up-to-date.

It’s time to grow your email marketing lists

Growing your email marketing lists is important for all marketing teams. By implementing these eight powerful strategies, you can increase your list size and improve the quality of your leads. Focus on customer needs, maintain a consistent content strategy, and keep your subscribers engaged. With the right approach, your marketing lists will become one of your most valuable assets in driving growth.