5 Marketing Leaders Who Can School You in Email Marketing

What would you do if you knew that for every dollar you spent in your email marketing campaign, you could earn an average of $38? Because the National Client Email Report from DMA says just that.

Email marketing will continue to be an effective and powerful way to reach an audience. And since customers can open and read your messages at their fingertips, it's no surprise they want more.

Creating effective campaigns isn't something that comes naturally, though. It takes multiple iterations or writing, editing, and tracking before you're able to harness the strength of email marketing fully. Fortunately, there are marketing leaders who share their work and provide significant insights into the challenge.

5 Marketing Leaders that Crush Their Email Campaigns

While there are dozens of leaders in email marketing we could pull from, these five experts have concise, actionable tips that will take your campaigns to the next level. 

1. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a household name, especially if you're in a house full of marketers.

He's the founder of Quick Sprout and has built an incredible reputation as a master of digital marketing.

Neil's tips for your email campaigns:

• Remember that you're a guest in their inbox. They gave you permission to be there. Treat them with respect and appreciate the fact that they let you in.
• Provide immense value (read: don't always pitch your product). You set expectations when they sign up for emails, and it's your responsibility to continue to fulfill that promise. (This one should be a top priority in all your marketing. Check out what we mean when using the term customer-centric marketing.)
• Make cunning use of analytics and segment audiences. It's important to segment as precisely as you can based on the information you collect through your emails. It'll help you know what content they need the most.

2. Kara Trivunovic

Kara has nearly two decades of experience in the digital marketing realm. She currently works as the Senior Vice President of Digital Solutions at Epsilon. She focuses on email and social strategy, as well as consulting.

Kara's tips:

• Incorporate machine learning. If you have the opportunity to use artificial intelligence in your campaigns, do it. AI technology can analyze data, generate content combinations, and predict what will work best. Machine learning saves a massive amount of time that can be prone to human error.
• Use HTML 5 alongside your visual elements. HTML lets you creating more eye-catching and better-formatted content. Couple this with the right imagery and your contacts will receive emails that are hard not to engage.
• Be authentic. Deliver what people want to see, and do it from a personable level. Humanize your brand by providing useful content and be clear about what your goal is with the email. Inauthentic content gets sent to the spam box, somewhere you should avoid at all costs.

3. Kath Pay

Kath Pay is the Founder and CEO of Holistic Email Marketing and has been practicing email marketing since 2001. Kath is recognized as one of the leading email marketing tutors in the UK.

Kath's tips for your email marketing campaign:

• Focus on the email's objective before you create it. Too often is the goal of the email overlooked during its creating. By focusing on it early, you're able to ensure the copy, images, timing, and CTAs are the best fit for that email.
• Be diligent with your metrics. High and low rates on your key performance indicators (KPIs) can tell you a lot about your performance. Obsess over the data and incorporate findings into your strategy.
• Cover every step of the customer's journey. Walk your subscribers through the journey and plan material for every phase. If they don't engage and move further, have another piece ready. Let them progress at their own pace, but have emails prepared for no matter where they are.

4. David Daniels

David Daniels is the CEO and Founder of the Relevancy Group. In 2017, he was named Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year, and labeled as "one of the most influential experts in email marketing, if not the most influential."

David's tips:

• Leverage identity management. Customers could come to you from any channel your brand manages. Whether social, your website, apps, or email, it's essential for all your platforms to receive the same info about customers. Managing their identity means you're acknowledging their preferences and incorporating them into all your interactions with the customer.
• Design with mobile in mind. There's a lot stacked inside this tip, but understand that a large percentage of your potential customers are going to be viewing from their phones. Thinks like pre-headers, preview text, and brevity are critical in this regard.
• Institutionalize testing. Data is vital, but what you do with it is essential. Everyone working on your marketing team needs to be continually looking to optimize every part of the email. Once you have enough data to measure performance, rework it again. Never stop optimizing.

5. Christopher Donald

Chris Donald has over 20 years of experience as an email marketer and is the CEO of Inbox Group as well as a managing partner of InboxArmy.

Christopher's tips for your campaigns:

• Create more interactive emails. Interactivity has been a trending topic in email marketing for a few years now. Incorporate activities like surveys and polls within the email. Giving them more time engaging with you inside an email increases the odds they'll click-through.
• Use real-time content from triggered actions. This has been a practice for some time now, but it's more important than ever to engage potential customers while their focus is on you. Too much time in between interactions reduces the change they'll take your relationship further.
• Be prepared to pivot. You may have a set calendar, but it doesn't mean you can't tweak your execution. If data shows certain emails will perform better, adjust your plan to use them accordingly.

Using Their Advice

Email marketing will remain one of the best ways to connect with your audience for years to come. While trial and error are important to improving your skills, taking notes from marketing leaders will save you a lot of time. Implement their advice into your own campaign and enjoy the results.

If you need help coming up with more ideas on what to include in your email campaigns, we have an outstanding resource for you. Our Repurposing Toolkit will give you ideas on how you can generate more content to provide material for every stage of the buyer's journey within your campaigns.