Email Marketing Checklist

Email marketing remains one of the most powerful tools available for spreading brand awareness and promoting your latest products or services. If you’ve built up a solid contact list, you want to ensure that the emails you send are read, acted upon and drive the results you’re aiming for.

Here are The Last Hurdle’s pointers for email marketing success:

Contacts, Contacts, Contacts

It’s surprising how many businesses neglect their contact lists. If you’ve accumulated a large list of contacts, it’s crucial to keep it organised and segmented. Why? Because sending the wrong message to the wrong audience can do more harm than good. By segmenting your list, you can tailor your message to suit specific groups, increasing the likelihood that your emails will be opened and read.

Sending irrelevant messages will not only decrease engagement, but your audience will begin to ignore your emails. Relevance is key—sending targeted content to the right people increases your chances of success.

Be Clear About Why You’re Sending That Email

Your marketing emails should be clear, concise and meaningful. The more focused the message, the better the response. Ensure that you know exactly what you want to say and more importantly, what action you want the recipient to take.

Strong, clear calls to action (CTAs) are essential. Whether you want them to click through to a landing page, download a resource or make a purchase, the action should be obvious.

Timing is also crucial. When will your customer receive the email? Is it likely to be opened during their commute, at lunch, or when they’re relaxing in the evening? The right timing can significantly boost your campaign’s success. For instance, if you’re a local gastropub looking to fill Saturday night tables, try sending an email on Thursday evening to those who like to plan and again around 4pm on Saturday when people are thinking about dinner.

Who Is It From?

The “from” field of your email is vitally important. It needs to be easily recognisable and connected to your brand. Most importantly, be consistent. If your emails come from different addresses or names, it can confuse your recipients, leading them to ignore or delete the email.

Nail the Subject Line

Your subject line is what determines whether your email gets opened or sent straight to the bin. It needs to be short, punchy and relevant. Avoid spammy terms and overly promotional language—HubSpot has a comprehensive list of spammy terms to avoid, which is worth checking out.

The subject line should create curiosity or excitement, making it hard for the recipient to resist opening the email.

Great Content for Great Click-Throughs

The key to driving engagement is simplicity. Keep your message focused on one issue, and direct readers to one place on your website. Busy people don’t have time to wade through large blocks of text, so get to the point quickly.

Proofread your content.
Then, proof it again.
Check all your links to ensure they work properly.
Write your content as if you’re speaking directly to one person. Personalise the message, add humour, enthusiasm and reflect your brand’s personality. People buy from people!
Use visuals. An appropriate image can grab attention faster than a wall of text. It helps to keep readers engaged.

Email Marketing Basics

To reduce the risk of your email being marked as spam and to ensure it’s professional, check your email includes the following essentials:

A view in browser link so recipients can read your message in their web browser.
An unsubscribe link (it’s legally required in the UK).
Your registered company name and contact details.
Alt tags for any images used, so recipients who don’t download images can still understand the content.
Your company logo for brand recognition.
Social sharing buttons to encourage recipients to share your content with their networks.

Avoiding the Spam Folder

At The Last Hurdle, we’ve never been fans of the “throw as much mud as possible at the wall and see what sticks” approach. Instead, we believe in sending targeted, relevant emails that resonate with the recipient. After all, most businesses and customers receive hundreds of emails a day, so you need to take steps to avoid landing in the spam folder.

Here are a few quick tips to keep your emails out of the spam bin:

Avoid phrases like “once in a lifetime opportunity” and don’t overdo the exclamation marks!
Do not use ALL CAPS to get your point across.
Use professional, well-designed HTML and avoid garish colours or fonts.
Don’t send emails to inactive or stale lists—permissions go stale after about six months and old contacts are more likely to mark your email as spam.
Make sure all your recipients have opted in to receive your emails. We recommend the double opt-in method, as it tends to yield higher conversion rates and ensures you’re reaching an engaged audience.

Test Before You Send

It’s easy to feel rushed when sending out email campaigns but skipping the testing phase is a mistake. HTML emails can look different depending on the device or email client. For peace of mind, always send test emails to see how they appear in various inboxes—check on Outlook, Gmail, iPhone, Android and more.

Track and Measure Results

There’s no point sending out an email campaign without measuring its success. Make sure you have metrics in place to track key performance indicators such as:

Open rates
Click-through rates
Conversions (sales or other actions)

Consider running A/B split tests to see which subject lines, CTAs or content perform best. Analysing your results allows you to make small adjustments to improve your next campaign’s performance. (Ask us about how to implement A/B testing for optimal results!)