Creating An Email Marketing Campaign: Goals & Best Practices

Did you know that in 2020 the number of email users worldwide reached over an astounding 4 Billion users?

But, because there are so many people using email, there are also many people using email with ill intentions in mind. So how do you make sure that your email stands out, does not go to spam, gets opened, clicked on, and enters into a funnel for conversion?

During this three-part series on Email Marketing, we'll walk through creating an email marketing campaign, exploring best practices and ways to help your email land in the coveted Inbox instead of the SPAM filter, get opened, read, clicked on, and ultimately end up in your sales funnel for conversions. Are you ready? Let's get to it! 

1. Use a Professional Email Service like Constant Contact. Constant Contact has Certified Partners and Agencies like TNT United Services Inc. that have been vetted, taken, and completed courses and are knowledgeable on best practice techniques to assist businesses with successful Email Marketing Campaign Management.
   
   Pro Tip- Before sending out your first Email Marketing Campaign with Constant Contact, make sure that Constant Contact Email Authentication is enabled.
   
   Email Authentication helps Internet Service Providers (ISPs) identify your email as being legitimate and not from a scammer, spoofer, or phisher. Having a good domain-based email sender reputation is an important best practice, and while all mail from Constant Contact is already DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signed and will pass a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) check, turning on Constant Contact Authentication allows you to personalize the domain with which we sign your mail. This makes your emails more recognizable to your recipients, so that you can build trust in regards to your good emailing practices. Over time, with good sending practices, your delivery rates will improve.
   
   
2. Send emails to users that you have permission to send to, this helps you stay out of the spam filter and avoid heavy bounce rates and gives you a better chance of your emails actually getting opened. ( Also, it does not interfere with accurate reporting.)
   
   Having problems getting email addresses?
   
   Pro tip- Check out TNT's Local Listings and Review Tool. This will help your business get listed with up to 300 local listings and directory sites while gathering email address information simultaneously. Call 888-959-5411 to learn more. Also, as a best practice, make sure you have a subscription to our mailing list form on your website to gather email addresses. Subject lines, Days of the Week, and times sent matter!!!
   
   
3. Very important, be specific, in other words. Know who you want to email to, Industry type, who you are emailing, C-level Decision Makers, Managers, Owners, etc.
   
   When creating an email marketing campaign, you’ll want to ask yourself what your goals are. Is it to create more awareness around your products or services by drawing the reader to your website to learn more by clicking on a link? If so, when the link is clicked in an ideal world, what would you like to happen?
   
   We know everyone wants the phone to ring IMMEDIATELY!
   
   And sometimes that happens right away, but usually, the phone rings after an email triggers something in the reader to want to take action.
   
   Below is an example of what we mean:
   
   You meet several business professionals at a networking event and exchange cards. You say do you mind if I send you an email? They say sure.
   
   The next day you send over 100 names and email addresses that you received tagged (in-person networking event) in a CSV file to your Constant Contact Email Marketing Partner. 
   
   Your Partner already has an email list set up for your business entitled something like Networking Contacts. Your Marketing Partner can then send out a pre-designed email that is specific to the person you met, providing you with the names in the CSV file. With specific CTA links designed to gauge the level of interest.
   
   Below are some examples of links that gage interest:
   
   

• Are you interested in learning more? Click Here to go to our website (make sure the link directs the reader to the exact page on the website or landing page you want them to go to.
• Click Here to read our Blog Article on X Y and Z.
• For your convenience, I've attached my scheduling link so we can connect at a time that is best for you. Just click on the button.
• I'm available to talk today. I can be reached at or email me at then insert a mail-to link.
• Insert a Video to increase YouTube Views

Based upon the action that the receiver took, you can decipher where and how to foster this lead.

Remember, if you did not receive the open rate you wanted, you can always resend it 24 hours to 10 days after a different subject line and possible time of day.

In our next article, we'll take a deeper dive into creating an email marketing campaign and discuss the importance of Subject lines, Resends, Link segmentation, How to effectively remarket through email, and the customer journey.