Email Marketing Optimization Tips and Techniques To Maximize Your Campaign Effectiveness

What is email marketing optimization?

Email marketing optimization is the process of fine-tuning email campaigns to improve their performance and effectiveness. It involves assessing and adjusting various elements of your emails, which typically include subject lines, calls to action, and graphic design.

For example, Molly noticed that open rates had been decreasing for the past six months. To improve the metric, she tested several variants of email subjects, started paying attention to preheaders, and tested different versions, too. That way, she managed to drastically increase both opens and clicks. However, Molly doesn’t plan on stopping here. Email marketing optimization is an ongoing process, so her next destination is improving CTA buttons for more conversions.

The role of email marketing optimization in the success of your campaign

Optimizing email marketing campaigns is important for several reasons: 

• It helps you stand out. With millions of emails sent every day, capturing potential customers’ attention is more important than ever. 
•  It also makes your customers see your brand in a better light. Since optimization means being more relevant and personalized, among other things, it ultimately leads to those higher sales numbers.
• Email optimization simply pays off. Optimization is a cheaper way to test and refine different strategies, getting tangible results in the end. For example, Adorama, a camera and electronics retailer, achieved a 25% increase in average order value just by optimizing their existing email campaigns. They did it by personalizing content based on past customer behavior, tweaking banners and showcasing products from brands the customers had already shown interest in, and doing it all based on data.

Email campaign optimization best practices with examples

Now, let’s take a closer look at the key strategies for optimizing email marketing campaigns and increasing sales.

Craft an engaging subject line

The subject line is the first thing people see. This is when they decide whether to click on it at all or let it go by. That’s why it’s important to make sure that it’s intriguing, clear, and relevant. 

However, there’s no such thing as a foolproof email subject formula because different things resonate with different audiences. So, try experimenting, it’s the simplest way to get the best results possible. Here are some effective subject line format ideas if you’re feeling stuck:

• Question-based subject lines. An intriguing question-based subject line is a powerful tool in email marketing, the same as a bit of intrigue acts as spicing in any marketing communication. It engages the reader’s curiosity right from the start, prompting them to open your email in search of answers. It’s particularly effective when the question resonates with their interests or challenges.

• Humorous subject lines. Humorous subject lines can add a dash of fun and personality to your email campaign. In a sea of standard emails, a witty or amusing subject line can be a breath of fresh air for recipients. For that reason, it increases the likelihood of your email being opened.

• Urgency-creating subject lines. Creating a sense of urgency in your subject line is a time-tested strategy to prompt immediate action. It taps into the reader’s fear of missing out, which can boost your open rates. It’s best used for a special offer or an event reminder.

If you’re stuck for ideas, you can always make use of AI helpers like Selzy’s AI email assistant. 

Be wary, though; although AI in email marketing has lots of use cases, it’s better to maintain control over it in case your copy starts to feel too generic or lacks creativity.

Pay attention to the opening line

An email’s opening line often ends up being the deciding factor when it comes to how your message is received. It can connect with the reader and encourage them to check out the entire message — but also get your message promptly closed and deleted. So, how can you ensure that your opening line aids you in your optimization efforts?

• Focus on the main idea. A good opening line directly and succinctly conveys the purpose or benefit of your email.
• Make the reader curious. It doesn’t matter if it’s a surprising fact, a thought-provoking question, or a bold statement. The ultimate goal here is to grab the reader’s attention. They will be motivated to read on, seeking answers or insights that you have promised to provide.

Consistent opening lines can also become your brand’s trademark. For example, Cards Against Humanity always start their emails with “Dear horrible friends”, which sets the tone of the message and expresses the company’s sarcastic and edgy ToV.

Take advantage of personalization

Personalization is about creating emails that speak directly to individuals. The simplest way is to address your subscribers by their names using merge tags. However, this alone might not be enough. In fact, according to GetResponse, subject lines with first names even yield lower email open rates.

Think of going further: analyze your subscribers’ behavior patterns, purchase history, active times and tailor your communications accordingly. This kind of hyper-targeted messaging makes your offers feel exclusive as well as just more relevant. While it might seem unnecessary, it can really help you achieve business success. According to McKinsey, faster-expanding businesses generate 40% higher revenue from personalized offerings compared to those with slower growth.

A great starting point for personalizing your emails is list segmentation. It’s not full-scale personalization yet but this data-driven email marketing technique still helps make the email content more relevant for certain subscriber groups. It’s based on dividing your email list into distinct groups based on various demographic and behavioral characteristics from location to email activity. This email marketing optimization strategy is a surefire way to start providing your target audience with tailor-made content. 

For example, imagine that you’re selling clothing. Someone has just purchased something from your online store. You could send them a message encouraging them to make another purchase.

American Eagle did just that. What’s more, they compliment the recipient on their taste. It makes their offer sound more friendly.

Use visuals strategically

It might seem insignificant, but it can aid in building a consistent brand image. Don’t forget to include images in your email campaigns (unless you consciously use the plain-text approach). Keep them high-res and meaningful, complementing and reinforcing your brand’s image.

In the case of Popsmith, their brand is commonly associated with beige and a darker shade of yellow. Consequently, the photographs in their newsletter feature these very same colors.

Just remember to keep the load times of these images in mind. Your images should be of high quality, yes, but they shouldn’t take ages to load. Striking a balance between a reasonable load time and a satisfactory image quality is key to properly optimizing your emails for success. For example, Selzy only allows users to upload images and GIFs that are not larger than 1MB, ensuring that your emails download quickly.

If you’re selling physical products, make sure to showcase the said products when they’re actively being used. Here, Masienda showcased their ceramics collection using several aesthetically pleasing photographs.

Offer genuine value

What makes an email truly effective is its ability to deliver real value to its readers while conveying all the necessary information.

It might take the form of useful insights, tips related to the recipient’s industry, or a narrative that captivates and entertains. Long story short, your subscribers should perceive your emails as something that makes their day or speaks to their interests. If they do, they’ll be more eager to engage with your email marketing campaigns and contribute to your sales numbers. In the message below, the value in question is a very attractive discount.

Okay, everybody loves discounts but what about other types of content, especially non-salesy? Here’s how to make your emails more valuable:

• Use dynamic content. For example, you can suggest tailored recommendations based on website behavior, email engagement, and other subscriber data.
• Run a survey. This is a no-brainer — for feedback or market research, you can always run a survey to find out what makes your emails especially enticing (or boring) to your subscribers.
• Test, test, test. Marketing depends on trial and error more than you think. Keep trying out different types of content and its presentation — that’s how you figure out what works for your audience.

Create a sense of urgency

Instilling a sense of urgency in your emails compels recipients to act swiftly. Expressions like Limited-time offer or While supplies last are potent motivators that can produce a significant uptick in click-through rates. That’s why this tactic is often used by business owners and marketers to optimize their campaigns. 

However, keep in mind that it requires authenticity to work. Manufactured scarcity or false deadlines can damage trust. If you’d like to maintain brand integrity, tie your calls to action to opportunities or deadlines that are actually genuine.

In the example above, a toothbrush brand called SURI reminds the recipient about their sale. The offer is about to expire, so they want the recipient to feel like they are missing out on something great by not taking advantage of it. They do so by using phrases like last opportunity and don’t miss out, both of which effectively create a sense of urgency.

Use a strong and clear call to action

A well-defined call to action is something that you need to pay attention to while optimizing your emails for success. It provides a clear direction and simplifies the users’ journey through the marketing funnel. It shows them exactly where they need to go, as well as what services or products they should check out. As a result, it enhances the likelihood of conversion.

Additionally, using clear calls to action throughout your email marketing campaigns ensures that your messaging is focused and goal-oriented. It’s crucial to prevent readers from merely glancing over the content without meaningful engagement. That’s why your CTAs must be written in clear language and properly tested. Here’s a good example in action (pun intended).

The call to action in a message from Spotify is Listen now. It’s short and to the point. It’s also written in capitalized letters, located in a green button that stands out against the black background, and repeated three times throughout the message. It’s really hard to miss, which makes it very effective.

Optimize for mobile devices

Did you know that most emails are opened on mobile devices? Nearly 60% of global website traffic is generated from mobile devices. With that in mind, you should invest in responsive email design. It adjusts the layout, font size, and visuals of your email to fit the screen it’s being viewed on. This means you get to communicate effectively, regardless of whether your message is being read on a desktop, a tablet, or a mobile phone.

As a result, responsive design brings you more clicks as the easier an email is to read and navigate through, the easier and more enjoyable it is to engage with its content (in other words, do what you want your subscribers to do): read, click, fill in, etc.

If you’re new to responsive design, we’re here to help! Each of Selzy’s templates is optimized for mobile devices from the start.

Analyze performance metrics

The best approach to email optimization (and to anything marketing-related) is a data-based one. In other words, it’s the best idea to randomly pick which aspect to improve this quarter and which to leave for later. Instead, have a solid understanding based on numbers. For that, you need email analytics. 

The usual metrics to analyze in the case of emails are open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates. This data reveals which aspects of the email resonate with the audience and which parts might need improvement. For example, there’s no point in paying too much attention to subject lines if your open rate is fine or even above average, it might be more beneficial to spend your time fixing other issues.

The best part is, you don’t have to analyze and calculate all this stuff manually. Email automation tools like Selzy offer automated A/B tests — the only thing you have to do is set them up and wait.

Include an unsubscribe link

Including an unsubscribe link in email communications is not only a legal requirement in many jurisdictions, but also a vital aspect of email optimization. First, providing this option promotes transparency and trust. Second, it helps you maintain a clean mailing list. Third, it’s a great opportunity to crack a joke. It can add a bit of flair and personality to your brand, making it more memorable.

So even apart from the legal issues, adding an unsubscribe option to your email communications makes customers unsubscribe less and engage with your content more, however counter-intuitive it may sound, especially to newbie marketers.

Ensure email accessibility

Email accessibility is about creating email campaigns in such a way that they are easily perceived and used by people with various disabilities. In practice, it usually includes measures like introducing colorblind-friendly color schemes, larger fonts and better contrast but it can also include a whole range of activities like accommodating users with hearing, motor, neurological disorders, etc.

If you haven’t optimized your email campaigns for better accessibility (or haven’t done it for a long time), it’s high time you did, since it’s not even just the right thing to do, but also simply good for the business: according to the CDC, almost a third of adult Americans live with some kind of disability.

If you don’t know where to start, here’s our article on email accessibility. It was also one of the hot topics at last year’s Email Camp MessageMania conference which we made a recap of. 

Ready to make your email campaign better?

Simply put, email marketing optimization is something that never ends and may consist of dozens of activities, depending on a brand and its general email marketing approach. It doesn’t have to be complicated, though, if you keep our tips and best practices in mind. 

• Personalization and segmentation are crucial for engaging an audience effectively.
• High-value content, along with a clear and compelling call-to-action, drives better engagement and conversion rates.
• Continuous testing and adaptation to new trends and feedback are essential for the long-term success of any email marketing campaign.
• An unsubscribe link at the bottom of your emails promotes trust and allows you to express the brand personality just a little more.

This article was first published in December 2023 and updated in January 2025 to make it more relevant and comprehensive.