How to Avoid a Bounced Email: 5 Tips for Better Deliverability

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Did you know that 14.3% of all emails never reach their intended recipients?

For an average user, this number means nothing. However, this number makes a huge difference for a company that relies on email marketing to drive leads.

A high email bounce rate can be why your emails disappear, lowering the performance of your email campaigns.

But what is a bounced email?

If you are here to find the answer, keep reading the article. We will share helpful ways to resolve and avoid the bounced email issue and drive your campaigns to better results.

What is a Bounced Email?

Let’s start from the basics: exploring the meaning of a bounced email.

A bounced email is a message that fails to reach the recipient's inbox and is returned to the sender.

You can see an example of an email bounce-back message in the screenshot. It typically comes with a code and an explanation of why you have a bounced email.

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One or two bounced emails are pretty standard. However, the increased number is something that you have to consider and put a lot of effort into reducing.

Now, let’s learn what counts as a high email bounce rate.

What is a High Email Bounce Rate?

The email bounce rate refers to the percentage of undelivered messages during one email campaign. In other words, it is the number of emails that didn’t reach the receiver from the email list.

Typically, 2% or less is considered a reasonable email bounce rate. You have a list of 300 emails; the optimal number of bounced emails should be no more than 6. If the number of bounced emails exceeds 6, your email campaign will suffer.

Speaking of email campaign success, let’s move to the next part to understand why you should pay attention to your email bounce rates.

Why Should You Care About Email Bounce Rate?

Email providers collect information regarding your bounce rate. Based on this information, they choose whether or not to accept emails from you. For email providers, a high bounce rate becomes a red flag, and they may decide not to accept emails from your address -  something you should avoid at all costs.

If you don’t track and fix email bounces on time, they may lead to:

• Damaged sender reputation: ESPs view a high bounce rate as a sign that you may be a suspicious email sender. Based on that, they may automatically move your emails to the recipient's spam folder, damaging your sender reputation.
• Low email deliverability rate: A high bounce rate also affects your email deliverability. This means that most of your emails don’t reach their intended recipients, reducing the effectiveness of your outreach campaigns.
• Financial loss: Estimations reveal that mid-sized companies spend $51 – $1000 on email marketing. In business, every investment has to count, so if emails are left undelivered due to a high bounce rate, then all the money will be spent on nothing.

To understand how to reduce your email bounce rate, it's essential first to learn how to calculate it accurately.

What is a Hard Bounce?

A hard bounce happens when an email fails to get delivered for permanent reasons. This means that your email won’t get delivered, and you’ll need to find other ways to reach out to your recipients.

Below, you can find some of the common reasons for hard bounces.

• Invalid or Non-Existent Email Addresses

A non-existent email address is one that is not used anymore. This can be caused by the user changing the domain of the email or deleting the email altogether. If you continue emailing them, you will increase the number of emails bouncing back.

• Email Typos

Email typos are the following common issue. Typos are any kind of grammatical mistakes or misspellings. It’s a human error. These errors can be in the email address, too.

They mainly occur during the email collection process. Users can enter their names incorrectly when filling out a sign-in or newsletter subscription form.

For example, one of the users can fill out jhon@smith.com instead of john@smith.com, and you may not even notice this. But the ESP will, and the email address with just one typo will become bounced.

• Poor Email Authentication

Email authentication is the process of setting up email verification protocols, which are Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC).

These protocols are enacted to prove to the ESP that the email sender's address is legitimate.

Email systems try to protect their users from spammy and suspicious messages. If you have poor email authentication, there is a risk of your email being considered to be sharing suspicious content, and the email providers can place your emails in spam folders or not deliver them. Thus, you will have a hard bounced email.

So, ensure your email authentication is set up to ensure your email campaigns run smoothly.

But these were only the hard bounced emails, and we still have soft bounced emails and are starting to explore why would an email bounce. So, let’s see what they have in store.

What is a Soft Bounce?

So, what is the soft bounce in email marketing? The issues resulting in soft bounces are temporary and more accessible to fix. Plus, you can resend them within 24 hours.

If you fail to address soft bounced emails promptly over time, they will turn into hard bounces. Knowing the reasons contributing to soft bounces can help you maintain them at a low level.

So, what causes a soft bounce?

• Temporary Server Error

Temporary server errors are one of the reasons for soft bounces.

When a receiver’s email service experiences a temporary outage or other technical issues, it can lead to a temporary server error. The issues make the recipient's inbox unavailable for some time. However, you can resend the emails after they are fixed.

• Full Mailbox

A full mailbox is another technical issue that results in soft bounced emails.

Email providers have a storage limit given per email account. For instance, Outlook has 100GB of storage. If the user runs off this limit, they cannot receive any more emails.

This can happen to recipients you are trying to reach, and you will get a warning message from ESPs if you reach a person with a full mailbox.

It will be treated as a soft bounce if this happens once or twice. However, it may become a hard bounce if it occurs continuously.

• Email Size

Email size is yet another common reason for soft bounces.

For example, Gmail and Outlook have an email size limit of about 25 MB; if your email size exceeds the number, you should adjust the content to fit these limits.

What should you do? Split emails with large files into separate emails, and include images only when absolutely necessary.

• Email Filtering

Email filters evaluate incoming emails for spam content. They can filter, label, move, or delete emails based on spammy words, suspicious attachments, incorrect subject lines, etc.

However, sometimes email filters become one of the reasons for email bounce.

If you don’t want to be flagged by email filters, take some time and check your content. See whether it fits the criteria set by the receiver’s ESP’s email filters. These may ensure that your emails turn into soft bounces due to filters.

Being mindful of email bounce reasons is good, but you should also know how to handle bounced emails, which you’ll learn in the next section.

How to Calculate Your Email Bounce Rate?

Let’s break down the process of calculating your bounce rate so you can get a better understanding of how your email campaigns perform.

• First, you must determine the number of emails sent overall.
• Then, divide the number of bounced emails by the total number of sent emails.

The overall formula is quite simple, and it looks like this.

(# of bounces* / # of sent emails) x 100 = your email bounce rate

With this simple calculation, you can quickly determine how your emails are performing and where you may need to tweak things.

Now that you know what a bounced email is, the main types of email bounces, and why they matter, it’s time to learn how to handle them effectively.

Let’s start!

How to Handle a Bounced Email in 5 Effective Ways

We have defined bounced emails and covered the reasons for soft and hard bounces, but the essential and challenging part is knowing how to prevent email bounces.

We’ve put together some actionable tips to help you get started.

Let’s jump in!

1. Enable a Double Opt-In

When someone signs up for your newsletter, don’t rush to add them to your list.

Instead, send them a "Hey, did you really mean to sign up?" email. Add a link or a code they need to click or enter to confirm their subscription. It's that simple!

Below is an example of a double opt-in request.

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Why is it important?

It’s a proven way to identify typos in email addresses. No more sending emails to [jhosmith@gnail.com] instead of [johnsmith@gmail.com]! Moreover, this way, you also ensure that people actually want to hear from you.

Here’s how to implement a double-opt in for your email campaign.

• Choose an email service provider (ESP) that offers double opt-in functionality
• Create your subscription form: Ask for essential information (e.g., name, email), add a checkbox for subscribers to confirm they want to receive emails, include a privacy policy link to build trust with your email subscribers and comply with regulations.
• Design the confirmation email with a welcoming subject line, clear copy explaining the need to confirm, a confirmation button or link, and branded elements, such as your logo.
• Make a confirmation landing page with a welcome message and tell subscribers what  to expect from your emails.
• Follow up with unconfirmed subscribers.

By having a proper double opt-in process, you'll not only keep a clean and engaged email list but also minimize bounces, allowing you to build stronger relationships with your subscribers.

2. Keep Your Email Lists Clean

Regular email list clean-ups enhance your email marketing campaigns and, most importantly, reduce email bounce rates.

Here are some useful tips on how to keep your email lists up-to-date.

• Clean your email lists every 3-6 months
• Use email verification tools like mailfloss to identify and remove invalid addresses
• Keep track of bounce rates and remove hard bounces right away
• Update your email list with new, verified subscribers
• Check for and remove duplicate email addresses
• Remove addresses that consistently soft bounce
• Monitor spam complaints and remove those email addresses

Follow these tips to avoid the bounced email phenomenon and ensure your emails reach the inboxes of engaged recipients.

3. Avoid Free Sender Domains

Free domain addresses are the ones that you can get from Outlook, Google, Yahoo, or another email provider. The upside is that they are easy to get but may fail the DMARC check, which puts your emails at risk of automatically being bounced or put into the receiver's junk box.

However, having an authorized business domain will keep you away from this headache. Plus, it is easy to do.

• You will need to register your domain in registrars like GoDaddy or Google Domains.
• Then, choose an email hosting service, Google Workspace, or Microsoft 365.
• Complete the authentication process by setting up the  SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
• Finally, verify your domain and set up the email accounts.

Note: Free sender domains seem like a quick fix, but they can cause deliverability issues and look less professional. They also will not work for email marketing campaigns.

Why risk your email campaigns when upgrading to a custom domain is so simple?

4. Avoid Spam Words

Using spam words or phrases in your email content can lead to higher bounce rates.

Here are some common spam trigger words to avoid:

Discounts & Offers:

100% free, Amazing offer, Best price, Bonus, Discount, Free, FREE, Last Day, Limited, Lowest price, Save money

Urgency & Pressure:

Act now!, Apply now!, Hurry up, Urgent

Financial Promises:

Double your income, Earn $, Eliminate debt, Make $

Trust & Credibility Claims:

All natural, Certified, Guarantee, Promise you, Not spam

Our advice is to always check your emails before sending them, and the best way to do it is to use Mailmeteor’s Spam Checker, which is free and easy to use.

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All you need to do is input your email copy and the tool will highlight spam words and show the overall score.

It also shows the types of spam words you have used (e.g., urgency or shady words).

This allows you to find and replace spam words and write content that does not trigger spam filters, leading to lower bounce rates.

5. Monitor Email Bounces

When choosing an email service provider, ensure it offers insights on email bounces.

The ESP should provide details on the number of bounced emails, categorize the types of bounces (hard or soft), and explain the reasons behind each bounce.

For instance, MailChimp provides information about bounces.

To learn why emails bounced, follow these steps.

Step1: Click Analytics and then Reports.

Step 2: Tap View report.

Step 3: Click the link showing the bounced emails for this campaign.

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Step 4: On the Bounced page, click Bounce Reason for each email address you want to check.

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After clicking the Bounce Reason, you will see a report in a separate browser tab explaining the reason behind the bounced email.

With this information at your fingertips, you can maintain a clean email list, improve your sender reputation, and ultimately achieve lower bounce rates for your email campaigns.

Conclusion

Dealing with bounced emails might seem like a huge obstacle, but it's key to making your email marketing work better.

You can reduce bounce rates and improve your email deliverability by learning why emails bounce and following simple steps like using a custom domain, avoiding spammy words, and maintaining clean email lists.

Ready to reduce your bounce rate? Follow our tips and your future campaigns will thank you!

FAQ about a bounced email

How do I fix a bounced email?

Identify the type of email bounce, understand the causes, and take steps to fix them, such as optimizing email content or email authentication.

What is blocked vs bounced email?

The main difference between bounced and blocked emails is that the ESP accepts a bounced email that can't be delivered, whereas a blocked email is rejected and never sent.

What should I do with bounced emails?

You must fix bounced emails because they can significantly harm the overall effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Email Blacklists: What are They and How to Avoid Them?

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Strong communication with your email leads should be one of your main goals. But, being on the email blacklists won't help reaching this goal.

Keep in mind that 14.3% of all emails have been caught by spam filters. You don't want this to happen with your messages.

It can be one of the obstacles you should overcome to boost deliverability and ensure a winning email marketing strategy.

Luckily, our article will provide actionable tips on avoiding email blacklists and maintaining a solid email system.

Before exploring strategies for getting off blacklists, it's essential to understand what email blacklists are and how they impact your email campaigns.

What are Email Blacklists?

Email blacklists (also called DNS-based Blackhole lists) include IP addresses or domains associated with spam or suspicious content. Email service providers have live running blacklists trying to block spam and protect email recipients from receiving harmful messages.

Basically, those lists ensure only the most trustworthy senders' emails reach people's inboxes.

There are over 300 spam blacklists out there. It's quite a significant number, isn't it?

Below, we've put together the most common ones:

• Barracuda reputation block list
• Spamhaus block list (SBL)
• SpamCop
• URIBL
• SenderScore

Now that we’ve defined email blacklists and explored some common examples, let's break down the different types of blacklists you might encounter.

Main Types of Email Blacklists You Should Know

To find a solution for every problem, you need to find its core. Understanding blacklisted email reasons and the types of email blacklists can help you build tactics to avoid ending up on them.

So, let's discuss the most common types of email blacklists.

• IP-based blacklists

These lists target specific IP addresses known for sending spam. Your email address can be blacklisted if you send too many unwanted messages. Once an IP is blacklisted, emails from that address might be blocked or marked as spam.

• Domain-based blacklists

Domain-based blacklists include a list of domains marked for sending spam or harmful emails. Email providers use these lists to keep people's inboxes safe from unwanted messages.

• Public blacklists

Public lists are available to everyone, so anyone can view them from anywhere. Email providers use them to filter out spam messages. Your email address can get blacklisted if it is marked spam, gets a few complaints, or sends to spam traps.

• Private blacklists

On the contrary to public blacklists, private blacklists aren't available for the public, and only companies and businesses can manage them internally to protect their own systems and users getting blacklist emails. For example, a private blacklist can include email addresses that have violated a company’s terms of service or have been flagged by internal security protocols. Getting a private blacklist is extremely bad, as it may result in a complete loss of communication with a key partner or client.

• Spam Blacklists

Spam blacklists are lists of IP addresses or domains associated with sending spam or harmful emails. Email service providers use spam blacklists to filter out and block potentially dangerous emails.

Now that you know the different types of blacklists, it’s essential to learn how they can impact your business.

Let's find out together.

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How Do Email Blacklists Affect Your Business?

Email blacklists can negatively affect your business operations. Here are a few examples:

• Negative impact on email campaigns

You dedicate a lot of time and effort to creating outstanding email campaigns. Imagine how frustrating it can be if your email campaigns and promotions don’t reach your target audience’s inboxes because of being blacklisted. Basically, having a blacklist email address hurts the engagement rate, deliverability, and overall effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

• Damaged sender reputation

Being on the email blacklists also damages your sender reputation, which can lead to being marked as spam and having lower open rates.

Note: Fixing a damaged sender reputation takes time and effort. It not only affects the overall effectiveness of your current email campaigns but also harms your brand's credibility in the long run.

• Missed business opportunities

Emails are probably one of the main communication channels for connecting with your target audience. Imagine how many opportunities and money you lose if you have a blacklisted email address and your messages don’t reach them.

Considering the potential damage, it’s becoming essential to regularly check email blacklists.

Here's how you can quickly learn about your blacklist status.

How to Check If Your Email is Blacklisted

If you are concerned that your email might be blacklisted, several methods are available to check email blacklists.

You might get notifications from email service providers warning that your email has been blacklisted. But as it isn't always the case, you should do regular audits to ensure the health of your email system.

Firstly, check the reputation of your email server's IP address by using blacklist checkers. Use the most popular ones like MXToolbox's Blacklist Check, Barracuda IP Blacklist Checker, or GradeMyEmail Blacklist Checker to ensure your IP address isn't blacklisted. What is great about those tools is that they not only allow you to check email blacklists but also provide detailed blacklist information and suggest recommendations on how to solve issues.

Also, you can monitor the deliverability rate of your emails because a low rate can be a sign that your address is on email blacklists. To do this, send test emails to multiple email accounts to see where those messages go- the inbox, spam folder, or they get blocked. If your emails are blocked, it could mean you're on a blacklist. So, again use blacklist check solutions to find out if your email address is listed.

If you find that your email has been blacklisted, you’ll need to remove yourself from the blacklist immediately.

Here’s how.

How to Remove Yourself From Email Blacklists?

If you ever find out that you have a blacklist email address, remember that panicking isn't the best solution. So you should start the delisting process, which involves removing an email IP address or domain from an email blacklist. You should do that by taking the following steps:

• First, use blacklist checker tools to find out if your email address is blacklisted. Contact your email service provider if you don’t know which blacklist you're on.
• Reach out to the blacklist provider and request the removal of your IP address or domain from the blacklist.
• Complete tasks the blacklist provider may require, like building a double opt-in subscription process or explaining how you fixed the issues, such as spam complaints or poor email practices. Each email blacklist has its own removal process, so follow their specific instructions. Some require you to ask for removal, while others automatically take your domain off the list after a set time.

After you get removed from the blacklist, you need to carefully clean your email list. This is something we will cover next.

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Stay Off Email Blacklists with 6 Tips

While removing yourself from a blacklist is crucial, it’s even better to avoid being blacklisted in the first place.

Here are six tips to help you stay off email blacklists.

Keep Your Email List Healthy

Proper list management and a healthy email list are essential to avoid getting placed on email blacklists.

Below, you can find some valuable tips to keep your email list strong.

• Regularly clean your list

You need to remove inactive email addresses to maintain email list hygiene and ensure better deliverability of your messages. Don't forget to remove email addresses that keep bouncing, too, to keep your list healthy.

Plus, verify your email addresses and remove invalid or incorrect ones. Luckily, mailfloss email verifier can help you by automatically removing invalid addresses and keeping your list clean.

Lastly, you should send a verification link to email recipients so they can confirm that an email address actually exists and that they can receive emails.

• Send relevant and targeted content

People can mark your email address as spam, which may result in it being blacklisted if your messages are irrelevant. To prevent this, engage your audience with targeted and relevant content that meets their needs and interests.

Analyze your audience by collecting data. Then, segment your email list based on your subscribers’ preferences and behavior to create messages that resonate with them.

• Avoid spammy practices

You should stay away from spammy techniques as much as possible. It includes staying away from spammy words or phrases like "free," "guaranteed," and "limited time offer," or having misleading subject lines.

By following these helpful tips, you can prevent blacklisted email addresses.

Stop Manually Adding Email Addresses to Your Database

Remember, you should always have permission from email recipients before adding them to your contact list. If people don't let you send messages, they probably mark your emails as spam, increasing the chances of ending up on a blacklist.

Another reason you shouldn't manually add email addresses is preventing typos. This way, you make sure you don't send emails to non-existent addresses that bounce and can make you blacklisted.

Use Double Opt-ins

Using double opt-in forms is one of the most important steps to prevent fake emails, ensuring your subscribers are real and only valid email addresses are on your list. This step ensures your subscribers want to receive your emails, whether you're building a newsletter, sending promotional offers, or alerting them to new offerings.

In this process, users sign up and then confirm their subscription via email. Double opt-in forms ensure you only contact interested subscribers, which minimizes the chances of getting flagged as spam and getting on email blacklists.

Never Purchase Email Lists

Buying an email list can seem a quick and easy solution to improve your lead generation efforts. But those lists often contain fake emails or spam traps - something you should stay away from so you do not end up on the email blacklists.

It's true that building an email list from scratch takes time and effort, but all your hard work will pay off.

So, instead of purchasing lists, create newsletter signup forms with valuable incentives and unique landing pages that encourage people to subscribe to your inbox.

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Protect Your Server from Malicious Software and Bots

You must have security measures in place to protect your email server and domain. There are bots and malware out there that can try to hijack your domain.

These programs send fake emails that can get you blacklisted, even if you follow only ethical email practices.

To avoid this, you should update your email server's security to protect against these harmful bots and software. This way, you shouldn't have blacklist emails impacting your email marketing efforts.

Use Email Testing Tools

Finally, you can use email testing tools to keep your email list healthy and avoid email blacklists:

• Email deliverability checkers

Email deliverability checkers test SPF and DKIM records to identify and fix errors. They help authenticate your emails, which improves your chances of reaching the recipients' inboxes and avoiding spam filters and blacklists.

• Email validation tools

Email validation tools check if email addresses are correct and active. They also spot addresses that might cause delivery problems.

• Email subject line testers

Email subject line testers help you create compelling and engaging subject lines. They also check for potential issues that can trigger spam filters.

• Email preview and email copy tests

Those tests help to optimize your email content before sending your messages. This, in turn, ensures your emails look professional and effective, reducing the chances of them being marked as spam and ending up on the blacklist.

All these steps may be time-consuming, but your hard work will pay off because, in the end, you will have solid and healthy email communication.

To sum up

Whether you accidentally end up on the blacklist or didn’t follow proper email practices, there are steps you should take to avoid email blacklists.

Our article can be your guide during this journey. By following our tips, you can ensure the health of your email system and the success of your email campaigns.

Good luck with boosting your email marketing strategies, and stay tuned for more articles!

FAQ about email blacklists

How long does the blacklist last?

A blacklist can last for days to several months, depending on the severity of the issue. Blacklist duration varies by the provider's policies.

Where do blacklisted emails go?

Blacklisted emails are typically filtered into the spam or junk folder, quarantined, or blocked completely by the email system.

Email Marketing for Beginners

What is email marketing? Is email marketing important? How to do email marketing if you have no idea how it works and no time on your hands?

At least one of those questions has stolen a few hours from your sleep schedule. We’re not judging: it’s easy to lose sleep when no one’s buying anything from you. Those shoes and socks ain’t gonna buy themselves.

If you’re just getting started in email marketing, you may feel like you’re stepping into unknown territory. There are so many terms you don’t understand, and it all seems impossible to implement. Not to mention, expensive.

We’re here to help. It’s a lot easier than you might think.

We’ll get to the goodies in a moment. But when it comes to email marketing, rule number one is clear: the more people you can capture at the top of the funnel, the more will come out at the end.

Before you lose any more sleep, remember that your goal isn’t to convert every single person. Your goal is to convert as many leads as you can with your email marketing campaigns.

Finally, the part you’ve been waiting for:

What’s the Importance of Email Marketing?

If you’re a beginner beginner, you’ve just found gold. Here are all the things you never thought emails could do for you:

• Drive qualified traffic to your website. The people who have opted into your email list are ripe to get their hands on what you’re selling. If they click through a link you’ve added to one of your emails, you’re doing something right.
• Increase your sales. Done properly, email marketing creates a deep connection with subscribers; and you already know that brand preference equals a peak in sales.
• Connect with your audience at the right time. Email marketing software allows you to send emails based on behavioral triggers. This way, everyone from your list sees the right messages when they’re in the prime of interest.
• Provides a sky-high return on investment. eMarketer conducted a study that shows the average email marketing ROI is 122%. Other marketing channels can’t hold a candle to that.
• It’s actually inexpensive. If you can earn $42 from investing a single dollar in a marketing campaign, what’s stopping you from doing it?

Here’s something you may or may not want to hear: you’ll get the knack of email marketing as you go. No one likes taking the longer path anymore, but technology still can’t automate everything. That’s not as bad as it sounds.

A word of motivation: the email marketing software you’ll use will cut down a lot of the work. A lot.

Now that you know what to expect, you’re ready to get started.

First, Start a List

From your groceries to the planning of your day, everything starts with a list. Or at least it should.

As far as websites and emails go, a “list” means something rather different. Your list is the people who are going to be opening and hopefully reading your emails. The question is: How do you start one?

First, you need to know who you’re dealing with. You already sort of do. They’re your customers and your lurking potential buyers.

If your business has already had its fair share of sales and repeat customers, you know what they want and what they’d be happy to get. If you’re still unsure, it pays to dive into some research for when it comes time to develop your lead magnet. Try to find out:

• What your loyal customers love about your product or service.
• What your one-time customers loved about what they bought -- and why they didn’t buy anything else.
• What customers would like you to offer, but you don’t.

Why is that stuff important?

In the following topic, you’ll essentially learn how to bribe your website visitors for their names and emails. A good kind of bribe. In other words, you’ll put a lead magnet together.

To make it interesting, you’ll need to offer something valuable enough to them. Something you know they’ll accept. You should only get those answers from their mouths, otherwise, you’ll run the risk of offering something they’re not that interested in. Talk about a waste of time and investment.

It’s a life lesson right here. If you need to know something about your audience, ask them. Don’t get stuck in the curse of knowledge.

Since you still don’t have an email list you can use to survey or interview subscribers, you can grab that information by adding polls to your website and asking the questions you want to be answered. Tools like HotJar can help you with that.

On to the lead magnet.

Then, Create or Optimize Your Lead Magnets

More often than not, you’ll bump into the following pop-up lead magnet:

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It's not bad at all, but it doesn’t deliver. Plus, it sounds like an order. People don’t enjoy orders.

What else have you got? A free ebook that would otherwise cost them $20? A free consultation? A coupon? That’s more like it.

We like to say that lead magnets are AVS. We just made that up, but it’s easy to memorize. It stands for actionable, valuable, and short. The least you can do is offer something of value one single time since you’ll be sending content on a weekly or monthly basis.

Here’s the perfect example of an AVS lead magnet:

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There are tons and tons of lead magnet ideas out there. But this one is perfect as an excample because:

• It’s permission-based. See that red area? If they read that text and still provide their email address, they’re consenting to your emails.
• Still, it lets people know they can unsubscribe at any time.
• It’s short, and offers something valuable that people can get their hands on immediately after signing up.

Unsure about what content to create, and for what audience to create it? Don’t be shy to ask about readers' goals and preferences. This can help you write emails that matter to them.

Here’s a perfect example of how to do that:

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Got it? But that’s not all.

Pop-ups are cursed in the four corners of the world for a reason. They often wreck the whole browsing experience before visitors have had a chance to check a website out.

Prefer exit-intent pop-ups over traditional, intrusive pop-ups. They only show up when visitors are about to leave your site, which means they’ve had more than enough time to look for what they need.

By the way, lead magnets aren’t the only way to invite visitors to join your email list. Why not use your email list as a call-to-action on social media and on your blog posts? This will ensure you’re capturing as many visitors as you can, from every corner of the web.

Know Your Subscribers by Segment

Not all your subscribers are the same.

Some of them have been customers for a while. Some of them are brand-spanking new customers. Some have bought once and never bought again, while others are “just looking”.

Each of these segments wants something different from you.

In order to personalize and segment your audience, you need to know what they expect from your emails.

We’ll tell you what personalization means in just a moment. But first, you should understand that your audience covers:

• Leads
• Customers
• Inactive subscribers
• Raving Fans

Your leads have gone through your lead magnet and are part of your email list. They’re receiving your emails, and your goal is to nurture them with great email content until they’re ready to buy.

Your customers have already bought from you, so they need special treatment. They need to receive special discounts, earn a chance to participate in loyalty programs and get rewards every now and again.

Your raving fans are worth their weight in gold. They’re your repeat customers and the people who are the most engaged with your emails. They need special offers, discounts, and incentives created just for them (make that clear!). That’s the least you can do as a “thank you” for their continuous support.

Your inactive subscribers need a little push. Don’t take it personal. Most times, they’re too busy to even look at their emails. That’s what winback emails are for: to give them another chance to join the squad, or let them go if they want to.

Take a look at this unsubscribe slash winback email from Framebridge:

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See? No pressure at all.

Pick an Email Marketing Software

An email marketing software will be your right-hand assistant. Without it, none of what we’re talking about here would be possible.

For beginners, an email service must be two things: easy to use, and simple to understand.

Prefer software that offers 24/7 support from real team members, because you’ll have a lot of questions. That’s an affirmation. There’s nothing worse than sleeping with nagging doubts gone unanswered.

Plus, you’ll be lucky to have some time to get used to them without paying a dime. For instance, Constant Contact optimizes its offer with a one-month trial. An entire month! Mailchimp is just one of the many that offer a free plan up to 2,000 subscribers. If you’re a complete beginner, you’ll have a lot less than that.

Here are some software for you to compare:

• Constant Contact
• MailChimp
• Sendinblue
• MailerLite

Want unfiltered opinions? Go here to learn how to make the right choice.

Personalize the Hell Out of Those Emails

Once your list starts to grow, you’ll have to do more than just send emails.

By the way, note that “growth” is subjective here. Earning 100 subscribers is considered growth, and so is earning 2 subscribers.

If you want to make sure your emails are opened, read, and clicked through, personalizing them is the way to go. How can you do that?

There’s no better way of personalizing emails than to segment your list. Don’t worry about learning how to do it just yet -- the email marketing software you choose will automate most of the process.

Your job is to create content that feels personal. You know, content that makes leads feel like they’re not just someone else on your list. Here are a few tips:

Send behavioral emails. Include emails that are triggered based on a subscriber’s activity. Have they abandoned their cart? Boom, reminder email. It’s their birthday? Email (with a little gift inside). Have they earned a badge? Congratulatory email!

Again, don't worry. All you have to do is create the content -- the software will help do the rest ;).

On to the examples. Nothing says “aw, shucks” more than someone who remembers important dates. If your significant other won’t remember your anniversary, Naadam has got you covered:

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Grammarly here incentivizes users by wrapping up their weekly writing progress. Needless to say, every email is different for every user.

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Call them by their name. Open your inbox right now to see your name pop up multiple times. Doesn’t that look good? Match someone’s most personal aspect (their name) to an outstanding email, and they can’t help but listen. That’s why you should always refer to your audience by their first names.

Reach out at the right time. An email marketing software will let you view the date and time when your emails were opened. You’ve probably seen posts that dictate the right times to send emails, but the truth is, it all depends on your audience, time zone, and seasonality.

A Few Best Practices to Get You Going

According to Mailchimp, you shouldn’t use more than 9 words and 60 characters on your subject lines. Keep them short, sweet, and sexy, like in the following examples:

“Life gets crazy. So I saved this for you.” -- CoSchedule

They saved something for me? What could that be? Let me check, real quick.

Your shower is out of order -- Beardbrand

No, it’s not!… Is it?

Use large headings and content hierarchy in your copy. It’s great for both skimmers and the visually impaired.

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Make your emails readable. Don’t write huge chunks of text. Use lots of white space, and make your calls-to-action visible. Like this:

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That last line, by the way…

It hurts, but why not give people the chance to unsubscribe forever if they want to? It shows character.

Match email design with your brand. The good news: You’ll have a lot of custom templates to choose from. The bad news: with so many personalization tools available, it’s easy to have way too much fun with them.

Matching your emails to your branding is essential. Always make sure to personalize emails with your logo and branding.

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That darned owl. It’s Duolingo in all its splendor.

Finally, always check your email analytics. Remember we said you’d get the hang of it as you go? That’s what this part is all about.

You’ll only know what’s going well once you look at the numbers. The software you use will give you precious analytics to work with, including open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates.

Email Marketing is About One Thing, and One Thing Only…

And that thing is earning new customers.

You’ll connect with and nurture them later, but first, you’ve got to earn them. There’s a process to that, which involves everything you read above. All you’re doing is starting a bond, the same way you do when meeting someone new.

Although not everyone will buy your product, service, or course, the goal is to pack the top of the funnel so more people will come out of it.

Still wonder whether email marketing is worth it? Think of it this way: is earning new customers worth it to you? Then the answer is yes.