Make your mark with email marketing.

Email marketing allows you to connect with people who want to hear from you. Good email marketing is about sending relevant, engaging messages to the right people at the right time to maximize your marketing efforts and achieve your business or nonprofit goals.

Email marketing is a great tool for driving sales — every dollar spent on email marketing yields $36 in return — but there are many other benefits: education, enhanced brand recognition, and stronger relationships with your existing (and potential) customers.

Given all its upsides, email will likely be one of the key ways you’ll communicate with your audience on a regular basis. Follow these nine best practices to craft a must-open email and make a good impression: 

• Use Constant Contact’s professional email marketing platform to send high-quality emails in bulk. 

• Add sign-up forms to your website and social media channels so you can expand your email list.

• Craft subject lines that stand out in the inbox — ideally, 40 characters or fewer. 

• Learn the anatomy of a successful email. 

• Use pre-made templates to save time and add your brand’s flair — like your logo and colors. 

• Add buttons or a call-to-action. Every email should present a next step, so your contacts know how to purchase, learn more, or sign up for something.

• Personalize emails with the subscriber’s name and other dynamic content. 

• Group your audience into lists, so you can send them targeted content based on their activity, interests, and more.

• Track important data like open rates, click-throughs, conversions, bounces, and unsubscribes to see where customers engage with your content and where you can improve.

Dive deeper with our guide on email marketing best practices. Or, explore the latest trends in email marketing — which covers everything from email design to AI. 

Building your email marketing strategy from the ground up? Here are six tips for those who are new to the email marketing game: 

• Start a free trial with Constant Contact, where you can explore pre-designed email templates and learn the ropes at your own pace.

• Figure out who you want to email. No list yet? That’s OK. Start building your list by collecting customer information with a sign-up form on your website and social media channels. 

• Create a reusable template and use AI writing assistance to draft your email. Here are some pro tips on writing a marketing email. Make sure it’s informative, branded, and includes a call-to-action. 

• See if there are any email series you want to create (and automate) to save you major time down the line. Think: welcome emails or purchase confirmations. 

• Send your first email. Celebrate! Then, start planning your next send. 

• Measure results and tweak email campaigns. Keep an eye on things like open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes, so you know when to make adjustments.

Want a detailed play-by-play on how to jumpstart your program? Here’s a 10-step email marketing to-do list.

Once you know the basics of eye-catching email design and click-worthy content, you’re ready to branch out. Here are seven of the most common types of marketing emails: 

• Welcome: A welcome email introduces subscribers to your brand. Tell your company’s story, share what you do, and offer incentives to new customers. 

• Newsletter: Newsletters are digests that give subscribers important updates. Share what’s new, update your store hours, or link to engaging content on your blog or social media channels.

• Transactional: A transactional email typically relates to an action your subscriber took. It could feature a purchase confirmation, order details, or important account information.

• Seasonal: Celebrate holidays and occasions with seasonal emails. Promote special events, announce an annual sale, or share a limited-time offer.  

• Survey: Send a survey to get feedback on your products, initiatives, customer service, or marketing efforts. 

• Product launch: Build hype with a product launch email. Tease new drops and keep subscribers engaged as you debut new products, services, or features.

• Nurture: Nurture emails contain exciting content or useful information on things like giveaways. They often come in a series and are designed to earn your audience’s trust and attention.

Do they have best-in-class-delivery rates? No one wants their shard work to end up in a spam folder. Constant Contact's email delivery rate is one of the highest in the industry at 97%. That means more of your emails landing where you want them – in your customer's inboxes.

Is your account going to be secure? Security is everything. With Constant Contact, all of your account, credit card, and subscriber information and content is encrypted via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections over HTTPS. In addition, Constant Contact requires Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) when logging in, to add an extra layer of security to your account.

Do they have demonstrated customer satisfaction? You want an email marketing service that works well for its customers, and we've got the goods and the customer feedback to prove it. Check out stories from our customers to learn more about how small businesses like yours are growing with Constant Contact. 

Features: 

• Easy-to-use email editor, drag-and-drop functionality, and hundreds of email templates.

• List management tools for building, segmenting, and tracking.

• A/B testing options, heat maps, metrics on open, click-through, bounce, etc.

• Social media integration for creating and posting social posts and ads on platforms like Google, Facebook and Instagram.

• Integration options for design, e-commerce, event management, payment processing, and social media.

• Dynamic, mobile-optimized sign up forms with custom fields and built-in security.

• Features for marketing automation, event marketing, and surveys

• A mobile app that allows for campaign design from desktop to mobile device.

SafeUnsubscribeⓇ: With Constant Contact, every email includes a SafeUnsubscribe® link assuring your customers that you have used a legitimate permission-based email provider. Ensure the software meets necessary compliance standards including CAN-SPAM and GDPR before purchasing a subscription with an email marketing provider.

As a business owner, you make a lot of decisions — big and small — on a daily basis. The best email marketing platform for you is one that meets the needs of your business right now. Here’s what we recommend based on different types of businesses we talk to every day. 

If you’re in the early days of building your business, the Lite plan is a good place to start. Learn the ropes of email marketing at your own pace with self-service video tutorials, or ask our support team for help. The Lite plan has essentials like email and social, so you can start getting the word out now about your new business. 

For small businesses who need even more marketing power — think: automations, segmentation, and other tools that help you work smarter, not harder — Standard’s your best bet. You’ll be able to start experimenting with social ads, preschedule content, and set up emails to send out automatically. 

Premium is where you’ll unlock new levels of sophistication through automations and segmenting contacts based on customer behavior. Connect with customers in meaningful ways with less effort.

Every business is different, which is why we also have a tailored solution for brands that don’t fit in conventional boxes. Maybe you have many teams, departments, or locations. Maybe you have different types of users who all need very specific permissions. Our multi-account solution keeps your brand flexible and consistent, whether you’re a franchise, real estate firm, marketing agency, local government, and beyond.