The Ultimate Email Marketing Checklist for 2021

2021 is known as the digital marketing era. It’s becoming increasingly important for companies to be at the top of their game and stay relevant in this close-fitting competition.  With the surge of numerous marketing methods, businesses are significantly losing sight of how essential email marketing is. There’s no denying that it is one of the oldest methods of marketing, however, email marketing can still be considered as the single best marketing channel to drive leads. This can be said because, according to Statista, there are currently 3.9 billion daily email users. The number is expected to climb to 4.3 billion by 2023. Upsurge 

To curb the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has left on B2B companies, Deck 7 brings a 6-step email marketing checklist that will enable you to grow your business exponentially in 2021. But before we get into the details of this guide, let’s look at how email marketing has evolved and how significant it is in 2021. 

Evolution of Email Marketing

Businesses are no more doubtful about how to get into email marketing. They are well aware of this marketing method. But initially, it was a sincere concern for a lot of B2B companies. To begin with, the very first email marketing strategy for gaining prospects started with an experiment of sending a single email to some 400 people at once. The company that managed to do it made tons of sales later. 

Then came the co-ordinated process of email marketing and the usage of mobile phones. With smartphones becoming a rage after 2007, email marketing picked up pace like never before. And here we are today in 2021, where companies can communicate through automated responses and scheduled emails. As a marketing method, email marketing has a momentous journey of its own. 

Significance of Email Marketing in 2021

Generating leads had become much of a hassle for companies in 2020 due to the sudden need of functioning remotely. But email marketing came to the rescue due to its traditional yet significant approach. And now B2B companies have started to see tremendous results through email campaigns. One of HubSpot’s reports said email marketers are sending 27% more emails than they then did pre-coronavirus. This has resulted only due to the convenience that the email marketing process provides to businesses. Now that it’s established how essential email marketing is for companies, let’s explore some of the most effective email marketing tips through Deck 7’s 6-step checklist. 

6-Step Email Marketing Checklist

Most companies are aware of the various email marketing steps required to implement an email campaign. But do all campaigns turn out to be successful? Unfortunately, not! However, by following the email marketing checklist presented below, your business is certain to receive the leads it’s on the lookout for. 

Invest in a Good Email Marketing Software

An email marketing checklist is technically incomplete without a good email marketing software or application. To help you make a pick, listed below are some email marketing software that would help you navigate your email to your audience. 

• MailChimp
• Drip
• GetResponse
• ActiveCampaign

When selecting a software suitable for your business, make sure to consider the following. 

Integration

Having software that seamlessly integrates with your CRM is an advantage that businesses don’t realize. Since you have other aspects to focus on in your email campaign, using an email marketing application that sends, resends emails, and updates lists on its own saves a lot of time. Hence a software that is well-integrated with other processes of your business should be a major consideration of this email marketing checklist. 

Feedback Handling

Another facet you should consider while selecting software which is also part of this email marketing campaign checklist is to check how it handles and responds to feedback. As a business entity, you are bound to receive responses on regular basis. When you invest in software that effortlessly handles feedback without interrupting other processes greatly affects your productivity.  

Set Aside Your Audience and Goals

Another very crucial part of your email marketing campaign best practices should be knowing whom to target and what you want to achieve with your email campaign. In an attempt to achieve these two, the following needs to be done. 

Decide Whom You Want to Target

When deciding your target audience is a part of your email marketing checklist, there are very thin chances of your campaign going wrong. Even though there are thousands of potential clients in the market, your job is finalizing a list of clients who would not only click on your email but also go ahead and become a lead. 

Determine What You Want to Achieve

Your business might deal with various products or services, your job is to narrow the objective of the email campaign and the results you want to achieve at the end of it. Including your end goal in your email checklist constantly reminds you of the purpose of conducting this kind of marketing and what you will achieve if everything’s done right. 

Finalize the Email List to Be Used

Your customer is very much a part of your email marketing checklist. Hence you need to decide which list you want to target and when. Typically, your business may have 2 types of email contact lists: 

Existing Customers

These are the customers who have already purchased your product or service. The email marketing strategies that might work on your prospects may not necessarily work on your current or past customers.  

New Acquisitions

Making your new acquisitions a part of your email marketing checklist is essential to reach new customers along with the current ones. 

Have a Set Email Template

A set template that is unique to your offerings should be a part of your business email checklist. Your template should have the below-mentioned characteristics.  

Subject Line

Every email that you send should have an attractive subject line. Because your subject line is the most important element of your email and more often the deciding factor whether your target will open your email or not. Hence a subject line is a crucial part of this email marketing checklist.

Signature

One of the B2B email marketing tips that companies ignore is having a uniform email signature. When you focus on such minute details you go to build an audience that notices this and they further become your loyal customers. Keeping your signature constant through all your emails and campaigns demonstrates your quality of attention to detail. 

Email Length

Emails are meant to be short and to-the-point. Since it’s not possible to wrap up your message in a single paragraph every time, having a standard email length helps. The reason to include this in your email marketing checklist is that this is also one of the elements that make your company stand out as your audience realizes how much content to expect through your emails.  

Call to Action (CTA)

The entire point of your email campaigns is either to inform your audience about your offering or sell your products or services. In both cases, an action is required to form the audience. This is why it is necessary to place your call to action statement or button in a distinctive format. Make this feature a part of your email campaign checklist and experience the success for yourself. 

Personalization

Customers love the personalization of any form. So, keeping at least one personalized element in your email is one of the essential tips to make your emails more engaging. Addressing the email to a customer or prospect with their name or last name gives that personal touch to it and in the long run, is highly important for a business. For this and other reasons, personalization is a part of this email marketing checklist. 

Craft Your Content Carefully

Your email campaign holds no meaning if your content isn’t up to the mark. Since customers now have become more aware of what they consume, offering them what attracts their attention is a task on its own. This is why carefully crafting your email content is included in this email marketing checklist. 

Keep the Language Professional Yet Simple 

A productive content outreach strategy is one that has content unique to your business yet simple to read and understand. The true art of explaining your offering lies in how easily are you able to break down complex concepts so that your readers can understand them effortlessly.   

Avoid Using Too Many Industry Jargons

Another mistake that companies commit is of including too much jargon and industry terms in their content. There is no harm in doing this provided the target audience is such. If the readers are unable to understand what the business is trying to explain there is no point even if it is a well-written piece. 

Highlight Your Benefits

Your content is one of the fair chances to impress your audience. Don’t waste it by talking about concepts that aren’t important for you or your audience. Instead highlight your benefits. Cover all the advantages that your audience will get to experience if they invest in your offering. This point shouldn’t be missed in your email marketing checklist. 

Do Not Make It Salesy

There is a very fine line between sounding salesy and being informative. As a marketing manager, you need to find your balance between these two. Because when your content reflects that you are trying to sell your offering, the prospects who don’t know about your business would become reluctant to even knowing about it. Hence, you need to be extremely subtle while drafting your email content.  

Improve Your Email Design

Optimizing and polishing your email design should also be a part of your email marketing audit checklist. 

Just having a template, drafting good content isn’t enough testing its usability is also essential. To check how practical your email is, conduct the below activities. 

Check Your UTM Parameters

Your email marketing checklist should include checking all your UTM parameters and if they function well. This means you need to test if the navigation of your audience on your website or landing page is tracked if all the actions they perform on the links are tracked and other such activities. 

Test Your Links

An email copy has a landing page and sometimes even multiple links, in both cases, it is necessary to test those links. To make your email copy appear professional and neat, it is crucial to check that all the elements on it especially your links are well functioning and give the desired output. 

Review Your Email on Different Devices

Another critical step included in your email marketing checklist is reviewing how your email appears on different devices. This needs to be done so that your customers do not misinterpret your email message just because of its layout. 

Track and Analyse

Just executing an email campaign isn’t the entire point of the activity, gaining leads through the process is the main goal. Hence tracking and analyzing is the last but also an important aspect of this email marketing checklist. Some points to ponder upon while tracking and analyzing your campaigns are as follows.  

Automate Email Resending

The list of mistakes to look out for in email marketing automation is long. But the most common mistake is to not automate your emails at all. Even though there is an upsurge in the digital age, some companies still settle on the old-school method of email marketing. For companies to not do it, this feature has been included in this email marketing checklist.  

Monitor the Click-to-Open Rate

An effective email marketing strategy not only includes monitoring the open rates of your emails but also tracking which links present in your emails were clicked and how many times. This gives the leverage to put out relatable content.   

Trace Bounced Emails

This email marketing best practices checklist also addresses why it is essential to track bounced emails. You need to understand how many contacts on your list are genuine and filter out the irrelevant ones. 

The above-mentioned email marketing checklist is the most precise guide that will help you to execute a successful campaign. To know how we plan an email marketing strategy for B2B companies, contact Deck 7 today! 

Frequently Asked Questions:

What are the latest trends in Email marketing?

Some of the latest trends that should be a part of your email marketing checklist are:

• Interactive mails
• GIFs, videos, and animations
• Subscriber control
• User-generated content
• Artificial intelligence (AI)

Does email marketing still work in 2021?

Email marketing is not going out of trend, especially not soon. The concept of personalized emails is becoming largely popular and going to widespread in 2021. So yes, email marketing is going to bring leads in 2021 and the coming years.  

Which are the most commonly used email marketing tools for B2B companies? 

Here’s a list of the most common tools that B2B companies can include in their email marketing checklist: 

• MailChimp
• Drip
• GetResponse
• ActiveCampaign