Email blasts are crucial in marketing programs, but many businesses often fall short. Due to improper usage, email blasts can inadvertently become spam, causing irritation instead of nurturing potential customers.

This article is your guide to mastering email blasts – from understanding the essentials to effective sending techniques. Follow the tips below to shift from spamming your recipients to delivering genuine, personalized value.

Understanding email blasts

What is an email blast?

An email blast (E-blast) is a mass email sent to many recipients simultaneously. Email blasts are commonly employed for promotional campaigns, newsletters, announcements, event invitations, and more.

Sending irrelevant or excessive email blasts may result in recipients unsubscribing or marking your emails as spam.

Therefore, it’s essential to balance the use of email blasts with targeted, personalized email campaigns and to follow best practices for email marketing.

Benefits of sending email blasts

​​Email blasts, when used rightly, greatly benefit your business. Some of the benefits are:

Minimize costs

Email blasts can earn you more than you spend on them. With minimal design, distribution, and printing expenses, email marketing allows businesses to reach a large audience without incurring substantial costs. 

According to DMA, the average return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is $42 for every $1 spent, making it one of the most efficient channels for cost-effective marketing.

Reach the right audience

Segmenting your email lists based on various criteria allows you to implement targeted audience reach in your email blasts campaigns. By categorizing subscribers according to demographics, preferences, and behaviors, such as website visits, previous email engagement, and past purchases, you can customize the content and messaging for specific groups. 

This strategic approach ensures your messages are not one-size-fits-all but resonate with the unique interests and needs of different segments within your overall audience.

Achieve measurement

These metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your email blasts: 

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversion rate
• Revenue per recipient (RPR)
• Deliverability rates
• Unsubscribe rate
• List growth rate
• Return on investment (ROI)

These metrics signal how close potential customers are to making a purchase, their position in the sales funnel, and their level of engagement. When you gather these insights from email blasts, you can apply them to other marketing channels, refining your overall marketing strategy.

Enhance customer engagement

Email blasts offer a direct and personalized communication channel with your audience. You keep customers interested in your brand through engaging content such as product updates, exclusive offers, and helpful newsletters. This direct way of communicating makes people feel more connected and it’s convenient for them to stay in touch with your brand regularly.

Drive repeat purchasing

Email blasts are different from automated messages because they don’t depend on what customers do. Instead, they’re like friendly reminders that your brand is around. If someone buys something after getting one of these reminders, it shows they remember your brand and had a good experience before.

People buying from your email reminders more than once is a sign to make a special group for them. This group gets special messages in the future because they like and engage with your brand.

Increase sales and revenue

Email blasts, or email campaigns, usually earn less per recipient than email automation flows. However, if your content is relevant and your email lists are somewhat segmented, you can aim for low RPR (revenue per recipient) with many emails.

What makes an email blast good?

Segmentation and targeting

The content of an email blast should resonate with the recipient’s specific interests, needs, and characteristics. Achieving relevance involves leveraging personalization techniques based on various factors:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location, or profession.
• Preferences: Interest, favored content, or communication channel preferences.
• Behavioral data: Click-through rates, pages viewed, time spent on a website, purchase history, search queries, and other user actions.
• Customer segments: New subscribers, loyal customers, or inactive ones.

The clear and compelling subject line

Creating a clear and compelling subject line involves carefully capturing recipients’ attention and encouraging them to open your email.

Here are some tips to create compelling subject line:

• Concise and curious: Generate a 5-7 word subject line that stands out in the inbox, using questions or intriguing language to spark curiosity without giving away the details.
• Personalized: Integrate preferences, content interests, and the recipient’s name for a more intimate connection.
• Urgent: Use time-sensitive elements like limited offers and actionable language for immediate response.

Valuable content

When you accurately divide your email recipients into specific groups, your email content immediately becomes more valuable. This is because understanding each audience group and their preferences shapes your email content, which usually falls into one of four categories:

• Educational: Enlighten the reader with fascinating insights and valuable knowledge.
• Entertaining: Infuse amusement, delight, and captivation to engage your email subscribers.
• Engaging: Motivate the reader to interact with your brand or take specific actions.
• Inspiring: Utilize brand storytelling to influence and motivate shoppers to purchase.

No matter how you do it, the aim is for people who get your email to understand the good things they can get from your promotion when they finish reading it.

Mobile optimization

A responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes is crucial  for  effective email blasts, ensuring visual appeal and functionality. Prioritize concise content, large and tappable CTAs for touchscreen convenience, and a single-column layout for easy scrolling. Optimize images for faster loading, choose readable fonts, and strategically place key information at the top to minimize scrolling. 

By prioritizing these elements, you ensure a seamless and engaging experience for mobile users, contributing to the overall success of your email blast strategy.

How to create and send email blasts that aren’t spammy

Step 1: Choose an audience segment

Before starting your email campaign, connect with the people most interested in your emails.

Look for those who recently opened or clicked on an email (within 30 days) or subscribed in the last 15 days. To make this group even more specific, consider what they buy, their interests, how often they check emails, and where they live. 

This way, you can create a finely tuned and personalized audience group that matches their unique traits and likes.

Step 2: Determine your offer

Tailoring your offer to each segment’s needs and interests ensures recipients find genuine value in your email blasts. The more your offer aligns with their preferences, the more likely they will engage and take the desired action. 

Consider these diverse options tailored to different audience segments:

• For potential buyers: Discounts, limited-time sales, free gifts with purchase, exclusive quantity deals, seasonal promotions, and personalized recommendations.
• For new subscribers: Online workshops, free consultations or assessments, giveaways or contests, free trials or samples, and educational resources.
• For existing customers: Exclusive pre-sale access, loyalty rewards, referral program access, exclusive content or sneak peeks, VIP membership or access, and community or forum access.

Step 3: Write your email content

Writing good emails means thinking about who you’re talking to and what you’re offering. You get to decide your brand’s voice, but one important rule always applies: audience preferences determine your email content. So, remember to make your audience the focus of your email blasts.

Here are some tips for creating effective email blasts content:

• Shape your brand voice: Define how your brand communicates. Remember, your audience plays a crucial role in your email content strategy.
• Curate compelling subject lines: Take time to create subject lines that resonate with your recipients, sparking curiosity and a sense of urgency.
• Leverage customer testimonials: Boost trust and credibility by featuring positive customer reviews. Let the experiences of others speak volumes.
• Highlight product benefits: Convey the main advantages of your products through creative storytelling and use emotions to connect with your audience.
• Prompt action with a CTA: Include a clear Call to Action (CTA) using language that encourages immediate engagement.

Step 4: Design your email

If you aim to showcase new products and provide readers with various choices, embrace an image-heavy design adorned with compelling product shots to entice clicks. Conversely, a more minimalist, text-based design may be more effective if your offer isn’t centered around products.

Follow these key principles to uphold excellence in your email design:

• Logo inclusion: Ensure your logo is prominent for immediate brand recognition.
• Social media links: Enhance connectivity by seamlessly incorporating links to your social media platforms.
• Unsubscribe link: Comply with legal requirements with an easily accessible unsubscribe link.
• Balanced image use: Exercise restraint in utilizing images to prevent slow loading times and enhance user experience.
• Background experimentation: Explore colorful or patterned backgrounds for visual appeal.
• CTA limitation: Maintain effectiveness by limiting Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons to three or fewer.
• Mobile optimization: Prioritize mobile optimization for the majority of recipients.

Step 5: Send and test your email

A/B testing improves the quality of your emails. It’s super useful, especially when you’re just starting and unsure what resonates with your audience. A/B testing helps you figure that out and make your emails more effective. 

Foundational A/B Tests for email:

• Subject line testing: Evaluate variations to optimize open rates.
• CTA testing: Experiment with different Call-to-Action (CTA) elements to enhance Click-Through Rates (CTRs).
• Image and layout testing: Assess diverse visuals and layouts to improve overall CTR performance.

Step 6: Analyze your results

This step is pivotal in ensuring your emails aren’t perceived as spam but resonate positively with your audience. 

Below are some key metrics to consider when measuring the effectiveness of your email blast campaigns:

• Open rates and Click-through rates (CTR): Healthy open and click-through rates signify relevance and interest.
• Conversion rates: This could include purchasing, signing up, or any other goal defined in your email campaign.
• Bounce rates: A high bounce rate may indicate quality issues with your email list.
• Unsubscribe rates: If this rate is high, it’s crucial to reassess your email content and frequency.
• Spam complaints: Excessive spam complaints can harm your sender’s reputation.
• Device and browser analytics: Your design needs to be responsive and appealing across various platforms.
• Testing variations: Testing various versions helps identify which resonates better with your audience.

Conclusion

As you navigate the landscape of non-spammy email blasts, continually refine your strategies, stay attuned to recipient feedback, and embrace the dynamic nature of email marketing. Doing so safeguards your reputation and positions your brand as a trusted and valuable presence in the inbox.

With these insights in hand, you can create email blasts that avoid the spam trap and leave a lasting impact on your audience, fostering a community of engaged and loyal subscribers.