Imagine this, your next big campaign is in full swing. You’ve got a carefully crafted email ready to go—rich in detail, engaging visuals, and an irresistible call to action. But what happens when your audience misses it in their crowded inboxes? Enter SMS. With its immediate, attention-grabbing nature, SMS can be the perfect sidekick to email, turning a great campaign into an outstanding one.

When used together, SMS and email form a dynamic duo that can significantly increase visibility, open rates, and overall engagement. In fact, 48% of customers prefer communication from businesses to come from text messages. Let’s dive into how these channels complement each other and how you can harness their combined power.

The unique strengths of SMS and email

To really make the most of your strategy, it’s important to use both of these tools to their greatest advantage. Here’s a quick breakdown of when they both shine:

SMS: Quick, direct, and effective

SMS is your go-to for real-time updates, reminders, and CTAs. SMS has an average open rate of 98%, 5x that of email, and most messages are read within minutes. SMS is ideal specifically for:

Time-sensitive promotions (eg. flash sales, last-minute discounts).

Appointment or event reminders.

Urgent notifications like shipping updates or policy changes.

Email: Deep storytelling, connection, and detailed content

Email shines when you need to build a narrative, educate your audience, or showcase your brand’s personality. With more room for visuals, copy, and links, email is perfect for:

Product launches or detailed announcements.

Newsletters that engage and inform.

Nurturing long-term relationships through personalized content.

There's lots of nuance in email vs SMS marketing, and each has situations where they shine. However, while both have undisputed ROI, email and SMS are even stronger when they work together.



Why email and SMS work better together

The magic happens when SMS and email join forces. Think of SMS as the amplifier for your email campaigns. It’s the “push” that ensures your audience doesn’t miss what you’re sharing. Here are some examples of how email and SMS can engage readers without the overwhelm of only sending through a single channel. 


Don’t think about them like competitors! When you match the method of communication to the specific needs of that message you’ll start to see benefits. For example:


Boost visibility

If your email gets overlooked, an SMS reminder ensures your message isn’t missed. Also, some customers prefer communication via SMS, so give them the choice.

Increase engagement

Campaigns that use multiple channels see higher open and click-through rates. We’re talking about a jump in engagement of up to 166%.

Access and compare customer data

Use data insights from SMS to bolster your success over email, and vice versa. The more you know about a customer, the more personalized approach you can take (and the higher your chance at success)—if you can gather data from SMS and emails you have cross-compatible data sets which gives you just that much more information to work with.

Practical tips for SMS and email optimization

If you are ready to integrate SMS with your email strategy, or you just want to make sure you are getting the most out of your current setup, then here’s what you need to know:

Match the message to the medium

Use SMS for urgency and email for depth. For example, send an SMS for last-minute updates and use email for a comprehensive campaign overview.

Keep messaging consistent

Maintain a cohesive tone and branding across both channels to avoid confusing your audience. Ensure that your key message, style, and calls-to-action align across SMS and email, providing a unified experience that reinforces your brand identity.

Segment your audience

Use segmentation to target the right people with the right channel at the right time. Segmentation ensures that your audience only receives relevant and valuable communications, enhancing satisfaction and reducing opt-outs.

Use the right tools

Platforms like Delivra make it easy to combine email and SMS in one place, ensuring your campaigns are streamlined and effective. Check out our SMS and MMS capabilities to see how it works.

Test and optimize

A/B test your campaigns to find the perfect balance. For example, try sending an SMS 30 minutes before an email and measure engagement.

SMS may feel like a newer tool in your marketing arsenal if you’re used to email, but it doesn’t need to be intimidating. With the right SMS strategy, this channel becomes a powerful way to reach your audience where they are.

Harness the power of SMS and email together

SMS and email each have unique strengths, but together they create a fortified approach to customer engagement that no single channel can achieve alone. SMS offers immediacy, while email provides depth—and when used in harmony, they ensure your messages are seen, understood, and acted upon.

Whether you’re sending time-sensitive reminders via SMS or sharing detailed product launches through email, the combined use of these channels enables you to deliver a well-rounded customer experience with more opportunities to nurture subscribers and understand their preferences. Tools like Delivra make it even easier to coordinate and optimize your campaigns, allowing you to build stronger relationships, drive better results, and ensure your marketing efforts are always a step ahead.



Why SMS and email work better together

Coming back to work after the holidays can be really overwhelming, fortunately, there are strategies that can help you start strong and save time while increasing quality. Enter email automation: a powerful tool that helps you connect with your audience meaningfully while optimizing your time. Whether you’re welcoming new subscribers, following up on events, or re-engaging inactive customers, automation can supercharge your marketing efforts. Automated emails have a 76% higher open rate and a 152% higher click-through rate proving there are benefits beyond how much simpler automations make your job, but where to start. In this post, we’ll explore five essential email automation types—and show how the right ESP can help you execute them seamlessly.

Welcome campaigns to start strong

A welcome campaign is a series of 2-3 emails designed to introduce your brand to new subscribers. First impressions count, and engaging early helps build trust and sets the tone for future interactions. A well-executed welcome series ensures subscribers understand who you are, what you offer, and how you can add value to their lives. It can also arm you with valuable data moving forward based on what you’re seeing your subscribers interact with.

A good initial order to your welcome flow could look like this. To start out send an initial email thanking new subscribers, followed by a “getting started” guide and then a special discount for their first purchase.


Event follow-up to gather data

Event follow-up emails are sent after someone interacts with an event, such as attending a webinar, visiting your booth at a conference, or downloading an ebook. Timely follow-up maximizes the impact of your event, reinforces your brand’s value, and encourages further engagement. Shoot for 24 to 48 hours after the event, soon enough that it’s still fresh, but not so soon they’re exhausted.

Delivra’s automation builder makes it simple to set up triggers based on event participation. You can also use clickstream data to track post-event web activity and refine your follow-up strategy. This is a great way to touch base with attendees post-event so they truly feel valued…like it really mattered that they were there. Follow-up emails when used correctly can also be an effective tool to gather feedback and improve your process for future events. Talk about a win-win.


Re-engagement flows to reconnect dormant subscribers

Re-engagement campaigns are essential for reviving dormant subscribers and maintaining a healthy email list. By rekindling interest or gracefully removing inactive contacts, these campaigns improve your email deliverability and help convert unresponsive subscribers into loyal customers.

Inactive subscribers can harm your engagement metrics, but re-engaging even a small percentage can significantly impact ROI. These campaigns optimize your existing audience while protecting your sender reputation.

Strategies for effective re-engagement

Craft compelling CTAs

Use action-oriented phrases like “We miss you” or “Resubscribe with one click here” and ensure that subscribers can get their desired result with a maximum of one click (more on this later).

Focus on personalization

Reference past interactions and tailor offers using dynamic content because the best way to regain a subscriber’s interest is to be interesting to them specifically.

Lean on your preference center

Follow up within a week with a link to your preference center, allowing subscribers to adjust their interests or change frequency.

Offer exclusive incentives

Offer perks like free shipping or early access to sales as an added draw. This can also encourage wafflers to commit to that purchase they’ve been eyeing.

End with conscious consideration

Re-engagement campaigns are more than reactivating subscribers—they’re about showcasing value, improving list quality, and strengthening relationships. With the right approach, you can turn inactivity into a renewed opportunity. Remember if you leave someone with a good impression, they may still return later.


Renewal campaigns to stay relevant

Renewal automation reminds customers to renew memberships or repurchase time-sensitive products. Retention is more cost effective than acquisition, increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95%. Renewal campaigns help maintain a steady revenue stream while keeping customers engaged—it’s a fact.

To build an effective renewal campaign:

Start reminders 30 days before the renewal date, gradually increasing urgency.
Early reminders give customers ample time to act and reduce the likelihood of unintentional churn due to forgetfulness while gradual urgency helps guide the decision-making process. Starting with a friendly reminder and escalating to more urgent messaging ensures you stay top of mind without overwhelming the customer.

Encourage early renewals with discounts or perks. 
Incentives like discounts or exclusive perks create a sense of urgency and reward loyalty, making customers more likely to act early. Early renewals help smooth out cash flow and reduce end-of-period workload spikes on your end…everyone is a winner!

Include a clear call-to-action that takes customers directly to the renewal process.
A direct, user-friendly CTA removes friction from the renewal process, reducing drop-off rates. Customers are more likely to complete the action if they can access the renewal process with one click so make it clear and easy for best results. Emails with a single CTA increased clicks by 371% and sales by 1617%.

Upsell and cross-sell emails to increase personalization

Upsell and cross-sell emails recommend complementary or upgraded products/services based on customer behavior or purchase history. This automation strengthens customer relationships, increases revenue, and enhances satisfaction through personalized offers.

Look at it this way, try to be the solution to the problem your subscriber doesn’t know they have yet. After a customer purchases a camera, send an email recommending lenses or accessories. Later, suggest upgrading to a premium subscription for extended warranty coverage. Let’s face it, everyone knows the feeling of having a need or an issue and the relief of having the solution presented to them. Be that presenter!

Use these automation types to cover your bases

Email automation isn’t just a convenience—it’s a necessity for marketers looking to scale their efforts and deliver value to their audience. By implementing these five strategies, you can create meaningful customer journeys, increase engagement, and drive revenue growth. Automations, once in place, will also save you a lot of time in your day to day. If you’re inspired to dive deeper into automation The ultimate guide to building email automations is a great next step.

Or if you’re ready to elevate your email marketing game and your ESP isn’t supporting your endeavors explore Delivra’s automation features to see how we simplify complex workflows for busy marketers. For more insights, check out our blog on email marketing best practices.

Mastering email automation strategies to drive engagement and growth

When it comes to email marketing, the size of your email list isn’t everything. While having a large contact list may feel impressive, it’s the quality of that list that truly matters to your success. If your list isn’t actively maintained and full of contacts who genuinely want to hear from you, it can harm your deliverability rates, engagement levels, and even your deliverability. Your email list degrades by 22.5% every year. This isn’t something you want to sleep on.


One key way to address this is through proactive list management and engagement—ensuring your contacts still want to receive your emails and that they reflect the audience you want to engage. Regularly cleaning your email list ensures that your marketing messages reach the people who will act on them. Let’s walk through the importance of email list hygiene, how often you need to clean your list, and the steps you can take to make the most of your email list’s reach.

What is email list hygiene and why does it matter?

Email list hygiene is the practice of regularly cleaning and optimizing your email list to remove inactive, unengaged, or invalid email addresses. This should be an ongoing effort to keep your list updated with contacts who actively engage.

Why it matters:

Legal compliance

Poor list hygiene can lead to legal risks. Regulations such as GDPR and CASL (Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation) require marketers to have consent from recipients, and keeping inactive contacts could inadvertently lead to compliance violations. CASL, for instance, requires explicit consent in most cases, with some limited allowances for implicit consent. Ensuring contacts on your list have given their permission—explicitly and recently—protects both your brand and your list.

And because we know you were wondering, U.S. senders must follow CASL rules when emailing Canadian contacts. CASL requires either express or implied consent from recipients and every message must clearly identify the sender and include a valid mailing address. Each email also needs an easy-to-find unsubscribe option, with requests processed within 10 business days. Take note! Keeping records of consent is advised, as proof may be required.

Improved metrics

Holding onto unengaged contacts might make your list appear large, but it also dilutes key metrics like click-through and conversion rates. A clean list means you’re sending to people who want to engage, which gives you a clearer picture of campaign success and helps you better evaluate strategy changes.

Deliverability & sender reputation

Allowing inactive contacts to accumulate can negatively impact your sender reputation, as engagement levels play a part in determining if your emails should land in the inbox or spam folder. Low engagement and high bounce rates signal to ISPs that your emails may not be relevant, increasing the risk that future emails end up in spam which, in turn, undermines your deliverability.

Email list hygiene can sometimes feel counterintuitive because the allure of a huge email list is so strong. But this is misleading for so many marketers and can actually land you in the spam folder…among other consequences of bad list hygiene you should avoid.

6 best practices for effective email list hygiene

A messy email list can undermine your entire marketing strategy, reducing engagement rates, increasing bounces, and impacting your sender reputation. Here are six best practices to implement today for a healthier, more effective email list:

Remove invalid and outdated email addresses 
Invalid addresses often stem from typos, inactive users, or defunct domains. These cause bounces, which waste resources and damage your sender reputation. Regularly track bounce rates, use email verification tools, and consider setting a specific day each month for list cleaning to stay proactive.

Make double opt-ins your best friend 
Double opt-ins ensure that subscribers confirm their interest by clicking a verification link. This helps filter out invalid addresses and reduces accidental signups. As a result, subscribers who go through this extra step are more likely to engage, leading to a more invested audience and higher engagement rates.

Say goodbye to unengaged subscribers 
Over time, some subscribers may lose interest. Holding onto them negatively affects engagement metrics, so set an inactivity threshold (for example, no engagement for 6 months). Run re-engagement campaigns to revive interest, but if they remain inactive, consider removing them from your list.

Make it easy to unsubscribe 
A prominent unsubscribe option isn’t just good etiquette—it’s essential for maintaining list integrity. It helps prevent frustrated recipients from marking your emails as spam, which can harm your sender reputation. Always include a clear unsubscribe link to make opting out simple and avoid spam reports. Plus, it’s now required by law in many regions.

Use the right tools for improved email hygiene 
Email list cleaning tools can automate the removal of bounced or spam-trap emails, helping you maintain a healthy list without manual effort. These tools also allow you to segment lists, track key metrics, and schedule cleanings, which streamlines list maintenance.

Regularly analyze email campaign performance 
Monitoring metrics like bounce rates, open rates, and unsubscribe rates provides valuable insights into list health and engagement. Keep an eye out for rising bounces (hello, outdated addresses!), dropping open rates (time for a re-engagement?), and a surge in unsubscribes (maybe ease up on the frequency!). These signs are little hints that your list could use some TLC to keep it fresh and happy. 

By implementing these practices you can ensure your email list remains active, engaged, and compliant—keeping your email marketing efforts effective and your audience genuinely interested. Now that we’ve covered the checklist for best practices, you can always dig deeper into how to effectively use email list cleaning tools.

How often should I clean my email list?

Email and marketing automation software like Delivra can do some of the list hygiene heavy lifting by automatically removing unsubscribed contacts and bouncing emails. However, there’s more that you can—and should—do. Let’s look at some tips for staying consistent:

Regularly scheduled cleaning:

 Develop a timeline that works for your business. For some, quarterly list cleaning may be ideal, while others may benefit from monthly reviews, especially if your business has seasonal fluctuations.

Embrace re-engagement campaigns: 

Schedule an automated re-engagement email for contacts who haven’t interacted with your emails within a set timeframe (e.g., 3 months, 6 months). If they don’t respond, consider removing them from the active list to prevent your metrics from being diluted by inactive contacts.

Avoiding “when there’s time”:

 List hygiene isn’t something that should be done only when time allows. Setting up an automated schedule ensures it’s happening regularly, optimizing your list and keeping engagement metrics strong.

How to clean your email list in Delivra

Using Delivra you can streamline list hygiene with a few steps:

Create an inactive segment
Begin by segmenting contacts who haven’t clicked an email within a specific time period (e.g., 6 months). This allows you to target unengaged contacts efficiently.

Craft a re-engagement email
Write an email encouraging recipients to confirm their interest. Include a prominent call to action (CTA) button, such as “Stay on the list,” to allow contacts to update their preferences easily. This lets you know definitively who still wants to receive your emails.

Automate the process
Use Delivra’s automation to send the re-engagement email. Set conditions so that if contacts don’t click the button or open the email, they are automatically moved to an “Expired” or inactive status.

Subscribers took action, now what?

Once your contacts have confirmed their interest, take the opportunity to personalize your communications further. Here are some ways to increase engagement with those who remain on your list:

Honor subscriber preferences
If you have a preference center, ensure you’re aligning with their choices, whether it’s frequency, type of content, or preferred topics. We already compiled all the details on building a truly engaging preference center, along with practical examples.

Personalize and segment
Use the data you have on your contacts to create dynamic, personalized content. Sending smaller, more strategic campaigns based on contact preferences increases relevance and engagement.

Tailor content strategically
Focus on sending content that reflects their specific interests, leveraging Delivra’s tools to fine-tune your messaging. The goal is to show that your emails are valuable to them, reinforcing their decision to stay subscribed. 

Effective email list hygiene is essential for maintaining a strong sender reputation, ensuring high deliverability, and maximizing engagement. By regularly reviewing and cleaning your list, you make sure your emails reach the people who want to receive them, leading to improved results and a healthier relationship with your audience. Remember, quality always wins over quantity in email marketing, and if you’re careful your ESP should offer the tools you need to keep your list healthy and thriving.

Email list hygiene is the key to better engagement and deliverability

One question that often arises for email marketers is whether to use a confirmed opt-in process or simply start sending emails to a list of subscribers. (You may have heard this referred to as double opt-in instead, rest assured it’s the same!) While it might seem easier to skip the extra step, using a confirmed opt-in strategy can save you from a range of deliverability and legal issues down the road. So, let’s look at what confirmed opt-in is, why it’s important, best practices to follow, and why it has benefits.

What is confirmed opt-in (or double opt-in)?

It’s hard to execute something when you aren’t entirely sure what it is, so just to be clear. A confirmed opt-in is a process that requires subscribers to verify their email addresses after subscribing to a list.

You know, you click “Subscribe” and immediately get an email saying the equivalent of “Happy you’re here, but please take 2 seconds to confirm you actually meant to do this”. The email then directs you to a confirmation link that you have to click to officially join the mailing list. Until this action is completed, you won’t receive further marketing emails.

The idea behind this is simple—confirm new subscribers genuinely want to receive emails, helping to filter out any mistyped addresses, bots, or uninterested users. It also builds trust (because you’re respecting subscriber preferences from the beginning) and keeps your list clean from the start. Nice and tidy.

Benefits of a confirmed opt-in email strategy

There are several key reasons why adopting a confirmed opt-in approach is essential for a successful email marketing strategy and how it can protect you from trouble in the future:

Improved deliverability:  Sending emails to unengaged recipients or invalid email addresses can significantly harm your deliverability rates. Email providers like Gmail and Outlook monitor how subscribers interact with your emails—if they consistently go unopened, get marked as spam, or get blocked, your sender reputation will suffer. Confirmed opt-ins help you avoid this issue by ensuring that your list only includes people who are actively interested in your content.

Legal compliance: Data privacy regulations like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CASL have strict rules around obtaining consent before sending  marketing emails. While single opt-in processes might meet legal standards, confirmed opt-ins go above and beyond by providing additional proof that consent was obtained. This can be useful if you ever need to provide evidence of compliance.

Higher engagement rates: When people take the extra step to confirm their subscription, it indicates a higher level of interest in your brand. This often translates to better engagement, higher open rates, and more clicks. These are the kinds of subscribers you want to be marketing to—those who are genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Improved list quality: One of the biggest benefits of confirmed opt-in is maintaining a clean, high-quality email list. Using confirmed opt-in guarantees that the email addresses added to your list are accurate, filtering out inactive or mistyped emails that can cause bounce issues, and that the owner of the address genuinely wants to receive communications. This reduces the chances of fake, mistyped, or malicious emails entering your list, improving engagement rates.

Is confirmed opt-in right for you?

While a confirmed opt-in strategy is generally a good idea for every marketer, it’s particularly important in two circumstances. It’s time to consider confirmed opt-in if your email collection methods are manual, such as sign-up sheets or email entries by cashiers. These processes in particular can lead to typos and invalid entries, so a confirmation step helps keep your list clean.

The other time confirmed opt-in could be a critical improvement is if you're experiencing deliverability issues, such as emails bouncing or landing in spam, re-confirming your recipients can improve list quality. This is especially important if it's been a while since you last obtained consent.

In short, confirmed opt-in helps ensure you’re communicating with valid, engaged recipients, making it a great strategy for improving list hygiene and deliverability





Best practices for using confirmed opt-in

If you’ve already set up a confirmed opt-in or if this is your intro, we want to make sure that you’re getting everything out of it that you can, here are some best practices to ensure you’re setting yourself up for success:

Set expectations early:  When someone signs up, let them know what to expect right away. Be clear about the fact that they’ll need to confirm their email before receiving any further communications from you. This reduces confusion and helps ensure they take action quickly.

Make it easy to confirm: Your confirmation email should be simple, concise, and easy to understand. The CTA should be prominent and the instructions clear. Avoid cluttering the email with too much information—stick to the essentials, a friendly message, and a clear link to confirm.

Send a follow-up if necessary: If someone doesn’t confirm after the first email, consider sending a polite reminder. This can be an automated email triggered a few days later, gently nudging them to confirm their interest. Be sure not to overwhelm subscribers with too many reminders, though.

Offer an incentive: If it aligns with your brand and business model, consider offering an incentive for subscribers to confirm their email. This could be a discount, access to exclusive content, or some other small benefit that encourages users to take the final step. A little extra value can go a long way in driving conversions.

Have safeguards in place: Like anything good on the Internet, bad actors have found ways to abuse confirmed opt-in systems. One example is list-bombing, adding addresses to unprotected confirmed opt-in sign up forms to flood the recipient with legitimate but unwanted emails to hide malicious activity. For this reason, you should always make sure that your forms are secured with a CAPTCHA.

These elements will get you off to a great and comprehensive start. Now that you’ve got the essentials down check out more on the hows and whys of best practices to build on that foundation.


How to implement confirmed opt-in in Delivra

If you’re using Delivra as your email marketing platform, implementing a confirmed opt-in process is straightforward. Delivra offers built-in functionality for creating a "Confirmed Opt-In" email campaign. Here's a quick overview of how to set it up:

Create a confirmation email: Start by designing an email that asks recipients to confirm their subscription. Be clear about the value they’ll receive by staying on your list and include a prominent confirmation link.

Manage unconfirmed contacts: Delivra will hold unconfirmed contacts in a separate segment, allowing you to track who has and hasn’t confirmed. This not only helps you see where you are losing people along the way but keeps things more organized.

Automate the process: With Delivra’s automation tools, you can easily create a workflow that sends confirmation emails automatically, saving time and ensuring a seamless process. Simply select your confirmation email from the drop-down list to automatically send the confirmation message.

Shape the future of your email list with confidence

In email marketing, the quality of your list is far more important than its size. By using a confirmed opt-in process, you ensure that you’re sending emails to people who actually want to receive them. This not only improves your deliverability and engagement rates but also helps you stay compliant with data privacy laws.

If you’re still debating whether to use a confirmed opt-in process, the benefits far outweigh the effort. Your customer experience team will thank you, and your email metrics will reflect the positive impact.




Why confirmed opt-in is essential for successful email marketing

Let’s talk email deliverability 101

Deliverability refers to an email’s ability to successfully land in a recipient’s inbox, bypass filters, and avoid the spam folder. It's not just about whether an email is sent or delivered—deliverability ensures the message reaches the intended inbox, while email delivery only guarantees that the receiving server accepts it.

Respecting subscriber preferences and focusing on deliverability are perhaps the two most important elements of email marketing. These two pillars ensure that you build a positive relationship with subscribers and they actually get your messages. Great, now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s explore practical steps to ensure that we are doing everything within our power to implement these important elements.

The core principles

1. Let subscribers initiate contact

Permission and relevance are the name of the game…or at least really should be. The golden rule is simple, only send emails that recipients have actively subscribed to and find valuable. Deviating from this—for example, sending irrelevant content or ignoring opt-in practices—can lead to deliverability issues and damage your brand's rapport with followers.

Where do you start when it comes to deliverability and subscriber preferences?

First, decide between single opt-in or double:

Single opt-in: A subscriber fills out a form and is automatically added to your email list. This is quick and straightforward, but it comes with risks, such as accidental or fake sign-ups.

Confirmed opt-in: After signing up, subscribers receive a confirmation email requiring them to verify their subscription. This additional step ensures a higher quality list by preventing fake or unengaged subscribers from joining.

So, what are the main considerations to keep in mind when deciding between these options? Confirmed opt-in is considered more reliable for building an engaged and compliant list. Many experts recommend it for better engagement rates and deliverability despite the allure of immediate simplicity. Although there is an allure to a simpler process, engaged followers are the MVPs of your audience, while inactive ones can be the root cause of complaints and demotions to the spam folder. This is one arena in which one-click convenience isn’t in your best interest.

2. Consent and transparency are key

Ok, they’ve signed up to receive your communications. That’s a great start! Now, we’re on to the crucial next step. Transparency is essential in this whole deliverability process. This practice helps set expectations and build trust, minimizing the chances of spam complaints later. This also helps ensure compliance with legal regulations, such as:

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe, mandates explicit consent for collecting and processing data. If you are using a checkbox on your form to collect consent, it must not be pre-checked.

CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S. requires transparency in email content, sender identity, and a clear opt-out mechanism.

Clearly state what kind of emails subscribers will receive, how often they will receive them, and how their data will be used. (Even better, allow subscribers to make their own choices regarding these elements with just a few quick questions in a preference center).

3. Easy unsubscription is in your best interest

Having a clear and easy-to-use unsubscribe option is just as important as gaining opt-in consent. Not only is it required by most email regulations, but it also ensures that users who are no longer interested in your content can leave your list easily, reducing the chances of spam complaints. We’ve covered this before so we won’t dwell on the details of this point now, but it’s essential to remember as a part of your deliverability process so definitely worth mentioning.

Avoid pitfalls when switching email service providers (ESPs)

25% of companies are reviewing their tech stacks quarterly and they are doing it right. An annual review is a long interval and it’s important to be part of an email platform that is evolving and improving. Not to mention, it can take care of a lot of tedious jobs for you. The tricky part is the migration when you decide you need to part ways with your current ESP.

If you’re migrating to a new email service provider (ESP), it's vital to prepare carefully to avoid disruption in deliverability. This involves cleaning up your email list, reviewing your segmentation strategy, and setting a clear plan for IP warming—where you gradually send emails to small groups of active subscribers to build sender reputation. Neglecting these steps can lead to a drop in performance post-migration.

There are a number of ways a cutting-edge ESP improves deliverability, but we’ve collected some of the most key:

1. Better sender reputation management

By properly segmenting and sending to engaged subscribers first, you can avoid getting flagged as spam and build a positive reputation with services like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook.

2. Improved email authentication

An updated ESP can support advanced authentication protocols. These protocols help verify the authenticity of your emails, reducing the chances of being flagged as spam.

3. List hygiene and segmentation tools

With enhanced list management features, a modern ESP properly handles bounces of various types to make sure you’re not repeatedly sending to bad addresses. This improves list hygiene, which can increase open rates and reduce bounce rates.

4. Advanced personalization options

Updated ESPs allow for more specific segmentation based on user behavior, preferences, and demographics. The result is more relevant, targeted emails, which have higher engagement rates and are less likely to be marked as spam.

5. Analytics and deliverability monitoring

These tools allow you to track key metrics such as open rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints, enabling you to adjust your strategies quickly to maintain high deliverability.

Honestly, we could keep going, but the point is that incorporating these features into your email marketing strategy (which is a breeze when your ESP is handling it) can help ensure your messages reach inboxes more consistently and that engagement remains high.

Yes, in a lot of ways these migrations are hard and can be annoying, but when it comes to deliverability, making sure your ESP is up to date and doing as much of the lifting for you as possible, they make your life easier in the long term.

It’s about more than just tech

Email deliverability is more than just a technical concern—it's about respect for your audience and thoughtful execution. By prioritizing permission-based marketing, practicing transparency, maintaining list hygiene, and choosing the right ESP, you can significantly boost your deliverability rates while building trust with your subscribers. The goal is simple: send the right messages to the right people, ensuring they actually want to hear from you. Keep evolving, stay compliant, and remember that deliverability is as much about relationships as it is about technology.


Unlock high deliverability with key tips for email marketing success

Understanding email unsubscribe requirements

In the world of email marketing, compliance is key. One common source of confusion is whether or not an email must include an unsubscribe option—and what elements that option needs to have. The answer? If your email is commercial in any way, it's almost surely required by law.

Staying up-to-date with evolving regulations is crucial. Non-compliance can carry hefty penalties, never mind that it gets you on the bad side of your subscribers.

These guidelines can be intimidating because of their ever-evolving nature. But they don’t need to be! To shed some light on the matter, we’ve broken it down into a guide on when and how to include an effortless unsubscribe option that makes all the difference.

Benefits of including unsubscribe options in emails

Navigating the complexities of email deliverability can be challenging, but there's a simple step you can take to stay ahead: include an unsubscribe link in all your emails. It's more than just a legal requirement—it’s a powerful tool for enhancing your relationship with your audience and boosting your email performance. Here are 5 reasons why it’s so beneficial.

1. Boost deliverability rates

Email giants like Google and Yahoo have strict rules for email deliverability. Including an unsubscribe link in all your emails signals that your emails are user-friendly and compliant, which can improve your deliverability rates.

2. Simplify legal compliance

Remember to keep up with email regulation updates, because making unsubscribe options a standard feature in your emails helps you stay compliant. This simple step ensures that you’re adhering to international laws, avoiding fines, and protecting your reputation.

3. Build trust with your audience

Offering an easy way to unsubscribe shows that you respect your recipients' preferences. This transparency enhances your brand’s trustworthiness, leading to higher engagement, customer loyalty, and even the potential for re-subscribers.

4. Clean your email list

An unsubscribe link helps filter out inactive or disinterested subscribers, leaving you with a more engaged audience. This improves the accuracy of your data and reduces the risk of being reported as spam.

5. Enhance your brand's image

By respecting recipients' subscription preferences, you foster a positive impression of your brand, even among those who choose to unsubscribe. A user-friendly unsubscribe process can lead to recommendations and maintain a positive relationship with your audience.

By embracing the clear and simple unsubscribe link, you're not only safeguarding your email practices but also building a stronger, more trusted connection with your subscribers. It’s a win-win that ensures your emails are hitting the mark while keeping your brand’s reputation in top shape! Get the details from Gmail and Yahoo’s new 2024 commercial email requirements.


Core legal requirements for unsubscription centers

Don’t be intimidated. Laws governing email marketing around the world are continuously evolving, but not as difficult to comply with as they first seem. The guidelines you need to follow aren’t that convoluted. Here's a quick overview of key regulations for some major audiences:

CAN-SPAM Act (United States): Requires commercial emails to include a clear and conspicuous way to unsubscribe.

GDPR (European Union): Mandates that consent for email communications can be withdrawn at any time, necessitating an easy unsubscribe process.

CASL (Canada): Requires you to provide clear and specific instructions for how to unsubscribe, and requires consent before sending anything, unlike the US.

For more of the details on how these vary internationally explore The Ultimate Guide to International Email Law.



Differentiating commercial vs. transactional emails

While commercial emails must include an unsubscribe option, purely transactional emails are often exempt. Transactional emails are messages sent to individuals based on specific actions or transactions they have performed, such as order confirmations, password resets, or account notifications. These emails are typically automated and focus on providing information relevant to the recipient's ongoing relationship or transaction, without promotional intent.

In contrast, commercial emails are designed primarily for marketing purposes, aiming to promote products, services, or brands. These emails are often sent to a broader audience and include newsletters, promotional offers, and sales announcements, with the primary goal of driving engagement, sales, or brand awareness. Keep this in mind when you are confirming your unsubscribe options follow the guidelines.

How to implement an effective unsubscribe process

We’ve curated a quick and simple checklist to make sure you are implementing your process right. The following must-dos are the building blocks for unsubscription best practices and how to keep your email campaigns effective, compliant, and enjoyable for all.

Make it easy

Your unsubscribe link should be easy to find and use. Avoid hiding it in fine print or requiring multiple steps to complete the process. It’s a bonus if it only takes one click to unsubscribe—often the most user-friendly approach. This results in staying under a reported spam threshold.

Gather additional information

It could be a good idea to offer contacts the option to leave or select a reason for unsubscribing. A chance to gather data is never a waste…unless you don’t use it to improve.

Provide subscription options

Consider offering options instead of a simple unsubscribe. Allow recipients to choose the frequency of emails or the types of content they receive. This can reduce overall unsubscribe rates while respecting user preferences.

Monitor and adjust

Regularly review your unsubscribe rates and reasons for unsubscribes. This data can provide insights into how your email content is received and where you might need to make adjustments.


If you are looking for additional info about upcoming anti-spam regulations, you should be aware of the new Gmail requirements for bulk senders. Although our best practices above will help you comply with them, it can be a helpful resource to understand the nitty gritty. Bulk senders are now required to authenticate their emails, allow for easy unsubscriptions, and stay under a reported spam threshold.


Unsubscribe options don’t have to be complicated

Actually, it’s better if they aren’t. Including an unsubscribe option in your emails is not just a legal requirement but a best practice that enhances deliverability, builds trust, and simplifies compliance. The easier your unsubscribe process is to navigate, the better the farewell impression you make. As laws continue to evolve, staying informed and proactive in your email marketing strategies will ensure that you remain compliant and maintain a positive relationship with your audience.

By prioritizing clear, user-friendly unsubscribe processes, you demonstrate a commitment to respecting your recipients' preferences, which can ultimately lead to stronger, more engaged relationships with your subscribers.


Understanding email unsubscribe requirements

As a brand marketer, it’s your job to reach and resonate with your audience. If you’ve been sending multiple emails to potential or current customers and your emails need pizazz, have you considered adding a looping visual element – like an animated GIF?

GIFs can be a boom or bust for branded email campaigns. With its many nuances, buckle up as to learn GIF basics, benefits, and how to utilize them in an email campaign to win the hearts and minds of customers.

Why bother with GIFs?

While GIFs are fun and trendy, is there really a place for them with modern email marketing?

The answer, "it depends.” 

They certainly can and do have a place in email marketing. Not only are they ideal for replacing bandwidth-heavy videos, they serve a number of other purposes. 

Now, if and what kind are appropriate for your brand, that’s another question entirely. 

1. They fortify a story.

The adage “a picture speaks a thousand words?” Well, so do GIFs. In just a glance, marketers can convey a specific point or message or showcase your brand in a manner that text or static visuals can’t match.

2. They spark interest.

You’ve probably heard the stat that humans have an attention span of less than a goldfish. GIFs effectively capture email readers' attention as they scroll through an email and deliver a quick message with their eye-catching repeated motion.

3. They help humanize brands.

GIFs can be emotive powerhouses. They can be used to convey excitement, suspense, quirk, humor, anticipation, fear, surprise, or whatever emotion aligns with the email message and your brand.

4. They help explain things and promt action.

GIFs make creating clear and concise marketing emails easier for the recipient to understand. Sometimes, you must explain email copy in a way readers understand. Rather than muddying the email with more text, GIFs help visually clarify a topic, concept, product, or service – and can make a specific call to action pop. In turn, you will improve your click through rate (CTR).

GIFs for email marketing campaigns we love

These GIFs for email can serve as an informative, engaging, and inspiring resource for marketers looking to enhance their email campaigns with dynamic visual content. Here are some of our favorite GIFs from both business-to-business and business-to-consumer emails:

Delivra (yes… we said it)

We use GIFs throughout our free trial onboarding series to create a fun and cohesive campaign. Take this example, showing an animated pigeon who explains Delivra’s workflow process, in a few easy-to-follow animated visuals.

Daily Harvest

Dropbox

Four Seasons at Home

TripAdvisor

LUS | Love Ur Self

Chubbies

Alit

Get Wiser

How to insert a GIF into an email

Now that you know what GIFs are about and have some I.R.L. examples, let’s approach how to insert a GIF into an email.

If you use Delivra, GIFs are supported in our editor. In fact, the process of uploading an image and a GIF are identical. There are two ways to insert a GIF using the Drag-and-Drop Editor: creating an image block or inserting an image into a text block. We’ll go over each process.

Creating a GIF block:

Drag a new layout section to the left and add it to your file.

Drag the image type icon to the left and drop it in the new section.

Set up your cell padding and styles.

Insert a GIF to a block:

Click on the image section on the left to open a widget with image options.

Hit the “update image” icon. This opens the media library.

Click on the GIF file or use the options at the top of the image selector to upload a new image, sort, or search for a GIF. Hit the “insert” button to apply the GIF to the email.

Insert a GIF into a text block:

Click on the text box where you want to insert the GIF.

Hit the camera icon from the toolbar to open the media library. Then, you’ll see a media library pop up. The options are slightly different to properly align the GIF to text and padding.

GIF considerations: What to be mindful of

By keeping these cautions in mind and using GIFs strategically, you can leverage their benefits without compromising the effectiveness of your email.

1. File size matters.

How big should a GIF be for email? Smaller-sized GIFs ensure your email loads quickly and efficiently. GIFs shouldn’t exceed 1 or 1.5 megabytes to retain image quality. For most email service providers (ESP), the GIF loads and the email still sends if you exceed this recommendation, but it takes longer to upload.

2. Not all email clients support GIFs.

Some email clients might not fully support GIFs or could block them by default. For example, Desktop versions of Outlook (2007 to 2016) don’t support animated GIFs. For this reason, always include alt text to describe the GIF content. This way, even if the GIF doesn’t load, the email recipient can understand what the GIF conveys.

3. Choose the perfect moment to display GIFs.

Timing is everything when using GIFs in email campaigns. A GIF should accentuate a point, provide context, highlight a CTA, or prompt subscriber action rather than catching people off guard. Avoid using them if they detract from the email’s main message.

4. Stay on brand.

There’s nothing more jarring than an off-brand visual. For this reason, use GIFs with the same color, font, tone, and aesthetics as other brand content.

5. Consider visual accessibility:

Consider those who are visually impaired. You can do this by changing up the design, so the copy and animation aren’t together. Tweak the GIF design so the animation is on top and the live for the actual copy.

6. Be relevant:

GIFs don’t always align with the tone of the email. Random, mis-branded GIFs, or too many GIFs can dilute the overall message and bespeak unprofessionalism.

Mastering the art of the GIF

Using GIFs in email campaigns is part art, part strategy, and a little bit of science. Just remember: consider all of the steps listed above, sync it to your email strategy, and maintain visual accessibility to deliver the best subscriber experience. So, the next time you craft an email campaign, consider embedding a GIF or two… Just use the best practices above, and you'll be on your way to creating emails that are visually appealing and effective.

Everything you need to know about adding GIFS in Email

Gmail and Yahoo recently announced that they’re working to aggressively filter out unwanted emails by setting a higher bar for commercial email senders. New requirements take effect in February 2024 and largely focus on better sender authentication and email relevance.

In this article, we’ll unpack what’s changing, what it means for your email marketing, and what you need to do now to prepare for the new year.

What’s changing?

From a high level, the new requirements affect the following:

Domain authentication (DKIM, SPF, DMARC)

Unsubscribe practices

Acceptable spam complaint rates

Infrastructure for sending

When will these requirements be enforced?

Yahoo is targeting the first quarter of 2024 while Gmail will begin enforcement in February 2024.

Who’s impacted?

These mandates affect bulk senders of commercial email (sending 5,000 outbound emails/day to Gmail or Yahoo addresses). Remember that the initial announcements don’t specify that a sender must send 5000 messages each day, or within a certain time frame, though. So we recommend all commercial email senders comply.

On the other hand, implementing email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can help businesses build trust with their customers and improve their email marketing ROI. 

By ensuring secure email delivery, businesses can protect their reputation from exact domain impersonation-based phishing attacks and increase the likelihood of their emails being opened and read by their recipients.





What’s changing exactly and what do you need to do about it?

For email marketers who want to be treated as legitimate senders in 2024, here’s what you need to know:

Authentication

What’s changing: 

Senders will need to verify their sending domain by setting up either SPF or DKIM protocols.

DMARC is required for bulk email senders (exceeding 5000 emails/day). This means that at least one of the domains authenticating the mail (in SPF or DKIM) has to match the visible “From Domain” your email recipients see.

What to do: 

Authenticate your email-sending identity by setting up either SPF or DKIM for your domain.

Gmail recommends following these best practices, while Yahoo strongly recommends also implementing DMARC. We recommend setting up both SPF and DKIM while you start taking steps toward DMARC authentication.

Handling unsubscribes

What’s changing: 

Both Gmail and Yahoo will require that senders provide a one-click unsubscribe and implement unsubscribe requests within two days. This goes above and beyond the legal requirements of CAN-SPAM, which provides 10 days.

What to do: 

Add an uns­ubscribe link­ at the top or bott­om of your­ emai­ls that­ prov­ides cont­acts with­ a sing­le-click opt-out.

Spam/Complaint Rates

What’s changing: 

Both Gmail and Yahoo are requiring that senders maintain spam complaint rates below a given threshold (0.3% for Gmail). However, Gmail specifically states they want senders less than 0.1% and deliverability rates will begin to diminish beyond that point.

What to do: 

First of all, let’s define what this means: your spam rate, or spam complaint rate, is the number of recipients that report your message as spam compared to the total number of emails that were delivered.

Monitor your spam complaint rate (this can be done directly within Delivra or your Google Postmaster account). Yahoo also offers a Complaint Feedback Loop (CFL) that you can sign up for with your DKIM domain. Maintain a clean list and promptly remove or sunset disengaged subscribers.

Additional infrastructure-related requirements

Ensure that sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse DNS records, also referred to as PTR records.

Format messages according to the Internet Message Format standard (RFC 5322).

How can Delivra help?

Deliverability is at the core of everything we do at Delivra. We’re picky about who we allow onto our platform and enforce our standards for legitimate email sending. Our platform supports domain authorization by easily generating your DKIM key as well as checking for SPF and DMARC authentication. It’s also possible to identify critical bounces, which may be occurring as a result of poor sender reputation.

And to top it off, we also offer deliverability consulting services, should you ever need additional support.

It’s simple, Mailbox providers are protecting their customers—the inbox users. The better the end-user experience, the more likely those users are to keep coming around. Unwanted, insecure, untrustworthy email gets in the way of that. 

By putting firm requirements around commercial emails, Google and Yahoo are raising the bar for marketers—and we’re applauding that shift. In recent years, this is the most substantial policy shift we’ve seen among mailbox providers, but we suspect others are likely to follow suit.

Want some additional support as you navigate these changes? Contact us and ask about our deliverability consulting services.

Gmail and Yahoo’s new 2024 commercial email requirements

As marketers, we tend to toss images into emails without a second thought. They're like the glitter of the email marketing world — jazzing up our products, making our CTAs shine, and helping readers grasp the most important parts of our messaging.

Cool, right? Until a key metric tanks.

Then you start wondering why deliverability is decreasing, and more emails are getting marked as spam. While images can do a lot of heavy lifting, they can also do a number on load times, deliverability rates, and even campaign performance. The alternative — not including images — isn't a great option, either. Text-only emails often don't perform as well. (Plus, they aren't as nice to look at!)

Instead of scrubbing images from your emails entirely, it's time to learn how to leverage images in emails the right way—by formatting them correctly and testing to ensure they display correctly. Sound complicated? Don't worry; we'll walk you through how to ensure images look great and boost email campaign performance—instead of holding them back.


What to consider when adding images to emails



Marketers are often given a long creative leash in marketing campaigns. Flexing our creative wings is one of the best parts of the job—but you also need to make sure that cheeky image or fun infographic doesn't impact other parts of your campaign.

When including images in emails, here are four factors to keep in mind:

Accessibility
Image-only emails might look lovely, but they frustrate subscribers who use screen readers that can't accurately describe large or complex images. Images lacking alternative text (alt text) entirely or with misleading alt text can be confusing and difficult for these populations to understand.

Deliverability/Spam
Using the wrong size or embed method can lead to rendering issues or land your message in the spam box. Emails that take too long to load might be missed by readers and result in complaints, confusion, or fewer conversions.

Brand impression
Images that don't match your branding can look like spam or reduce trust. Consistent branding isn't just for websites — it also spills over into email images.

Conversion rates
Images can significantly impact the overall performance of your email campaigns. Engaging and relevant images can capture the recipient's attention, while poorly formatted or grainy images can harm key metrics.

The right images can be a powerful driver of engagement and conversions, while the wrong ones can hinder your campaign's success and frustrate readers. We'll get into best practices a little later, but first, let's talk about how to add images to emails. As it turns out, there are several options.

Not in the mood to nerd-out with us? Skip ahead to best practices for images in email.

How can images be sent via email?



Knowing how to embed images in your email campaigns isn't just about making your emails look pretty. Understanding the different methods (and when to use them!) helps improve campaign performance, strengthens branding, and ensures campaigns resonate with a wider audience.

You have two main options when sending images: attach them as a separate file or embed them within the email content, using one of these three methods:

CID (Content-ID) image embedding involves attaching images directly to the email and referencing them within the email's HTML using unique content IDs. This ensures the images display when the email is opened, even if the recipient is offline.

Inline embedding refers to placing images directly within the body of the email using HTML tags. The images are part of the email's content and are loaded when the email is opened. This method is commonly used for smaller images or decorative elements, like logos.

Linked image embedding involves hosting the images externally on a web server or content delivery network (CDN) and referencing them in the email using URLs. When recipients open the email, their email client fetches the images and displays them within the email. This reduces file size, but requires an internet connection.

Each method has pros and cons — although embedding images is generally the best path for most email marketers. Attaching images requires readers to download attachments, which can be a security risk and is sometimes blocked outright by IT departments.

This chart explores the differences and how they can impact deliverability:


Image handling by email clients

Source: Litmus September 2023 Email Client Market Share Report

Best practices when using images in email



When used well, images can take your email marketing campaign to the next level by highlighting product features, making CTAs stand out, and engaging your readers. Get it wrong, however, and you're likely to see your engagement and click rates plummet. These best practices will help you leverage the awesome benefits of images, while limiting the downsides.

Choose an image size and embed method that works for your audience

There's no one "perfect" image size or embed method that displays well on all email platforms and all devices. (It would be a lot easier if there were!) When possible, choose the best format for your audience. When in doubt, use file sizes and embed methods that work well for mobile devices, as 85% of US workers check email on their phones. However, the type of image matters, too. For a large infographic or a detailed product image, you may want to attach the image so users can still view the email quickly.

Stick to the right image sizes

Think of it like Goldilocks — not too big, not too small, your images need to be just right. Images that are too wide or too small can be distorted when displayed on certain devices. Aim to keep image width below 600 pixels wide and around 500 to 600 pixels tall. Also, consider the size of email overall — Gmail clips if your email message is 102 kB or larger.

Avoid image-only emails

Image-only emails look pretty — when they work. However, they also load slowly and can cause accessibility issues for users who use screen readers. Instead of seeing your lovely image, some users might just see a broken image or (if they use a screen reader) only hear your alt text. Instead, strike a balance by including a mix of well-structured text and images, ensuring your message is accessible to all.



Include alt text

Ensuring every recipient can fully engage with your content regardless of their abilities is not just a good marketing practice — it's the right thing to do. Adding alt text that clearly describes each image helps those who use screen readers. Don't use this space to stuff in keywords; rather, clearly describe the image.

Test responsiveness across viewports and email clients

To maximize the impact of your email campaigns, ensure your emails adapt to mobile devices and perform consistently across popular email clients. Test on different platforms using preview and testing tools, and pay attention to interactive elements. Do they appear correctly on iPhones, Androids, PCs, and Macs? If not, you could alienate a large portion of your email list.



Final thoughts on adding images in emails

As always—benchmarks and best practices are great, but your audience is unique and the best way to learn what works best fo them is to split test. So if you're curious to know whether a design-rich or plain-text email is more compelling for your subscribers, create a testing plan to see how your audience responds to different formats.

Some ideas:

Send your newsletter an A/B split test and measure click-through rate

Split your onboarding automation into two paths (one with graphics and one without) and see how it impacts engagement

The art of using images in emails is not just about the artistic side; it's about strategy, accessibility, and delivering the best experience to your subscribers. So, the next time you craft an email campaign, ensure your images display beautifully and look great across all devices. Use the best practices above, and you'll be on your way to creating emails that look great — and actually convert.







Embedding images in emails? 5 Tips to protect your performance & deliverability

In better economic circumstances, we marketers are put on a long leash to get results. Hilariously irreverent ad campaigns. Wacky publicity stunts. Even ultra-creative emails—all in the name of seeing what sticks and scales.

But right now? Inflation is high. Interest rates continue to rise. And, as such, consumer behaviors are changing. And marketers across the board are being asked to do more with less. In some cases, a lot less. Whether or not we’re in the throes of a recession, it’s still our job to deliver results.

The headwinds are real.
The question is: so how well will you adapt your approach?

Enter: incremental experimentation. A risk-mitigated, resource-efficient, methodical way to eke out additional value from the tactics you’re already using today. By conducting small, controlled experiments on ad campaigns, emails, websites, and landing pages, we can gain valuable insights into what works and improve our results over time.

Instead of swinging (and…yeah, often missing) for the fences, we focus on “base hits”' and we use rigorous, results-oriented experimentation to get us to our goals.


What is incremental experimentation?

Incremental experimentation is a method of conversion rate optimization that involves making small and gradual changes to campaigns based on data and testing. The goal of incremental experimentation is to improve the user experience and increase conversions over time, without risking large losses or negative impacts.

By testing elements such as subject lines, headlines, images, forms, copy, and CTAs, and measuring their effects on key metrics like bounce rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate, you can improve the performance of your campaigns throughout the funnel over time, with very little risk.

Incremental experimentation can also help you learn more about your audience’s preferences and behavior, and use those insights to inform future decisions and strategies.

Incremental experimentation vs. radical experimentation

If incremental experimentation is about “base hits”, then radical experimentation is like trying to hit a home run on every swing. Making small changes might be less exciting than the odd homer. But you’re more likely to win the game.

More practically, where incremental experimentation is about making small changes that you can quickly test, radical experimentation is about making big, dramatic changes based on assumptions or intuition. Radical experimentation can sometimes lead to breakthrough results, but it can also be risky and costly if the changes backfire. Even in the best case scenario, you never quite know what it is that worked. It’s not the best strategy to work from when times are tight.

If you’re looking for a way to minimize risk and improve ROI on your campaigns, incremental experimentation is the best way forward.

Where do you start incremental experimentation?

You have the gist of how incremental experimentation works. Test something small, measure the results, optimize, repeat—it’s pretty straightforward. But there’s some pre-work that needs to be done before you start testing. You first need to decide what you should test, establish your baseline, define your goals, and create a hypothesis.

What to test first

It might be tempting to start testing Google Ads copy right off the bat. But we recommend starting a bit closer to home (or point of conversion). Your own audience (the people that have interacted with your content before) are a much better gauge of what’s effective and what isn’t. Test high-visibility email campaigns and landing pages to see more actionable results quickly.

We typically use the ICE framework (Impact, Certainty, Effort) to prioritize what to test.

Impact: What is the potential for impact? Look for areas most likely to net significant results.

Certainty: How certain are you that there will be an impact?

Effort: Is this easy to test? Or will it require the input of people across the org with a long implementation timeline?

Define goals

Once you’ve established what you should be testing, it’s time to define how they should be performing. This can vary quite a bit between business types and verticals, what your current KPIs are, your company size, and what your industry benchmark is.

Ensure that you can clearly define the metrics you’re trying to improve, and which one is your top priority.

Establish a baseline

This is simply looking at how an email, landing page, ad, or website is currently performing. What’s the bounce rate? How long do they stay on the page? What’s the open rate? Most importantly, what’s the conversion rate? Making a record of these numbers first is absolutely crucial for establishing your goal, hypothesis, and measuring success.

Look at the data

Your current page performance and data can provide key insights on where to focus your testing. If you’re seeing a high email open rate but very few click-throughs, it could be that the email content is not aligning with the expectations of the recipient. Maybe your landing page is getting a lot of traffic and time spent on the page, but they bounce when they see the form. In that case, it could be that your form fields. Your data will give you key insights on what you need to focus on.

Create a hypothesis

If your baseline is where you’re at, and your goals are where you want to be, then your hypothesis is how you get there. Your data is going to point you in the right direction. Using the above example of a high email open rate but low CTR, your hypothesis could be that the hero section of your email needs to communicate the value of your offer more clearly. So your hypothesis would be “Recipients will convert if the value of the offer is clearer when they open the email. We will test a new headline in the hero section that is more explicit.”.

Be as specific as possible with your hypothesis. If your test improves results, you’ll have a clear understanding of why. And if it doesn’t, you’ll still have a much better idea of what the path forward is. You’ll also have insights and data that you can apply to future tests to improve your starting position.

Test again

Hopefully your first test resulted in a lift. Maybe you even reached your goal. One of the great things about incremental testing is that there’s almost always room for improvement. Look at the new data from your test to see what else you might be able to optimize, establish your hypothesis, and test it again.

Testing ideas

There are so many different page or email elements that can be tested. And while your data should help inform what to test, it may not always be explicit. So we’ve listed a number of different things that you can test incrementally and move that needle.

Web marketing tests

Headline/hero section

Any given web or landing page’s headline and hero section is the first thing a visitor sees, so it needs to grab their attention. There’s a lot of room to experiment with different headlines, images, and subheads, so there’s a not-insignificant opportunity for a huge lift here. (Just remember: test one at a time.)

Calls to action

CTA buttons are easy to change and easy to test. For such a small page element, they can have a massive impact on your conversion rate.

Copy

What’s better: less copy or more copy? Do your prospects want to see benefits? Or do they want storytelling? What’s the best tone? There’s ample room for testing your copy on any landing page or web page.

Images

Images can do a lot of heavy lifting in helping you better express your brand or product benefits. They can also get in the way. Consider testing different types of images, where you place them, or even using no images at all.

Forms

If your landing page has a form to collect lead information, is it asking too much or too little information from visitors?

Layout/page length

Simple changes to a page’s layout and/or length can drastically change how a visitor interacts with it.

Email marketing tests

Send time and date

Is your audience more likely to engage with your email first thing in the morning on a Monday or at some other time of day or week?

Subject line

Your subject line is the most important element in ensuring your email gets opened, so testing it can have a massive cascading impact on your open rate, click through rate, and conversion rate.

Preheader

The text you see right after the subject line (in most email clients) can also have a dramatic impact on open rates (and thus, everything else). Your preheader can provide context, increase mystique, or hint that there’s something of value to be gained from opening the email.

Sender

Depending on your business, email recipients may be more likely to open an email from the company or a specific person at your company. For example: An email from “John Smith” might seem more personable than an email from “Sales”. The same applies to the sender email address.



Hero section

If your email has a hero section, the content it contains is important because it should immediately communicate what the email is about, and why they should read it.

Tone/style

Does your audience prefer a buttoned-down enterprise tone, or would they prefer a personal tone, like they were hearing from a friend or colleague?

Length

In marketing, we often say less is more. But sometimes, less isn’t enough. Testing the length of your content can help you determine how much information your audience needs to convert.

Content structure

Where your content lives is as important as what it says. Sometimes, putting the offer up front results in higher conversions. Other times, presenting pain points before solutions is more effective. There are many different ways you can structure your content to get different results.

Call to action

What does your call to action say? Is it styled as a button or hyperlink? Where does it exist in the email? Do you use it just once, or is it repeated throughout?

Personalization

Using a recipient’s name or company name in the subject and/or body of the email can be an effective way to grab their attention and increase their engagement with it.

Images

Would including images of products, the sender, or icons have an impact on engagement and conversions?

Plain text vs HTML or templates

Does your audience prefer straightforward text emails or are they more likely to read an email that was thoughtfully designed and branded?

A last word on incremental experimentation

Testing your web pages and email campaigns can take time and planning. But, the payoff has the potential to compound faster than current interest rate hikes. When the economy isn’t certain, incremental experimentation is a sound way to continue optimizing your marketing efforts and growing your business.

Over time, these smaller tests won’t just help you boost sales, subscriptions, and leads, they’re also going to help you better understand your customers, improve the customer journey, and perhaps most importantly, position you to succeed when economic circumstances improve.



Incremental Experimentation: Getting Results When They’re Harder to Come By

How we navigate leadership as women in tech

Best Practices

If you’re a marketer sending to 1,000+ recipients at a time, small-batching your email sends is a technique worth having in your toolbox. Whether it’s a one-off broadcast or a multi-step drip campaign, sending a staggered email takes moments to prepare and can pay off in a big way.

By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly what staggered sending and send time optimization (STO) are and have 5 illustrated takeaways to improve your marketing.

What is staggered or batch email sending?

Of course, segments, automations, and dynamic content help ensure your emails are relevant and timely, but there are times when a bulk email is appropriate for your entire list. In those cases, and particularly when you’re working with segments of 5-10,000+ — how you handle the mechanics of a bulk email send will make all the difference.

Here's an example of a one-time email:

Let’s imagine you’ve prepared a broadcast email and have a segment of 10,000 subscribers who should receive it.



As you might have guessed, you can also apply the same principle to multi-email campaigns as well as automated email workflows.

Here's an example of a drip campaign:







3 Benefits of Staggering Your Send Times

Improved deliverability — or else email providers may mistake you for a nefarious bulk email spammer.

Increased open rates — send times that are optimized for time-zone & past engagement, as well as small batch split testing techniques.

Better resource management — because no marketer wants to “blow up” the customer support ticket queue, if we can avoid it.





Send Time Optimization (STO) vs. Staggered Sending

How you batch your sends depends entirely on the contact data you have available and what your email marketing software can achieve.

Typically, marketers will batch by some kind of available contact data: based on either traditional segmentation criteria or send time optimization (STO) data.







Sure, “send time optimization” is a bit of a buzzword and there are a few ways to calculate an “optimal send time”:

Good — Time-zone based send time optimization (STO)


Better — ”Optimized send time” based on the group average (a single send time based on the segment’s historical data, optimizing to achieve the highest open rate for the most contacts). 
This “optimized send time” is touted by a number of mainstream email providers, but rarely results in more than a slight increase in engagement. 


Best — ”Optimized send time” based on subscriber-specific historic email engagement data, such as opens and clicks.
This is a truly personalized approach for each individual and can result in significant increases in email engagement and conversions. 

Be sure to make sure that an automation platform can back up its claims. Consider asking:

Can you tell me more about how your “send time optimization” works?

What data points does your platform consider when calculating an optimal send time?

If I have a large segment of subscribers, is the optimized send time the same for the entire segment, or is it subscriber-specific?

That last question is the key. Any optimal send time is better than a bulk send based on little more than “whenever you get around to it.”

Jump ahead to see if Delivra is Good, Better, or Best. 







Use cases for staggered sending:

Improve deliverability

Sending out your emails in a few small batches instead of one giant batch will ensure that everything is delivered correctly the first time.

Email providers—like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo—as well as private email hosting services (like those used by larger companies and corporations) own the servers that route and receive emails. And, on the whole, they’re not fans of bulk email sending. Why? Because bad actors (the spammers, spoofers, and phishers of the world) use bulk email sends all the time.

As a result, bulk emails—even the ones sent by a beneficent marketer like yourself—smell too much like spam and are either blocked by a firewall or filtered out of the inbox and into a junk/spam folder.

By sending an email in smaller batches, you decrease your chances of being mistakenly caught in a spam filter.

Having your email flagged as spam isn’t just inconvenient—it’s actually dangerous. Nations around the world have enacted very strict anti-spam laws. Gmail and Outlook have specific systems in place to protect their users and their reputations.

When Gmail’s algorithm flags an email as spam, it leaves a black mark on your IP address. This increases your chances of getting hit by spam filters in the future.

Not only that, but it damages the reputation of everyone else sharing your IP address and your email service provider. In a worst-case scenario, your IP address could end up blacklisted for life. Sending staggered emails is an overall safe practice for keeping your IP clean and functioning at optimal levels.

Increase Open rates

Ensuring your emails are received is one thing—how about getting people to open and engage with them?

Send time optimization based on subscriber time zone

Address your global subscriber base and reach them at 6 AM on Wednesday no matter where in the world they’re located.

Wednesday 6:00 AM AEDT (Sydney)
5,000 Subscribers

Wednesday 6:00 AM BST (London)
4,000 Subscribers

Wednesday 6:00 AM EDT (New York)
11,000 Subscribers

Let’s say you segmented your subscriber list and sent the first batch to your most-engaged readers—and it still flopped. It’s not the end of the world because you have a chance to tweak your subject lines and copy before it goes to the rest of your list. You can’t tweak things in a pinch like this if you send a massive batch email—in that case, you only get one shot.

The following two illustrations will help you use A/B split testing to implement small batch sends that also equip you with some helpful insights into what works for your particular audience.

A/B test one-time emails

Test the subject line or email design of a campaign to determine what changes impact the recipients' engagement with the campaign.

Determine how you’d like your email variants distributed to your subscribers and select whether you’d like to choose a manual or automatic winner to send to the remainder of your segment.





A/B test within an automated workflow

Manage Resources

Marketing automation scales a whole lot faster than other teams and services in an organization. So while marketing may be able to generate a massive response to an email send (kudos to you!), what good is it if:

An excellent spike in web traffic ends abruptly in a website crash

Customer requests overwhelm the customer support queue

Sales agents can’t keep up with inbound calls & deals die on the vine

Yes—more often than not, slow and steady really does win the race.


Here are a few ways to flatten the curve so that your teams and systems can keep up with the follow-up generated by your email marketing efforts.

Avoid swamping your customer support queue

Releasing a new feature? Announcing early access to a limited program? Scheduling training calls or customer interviews? If you have an internal customer support team, you know that  they’re often the first to feel the impact of an “email over-send.” Here are a few ideas you can use to take the pressure off their ticket queue:

Staggered email for new product release



Staggered sales promotion

Why more marketers don’t stagger their emails:

Let’s be honest—marketing tips are a dime a dozen (let me check, yep—10,400,000 Google results for that term alone). So let’s not waste any time kidding ourselves:

You’re a busy (busy!) marketer. And a single, bulk click-n-send, is just faster—it is.

You’re also a savvy marketer. So while 9/10 of your competitors will fall for the faster, easier option, you won’t. Because you know that compared to the time it took you to actually create, design, and approve the campaign, a few minutes spent on STO will ensure your work is actually opened, clicked, and leads to the kind of conversations that keep you business.

With that in mind, let’s discuss how you can implement STO with Delivra’s platform.

How to stagger and batch email sends with Delivra

If your email subscribers are in multiple time zones, consider sending your emails within the person’s local timezone if you have that information.

Send in the recipient's local timezone

Select "Send in recipient’s local time zone at the date and time specified" to send your email at the specified time in the recipient's time zone. Delivra identifies a contact’s time zone based on their zip code and, if that's not available, the IP address. If neither are available, they will be sent the email based on the time zone you have specified in your account. Learn more

Optimize for send time

Within Delivra’s email builder, select "Optimize the send time starting at the date and time specified" to send your email when people are most likely to open it. This option takes the guesswork out of choosing the ideal send time, because we calculate it for you based on the contact’s past click and open behavior.

Delivra's Send Time Optimization looks at the actions below for each recipient in the following order:

Most recurring click time
The hour in which the recipient has registered the most clicks

Most recurring open time
The hour in which the recipient has registered the most opens

Most recurring click time for the account
On average, the hour in which all recipients in your account register the most clicks

Specified date and send time
The date and time that was selected when setting up your email campaign

Select a randomized subset within a campaign segment or segment(s)

Within the campaign setup workflow, after you select your target segment(s), you’ll have an option to “Set a maximum number of random recipients from targeted segment.” This automatically selects a randomized subset of your segment.



A/B test your one-time emails

Test the subject line or email design of a campaign to determine what changes impact the recipients' engagement with the campaign.

Determine how you’d like your email variants distributed to your subscribers and select whether you’d like to choose a manual or automatic winner. If you choose manual you will need to view the results of the initial test and manually send out the winning version. Automatic winners can be chosen based on opens, clicks, or purchase amount. If you choose Automatic you must set a send time.


Use a Split in an automation workflow. 

Within the automation builder, split the branches of your workflow and, on each brand, add a pause with a different duration. As subscribers pass through the journey, they will be evenly split between branches and the pauses will implement a staggered email send, ensuring everyone is reached—though not at the same time.



Ready to create staggering emails?

Of course you are. 

Because you know the success of your downstream marketing funnel hinges on your open rates and the ROI of spending an additional 2-3 minutes on send time optimization will more than pay for itself.

Here’s a quick recap of the 5 illustrated tactics we covered for staggered email sending:

Send time optimization based on subscriber time zone

A/B test one-off emails

A/B test within an automated workflow

Staggered email for new product release

Staggered email for sales promotion





Staggered Email Sending: The benefits of small batch vs. bulk emails

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