I recently did an email marketing audit for a dear client.

They are among the top US companies in their industry and have been pretty consistent with their email marketing efforts.

I set out looking for how they could increase the reach of their emails without much effort.

And here are five ways to increase the effectiveness of marketing emails that I zeroed in.

1. Use elements that will increase click-through for emails
2. Send emails on set days and times to help your audience form a habit of receiving emails
3. Add a recurring word or phrase in your email subject lines for brand recall
4. Send emails (at least once a month) featuring wins, media appearances, or new launches if you only send educational emails.
5. If your brand publishes YouTube videos, sync email sending time with video publishing time to get help from the YouTube algorithm for video visibility.

Let’s look at each of these in detail.

1/ Use elements that will increase click-through for emails

When you want people to click through to any external link, add a clear CTA.

If there is a video that you want your user to click through to then add a video thumbnail with a play button on top of it (see the image below) and link this image to the YouTube URL so that whenever someone clicks on the thumbnail or the play button, they are taken to the actual video.

This will increase click-throughs and views for the video.

2/ Send emails on set days and times to help your audience form a habit of receiving emails

A consistent sending rhythm to aid habit creation among your audience.

There have been more than a dozen studies accounting for hundreds of millions of emails and there is no singular advice on send times. But there are some facts that common sense also supports. Like Monday and Fridays are the worst days to send emails. The obvious reason for this is that on Mondays, people start their work week and have a lot going, and on Fridays, they are winding things up, so they are less likely to open an email or watch a video related to a business topic.

If you are not sure just stick to the middle of the month and the middle of the day. So, send your emails from Tuesday to Thursday and during 11am-1pm. After one month, review the data and decide if you need to change things or stick to the same time.

For tech-savvy audiences, late evenings also work for spending time. But test everything and decide what works best for your audience.

3/ Add a recurring word or phrase in your email subject lines for brand recall

For my marketing newsletter, I add the name of the newsletter, “3-2-1 Marketing Memo #” in the subject line. Having consistent recurring words in the subject line helps with brand recall. When you share the theme of your email regularly in your subject line, it hammers the brand into the minds of people who receive emails. Eventually, they will get into the habit of seeing your email theme in the subject line and start looking forward to them. That’s the habit we want to form.

4/ Send emails featuring wins, media appearances, or new launches at least once a month if you only send educational emails

This will help build social proof and make the audiences aware of what is happening. When you share that, the audience feels like an insider and this helps build trust. And, trust is the prerequisite for a long relationship and a transaction.

5/ Send emails in-sync with video publishing time. 

If your brand publishes YouTube videos sync email sending time with video publishing time to get help from the YouTube algorithm for video visibility. 

Best to schedule emails to go within an hour of publishing a video. This will help in video’s visibility because the YouTube algorithm helps show a video to more people if it gets early views soon after it’s published.

Hope this helps.