Email Marketing Best Practices (+21 Tips) for 2019

Email marketing is still the number one digital channel for driving sales for most small businesses. But the "newsletter" days of email marketing are over. In this article, I'm going to cover email marketing best practices for growing your list and generating at least $1 in monthly revenue per email subscriber.

You wouldn't believe how many business owners I've coached who:

Don't have an email list.

Have an email list, but don't use it consistently.

Use it consistently, but are doing it all wrong.

#1 and #2 are a mystery to me when you consider how powerful email marketing is for accelerating people through the "know, like, and trust" process and for creating a predictable, steady flow of sales.

Having an email list that you use consistently, and use the right way, is basically like owning a printing press to the tune of at least $1 in monthly revenue per subscriber.

While I initially couldn't figure out why so many business owners were avoiding email marketing, it started to all make sense as I worked with more and more of them over time.

It's not that they're bad business owners who hate money, as you might think. It really boils down to two things:

They don't understand even the basics of email marketing.

They're intimidated by the whole process of email marketing. They just want to do what they already know.

By the end of this article, you're going to have a clear understanding of profitable email marketing best practices and have all the actionable insights you need to turn email marketing into your number one profit channel.

What Are You Trying to Accomplish with Email Marketing?

Before you get lost in the weeds, I want to make sure that you know what the big picture looks like. Understanding the big picture means knowing what you want to accomplish and then knowing how to get there from where you are now.

Here's how a lot of people think email marketing works:

Get people on your email list by any means necessary.

Send sales emails.

Sit back and watch your bank account balance grow.

Nah, slow your roll there, Magic Mike.

Doing email marketing the right way means approaching it with the right attitude. Here's what successful email marketing really looks like...

Get the right people on your email list with intelligent strategies.

Send emails with the right mix of entertainment and information to foster connection, trust, and community.

Earn money by getting people to invest in products and services that add value to their lives.

Doing email marketing the right way is one of the most legitimate and sustainable ways of making sales online. There shouldn't be a single shady thing about it.

And no, you're not going to annoy people. When you do email marketing the right way, people will love hearing from you. In fact, many will reply and encourage you to continue emailing them...

How do you get there from where you are now?

Wanting to do email marketing is different from actually doing it. The first step is to get over the intimidation and mindset noise (some of the intimidation comes from the tech side of things, too).

The second step is to start executing, even if that means taking baby steps. Here are the five basic steps...

Sign up with an email marketing service provider.

Start growing your list.

Commit to an effective email format and tone.

Email your list consistently.

Sell something in every email.

Now that you understand the overview, let's get into the weeds a little bit...

Best Practice #1: Use a [Legit] Email Marketing Service

If you want to send bulk emails to a list, you need to use an email marketing service.