Staying in front of the customer is a must for small business owners. And there’s no better way to improve awareness, conversion, and retention than with a solid email marketing strategy.

Here are 16 ways to ensure every email you send will resonate with your target audience as intended.

Bonus Content: Grab a copy of our Email Marketing Roadmap.

Get It Now

1. AVOID ALL CAPS.

Occasionally, caps work to put emphasis on a word or phrase. But more often than not, your audience feels like you’re YELLING AT THEM! Err on the side of good email etiquette and avoid the caps lock entirely.

2. Don’t overuse exclamation points!!!

Similar to all caps, exclamation points are easily misinterpreted. When used sparingly, the exclamation point can effectively communicate excitement. But go too far and you also risk coming across as overly enthusiastic or even insincere. A good rule is to limit yourself to one exclamation point per business email.

3. Don’t abuse the bold, italics and underline styling.

While these features can be used to emphasize a point, too much of a good thing goes bad quickly. An email full of bold, italicized and underlined text could come across as aggressive, or even rude. If nothing else, it’s distracting and confusing.

4. Watch your tone.

Your emails represent your brand, so it’s important to be both positive and professional. Avoid negative language, and when possible, try to frame negative messages in a more positive light.

For example, instead of saying, “you missed the deadline,” which sounds accusatory, take a more neutral approach and say, “the deadline passed.”

5. Keep the message clear, concise and easy to read.

Studies have shown that people misinterpret the tone and meaning of emails as much as 50 percent of the time. That’s a 50/50 shot your messaging can get lost. The best way to avoid this email etiquette faux pas is to eliminate unnecessary and ambiguous language.

6. Keep humor to a minimum.

Recent surveys have shown that many people find humor acceptable in an email. The problem with humor is that it’s entirely subjective. What you find funny, someone else may find offensive.

Plus, the absence of vocal and facial cues makes it difficult to know when someone is joking in an email. If you don’t know the recipient well, or if you’re not sure the joke reads in an obvious way, save the humor for another occasion.

7. Avoid the use of slang.

While email communications can be relaxed, friendly and informal, you still want to sound professional. Believe it or not, survey respondents were strongly against the use of slang in emails. In fact, over 40 percent of survey respondents ages 18-24 considered slang “totally unacceptable.” So save the BRBs and TTYLs for texting.

8. Keep salutations professional.

You don’t need to be over-the-top formal, just respectful. A simple “hello” or “good morning” will do. As you get to know recipients better, you can take a less formal approach if it’s appropriate. Using the recipient’s name adds a personal touch, but make sure to use the name they prefer.

Pro tip: Don’t shorten names on your own or create nicknames. As anyone who goes by Daniel or Katherine can tell you, getting an email addressed to “Danny” or “Katie” is both rude and disrepectful.

9. Close in a respectful manner.

Your sign-off can be as simple as “sincerely” or “thank you.” Always include your relevant contact information, so the recipient knows how to reach you. To make things easy, create a professional email signature that includes your name, job title, company, business address and phone number.

10. Keep your emails mobile-friendly.

After all, 91 percent of consumers check email on their smartphone at least once per day. Remember, special fonts and emojis don’t play well across all devices.

If you must include photos, add them as attachments. You don’t want to force recipients to wait for photos to load to get access to your message.

11. Always provide valuable content.

No one wants a constant sales pitch. If you can provide information or start an interesting conversation, your audience will respond.

Use list segmentation and create a targeted message for each segment group. The more you speak to the direct needs of the recipient, the better your results will be.

12. Don’t exhaust your audience with too many emails.

Determining the best email frequency for your business requires some experimentation, trial and error. But, in general, we recommend reaching out one to four times each month. This may sound like a lot or barely anything, depending on your business. However many emails you send, the goal is to stay top of mind without annoying your recipients.

13. Avoid lengthy email subject lines.

Email open rates are highest when subject lines are six to 10 words long, approximately 50 characters in length. So keep your subject lines short and to the point. Remember, you want the recipient to open the email. Make the subject enticing, but don’t give away so much information that there’s no reason to read more.

Here’s an example of a subject line that says too much: “Our research shows that emailing customers twice a month can lead to optimal open rates.”

A better subject line would be “How Often Should You Email Customers?” It poses an interesting question without giving away the answer, so the recipient is more likely to open the email to find out.

14. Always proofread before hitting send.

A sloppy, error-ridden email does nothing for your email etiquette reputation. Your readers shouldn’t have to proofread and edit your work to understand your message. Check and double-check everything from the subject line to the email signature, including grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

Pro tip: Also remember to check all links! Recipients who click a link that takes them nowhere will likely abandon your email altogether.

15. Respond to emails in a timely fashion.

Try to respond to everyone within 24 hours, if possible, including those who contact you by mistake. If a proper response is going to take additional time, shoot the sender a quick note to let them know you’ll be following up ASAP. This approach is not only a top-notch example of stellar email etiquette, but it also keeps your inbox clean and allows everyone to move forward with their business.

16. Don’t get tripped up by Reply All, CC and BCC features.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Use Reply All when the conversation is important to everyone in the thread.
• Use CC to include people on a need-to-know basis.
• Use BCC when mailing to a bulk list or when the privacy of the recipients is essential.

If your email doesn’t fit in these categories, stick with a single recipient. You can always add more people to an email thread later on.

We hope these best practices for email etiquette will help elevate your email marketing game. We know how busy professionals and business owners get, so if you’re short on time, we’re here to automate the process. Learn more about how OutboundEngine markets your business for you so you can focus on sales.

Here at OutboundEngine, we sent more than 114 million emails in 2021. So you know we’re speaking from experience when we say: email marketing works, but only when you know what you’re doing.

We believe every business deserves great marketing, and email is an integral part of any marketing plan. But we also know many business owners and entrepreneurs don’t have the time, budget or interest needed to master email marketing. Some don’t even have the time to simply execute it, let alone sit and think strategy! That’s why we created our Email Marketing Roadmap—to help give you a clear path as you plan your email marketing strategy for this year and beyond.

In the 2023 Email Marketing Roadmap, you will find updated best practices, insight into how to build an email list, and actionable steps you can apply to your 2023 email marketing strategy.

What’s In It?

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• How to write great email content that drives ROI
• Common email mistakes to avoid
• Why email marketing is crucial to your business

We hope our 2023 Email Marketing Roadmap will help get more benefit out of email this year. If you still feel overwhelmed or could use a hand with your email marketing strategy, we are always here to help.

1. Use the buddy system.

Accountability is the name of the game when it comes to following through on resolutions. And finding a partner or a group to share in, or just check up on, your resolutions is a great way to stay accountable.

The American Society of Training and Development found people are 65% more likely to meet a goal after committing to another person. And that lift increases to a whopping 95% when they build in ongoing meetings to check in on their progress.

Like most of these new year’s resolutions for business owners, this one doesn’t cost anything. So ask a friend, a colleague, join a professional group in your area or even an online group for people in your industry. You’ll be much more likely to meet your goals, and you might even gain some networking benefits in the process.

2. Focus on quality, not quantity.

At OutboundEngine, we spend all day thinking about how to help small businesses improve their marketing. What we’ve found is that turning on a firehose of content isn’t usually the best approach. You can blast out 10 Facebook posts every day and retweet all night long, but there are ways you can connect with your current and potential clients better by doing less. Focus on posting interesting, timely information that encourages your audience to interact with you or share your content.

Quick ways to do this:

• Respond to comments on your posts.
• Leave comments and like content on other pages.
• Include personal notes on pictures or posts that you share.

Take the time to make a few real connections every day and you’ll see your relationships strengthen.

3. Be a mentor.

Think back to when you were first starting out in your career. You were probably excited and hopeful while simultaneously feeling nervous and unsure. Did you have support, or could you have used more?

One of the best new year’s resolutions for business owners is to pay it forward. Reach out to someone in your industry just starting out and who could use mentoring or a sounding board for advice. Your generosity will not go unnoticed, and you will be seen as both an expert in your field and as a person people want to work with. It never hurts to raise your profile within your industry, especially when you’re doing a good deed.

Not sure how to find someone? LinkedIn has a great feature called Career Advice. Answer a couple quick questions and they’ll match you with someone based on your preferences.

4. Think long-term.

Some goals take more than just one calendar year. Don’t be afraid to put something huge on your resolutions list just because it will extend beyond 2023. The idea of this task can seem daunting, so start by making a list or marking up a calendar. Oftentimes, just seeing your list on paper can make it feel more manageable.

It doesn’t matter how you want to manage your list. You can use the tried and true paper and pen and use a planner. If you prefer to keep things digital, check out some of these apps to keep you organized.

Write out what you’d like to see your business become. Include goals both personal and professional you’d like to achieve. Think about what steps you can take to make those dreams a reality. Use this plan as a motivator to stay on track with goals throughout 2023.

Interested in digging into improving your project management? Check out these tips from a pro.

5. Fight burnout with balance.

The workday for a small business owner doesn’t always end at 5 pm on a Friday and start again at 9 am on Monday. For example, a real estate agent may have busier weekends and slower weekdays. A health and wellness professional may see a spike in business on holidays when other businesses quiet down. All of this burning the candle at both ends means burnout is on the rise. Burnout affects both your mental and physical health, so it’s important to make sure you take the time you need to recharge.

Here are some tangible ways to work in balance:

• Exercise as often as you can. Take a phone call while you go for a short walk.
• Spend time with people you care about. Set a monthly lunch or schedule a weekly call with someone who is important to you.
• Get some sleep at night. Staying off your phone/tablets for an hour before bed will help you sleep easier.
• Carve out time for yourself. Watch a movie, knit a scarf, do a crossword puzzle, whatever will help you relax and recharge your batteries.
• Outsource tasks you don’t have time for. For example, we can take marketing off your plate so you spend less time working.

Shifting even a small percentage of your free time to yourself will have big benefits. With your mind refreshed and your body energized, your personal success will benefit. Who knows? You may even end up inspiring people around you to do the same. The domino effect of happier and healthier people in your life will be profound.

6. Strategically delegate.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs are used to doing everything, but should they? Shifting work to someone else can be difficult, especially for those who are accustomed to wearing every hat needed to run a business. However, delegation can open you up to focusing on what you love and what you do best.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What do you dread doing?
2. What overwhelms you?
3. Could someone else do in minutes a task that takes me hours?

The answers to these questions may lead you to a list of tasks that you can and should delegate to someone else.

If delegating marketing is one of your new year’s resolutions for your business, let OutboundEngine’s automated marketing help. Click here to set up a live walkthrough and find out how we can help you succeed in the new year. Cheers to a successful new year!