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10 Tips to Make You a Better Email Marketer
By Celeste Flahaven, Marketing Specialist
Email has an amazing return on investment—up to $45 for every $1 you spend! Plus, you get to own your customer list, which means you can reach out to your audience directly without depending on social media algorithms. And the best part? It helps you build trust with your customers, making it easy to create personal, lasting relationships.
Here are 10 quick tips to improve your email marketing:
1. Consistency > Perfection
Know your brand and be yourself. Regular, consistent emails are more valuable than striving for perfection. If you don’t have time to create a recipe from scratch to share in your weekly email, don’t sweat it — include a short and sweet update from the farm to keep your audience engaged.
2. Clean Up Your Email List
Every 6-12 months, remove subscribers who bounce or don’t interact with your emails. If you send emails weekly, consider putting a subscriber through a sunset workflow or removing them if they haven’t opened an email in the past 90 days. For less frequent email schedules, consider removing subscribers after they don’t open three to five consecutive emails.
A sunset workflow is an automated process designed to re-engage inactive subscribers with your emails. This applies to all subscribers, not just those who have made a purchase in the past.
3. Create Catchy Subject Lines
Spend time on your subject lines! They’re the most important part, because if you don’t catch your audience’s interest with them, then the rest of the email gets left unread. Highlight whatever’s most relevant or important in the email. Maybe it’s an exclusive invitation to an event (“Join us for a Farm to Table Dinner this Saturday”), a seasonal highlight, (“New Summer Veggies at Our Stand!”), or an urgent PSA (“Last Chance to Get Our Organic Honey—This Weekend Only!”)
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4. Join Your Competitors' Email Lists
Sign up for your own and your competitors' (or businesses of a similar size, region, or business type) email lists. See what they’re doing and learn from their successes and mistakes. Notice how they communicate, what offers they send, and how they engage their readers.
5. Measure and Adjust
Regularly check how your emails are performing. Use the results to improve your strategy. For example, if your welcome email isn't getting opened, try changing the subject line or content based on what you see working for others.
Subject lines are the most important, because if you don’t catch your audience’s interest with them, then the rest of the email gets left unread.
6. Use Free Tools
Take advantage of free resources to make better content. Some resources we love include:
- Email software templates. If you don’t know where to begin designing an email, check out the templates provided by your email marketing platform such as Drip or Mailchimp! Just be sure to customize them with your business’s logo and brand colors.
- Canva has tons of templates and easy-to-use tools to design graphics that add an extra pop to your email designs.
- Although using your own photos is always ideal, sometimes stock photos are your best or only option. Unsplash has a great selection of stock photos and videos that are free to use.
Stuck on what to write about?
AI tools like ChatGPT can be your thought partner in content creation. Stuck on what to write about? ChatGPT can provide fresh topics and angles to explore. It can also help you edit and polish your content to make sure it’s clear and engaging.
7. Optimize for Mobile
Make sure your emails look great on mobile devices. Many people will open your emails on their phones. Check to confirm that your text is readable, images load correctly, and buttons are easy to click.
8. Keep It Short and Sweet
Make your emails concise and easy to read. Use plenty of white space to improve readability. Highlight key points about your seasonal offerings or upcoming events, and break the text into small, digestible chunks.
9. Be Personal
People like to buy from real people. Use a personal name in the sender spot and write in a friendly tone. For instance, sign off your emails with your name and a warm note, like “Best, Farmer John.”
How to use ChatGPT for email marketing:
- Newsletter content ideas
- Outline for a nurture sequence (a set of emails sent over time to help potential customers learn more about your products and build a relationship with them.)
- Copywriting and refining
- Copyediting
- Subject line brainstorming
- Audience understanding
- Repurposing messages for a different target audience
10. Include Clear Calls to Action
Always tell your readers what to do next, like visiting your website, signing up for a farm tour, or buying a product. Use phrases like "Order Fresh Veggies Now" or "Join Our CSA Program."
