Summarize with AI
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Introduction
Gina Ramsey: Good morning, everyone. My name is Gina Ramsey, and I’m the president of Pink Dog Digital. We’re a full-service digital marketing company, and today we’re going to talk about maximizing your impact with email marketing. My guest is Coral Norman, our director of digital media here at Pink Dog. We’re going to do this in a Q&A style: if you have questions, please drop them into the Q&A, and I’ll be looking at those. So will George. So, without further ado, Coral, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself, and then we’ll get into the questions?
Coral Norman: Great, I’m excited to be here today, I’ve really been enjoying hosting these webinars. Email marketing is a big one we’re excited about right now, because it’s one of those strategies that stays pretty consistent over time.
A little about me: I’m the director of digital here. I’ve been working with Gina on and off for about a decade, and I’ve been at Pink Dog since 2019, a year after the company started. I’ve worked in social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing… a little bit of everything. I enjoy dabbling in all the sections of websites and digital, so I’m excited to talk more about email marketing today.
Why Email Marketing Still Works
G.R.: Just to kick us off: why is email marketing still one of the most effective tools for small and medium-sized businesses, even with so many digital marketing channels available?
C.N.: That’s an excellent question. The primary reason email marketing does so well is that you’re meeting your customers where they are: everybody’s in email every day. I basically live in my inbox because I get so many emails from clients. It’s also just an easy, good touch point. The return on investment is insanely good, too: for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average ROI is $40. It’s a little higher for larger businesses and sometimes a little lower for small ones, but it’s a quick touch point where customers can see exactly what you’ve got going on directly in their inbox. They’re not having to go to another website, and it’s not showing up as an ad. Compare that to organic social, which is still important but a little tougher right now because you’re fighting the algorithm. There’s no algorithm to fight in email, so it’s a bit easier.
Building a Healthy Email List
G.R.: For businesses just getting started, what’s the best way to grow a healthy, engaged email list?
C.N.: There are a couple of good ways to do this. One is to capture email addresses on your website: make sure you have a sign-up form there. If people are already on your site, they’re already interested and engaging with you, so that’s a good place to start. The other is developing your CRM so it captures your customers’ and clients’ emails; they’ll be your most engaged subscribers because they’re already working with you. Running social media ads is another good way to collect emails from people who are already engaged and interested.
One thing we almost never recommend is buying an email list. If you purchase one, you’re going to get in trouble most of the time. People don’t want you showing up in their inbox if they haven’t asked for it. They’ll report you as spam, Google will flag you, and you’ll find yourself unable to use your email client at all. So we strongly recommend against that.
What Is an Email Client?
G.R.: Can you explain what an email client is, for anyone in the audience who doesn’t know?
C.N.: An email client is what you send your emails out through. You never want to just log into Gmail or Outlook and blast an email to, say, a hundred people at once, that’s another way Google will flag you as spam. Instead, you go through what’s called an email client, which lets you send mass emails without landing in the spam folder every time. Some common ones are Mailchimp, which is our favorite and the one we use for our own emails and typically recommend to clients; Constant Contact, another common choice; HubSpot, which usually has an email client built in; and ReachMail. Our two favorites are Mailchimp and Constant Contact.
Encouraging Sign-Ups Without Discounts
G.R.: How can small to medium-sized businesses encourage people to subscribe without relying solely on discounts?
C.N.: That’s another good question. The best way is to make sure people know the value they’re going to get.
G.R.: You need to tell them why they’re subscribing to your email list.
C.N.: Right… are they subscribing for coupons down the line? For more information about your business? What’s the reason, what’s the value add? Another way businesses encourage sign-ups is by offering something like a white paper or another digital asset: when someone signs up, they get that asset, and then they’re added to the list. The key is to make sure you’re providing value instead of just saying “sign up for our email list.” If people don’t know what they’re getting, they’re not going to sign up.
Content Quality and Engagement
G.R.: Even in a nurturing campaign – a regular monthly email – the content is critical. If people don’t find it engaging, or they don’t learn something, or there’s no takeaway, they’re not going to keep subscribing. I get an email every week from a group that’s similar to a local chamber of commerce, and it’s the same thing every week with maybe a couple of small changes: just 500 to 1,000 words of text. I click out of it every time because it’s overwhelming. The information might be good, but I can’t see it quickly or easily, and there’s just too much in it.
So the takeaway is: whatever content you’re putting in that email needs to interest your audience and be quick and easy to digest. The ROI is good on email, and a lot of people open it, but if they don’t find value, or their inbox is too full to deal with something complicated, they’re going to click out or delete it. People don’t have time.
Segmentation
G.R.: We hear all the time about segmentation. What is it, how can a small team realistically manage it, and why is it important?
C.N.: Segmentation lets you better personalize your email campaigns, especially with nurturing or drip campaigns; campaigns that go out to people who are already interested, to keep giving them information.
Think about it like this: if you subscribe to your favorite store’s email list, you’ll get a nurturing campaign with coupons, information about new styles, and so on. Larger businesses with more resources segment by purchase history, buying behavior, how often someone comes back to the site… that kind of thing.
For small businesses, it’s a bit different. Take a service-based business, for example: one of the companies we work with does duct cleaning and dryer vent cleaning for both commercial and residential clients. One of the best ways for them to segment is by residential versus commercial, so each group gets the right information instead of everything going out all at once. You’d have a segmented list for commercial clients that only gets commercial content, plus maybe one general-update email that goes to everyone, while residential clients get content that’s relevant to them.
The main thing is to segment based on common sense: know your client base, know what different types of clients are looking for, and you’ll have a good idea of how to build those segments in your email client.
As far as keeping up with it, make sure someone on your team is checking your subscriber list at least once a month to confirm everything’s properly segmented based on how and where people came in, and what your CRM shows.
Did that answer the question, did I miss anything?
G.R.: Nope, you’re good. Plus, I’m going to dive a little deeper.
C.N.: Yeah, go for it.
What Makes a Great Email Campaign
G.R.: In the industry, every time an email goes out, we call it a campaign. What makes a great email campaign? Is it design, copy, timing, a mix of all of the above? What makes it truly stand out?
C.N.: It’s a mix, and that’s the hard part. You can’t just have one piece nailed down. I get emails all the time with great content but terrible design, and I click off. You need to look at all the variables when you send these things out.
Your design should be consistent and easy to navigate, something your clients come to expect from you. If you’re going to change your design entirely, send an email letting people know and asking for feedback, but otherwise keep it consistent. The content has to be good, the segmentation has to be correct, and you also want to look at timing, as Gina mentioned.
Most email clients can tell you the best time to send based on your past emails and help you schedule accordingly. For instance, one of our best times to send is Tuesday morning; and, oddly enough, Thursday night, because if you deliver Thursday night, it pops up Friday morning in someone’s inbox. You’ll usually find these recommendations in your email client, but it’s also worth doing a little research based on your industry. Universally, Tuesday mornings tend to work well because people have finally dug out from the Monday crush and have a bit of breathing room to actually read and engage.
Balancing Promotional and Value-Driven Content
G.R.: One thing businesses struggle with is balancing promotional versus value-driven content. Is there an 80/20 rule? Where do you draw the line on shameless self-promotion?
C.N.: For email, I don’t recommend a lot of shameless self-promotion unless you’re an e-commerce, B2C company. If that’s you, go for it, drop your products in there regularly. For service-based businesses and B2B, there’s a time and a place. The way we handle most of our own email campaigns… our own monthly email isn’t self-promotional at all, it’s a value add: “Here’s important information about digital marketing you need to know,” or “here’s a tool we like that might help you do your job better.” We’re really just trying to deliver what our clients and customers need.
We do mix in some sales and promotional emails throughout the month based on what we have going on, but overall it’s closer to an 80/20 rule. Most of what you send should add value rather than promote yourself. If you’re just promoting yourself, people are going to hit unsubscribe pretty quickly.
G.R.: I agree.
Personalization
G.R.: I read an article recently that said 85% of people are looking for some kind of personalization in their email marketing, which can be difficult for small businesses with limited data; just a name and an email address. So what are some easy ways businesses can personalize emails to make people feel more engaged?
C.N.: Segmentation, as we mentioned, is one of the first ways to do it: tagging your groups based on how you found them, what they wanted, what they’ve purchased, and so on. The other way is merge tags, which you’ll see in your email client: when you draft an email, you drop in a first-name merge tag, and it automatically pulls in the recipient’s first name so it reads “Hi, so-and-so” instead of feeling like it’s coming from a bot.
The other piece is simply making sure you’re sending the right emails to the right people; not sending a commercial email to a residential client, for example. Tags are useful here, too. Say Gina goes to a networking event and comes back with a stack of business cards. She’ll add those contacts to Mailchimp and tag them by that event – say, the Center Club – so we know they’re engaged members there and what that audience tends to like. Then when we send an email, we can tailor it based on knowing that audience specifically.
G.R.: That’s great. Does that make sense? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen “Dear first name” because someone didn’t test the tags to make sure they were set up properly.
C.N.: Testing is critical! Always send a test email before it goes out. It’s pretty embarrassing when, instead of “Dear Gina,” it says “Dear first name.”
How Often to Send Emails
G.R.: Because of how buried we all are in email, how often should businesses send, and how do you avoid overwhelming subscribers?
C.N.: It’s industry-specific. For e-commerce and B2C, sending daily isn’t necessarily a problem, because there are always new deals and products. But most of the businesses we work with are B2B and service-based, and those don’t need to go out nearly as often… maybe one to two emails a week, if that. You don’t want to crush people’s inboxes to the point where they delete on sight.
We typically send at least one email a month ourselves, plus anything time-sensitive: critical news, or say we just launched a brand-new product – those go out right away. Otherwise, roll things up so you’re not overwhelming people.
G.R.: And again, value added. If you don’t have something valuable to offer, don’t send it.
C.N.: If you don’t have something to say, don’t say anything.
Design and Mobile Optimization
G.R.: Let’s talk about the components of a campaign: design, headlines, mobile-friendly emails. Can you talk about the importance of design and how visuals affect engagement? I’ve got a couple more questions on this same topic.
C.N.: Sure. About 55% of emails are opened on mobile, so your design needs to be mobile-friendly. Mailchimp actually helps with that. It’s hard to account for every email delivery system, since people receive emails differently, but the two you really have to consider are Outlook and Gmail. People also use light mode and dark mode on their phones, so you don’t want an overly complicated design: it should be easy to read in both. Keep graphics simple, keep text simple and easy to read, skip script fonts, and don’t vary your font sizes too much outside of headlines. The most important thing is a simple, user-friendly design. Something you can click through quickly and easily, where the different sections are obvious.
Avoiding the Spam Folder
G.R.: I know email can end up in spam folders, and you touched on Outlook. Is there anything to really do about that besides using a clean list?
C.N.: Not entirely, there’s more to it.
G.R.: Right, I know things like videos can get blocked. What are the no-nos that get an email stuck in spam?
C.N.: The first thing you need to do, before anything else, is add the right records to your DNS. that’s your domain name registrar.
Within your DNS records, you add flags and tags that say, essentially, “I’m not a spammer.” That’s the gist of it, without getting too technical. So the first thing to do is have your website company update your DNS with the proper records… I believe DKIM and SPF are the two you need for email. Usually, if you log into your email client, whether that’s Mailchimp or Constant Contact, they’ll walk you through setting those up. Verifying your domain is step one.
Beyond that, as Gina mentioned, videos can sometimes trigger spam filters. Your subject lines matter a lot too. I previously worked for a financial newsletter, where we had to be very careful about subject lines. You can’t say things like “earn a million dollars” or “save a million dollars,” use heavy capitalization, or pile on exclamation points. Anything overwrought like that gets flagged. Your subject line should read like a normal sentence or headline. Brackets and words like “free” are fine, but don’t capitalize the whole thing, don’t stack exclamation points, and don’t use more than one or two emojis.
G.R.: Fairly clean, but attention-grabbing.
C.N.: Right, words like “urgent,” “must read,” or “emergency” make people think they’ll want to open it, but instead it just goes straight to spam.
G.R.: Exactly.
C.N.: It needs to be carefully crafted. There are services out there that tell you exactly which words will get you flagged, so if you’re ever considering a subject line that feels a little risky, it’s worth checking first.
Emails with a lot of inconsistent capitalization or odd punctuation also raise flags. Everything needs to be grammatically correct and clearly written by a human, not a bot, and definitely not a “prince from Nigeria.”
You also want clean links back to your website. You can add UTM codes to them, which I’ll get to in a minute: just make sure the links themselves are clean, since a link that looks suspicious can get flagged as phishing or spam.
Emojis in Subject Lines
G.R.: I’ve seen a lot of articles saying emojis in subject lines get a higher click-through rate. What’s your experience?
C.N.: That’s been true in my experience. Mailchimp will even recommend adding one emoji when you go to send an email. The more important thing is making sure the emoji actually adds interest and matches the subject line. If it’s about Halloween, add a ghost, a jack-o’-lantern, a bat. Don’t just throw in a random emoji, like a sad face, to check the box. But yes, matching emojis do work well.
UTM Codes and Measuring Success
G.R.: I mentioned UTM codes earlier — let’s go back to those.
C.N.: Good timing, since I’m getting into measuring success.
G.R.: Go for it.
C.N.: UTM codes are codes you add to the end of a URL. There are UTM builders out there: I like Google’s, which has one specifically for Google Analytics 4. Basically, it lets you tag a link with information about where it’s coming from, so you can see exactly where your traffic originated.
Say I’m setting up an email to go out on Halloween about our new AI tool. The code lets me note when it went out, what campaign it’s part of, and where it’s coming from, like “our newsletter.” Usually we keep it simple: three or four pieces of information about when, where, and how. Then when we look at Google Analytics, that UTM tag shows us exactly where the traffic came from, which lets us measure which campaigns are working better and tailor future emails accordingly.
G.R.: So you’re talking about A/B testing?
C.N.: Sort of, it’s similar. It mostly just shows you where clicks are coming from, but it can help with A/B testing too.
Open Rates, Click-Through Rates, and A/B Testing
G.R.: Let’s talk about open rates, click rates, and how to use A/B testing to improve both. What’s a good open and click rate? As a small business owner myself, I want to do everything, but I don’t have the time or budget to do it all.
C.N.: Yep.
G.R.: So… is it driving business growth? Revenue? Branding? What is it actually doing, and how do I figure out what’s most effective for my business?
C.N.: That’s a lot of questions, but yes. This is where it gets a little nerdy and data-driven, but it’s really the most critical part: making sure what you’re sending is actually working, rather than just continuing to send it regardless. The ROI only shows up if you’re delivering the right things, and you only know that by reviewing what you’ve already sent.
An average open rate across the board is around 30%; it varies by industry and by what you’re sending. Our typical monthly email hovers right around 30%, but a one-off email about something like a recent change in digital marketing law, sent specifically to our client base, will run higher; usually 50 to 60%, because clients know it’s specific to them.
A good click-through rate is somewhere between 3 and 6%, depending on industry: 3 to 5% is great for service-based businesses, and e-commerce should be closer to 10%.
Open rate tells you whether your subject line is working and how often people are actually looking at your emails. If it’s low, work on your subject lines and your timing.
Click-through rate tells you how engaged people are with your content. If it’s good, your links, design, and content are doing their job; if it’s low, look again at your design, content, and link placement. For example, with that AI tool email, you wouldn’t just want a single “check out our AI tool” button at the bottom. You’d want to link it in four or five places throughout the email, strategically, so people can click wherever it’s relevant. It’s a matter of making sure your links, design, and content are all working together. If they’re not, that’s where you start strategizing to improve click-through rates.
G.R.: And you might want to explain what A/B testing actually is.
C.N.: Sure, A/B testing means taking one version of an email and changing just one thing in a second version, then comparing results. You want to test one variable at a time; if you change more than one thing, you won’t know which change actually mattered.
For example, with that AI email, I might send one version with an urgent subject line and another with a subject line that’s less urgent but focused on more information. Whichever gets a higher open rate tells me what my audience responds to, so I can tailor future subject lines accordingly. The content inside the email stays exactly the same, only the subject line changes. For click-through rate, I’d change something inside the email instead – wording, graphics, or design – while still sending each version to about half the list, so I can see which content or design people prefer. Does that give a good idea of what that looks like?
G.R.: Yep, and I think a lot of the A/B testing I see is on subject lines specifically, not even the content. How compelling is that subject line to make me want to open it?
C.N.: It really depends on which metric you’re looking at. If your open rate is good, but your click-through rate is falling off, that’s when you want to take a deeper look at the content itself.
AI in Email Marketing
G.R.: Let’s talk about the 800-pound gorilla in the room: AI. It’s simultaneously the best and worst thing in the world, and I recognize that. How can AI be used in email marketing campaigns? Are there specific tools that save time or increase impact? And what do you think is going to happen to email marketing given the AI boom?
C.N.: I think we’re going to see a bit of a bell curve, honestly. And I think we’ll see that across the board. Email marketing is going to become more prolific, content is going to become more prolific, and for a while there’s going to be so much of it that it’s almost overwhelming, because people think, “I can just go to ChatGPT and have it spit out twenty pieces of content.” While that’s true, I think people will start to notice that it’s too much – that it’s clearly AI content with no real value – and unsubscribe rates will spike. Then people will go back to curating more carefully. I think we’ll see that same curve across web content, email marketing, and social media generally.
As for using AI directly, it’s an excellent tool for email marketing, and I definitely use it. If I’m rolling out a new tool, for instance, I’ll go into AI and say, “I need a five-email sequence promoting this tool: here’s what it does, here’s my audience, give me some ideas for subject lines and content, and I’d like to A/B test it.” It’ll ask a question or two, then produce the whole thing. What I won’t do is copy and paste that directly into an email. I’ll put it into a doc, edit it, and work through it. If something’s off, I’ll go back and say, “Here’s what I changed, and I’d also like a completely different version of day two — here’s my thinking.” It takes that feedback and applies it the next time I ask for a campaign.
So, across the board, AI is an excellent tool for email marketing, but you have to teach it and edit its output. It’s only as good as the person prompting and editing it. It should be a tool, not the end-all, be-all.
G.R.: That’s good to hear, glad it’s working that way for you, because that really is the best way to use it.
And you touched on some pretty technical things the average small business owner might not follow: what does it mean to “set up a sequence,” or make sure it doesn’t send all five emails on the same day? What AI tools are you using: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude? Where are you in that space?
C.N.: I use ChatGPT and Gemini. I like Gemini’s writing better, but I like ChatGPT’s reasoning a bit more, so it depends on the situation. Mailchimp also has a built-in AI that helps refine emails and subject lines right within the platform.
Beyond that, for email specifically, ChatGPT is really what I’m using.
Cost and Time to Get Started
G.R.: I’ll pause here for questions, and if there aren’t any, we’ll move into closing. I want to talk about pricing, first steps, and a common myth about email marketing. Let’s start with cost.
C.N.: Email is one of the lower-cost ways to reach your clients, customers, and prospects. With Mailchimp, for example, it’s $20 a month for 500 contacts, which lets you send a high volume of emails — probably 10 to 15 a month without hitting the limit. The more contacts you have, the more it costs; the cap is around 6,000 total emails a month at that tier. Some platforms also let you start for free under 500 contacts, with fewer features, just to get going.
Beyond the subscription cost, the other real cost is time: creating the emails and getting them out, whether that’s you, someone on your team, or an agency.
G.R.: How long does it take to build the template, write the content, set up the campaign, and send it out?
C.N.: Setup is the most time-consuming part, like with most things. For an agency, it takes about an hour to set up a template, about an hour to go through and properly segment an email list, and about a half hour to an hour to put an email together and send it… but we’re in it every day. If you’re doing this yourself, it’ll take longer just to get familiar with the platform.
Setting up a triggered sequence – say, five emails going out on day one, three, and five – takes a bit longer to configure and test properly. Roughly speaking: an hour to an hour and a half for a template, about an hour for content, and about half an hour a month for list hygiene: clearing out people who aren’t opening your emails or whose emails are bouncing.
First Steps for Getting Started
G.R.: What’s the first step a business owner should take to start an email marketing campaign?
C.N.: Find an email client you like – Mailchimp or Constant Contact, though we personally love Mailchimp – and sign up. Then figure out your value add: why are you sending these emails? Know your why before you start.
G.R.: And then build your list, which is usually the hardest part of anything.
C.N.: Definitely. I can’t tell you how many clients have been in business for 25 years with no email marketing at all, because they started on paper and never updated their process.
The Future of Email Marketing
G.R.: So building that list is mission-critical. How do you see email marketing evolving over the next few years?
C.N.: It’s a bit murky because of how AI is changing everything. The main way email marketing has evolved recently is more testing, more data, and more information, so that what we deliver is better – and making sure email itself stays cleaner with less spam.
Looking ahead, I think it’ll stay pretty consistent with where things are now. Email isn’t going anywhere, because people will always need to communicate with coworkers and clients. I think we’ll send fewer emails overall, but we’ll keep sending them as long as they carry real value, since people are going to spend less time on emails that don’t deliver it.
That’s really the whole point: making sure your emails provide value and checking your metrics to see if your audience is happy with what you’re sending.
G.R.: What are your thoughts on that? Going back to something I mentioned earlier: the common myth in email marketing, I think the myth is that people don’t open their email, and I think that’s wrong. I think people open their email because of FOMO about what might be inside. The evolution I expect is making sure the value is right there as soon as you open it. I don’t want to scroll, hunt, or find “see bottom for coupon code.” I want it right there.
C.N.: I think we’ll see more video in email marketing. I struggle with this myself: I hate when a video auto-plays as soon as I open an email, it’s jarring… but I think video with captions is going to be a big trend, since people don’t want to read as much anymore, in email or anywhere else. Once platforms figure out how to keep those videos out of spam filters, I think we’ll see a lot more of it. People are lazy, and getting lazier, as much as I hate sounding like my grandmother.
G.R.: It is the thing: attention spans are short, and you have to grab attention quickly, which is something we talk about constantly with websites, too. You want to gain attention and keep it, which is challenging, so the main thing is making sure as much information as possible is above the fold. As soon as you scroll, you’re below it. I think that holds true for email marketing as well.
C.N.: That’s a really great point.
Closing Thoughts
G.R.: All right: shameless self-promotion, and I haven’t even hit 20% of it yet. Where can listeners go to get help starting or improving their email marketing?
C.N.: I’m so glad you asked! We offer email marketing help from beginning to end: getting you signed up, cleaning up your list, making sure everything’s segmented, building designs and templates, and writing the content; whether that’s drip campaigns, nurturing sequences, or a monthly newsletter.
We’re also a Mailchimp partner, so we can offer discounts, help build your emails, and review the analytics we talked about: bounce rate, open rate, click-through rate, all of it. That’s where we’d recommend getting started.
G.R.: I couldn’t agree more.
One last thing: there’s email marketing, and there’s marketing automation, which is probably part two of this webinar. Coral, where can people go to watch this session after the fact?
C.N.: On our YouTube channel! We’ll also share it on our social media channels and send it out by email, so you’ll see it a few different ways.
G.R.: All right. I don’t have any final words, do you?
Actually, Janine had a question in the chat: she asked why Mailchimp is our favorite.
C.N.: Mailchimp is my favorite because I find it the most user-friendly for building templates and dropping in content, and I really like their AI tools. They provide a lot of support, I can see all the analytics I’m looking for, and I can reach out to support when I need it.
It also has a simple interface: I’m not a designer or a programmer, but I can put together a nice-looking, polished template pretty quickly. The price point is also very cost-effective.
G.R.: Great minds think alike. Any further questions or final thoughts? I’ll drop mine while we wait.
C.N.: Email marketing is excellent for return on investment. I don’t think it’s going anywhere. It’s one of the easiest ways to get in front of your clients quickly, and it’s a good touch point. People on your email list are already engaged with you, so it’s important to deliver to them where they are. That’s my main takeaway: it’s going to keep delivering good ROI, and it’s definitely worth investing in.
G.R.: Couldn’t agree more. With that, we’ll give you a few minutes of your day back. We’ll have another topic next month. Go check out your email lists, clean them up, and you’ll get great results out of your next campaign.
C.N.: Exactly. Everybody have a great day.
