Originally published Oct 24, 2018. Updated Aug 12, 2025

Your subscribers receive more emails in their inboxes than ever before. If you want to increase your engagement rates and see more conversions from your email list, then it’s time to revamp your email marketing strategy. We’ve collected 5 of the best tips and tricks you can start implementing today that will help make your email marketing more effective.

Grab Their Attention With a Great Subject Line

What makes customers open your email over the hundreds of others in their inbox? Often overlooked, the subject line is one of the most important parts of every email. If it gets deleted before they open it, then it doesn’t matter how great the content inside is.

If your email focuses on trending products, features, or even popular colors be sure to showcase that in the subject line. Think of a short and sweet description (less than 60 characters) that makes people excited to see what’s inside, but make sure it’s accurate. People don’t like to be tricked, and using clickbait in your subject line is a sure way to get flagged as spam. Think of the subject line as a teaser that makes recipients want to read more.

Keep the Text Short and Scannable

Once they’ve opened the email, they want to quickly get the gist of the email by looking at the pictures and scanning the text. If you promised to show them the best products for football season, then the products should be the focal point of the email with short and sweet descriptions and easy-to-follow action buttons.

If your email serves a different purpose, break up blocks of text with subheadings or images to give readers’ eyes a break. The more white space folks see, the more likely they are to read the words between the white space.

Stick to Your Theme

Each email that your company sends should have one specific purpose. Whether it’s to inform, inspire, or promote, it’s important to narrow down your focus early on in the design process. You don’t want to add every product under the sun to your email because people will never find what they’re looking for! By sticking to your theme, you’ll have a cohesive email design and you can showcase the best and most popular products in that category.

Need some inspiration on what to send your customers this month? Check out all the predesigned emails available in SAGE Workplace™. You’ll find a wide range of email themes for every occasion!

Check the Metrics of Every Email

Don’t get stuck in a “send it and forget it” mentality. Each email provides valuable insight into what’s working for your audience. Use open rates to see if subject lines are enticing customers to open your emails or discover which days and times the emails get the most engagement. If you have a lower open rate on a Sunday morning and through-the-roof engagement on a Wednesday afternoon, you’ll know when to schedule the next campaign to reach more .

Are people opening your email but not following the links of your call-to-action buttons? You might not be providing content your customers are interested in. The click-through rate (CTR) tells you more about the content of the email and helps you focus on what your readers are really interested in. When you send out one of our email campaigns in SAGE Workplace, you’ll get a real-time report on the number of opens, what people clicked on, bounces, and unsubscribes so you can better understand your audience.

Use Segmented Lists to Keep Content Relevant

Not every email applies to every customer on your email list. If you have an email about school spirit products, it might be great for customers in the education industry but not for a construction company.  Segment your email list by industry, location, or for prospective customers versus customers who have ordered recently. Segmenting is a great way to make sure all your customers are getting the content that is most relevant to them and keeps your email list engaged.

If you need help implementing these tips into your current email marketing strategy, SAGE Workplace has tons of beautiful, predesigned emails that are themed around various seasons, holidays, industries, and more.  If you don’t want to create your own, SAGE creates two each month you can send to your email list. And to top it off, if you have a SAGE Website, when a recipient clicks on a product, they’ll be taken directly to that product on your website, making conversion easy. Learn more about SAGE Website options on our website.

Remember, when done right, email marketing is a cost-effective way to reach both prospects and customers. For more email marketing tips, read our blog entitled, 5+ Ways to Advance Email Marketing Efforts.