Email Marketing Best Practices 2017: What Actually Worked
2017 email marketing best practices that drove results. Learn proven tactics for deliverability, segmentation, and ROI from that year's top performers.
Email Marketing Best Practices 2017: What Actually Worked
2017 email marketing best practices that drove results. Learn proven tactics for deliverability, segmentation, and ROI from that year's top performers.
In 2017, email marketing was not struggling to prove its worth. It was already delivering results that most other digital channels couldn't match, and the marketers who studied the data came away with a clear picture of what actually drove performance. This post is a structured look back at the email marketing best practices 2017 established, with numbers to back each one up, because the lessons from that year still shape how high-performing teams run their programs today.
Key Takeaways
In 2017, email marketing registered more than 50 times its return on investment, confirming it as the highest revenue-driving channel for most businesses.
Email list segmentation and personalized emailing were cited by marketers as the most effective email strategies of 2017.
About 55% of all email opens happened on mobile devices in the period from May 2016 to April 2017, making mobile optimization non-negotiable.
Welcome emails generate 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns.
Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.
1. The State of Email in 2017: Why It Dominated
Before getting into tactics, it helps to understand the landscape. Email in 2017 was not a legacy channel. It was the most scalable, measurable, and cost-effective tool available to marketers at the time.
As of 2017, there were 3.7 billion global email users. That base gave marketers a reach no social platform could replicate at comparable cost. 86% of business professionals preferred to use email when communicating for business purposes.
The ROI case was equally strong. Email remained the highest revenue-driver, outperforming all other marketing channels. For context, email marketing had an average ROI of 3,800%, meaning for every dollar invested, the average return was $38.
What drove that return? The practices below.
2. Segmentation: The Single Biggest Lever
If there is one practice that defined what worked in 2017, it is list segmentation. Email list segmentation and personalized emailing were cited by marketers as the most effective email strategies of 2017, and segmented and targeted emails generated 58% of all revenue.
In 2017, email marketing was not struggling to prove its worth. It was already delivering results that most other digital channels couldn't match, and the marketers who studied the data came away with a clear picture of what actually drove performance. This post is a structured look back at the email marketing best practices 2017 established, with numbers to back each one up, because the lessons from that year still shape how high-performing teams run their programs today.
Key Takeaways
In 2017, email marketing registered more than 50 times its return on investment, confirming it as the highest revenue-driving channel for most businesses.
Email list segmentation and personalized emailing were cited by marketers as the most effective email strategies of 2017.
About 55% of all email opens happened on mobile devices in the period from May 2016 to April 2017, making mobile optimization non-negotiable.
Welcome emails generate 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns.
Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.
1. The State of Email in 2017: Why It Dominated
Before getting into tactics, it helps to understand the landscape. Email in 2017 was not a legacy channel. It was the most scalable, measurable, and cost-effective tool available to marketers at the time.
As of 2017, there were 3.7 billion global email users. That base gave marketers a reach no social platform could replicate at comparable cost. 86% of business professionals preferred to use email when communicating for business purposes.
The ROI case was equally strong. Email remained the highest revenue-driver, outperforming all other marketing channels. For context, email marketing had an average ROI of 3,800%, meaning for every dollar invested, the average return was $38.
What drove that return? The practices below.
2. Segmentation: The Single Biggest Lever
If there is one practice that defined what worked in 2017, it is list segmentation. Email list segmentation and personalized emailing were cited by marketers as the most effective email strategies of 2017, and segmented and targeted emails generated 58% of all revenue.
The mechanics behind that number are clear. Segmented email campaigns got 14.31% more opens and 100.95% more clicks than campaigns that were not segmented. And at the revenue level, companies could increase their revenue from email marketing campaigns by 760% using segmentation.
The most effective segmentation approaches in 2017 combined demographic data with behavioral signals. Using behavioral data such as opens, clicks, and purchases in segmentation proved particularly helpful in customer engagement.
Personalization was the complement to segmentation. In 2017, the data was unambiguous: emails that felt relevant to the individual performed at a different level than broadcast messages.
Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. At the transaction level, personalized emails delivered 6x higher transaction rates than emails without personalization.
53% of marketers said ongoing, personalized communication with existing customers results in moderate to significant revenue impact.
Personalization in 2017 ranged from using a subscriber's name in the subject line to something more meaningful: matching content to past purchase behavior, browsing history, or lifecycle stage. Personalization could be as simple as using the customer's name or demographics, or something more targeted such as identifying the user's personal interests or preferences.
The key principle was relevance. A Janrain study showed that 74% of online customers were frustrated when they received content that had nothing to do with their interests. Personalization was the solution to that friction.
For specific techniques, our post on 7 Email Personalization Techniques That Boost Conversions 47% covers the mechanics in detail.
4. Mobile Optimization: No Longer Optional
By 2017, designing emails for desktop first was already a mistake. The data made this clear.
About 55% of all email opens happened on mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and e-readers. Another 28% occurred via webmail clients, and only 16% via desktop software.
The Apple iPhone commanded 31% of the email client market share, followed by Gmail at 22% as of May 2017, based on calculations from 1.29 billion opens.
The cost of ignoring mobile was concrete. 63% of emails would be deleted immediately if they were not mobile-optimized. Some estimates put that number even higher. If an email was not optimized for mobile, 80% of users would delete it.
Mobile optimization in practice meant:
The mechanics behind that number are clear. Segmented email campaigns got 14.31% more opens and 100.95% more clicks than campaigns that were not segmented. And at the revenue level, companies could increase their revenue from email marketing campaigns by 760% using segmentation.
The most effective segmentation approaches in 2017 combined demographic data with behavioral signals. Using behavioral data such as opens, clicks, and purchases in segmentation proved particularly helpful in customer engagement.
Personalization was the complement to segmentation. In 2017, the data was unambiguous: emails that felt relevant to the individual performed at a different level than broadcast messages.
Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. At the transaction level, personalized emails delivered 6x higher transaction rates than emails without personalization.
53% of marketers said ongoing, personalized communication with existing customers results in moderate to significant revenue impact.
Personalization in 2017 ranged from using a subscriber's name in the subject line to something more meaningful: matching content to past purchase behavior, browsing history, or lifecycle stage. Personalization could be as simple as using the customer's name or demographics, or something more targeted such as identifying the user's personal interests or preferences.
The key principle was relevance. A Janrain study showed that 74% of online customers were frustrated when they received content that had nothing to do with their interests. Personalization was the solution to that friction.
For specific techniques, our post on 7 Email Personalization Techniques That Boost Conversions 47% covers the mechanics in detail.
4. Mobile Optimization: No Longer Optional
By 2017, designing emails for desktop first was already a mistake. The data made this clear.
About 55% of all email opens happened on mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and e-readers. Another 28% occurred via webmail clients, and only 16% via desktop software.
The Apple iPhone commanded 31% of the email client market share, followed by Gmail at 22% as of May 2017, based on calculations from 1.29 billion opens.
The cost of ignoring mobile was concrete. 63% of emails would be deleted immediately if they were not mobile-optimized. Some estimates put that number even higher. If an email was not optimized for mobile, 80% of users would delete it.
Mobile optimization in practice meant:
Single-column layouts that reflow cleanly on small screens
Minimum 14px font size for body copy
Touch-friendly CTA buttons (at least 44px tall)
Compressed images to reduce load time
Short, front-loaded subject lines
When a prospect or customer who opens an email on a mobile device opens that same email again on another device, they are 65% more likely to click through to the site or offer. Getting the mobile experience right also paid dividends on re-engagement.
5. Subject Lines: What the Data Showed
Subject lines in 2017 were tested more rigorously than in previous years, and a few patterns emerged clearly.
Subject lines that appeared urgent or exclusive were opened 22% more. On length, subject lines with a character count under 15 were opened the most, but subject lines with 28 to 39 characters maximized click rate.
Emoji use was also gaining traction, but with measurable impact. 56% of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher open rate, according to a report by Experian. The trend was accelerating: the use of emoji in email marketing messages increased 775% from 2015 to 2016.
Timing also mattered. For the first quarter of 2017, Friday generated the highest open rate (18.2%) and click-through rate (10.8%), according to Yes Lifecycle Marketing research.
For a comprehensive breakdown of subject line strategy, see Email Subject Line Best Practices That Boost Open Rates by 27%.
6. Automation: The Multiplier That Most Teams Underused
Automation was one of the most talked-about topics in email marketing in 2017, but adoption was still uneven. The results for those who did use it were striking.
Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails. Triggered campaigns, in particular, performed significantly above average. Triggered email campaigns had an open rate of 46.84%, a click-through rate of 11.13%, and a click-to-open rate of 23.77%, approximately double the rates for newsletters and RSS email campaigns.
The welcome email was the automation that delivered the most consistent results. Welcome emails generated 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns, and subscribers who received a welcome email showed 33% more engagement with the brand. Despite that, just 57.7% of brands sent welcome emails to their newly subscribed users.
Cart abandonment automation was another high-performer. Customers who received automated abandoned shopping cart emails were 2.4x more likely to complete their purchase.
49% of businesses used some form of email automation by 2017, but the majority were still leaving significant revenue on the table by not building out full lifecycle sequences.
7. Call-to-Action Design and Send Timing
Two tactical areas produced consistent data in 2017: how CTAs were built and when emails were sent.
On CTA design, the evidence pointed to button-based CTAs over text links. Including a call-to-action button instead of a text link could increase conversion rates by as much as 28%. Placement also mattered. There was an average 17% increase in conversions for CTAs placed at the bottom of an email rather than the top or middle, and the color blue increased conversions by 20 to 30%, according to Google.
Single-column layouts that reflow cleanly on small screens
Minimum 14px font size for body copy
Touch-friendly CTA buttons (at least 44px tall)
Compressed images to reduce load time
Short, front-loaded subject lines
When a prospect or customer who opens an email on a mobile device opens that same email again on another device, they are 65% more likely to click through to the site or offer. Getting the mobile experience right also paid dividends on re-engagement.
5. Subject Lines: What the Data Showed
Subject lines in 2017 were tested more rigorously than in previous years, and a few patterns emerged clearly.
Subject lines that appeared urgent or exclusive were opened 22% more. On length, subject lines with a character count under 15 were opened the most, but subject lines with 28 to 39 characters maximized click rate.
Emoji use was also gaining traction, but with measurable impact. 56% of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher open rate, according to a report by Experian. The trend was accelerating: the use of emoji in email marketing messages increased 775% from 2015 to 2016.
Timing also mattered. For the first quarter of 2017, Friday generated the highest open rate (18.2%) and click-through rate (10.8%), according to Yes Lifecycle Marketing research.
For a comprehensive breakdown of subject line strategy, see Email Subject Line Best Practices That Boost Open Rates by 27%.
6. Automation: The Multiplier That Most Teams Underused
Automation was one of the most talked-about topics in email marketing in 2017, but adoption was still uneven. The results for those who did use it were striking.
Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails. Triggered campaigns, in particular, performed significantly above average. Triggered email campaigns had an open rate of 46.84%, a click-through rate of 11.13%, and a click-to-open rate of 23.77%, approximately double the rates for newsletters and RSS email campaigns.
The welcome email was the automation that delivered the most consistent results. Welcome emails generated 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns, and subscribers who received a welcome email showed 33% more engagement with the brand. Despite that, just 57.7% of brands sent welcome emails to their newly subscribed users.
Cart abandonment automation was another high-performer. Customers who received automated abandoned shopping cart emails were 2.4x more likely to complete their purchase.
49% of businesses used some form of email automation by 2017, but the majority were still leaving significant revenue on the table by not building out full lifecycle sequences.
7. Call-to-Action Design and Send Timing
Two tactical areas produced consistent data in 2017: how CTAs were built and when emails were sent.
On CTA design, the evidence pointed to button-based CTAs over text links. Including a call-to-action button instead of a text link could increase conversion rates by as much as 28%. Placement also mattered. There was an average 17% increase in conversions for CTAs placed at the bottom of an email rather than the top or middle, and the color blue increased conversions by 20 to 30%, according to Google.
On timing, Tuesday was cited as the best day of the week to send email, based on ten email marketing studies. That said, best send time consistently varied by audience and industry. The principle that held across all segments was testing, then trusting your own data over industry averages.
8. Analytics: Measuring What Actually Mattered
The marketers who got the most out of 2017 were the ones who tracked beyond open rates.
According to the DMA, the four most important email marketing metrics as identified by advertisers were CTR, conversion rate, open rate, and ROI. Transactional metrics, not just engagement metrics, gave a complete picture. Transactional emails had 8x more opens and clicks than any other type of email and could generate 6x more revenue.
The discipline of tracking revenue attributable to each campaign, rather than just opens and clicks, separated teams that could justify budget increases from those that could not.
The email marketing best practices 2017 established were not a set of tricks. They were structural: build a segmented list, personalize based on behavior, automate the highest-intent moments, optimize every email for mobile, and track revenue, not just opens. Those principles have only become more important as inboxes have grown more competitive.
The channel that generated 3,800% ROI in 2017 is the same channel delivering comparable or higher returns today. The fundamentals did not change. The execution standards simply got higher.
Frequently Asked Questions
What were the most effective email marketing strategies in 2017?
Email list segmentation and personalized emailing were cited by marketers as the most effective email strategies of 2017. Segmentation and targeting involve filtering your email marketing list based on specific demographic, behavioral, and psychographic criteria.
What was the average email marketing ROI in 2017?
In 2017, email marketing registered more than 50 times its return on investment. Other estimates from that period, including from the DMA, put the average at around $38 returned for every $1 spent, representing a 3,800% ROI.
How important was mobile optimization for email in 2017?
Critical. About 55% of all email opens happened on mobile devices in the period from May 2016 to April 2017. Teams that did not optimize for mobile saw significantly higher delete rates and lower conversions from email campaigns.
Were welcome emails worth the effort in 2017?
Yes, clearly. Welcome emails generated 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns, and subscribers who received a welcome email showed 33% more engagement with the brand. Sending one immediately after subscription was one of the highest-return actions any email team could take.
On timing, Tuesday was cited as the best day of the week to send email, based on ten email marketing studies. That said, best send time consistently varied by audience and industry. The principle that held across all segments was testing, then trusting your own data over industry averages.
8. Analytics: Measuring What Actually Mattered
The marketers who got the most out of 2017 were the ones who tracked beyond open rates.
According to the DMA, the four most important email marketing metrics as identified by advertisers were CTR, conversion rate, open rate, and ROI. Transactional metrics, not just engagement metrics, gave a complete picture. Transactional emails had 8x more opens and clicks than any other type of email and could generate 6x more revenue.
The discipline of tracking revenue attributable to each campaign, rather than just opens and clicks, separated teams that could justify budget increases from those that could not.
The email marketing best practices 2017 established were not a set of tricks. They were structural: build a segmented list, personalize based on behavior, automate the highest-intent moments, optimize every email for mobile, and track revenue, not just opens. Those principles have only become more important as inboxes have grown more competitive.
The channel that generated 3,800% ROI in 2017 is the same channel delivering comparable or higher returns today. The fundamentals did not change. The execution standards simply got higher.
Frequently Asked Questions
What were the most effective email marketing strategies in 2017?
Email list segmentation and personalized emailing were cited by marketers as the most effective email strategies of 2017. Segmentation and targeting involve filtering your email marketing list based on specific demographic, behavioral, and psychographic criteria.
What was the average email marketing ROI in 2017?
In 2017, email marketing registered more than 50 times its return on investment. Other estimates from that period, including from the DMA, put the average at around $38 returned for every $1 spent, representing a 3,800% ROI.
How important was mobile optimization for email in 2017?
Critical. About 55% of all email opens happened on mobile devices in the period from May 2016 to April 2017. Teams that did not optimize for mobile saw significantly higher delete rates and lower conversions from email campaigns.
Were welcome emails worth the effort in 2017?
Yes, clearly. Welcome emails generated 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns, and subscribers who received a welcome email showed 33% more engagement with the brand. Sending one immediately after subscription was one of the highest-return actions any email team could take.
