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Looking to boost your business or project’s results through email marketing? If you’re already on this journey, this article will be quite useful for assessing the success of your email campaigns and determining if they are helping you achieve your goals. We’ll cover the essential email marketing metrics and KPIs, explore what insights they can provide, and explain how you can use them effectively.

What Are Email Marketing Metrics and KPIs?

Email metrics are simply data points that demonstrate how your email marketing campaigns are performing. Think of them as email analytics that inform you about how many people read your email, how many unsubscribe, how many you convert into clients, and much more. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), are also measurable values used by businesses to evaluate their success in achieving important business objectives. They differ from metrics even though the two are often used interchangeably.

KPIs help track progress, identify areas for improvement, and guide decision-making. They vary depending on the industry and specific goals but typically focus on critical aspects of business performance such as revenue, customer satisfaction, or operational efficiency.

Below, we will describe which are the most important email marketing metrics and what they show. Under each explained metric, we will also give an example of the business insight it could reveal, as well as some tips for improvement. 

We’ll also go over the most common goals business owners have nowadays and give suggestions about which KPIs could be helpful for you to monitor. But remember: you know your business best, so it’s your choice to determine which metrics and KPIs will   best help you reach your goals.

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Why Is It Important to Track Metrics in Email Marketing?

We all know the satisfying feeling of crafting an email campaign with great design and all the crucial information you want to share with your subscribers. But let’s be honest – it’s not just about hitting “send” and hoping for the best. Evaluating your campaigns is equally important, as it reveals how they impact your business and marketing efforts in the following aspects:

📊 Campaign performance: analyzing email marketing metrics goes beyond assumptions, offering a concrete overview of the campaign performance and its impact on your subscribers.

🥇 Campaign optimization opportunities: metrics help you find out what aspects of your emails could be changed and optimized for better results.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Audience insights: by reading your metrics, you can gain valuable insights into your audience, such as what types of emails and content they prefer, what time of day they are more likely to open an email, and what they might potentially buy from you.
🎯 Strategic planning: observing your email campaigns will help you make informed decisions in the future (like what’s the perfect time to do a promotional campaign), and tweak your email marketing strategy accordingly.

📅 Reporting: evaluating email marketing metrics is crucial for keeping everyone informed, whether you’re working on a team, as a freelancer, or even independently. It helps you and your colleagues, clients, or managers stay up-to-date on all communications sent to subscribers and understand how they are performing.

What Are Your Goals for Email Marketing?

Before we explain the most important email marketing metrics and KPIs, ask yourself what you want to achieve. Define what your biggest goal with email marketing is and don’t skip setting specific objectives for every email campaign you work on. The metrics you need to measure depend on the exact goals you have. They could be increasing your leads, driving traffic to your website, driving sales, etc. 

Email Marketing Metrics to Track & Monitor

Here are the essential metrics that every business owner and email marketer should know and have in mind when working on an email campaign.

Open rate

Open rate is one of the most common email metrics, and it shows the percentage of recipients who opened your email campaign. However, despite its popularity, the open rate is often seen as a vanity metric, and many marketers even consider it unreliable for several reasons.

Generally, most tracking systems count an email as “opened” only when the email software receives a tiny transparent image (aka tracking pixel) embedded in the email for tracking purposes. However, some email apps block images by default, so unless the recipient manually enables them, the email may not be recorded as opened, even if it was. 

Also, with Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, which was introduced several years ago, the content of emails in Apple Mail gets preloaded (including tracking pixels) regardless of whether the user actually opens the email. All these things make open rate not a very accurate and reliable metric for your business, so don’t focus too much on it. 

📍 Formula: open rate = (total emails opened / total emails delivered) x 100​​

💡 Business insight: even if not 100% accurate, an open rate can give you an idea about the effectiveness of your subject line, whether it was interesting and compelling to the recipients or not. It also hints at whether recipients are interested in your content. Beyond individual campaigns, though, reviewing changes in your open rate between multiple sends can offer crucial insights, especially if you’re reaching the same audience. Monitoring the shifts can help you identify patterns in engagement. 

Curious if your open rate is good? An average open rate for small businesses using email marketing is around 36%, based on data reported by SiteGround. If your open rates tend to be much lower, consider applying the following tips.  

🚀 Ideas for improvement: if you want to improve your open rates, make sure to write emails that people will read – experiment with the length, style, and tone of your subject lines. Use personalization in the subject line, as well as emojis, and try different sending times to find out what time of day your subscribers are most active and more likely to open an email.  

Click-to-open rate

The click-to-open rate is another popular email metric that reveals how many people clicked on any links inside your email. If, for example, you have included a link or button to a special discount, the click-to-open rate will indicate what percentage of your recipients clicked on it to learn more about your offer. To determine if your click-to-open rate is good enough, you should track it for each email campaign and analyze the trends over time. Based on data provided by SiteGround, the average click-to-open rate for small business owners is approximately 6.4%.

📍 Formula: click-to-open rate = (number of clicks / number of emails opened) x 100

💡 Business insight: The click-to-open rate is a crucial metric for revealing the effectiveness of your email content and whether it speaks to the subscribers. It tells you whether it is compelling and engaging. 

🚀 Ideas for improvement: to improve this rate, first make sure that your email campaign is well-structured, has relevant and helpful content, and has a catchy design. Boost your click-to-open rate by making your call to action visible and clear. 

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is an email marketing metric that shows the percentage of emails that could not be delivered to your subscribers for some reason. This happens when your email gets rejected by the recipient’s email servers and returns to the sender with an automated message indicating a delivery error. It’s important to monitor that metric as a high bounce rate can affect your sender reputation and, in time, even lower your campaigns’ reach. 

📍 Formula: bounce rate = (bounced emails / emails sent) x 100%

💡 Business insight: Along with hurting your sending reputation, a high bounce rate can hint that there will be a potential drop in your open and click-to-open rate, as they depend on actually reaching recipients. It could also suggest problems with the quality of your subscriber list or issues with your email server. A bounce rate under 2% is generally considered a strong performance.

🚀 Ideas for improvement: to lower your bounce rate, ensure that your recipient list is of high quality. Regularly clear it from unengaged and inactive subscribers. Don’t buy email lists and never use spammy tactics in your email campaigns, as this can lead to lots of spam complaints and serious consequences to your sender’s reputation. 

It’s a good practice to implement a double opt-in to ensure that each subscriber is truly interested in receiving your content. 

Unsubscribe rate

The unsubscribe rate measures the percentage of recipients who opt to leave your list after receiving an email. Even though seeing recipients unsubscribe from your emails can be discouraging, it’s also beneficial, as it’s a good way to efficiently clean your subscriber list. Providing your recipients with the option to cancel their email subscription is a way to ensure good email deliverability, as this is a requirement in various spam laws worldwide.  

📍 Formula: unsubscribe rate = (number of unsubscribes / number of emails delivered) x 100

💡 Business insight: The unsubscribe rate, if high, can reveal that your email content is not relevant, useful, or interesting to your target audience. It could also suggest that your subscriber list is not well-segmented or that your emails are being sent too frequently. To get meaningful feedback about your content, consider sending a confirmation email to unsubscribers, asking them to provide more information on why they decided to leave your email list. Based on our experience with small business clients using the SiteGround Email Marketing tool, a good unsubscribe rate is below 0.5%.

🚀 Ideas for improvement: To minimize unsubscribes, consider implementing a double opt-in, segmenting subscribers into different lists based on various criteria, and focus on providing them with valuable and interesting content. It’s also a good practice to give recipients the option to choose how often and what type of emails they want to receive.  

Spam complaint rate

This metric shows the percentage of people who mark an email as spam after receiving it. This is critical data to monitor, as it reveals that recipients perceive your message as irrelevant, annoying, or even inappropriate. However, note that the spam rate does not account for emails that get rejected at the network level by spam filters, so this metric may not fully capture all spam-related issues. 

📍 Formula: Spam complaint rate = (number of spam complaints / number of emails delivered) x 100

💡 Business insight: Similar to the bounce rate, a high spam complaint rate can damage your sender reputation. It is also a red flag that there’s a problem with your email content (frequency, relevancy, or quality). Keep in mind that the acceptable standard spam complaint rate is less than 0.1%. 

🚀 Ideas for improvement: We have a detailed article that gives you all the tips and tricks on how to avoid your emails going to spam. Generally, to reduce the spam complaint rate, it’s important to only send emails to people who have opted in to receive them, and to avoid sending emails too frequently. Additionally, always include an unsubscribe option in your email campaigns. People often report messages as spam when they get frustrated by not being able to find an unsubscribe link. 

Focus on building your email list organically and improving it by incorporating double opt-in signup. Also, authenticate your sender domain as it is an effective way to prove your emails come from you.  

Delivery rate

Email delivery rate indicates the percentage of emails successfully delivered to the recipients without bouncing or being reported as spam. That means they have passed all the email filters and reached your intended audience.

📍 Formula: delivery rate = (number of successfully delivered emails / number of emails sent) x 100

💡 Business insight: A high delivery rate is important as it is proof that your sender reputation is intact. It could also reveal to you that your email and its content are relevant to your audience as it is not reported as spam. However, a low delivery rate might suggest problems with the quality of your email list hygiene and issues with your server sending infrastructure. Consider that the average delivery rate typically ranges between 90% and 98%. Remarkably, data provided by the SiteGround Email Marketing tool shows an average Delivery Rate of 98.8%, ensuring your messages consistently reach their intended recipients and maximizing your potential for engagement and conversions.

🚀 Ideas for improvement: To boost your delivery rate, regularly clean your email list, and remove inactive or unengaged subscribers. Improve your sender credibility by using a reputable email service provider that maintains a good sender reputation for their servers. 

Also, be mindful of how often you send email campaigns: don’t do it too frequently, as it might lead to overwhelming your recipients, and therefore result in more complaints, unsubscribes, and even spam reports. For further help on this topic, we have a great article that explains in detail how to ensure high email deliverability.

Forwarding rate 

This rate (also quite similar to ”email sharing”) measures the percentage of people who forward your email to others. It’s a strong indicator of how interesting, helpful, and engaging your email is, as subscribers are more likely to share useful content with their friends and family. Keep in mind that not all email marketing tools measure this metric, so if you want to track it over time, you might have to use unique URLs or social media sharing buttons for this purpose. 

📍 Formula: forwarding rate = (number of forwards / number of emails delivered) x 100

💡 Business insight: The forwarding rate reveals whether your content resonates with your target audience. It could unveil whether word-of-mouth organic growth is feasible for your business. A good email forwarding rate is typically between 0.5% to 2%. 

🚀 Ideas for improvement: To encourage your recipients to share your email campaigns, make it easy for them to do so. Include a clear call to action asking them to forward or share it. Provide helpful content, expert tips, or other valuable information that is worth sharing, and ensure your email design is visually appealing and easy to navigate.

Key Email Marketing KPIs to Track 

There are countless KPIs you could monitor, but how do you decide which ones to track? Here we’ll highlight the most popular KPIs, explain their benefits, and help you determine which ones are best suited to your email marketing goals.

As we mentioned earlier, a KPI can be a single metric or a mix of metrics, specifically aligned with your goals. They are tools that help you and your team monitor progress toward your objectives. As a result, it’s crucial to identify which KPIs are the most important for your business or project early on.

Note that some email service providers automatically provide such metrics. If not, consider tracking the key ones for your business yourself, as they can significantly impact your strategy.

Conversion Rate

One of the essential KPIs that you can monitor as a small business owner is conversion rate. The conversion rate is the percentage of recipients who complete a desired action after receiving your email. This action can vary depending on your specific goals and may include making a purchase, converting a lead into а client, filling out a form, reading a blog post, signing up for a webinar, or visiting your website, among other actions.

📍 Formula: conversion rate = (number of conversions/number of delivered or sent emails) x 100

Tracking conversions typically requires integrating data from two sources: your email marketing platform and your website analytics. To accurately attribute conversions to specific email campaigns, it’s crucial to use UTM parameters in your email links. These are tags added to URLs that allow you to track the source, medium, and campaign name in your analytics tool.

💡 Business insight: The conversion rate can reveal how effective your email campaigns are in encouraging subscribers to engage and take action with your business. The higher the conversion rate, the better your email campaigns are performing. But what qualifies as a good conversion rate? 

Research suggests that the average conversion rate in email marketing hovers around 3%. Note that to truly assess your email performance, it’s important to track conversion rates over time and compare them. Keep in mind that these rates can be influenced by factors such as your industry, your content, sending times, and more. 

🚀 Ideas for improvement: To improve your conversion rate, you need to ensure that your email campaigns are relevant, useful, and easy to navigate. Clear inactive users from your recipient list, write attention-grabbing subject lines, include visible and compelling call-to-action buttons or links, and experiment with sending times.

Subscriber acquisition cost (SAC)

Subscriber acquisition cost is a critical KPI to track in order to make informed decisions about your marketing spend. In the context of email marketing, SAC represents the cost of acquiring a new subscriber to your list. 

📍 Formula: SAC = total cost of acquisition / number of new subscribers acquired through email

To calculate SAC, divide the total cost of acquiring a new subscriber by the number of new subscribers gained as a result. The total cost should include all the costs, including marketing, design, ads, sales, and everything else that you might have used in the acquisition process. 

If your SAC is high, it could indicate that your marketing efforts are not cost-effective. Note that SAC varies significantly across industries, so you should research what the estimate is for your specific industry and analyze your results for a longer period. It’s also useful to keep in mind that a good SAC is lower than the subscriber’s lifetime value (which we explain down below). 

💡 Business insight: By tracking SAC, you can get an idea of how effective your overall marketing efforts are in acquiring new subscribers and respectively whether you need to change something to help increase your email list. A lower SAC means you’re spending less to acquire each new subscriber, which is crucial for profitability.

🚀 Ideas for improvement: If you discover that you need to lower your SAC after researching your industry’s average, focus on improving your ad design and copy, and create useful and educational content on your website, social media, and on any other platforms that you may use for collecting leads. Try incentivizing readers to subscribe to your email list with different free resources and materials.

Subscriber lifetime value 

Subscriber lifetime value is another useful KPI that estimates the revenue a subscriber is expected to generate for you over the course of time as your newsletter subscriber.

📍 Formula: Subscriber lifetime value =  (average revenue per email subscriber x average subscriber lifespan) – the cost to serve them

Calculating this KPI might not be straightforward, as you need to have specific data. If you are able to calculate it, it will help you to decide how much to invest in acquiring your subscribers and, in the end, will optimize your marketing spend. 

💡 Business insight: Lifetime value is one of the most important KPIs to track because it can give you insights into how much to invest in acquiring new subscribers and how well you are performing in monetizing your audience.  

🚀 Ideas for improvement: To improve the lifetime value of your subscribers, work on enhancing engagement with your email content. Make it more personalized and actionable, and provide more value to your audience with different exclusive offers and promos. Try boosting upsells by sending email campaigns offering related products. 

Return on investment (ROI)

Return on investment is a popular KPI that measures the revenue generated from your email campaigns compared to the cost of running those campaigns. It unveils whether your email campaigns are profitable or not. 

📍 Formula: ROI = (revenue from email campaign – cost of email campaign) / cost of email campaign

To calculate it, you need to subtract the money you spent to run the campaign from the revenue – this represents the money you earned from it, which will show you how much profit you made after covering your costs. Then, dividing by the cost of the email campaign will reveal how much profit you made for every dollar spent. 

Note that to correctly calculate the cost of creating and sending your email campaign for that KPI, you need to again consider the email tools you use to do it, as well as internal writers, freelancers, agencies, and/or design costs.

💡 Business insight: A positive ROI is a sign that your marketing efforts are working and generating more than you spend. According to research, the average ROI for email marketing is $36. Keep in mind that as with most of the other KPIs, the ROI also varies greatly depending on your industry. 

🚀 Ideas for improvement: You can improve your ROI by making your offers more appealing to your readers. For example, you could use personalization and experiment with different content and the way it’s presented. You could also review how you segment your email lists and make changes in order to improve your targeted messaging. 

Revenue per email

The revenue per email KPI could help you assess the profitability of individual campaigns and identify which types of emails are most effective at driving revenue. You can calculate it easily by dividing the revenue of an email campaign by the number of emails sent. 

📍 Formula: revenue per email = revenue from email campaign / number of emails sent

💡 Business insight: This KPI allows you to compare the effectiveness of different campaigns and email strategies. It will help you reveal which email types work the best at driving revenue – whether they are promotional, newsletters, or otherwise. A higher revenue per email shows that your content, CTAs, and targeting are resonating with your audience. Since there isn’t a specific industry benchmark, you need to track and analyze the results for your particular business. 

As a general guideline, the revenue from your email campaign should be equal to or close to the amount you invested. This way, you can ensure that your campaigns are paying off, and you can determine the budget for future campaigns.  

🚀 Ideas for improvement: To drive more revenue for your campaigns, it is again important to increase engagement. Optimize your email content specifically for each segment of your subscribers to make it more relevant. A/B test various subject lines, design styles, buttons, and visuals (one at a time) to see what will bring you the most clicks, engagement, and revenue. 

Choose the Right Email Marketing Tool to Track Metrics 

Having the right Email Marketing Tool by your side is crucial for optimizing all your tasks related to creating, sending, testing, and analyzing your email campaigns. When selecting an email marketing service, make sure you choose a tool that provides you with all this functionality – and that is easy to use and to get started.

With the SiteGround Email Marketing tool, you can rest assured that you have everything in one place. Developed by experts with 20+ years of experience in hosting email, our platform provides an intuitive no-code builder, customizable email layouts, AI copywriter, unlimited audiences, subscriber management, and friendly reporting features. 

You can enjoy automated essential email analytics like open, delivery, click-to-open, bounced, spam, and unsubscribe rates, and interactions stats showing you clicks on specific URLs, the type of the element that has been clicked (button, link, image) and the caption text.

Conclusion

Monitoring your metrics and adopting a structured approach to evaluating your email marketing work will empower you to make data-based decisions and boost your business. Don’t miss out on that opportunity! Now, tell us in the comments: Are there any metrics you already track for your business? Which ones have most helped you to reach your goals?

BONUS: Email Marketing Glossary

If you’re using email to connect with your audience, then you’re always seeking ways to improve engagement and reach. Enter the ‘View this email in your browser’ link – a powerful yet often-overlooked tool in your email marketing arsenal. Let’s explore how this simple feature can solve formatting issues, boost accessibility, and even expand your audience.

What is “view this email in your browser”? 

The simple explanation is that the “view this email in your browser” takes you to a browser version of the email you’re reading. That is, it’s hyperlinked text that takes you out of your email inbox, and into a separate website browser, where you can see the email laid out in full. More technically speaking, it is a web-hosted version of your email, rather than just an email message living in someone’s inbox.

What is the purpose of “view this email in your browser”?

Improve accessibility

Accessibility is an important component of email marketing – that is, all content should be made accessible and viewable for all types of viewers (such as people with visual impairment). But not all email service providers can process and transmit your email information optimally for all audiences. With an alternative viewing option for your email campaign, those keen to consume your content in a different way can more easily use assistive technology (such as screen reader tools) regardless of their email client.

Address email formatting issues

You can send yourself and colleagues loads of test emails to double check formatting and image loading, but at the end of the day, it’s impossible to know how your email will appear on every mobile device and via every email client. Some recipients might even have image loading turned off, thus blocking graphics and hyperlinked images. By including a web browser version of your email, you give subscribers the ability to view your email outside their inbox, and therefore have access to the accurate, full version of your email, and with no rendering issues.

Aid in viewing content- or image-heavy emails

Some emails may be particularly image heavy, or perhaps include animations or other visuals that take longer to load via certain email providers or on different devices. This can result in unviewable content, which will not only impact reader experience, but it will negatively impact your message. Some users might even get so annoyed that they end up flagging your content so that your emails go to spam. Clicking on the “view this email in your browser” allows recipients to exit to the web, where your full email content can load more easily. 

Enable sharing & reach a broader audience

By having a web browser version of your email, you make it shareable. That is, if a subscriber clicks on the “view this email in your browser” link, they can then copy that link and share it with others, allowing you to reach a broader audience. 

How to leverage the “view this email in your browser” link

As we’ve discussed, the beauty of the web browser link is that it makes your emails accessible beyond just a recipient’s inbox. This allows the information to reach more people, and it also means you can refer to and use past content going forward.

This is all fine and well, but you might be wondering how exactly to tap into this apparent potential. Here are a few creative ways to do so: 

Take advantage of social sharing

As we discussed above, having a linkable version of your email allows for sharing, and thus gives your business more ways to reach more people. Here are a couple of ideas to leverage sharing: 

• Share emails via social media and in your social profiles: If you have an email newsletter that contains particularly pertinent information, you might wish to share it via social media and/or include it as a link in your social profiles (for example, as one of your shared links on Instagram). This is also a great way to reach an audience that is already interested in your brand, but maybe hasn’t yet signed up for your emails. 
• Promote content sharing: Maybe you’re running a contest, or perhaps you’ve published research that is relevant to a wider audience – users may be keen to share your email about this via social media. Consider embedding the link as a call to action in your email in order to motivate social sharing. Examples include: “Click here to share `this information via social” or “Click here for a shareable link.”

Encourage bookmarking

Let’s say you share recipes via your emails, or maybe how-tos, or just any kind of information that readers might want to refer back to later – by having a web browser version of your email, readers can bookmark the information you’ve sent. And again, not only do they have the ability to do this by clicking on the “view this email in your browser” link, but you can also embed this link in your email as a call to action (such as, “bookmark this recipe now”) so that your subscribers know that they can save it for later.

Make use of past content

Web browser versions of your emails enable easy access to previously sent messages, allowing you to benefit indefinitely from past email content. Here are a couple ways ways to take advantage of this:

• Create a searchable content hub: you may wish to include an archive of your old newsletters on your website. In doing so, you can even create a searchable content hub so that users have access to a knowledge base of your earlier emails.
• Link to past content: Perhaps you are writing a new blog post, or are selling a product for which an old newsletter’s information might be helpful – you can simply link to it!

How “view this email in your browser” appears in emails

Header

You may find that in some emails the “view this email in your browser” link shows up in the white space in the email header. Some prefer to use this unused area to make the link readily available from the start, thus avoiding any reader frustration. 

Footer

That said, most opt for the footer, as this is where important information unrelated to the email’s content is located. For example, in the footer, you’ll usually find the business’s address, as well as links to unsubscribe, and read terms and policies. The footer is also optimal because placing the link in the header can be distracting, and can negatively impact design and branding. 

Within body text

This would likely only be advisable if, as we mentioned above, you want to provide a call to action of sorts – to bookmark the email, or perhaps share it. Either way, the link should also be included in either the header or footer, as this is where people expect to find it – and it will create reader frustration if it’s buried in your email’s body content.

Using “view this email in your browser” with SiteGround Email Marketing

The benefits are built-in

Because we at SiteGround like to make things easy for our email marketing users, we implement best practices, and automate the whole process for you. This includes the following steps:

• The “view this email in your browser”  link is automatically placed in the email footer, where it’s least distracting, and where users expect to find it.
• The link goes to an already-designed web version of your email.
• The web version includes a link at the top to “subscribe,” which directs to an already-designed subscription page.

How to implement it 

Adding this feature to your emails couldn’t be easier: just enable it, create your emails as usual, and send! Here’s how the process gets set in motion: 

• Turn it on by navigating to the Email Builder > Design >  Footer > “Show browser preview option” > toggle it on.
• A web version is generated after sending or scheduling, and the link is accessible via the send/schedule confirmation page, or via the Email Marketing Dashboard. 
• Edit the subscription page if you wish by visiting Groups > Contacts > Subscribe Page. (Each subscriber added via the subscription form will be added to this Group.)

Track its results

You can track each web version’s engagement by visiting the individual campaign in your Analytics. Here you will be able to see the following statistics:

• Unique Visitors tells you how many unique visitors arrived at the email campaign’s webpage and viewed it.
• Unique Clicks represents the number of unique visitors that clicked on any link in the web version of your email.
• New Subscribers reveals the number of contacts that have subscribed to your mailing list via the web version of your email.

Learn more about how to implement and track the “view this email in your browser” link.

The takeaway

This simple feature is super easy to add, and offers loads of unexpected benefits. Not only does it permit an improved user experience, but it provides your business with many ways to leverage past content, reach a larger audience, and continue to build your list. Toggle it on today, and start getting creative with the different ways you can take advantage of its easy-to-add inclusion in your email marketing.

Are you puzzled by low open rates, unexplained spam complaints, or high bounce rates during your email campaigns? The solution might be simpler than you think: the implementation of a double opt-in process. 

In this post, we’ll explore how this powerful feature can improve your email list quality, increase engagement, and skyrocket your marketing results.

What is a double opt-in?

A double opt-in is a two-step process for adding new subscribers to your email list. Here’s how it works:

• Step 1: A potential subscriber fills out a sign-up form (single opt-in).
• Step 2: They receive a confirmation message via email and must click a link to verify their subscription (double opt-in).
• Step 3: The subscriber is sent to a confirmation page, and added to your list.

What’s the difference between a double opt-in & single opt-in? 

More precisely, a single opt-in represents a subscription confirmation in its simplest form (literally!): the potential subscriber fills out a form by providing their email, hits submit, and voila, they’re on the email list. 

A double opt-in, on the other hand, starts with this same first step, but with an additional step during which the potential subscriber must then validate their subscription via a confirmation email. 

The single opt-in is of course simpler and can initially help a list grow more quickly. But, as we’ll discuss, the long-term benefits of a double opt-in may outweigh the initial excitement of quick list growth.

Why you need a double opt-in

You might think: if people sign up to receive my emails, isn’t that enough? Not necessarily. While a single opt-in can grow your list quickly, a double opt-in ensures that list is composed of a high-quality, engaged audience. Additionally, having a double opt-in plays a crucial part in maintaining a good sender reputation and ensuring good email deliverability. 

This is because, as we’ll discuss in more detail shortly, by requiring that people confirm subscription via their email address, you reduce the amount of incorrect email addresses, as well as bogus ones (added by bots). Doing so means your emails are more likely to reach those that want to hear from you, and less likely to go to spam. 

What are the advantages of a double opt-in?

Promotes a high-quality subscriber list

As we’ve mentioned, while a single opt-in can help you grow your list quickly, it’s not the best way to ensure a high-quality list of subscribers. That’s because, when subscribers have to confirm their subscription for you, they’re actually doing you a big favor: they are letting you know that they are indeed very interested! And you want your list to be composed of people that are legitimately engaged in what you have to say.

Reduces number of emails going to spam

The converse of this is that if people are only sort-of interested, or not interested at all, they are more likely to mark your email as spam. Given their lack of engagement, they may carelessly mark your emails as spam, which can negatively impact your sender reputation, and relegate your emails to the spam folders of even your more-interested subscribers. 

Another critical advantage is that it weeds out invalid or fake email addresses. If these kinds of emails get added to your list, it’s likely you’ll have a much larger email bounce rate and, again, your sender reputation drops, and your emails go straight to spam. 

Keeps you compliant

While not universally required by law, the double opt-in can help you stay compliant with international regulations such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM. That’s because these laws require clear evidence of subscriber consent, and the double opt-in makes this easy to prove. 

Makes list maintenance easier

Along these same lines, by filtering out invalid emails and incorrectly spelled emails (simply made by subscriber error), you save yourself time when it comes to managing your list. Indeed an important part of building your email list is doing regular list housekeeping once every three to six months to remove bounced or inactive email addresses (i.e. those less-interested subscribers). 

The good news here is that a solid email marketing platform can do much of this legwork for you by flagging bounced emails, and allowing you to easily track user engagement.

When to use double opt-in

The answer here is simple: if you want to ensure a high-quality email list, then it’s always a good time to implement a double opt-in. But its benefits are especially important in the following scenarios:  

• If you’ve struggled with hard bounces and spam: Perhaps you have, for one reason or another, had trouble with past emails bouncing or getting marked as spam. By implementing a double opt-in, you can get your email list and email sending back on track by weeding out incoming fake or invalid emails, as well as unengaged users who lightheartedly mark your emails as spam.
• When you’re seeking more targeted leads: If you don’t want to waste time with sort-of interest subscribers, then adding the second confirmation will help to capture only those that are genuinely interested. To ensure the most quality leads, it’s essential that your email sign-up form is very clear about the value to be provided upon signing up.

How to set up a double opt-in

Setting up a double opt-in should be straight forward in most email marketing platforms. With SiteGround Email Marketing platform, for example, you simply go to a group you’ve created (or create a new group) and turn on the double opt-in feature. 

During this process, would-be subscribers will sign up via your online form (your first opt-in), and then receive a confirmation email. Once they click the email’s confirmation link – your double opt-in – they will be redirected to a “thank you” page, and added to your subscriber list.

When you enable SiteGround’s double opt-in feature, all of the above is automatically done for you so that you don’t have to worry about a thing.

How to ensure people double opt-in

Setting and forgetting about your double opt-in is not the best plan. You’ll want to make sure that hopeful subscribers actually complete that second opt-in. With that in mind, here are several ways to make certain subscribers follow through. 

Set expectations

Double opt-in success starts with the initial sign-up. Make sure that, when customers complete the first step of the sign-up process via your online form, you also let them know that they should keep an eye out for a confirmation email to verify their subscription.

Entice potential subscribers to sign up

Sign-up forms are basically a mini sales pitch, so get right to the point by offering hard-to-pass-on value that entices potential subscribers to sign up and follow through with confirmation. Be clear about what they’ll get from their subscription – this could include deals, resources, unique insight, a specific incentive, or any number of other benefits.

Use a subject line that communicates action is needed

Follow the initial heads-up in your sign-up form with an email that has a clear subject line that re-emphasizes that confirmation is needed. SiteGround already does this for you, communicating that action is required for the subscription to be confirmed.

Keep email content simple and focused on action

Just as every other step in this process, make this step as easy as possible. Keep the confirmation email content brief and focused by making sure it’s obvious that confirmation is required, and that there’s an unmissable confirmation button or link. Thankfully, SiteGround automatically implements this so that you don’t have to worry about doing so yourself.

If you’d like insight about crafting future content, though, we’ve put together this guide to help you write marketing emails.

Measure double opt-in success

The true proof of double opt-in success rests in your metrics. Here are the stats you should keep an eye on, and what to look for: 

• Open rates and click-through rates: Given subscribers’ greater interest, you should notice an increased percentage of people opening your marketing emails, and clicking through on your calls to action.
• Unsubscribes and spam complaints: Conversely, since readers were very intentional about signing up, they are less likely to find your content unworthy of their inboxes. Expect these rates to go down.
• Bounce rates: Fewer invalid or inactive emails means better inbox delivery. Expect your bounce rates to reduce, and, as such, your sender reputation to improve.
• Overall engagement: From email receipt to website purchase, you should find that subscriber engagement goes up across the board.

Invest in quality for long-term success

Implementing a double opt-in process might seem like an extra step, but it’s an investment in long-term success, and an important part of what email marketing is. By ensuring your list is filled with engaged, interested subscribers, you’ll see improved open rates, higher click-throughs, and, ultimately, better results from your email campaigns.

Remember, having a successful email marketing strategy isn’t just about the size of your list – it’s about the quality of your connections. The double opt-in helps you build a list of subscribers who truly want to hear from you, setting the stage for meaningful connection and lasting business relationships.

Double Opt-in FAQ

Won’t I lose potential subscribers?

While you may see a slight decrease in initial sign-ups, the subscribers you do gain will be more engaged and valuable in the long run. Your bounce rates should also go down, increasing the likelihood of successful email delivery.

Is it complicated to set up a double opt-in? 

Not at all. Usually it’s as easy as turning on the double opt-in feature. Some platforms (such as SiteGround email marketing) even offer built-in, double opt-in features – like pre-determined emails, email copy and subject lines that implement best practices and make setup easy. 

Is a double opt-in required by law?

While regulatory compliance laws vary from country to country, the double opt-in isn’t a standard requirement. That said, it can help you to be more compliant. This is because regulations such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR, which cover the USA and Europe, respectively, require clear consent (opt-in) by subscribers. To accomplish this, you as the sender must be able to provide proof of subscriber opt-in (at least once), and having a double opt-in makes this easier to do. 

The best colors for email marketing depend on your brand and the action you want a reader to take: red and orange for urgency, blue for trust, green for growth, and black or white for a clean, versatile look. Color shapes how a message is read before the text does, so getting it right means matching your palette to your brand identity and the emotion you’re aiming for. Here’s the psychology behind each color, and how to put it to work in your own campaigns.

Why do colors matter in email marketing?

In email marketing, alongside all web and on-site marketing efforts, colors have a psychological power that goes beyond practical applications, quietly shaping your subscribers’ mood and perception of your message. Here are key reasons why the choice of email color really matters:

Colors help reinforce brand recognition

Colors help in establishing and reinforcing brand identity. Consistent use of specific color palettes makes a brand more recognizable and memorable to consumers. A study from the Pantone Color Institute shows that colors increase brand recognition by 87%! That is why best marketing practices advise using your brand colors consistently across all your marketing communications, and emails are no exception.  A great starting point for choosing consistent colors in your emails is to use the ones from your logo or ones that complement them. Apply these colors to the header, footer, and body of your emails to create a professional look that reinforces your brand identity.

Impact readability & accessibility of your emails

The right email color combinations can improve the readability of your marketing emails, making it easier for consumers to digest the information. Always remember that there are 1.3 billion visually impaired people, according to the WHO, many of whom are challenged to consume low contrast color combinations. This means that if you do not consider serving these people with the adequate use of colors in your emails, you are missing out on a significant percentage of your audience. We’ll talk about accessibility standards later in this article.

Create response triggers,attract attention & encourage actions

Because different colors evoke different emotions, marketers and business owners use email colors to influence how consumers feel about a product or brand and how they respond to it. Part of this color potential lies in past associations, established throughout the years by various institutions and accepted conventions. 

For example, over the years green has often represented eco-friendliness and has been used by many brands producing organic, natural products. So if you wish to talk about corporate responsibility and sustainability, you would include the green color in your messages by association.

At the same time, it is known that bright and contrasting colors can make your marketing emails stand out, grab attention, and make a strong visual impact. Or, that the red color in ‘Buy Now’ buttons creates a sense of urgency and excitement and tends to trigger higher click rates under similar circumstances. 

We’ll first deep-dive into the psychology behind each color to see what emotions and associations it comes with and then talk about how to best use these colors in emails.

The psychology of colors in email marketing

Color psychology can be a game changer in email marketing since each color has a unique effect on people’s emotions and can lead them to take different actions. By picking the right email colors, you can trigger emotions that resonate with your audience, driving engagement and encouraging the desired response to your message. 

🔴 Red

Use red when you want a CTA button or a promotional email to be the first thing a reader’s eye catches. It’s tied to urgency and excitement — the classic “Buy Now” button color — and tends to outperform quieter shades on click-through.

Reach for it for CTAs, flash sales, and festive campaigns like Black Friday or Christmas, where grabbing attention fast matters more than subtlety. Just pick a shade that still fits your existing palette; a red that clashes with your logo works against the brand recognition you’re trying to build. 

🟡 Yellow

Use yellow to highlight one key message or draw the eye to a single element — it’s one of the most visible colors against a dark background, and it reads as upbeat rather than aggressive the way red can.

It works well as a badge, a highlighted line, or an accent against a darker header. It’s rarely a good choice as a dominant background, though as too much yellow reads as loud rather than cheerful. Save it for the one thing you want noticed first.

🔵 Blue

Use blue when trust is the point. It’s the default choice for finance, healthcare, SaaS, and any brand that needs to read as dependable before anything else.

Darker navy blues lean more corporate and authoritative; lighter blues feel calmer and more approachable. Pick the shade based on which side of that line your brand sits on, not just on what looks good in isolation.

🟢 Green

Green splits two ways: use it for sustainability, wellness, or organic products to lean into its nature and health associations, or use it for finance and growth messaging to lean into its money and prosperity associations. Decide which one your brand needs before picking a shade.

Brighter greens read as fresh and energetic; darker greens read as stable and secure. Match the shade to the message you’re sending, not just to your logo.

⚫ Black

Use black when you want an email to read as premium or modern — it pairs cleanly with almost any accent color and creates instant contrast for whatever sits on top of it.

It also works as a safe default: if you’re not sure which color fits your brand yet, black as a base with one accent color rarely goes wrong. Just don’t rely on it alone for CTAs — a black button doesn’t stand out against a mostly-black layout.

🟣 Purple

Use purple when you want to signal innovation or ambition — it’s the go-to color for tech and forward-thinking brands because it reads as curious and a little unconventional, unlike the calm of blue.

It also carries softer, caring associations, which is why it shows up often in wellness and beauty brands too. Either way, it’s a distinctive choice: purple stands out in most inboxes simply because so few brands use it as a primary color.

⚪ White

Use white space deliberately, not as a default — it’s what gives your other colors room to work and keeps a busy email from feeling cluttered.

Every brand ends up using some white, but the difference is in how much: minimalist brands lean into open, spacious layouts, while promotional emails often use less of it to pack in more content. Too little white and the email feels crowded; too much and it can read as cold rather than clean.

🟠 Orange

Use orange when you want red’s energy without red’s intensity — it’s a common pick for brands targeting a younger, creative audience that still want a CTA or badge to stand out.

Brighter shades feel more urgent and can double as a caution signal; softer, muted oranges feel more relaxed and approachable. Choose based on whether the email is meant to feel exciting or easygoing.

🟤 Brown

Use brown for brands built around natural materials, craftsmanship, or organic products — it reads as grounded and reliable in a way brighter colors don’t.

It works well as a background or an accent, but it’s rarely a strong CTA color since it doesn’t create much contrast against typical email backgrounds. Pair it with a brighter accent if you need a button to stand out.

🩷 Pink

Use pink for a youthful, playful tone rather than assuming it only speaks to one audience — its associations have broadened well beyond traditionally feminine branding.

Soft pinks feel gentle and approachable; hot pinks feel bold and attention-grabbing. Pick the shade based on the mood you’re going for, not just the audience you’re picturing.

Best practices for ssing colors in email marketing

Incorporating color effectively in your email marketing isn’t just about making things look pretty – it’s a strategic move that can pay off in reader engagement and campaign performance. Let’s dive into some best practices that can help you harness the full potential of your email colors:

1. Align email colors with your brand identity

When going into email marketing, it’s essential to select your email colors based on your existing brand palette (if you have such already). Consider the primary colors used in your logo, website, and existing marketing materials. These colors are most likely part of an established palette that should be used in your email marketing campaigns in order to make your email a natural extension of your brand’s visual identity. Assuming your website has two primary colors – mustard yellow and navy blue, use those colors in your marketing emails so that your recipients can quickly recognize your brand. 

It’s important to know that it is acceptable to change your email colors for a particular event, such as using red around Christmas, but keep in mind that the essential colors of your brand should always be present. Maintaining consistency in your brand colors strengthens awareness and delivers a consistent experience for your subscribers throughout your email marketing campaigns.

2. Prioritize accessibility and readability

Ensuring color accessibility is crucial for making your emails readable and understandable for all subscribers, including those with disabilities. Email accessibility is the practice of ensuring that your emails can be read and understood even by subscribers who have some visual impairment. 

A fundamental principle in email design accessibility is to use font colors that contrast with the background, similar to the clarity of black text on a white canvas. Avoid using too bright colors, as they might be irritating to the eye. 

It is important to know that not all contrasts are created equal – combinations such as green and red may provide difficulties for people who are colorblind. In cases like this, we recommend using a color contrast checker tool to ensure that the color shades you’ve picked are appropriate. 

According to the guidelines set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 is recommended for standard-sized text, while larger or bold text should have a ratio of at least 3:1. While striving for effective contrast, simplicity is key. Opting for a single text color with a contrasting background can make your message accessible and readable to those with color vision deficiencies.

A thoughtful color scheme can make the difference between an email that is easily digested and one that is quickly ignored. High-contrast email colors ensure that text stands out against the background, significantly improving readability.

3. Avoid using too many colors

Introducing too many colors into your email design can result in a cluttered and overwhelming visual experience for the recipient, detracting from the message you want them to engage with. To avoid this, it’s advisable to select a primary color that is closely associated with your brand identity. This primary email color should serve as the dominant hue within your emails, ensuring immediate brand recognition. Complement this with one or two secondary colors that harmonize with your primary color. These additional colors can be used strategically to accentuate important elements such as calls to action buttons, links, or key information, thereby guiding your subscribers’ attention to the most important parts of your message. The goal is to create a balanced and aesthetically pleasing color scheme that enhances readability and engagement without overwhelming the senses.

4. Make your call to actions stand out

The call-to-action is the most important part of your email. Choose a contrasting color that stands out against the rest of the email colors, prompting recipients to click.

By sticking to these color principles, you can craft emails that not only captivate your audience visually but also guide them smoothly towards the actions you desire. Email colors are more than visual features – they’re a communication tool that, when used wisely, can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

5. Blend with the mood of the Holidays & other special occasions

As you develop your email marketing strategy, it’s common to plan for a variety of special occasions like Black Friday, Christmas, Halloween, and others. For each of these events, you may want to choose a unique color combination that aligns with the Holiday’s vibe.

🎄 Christmas

Christmas is strong on associations. During Christmas and New Year season, you will see traditional reds and greens everywhere. You may consider adding them to your email messages during this period.

🛍️ Black Friday

The use of Black is typical for Black Friday, usually combined with red, but also yellow and orange, and other powerful, strong accent colors. The aim is to create a sense of urgency, highlight exclusive deals, and provoke action.

🏖️ Summer Sale

During the summer, bright yellows, blue and turquoise, oranges, and vibrant greens are commonly used in marketing since they create associations with beaches, deep blue waters, and sunny skies, invoking energy, vibrancy, and playfulness.

💖 Valentine’s Day

Consider the use of pink and red to blend with the prevalent holiday feelings of love, passion, and warmth.

When selecting email colors for special occasions, don’t forget that you have a lot of flexibility and you should not feel constrained by one shade of red or green or else. It is still important to stay true to your brand’s core colors, including them in your color scheme to maintain brand identity. 

When in doubt, or you feel overwhelmed, using a color scheme generator can help you harmoniously blend colors. In the broader context of design, there are established principles of color combinations that are equally applicable to email marketing and you could safely rely on those for assistance, when in need.

6. Create visual balance

Achieving a visually balanced layout is key to designing emails that are both aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. To create this balance, play with color placement throughout your layout. For instance, if you’ve chosen blue for your email’s header, mirror this by using the same shade of blue in the footer. This creates a sense of unity and frames your content neatly. Similarly, if there’s a vibrant orange call-to-action button situated on the right, consider placing an orange icon or highlight on the left to maintain visual balance. 

The objective here is to guide the reader’s eye through the email in a way that feels natural and intuitive, encouraging them to engage with the content without feeling overwhelmed or lost. A well-balanced email design not only looks professional but also enhances the overall user experience, making it more likely that subscribers will take the desired action.

How to select color combinations for your marketing emails

All this color science and best practices can be overwhelming to people who are just starting out with email marketing. Let’s get a few more tips on how more effectively to select and pair colors for your emails, following scientific principles.

1. Complementary colors 

Complementary email colors sit directly across from each other on the color wheel, typically pairing a primary color with a secondary color. Classic combinations include:

• yellow with purple
• blue with orange
• red with green

These combinations can be adapted to the right hue and shade to suit the theme of your email marketing campaigns. Use these complementary email colors thoughtfully to draw attention to key parts of your emails, like call-to-action buttons, links, or the headings of your emails.

2. Monochromatic

A monochrome palette is a color combination based on a single color or hue. It simply uses various shades and tints of that one color to create a visually appealing email look. Shades are created by adding black to the hue, making it darker, while tints are made by adding white, making it lighter. This approach to color coordination is often used for its simplicity and aesthetic appeal, creating a harmonious and balanced visual experience.

3. Triadic

A triadic color scheme is a color combination of three that are evenly spaced on the color wheel, creating a vibrant yet balanced palette. This trio often includes colors that contrast and complement each other, for instance, a blend of red-violet, yellow-orange, and blue-green. 

Typically, a triadic palette will mix two shades of either a warm or cool temperament with one from the opposite spectrum, achieving visual balance. The beauty of triadic email colors lies in their collective strength – the supporting colors enhance the primary hue, amplifying the overall impact and message. To capture attention and encourage interaction in your design, use the primary triadic color on essential elements such as call-to-action CTA buttons.

4. Analogous

An analogous color scheme is a harmonious blend of three colors positioned side by side on the color wheel, such as the trio of orange, violet, and purple, crafting a visually soothing array. Depending on the hues used, this trio adds delicate or essential depth to the dominant color in your template. Perfect for capturing the essence of the seasons or natural events, analogous colors can enhance the thematic consistency of your email designs. For instance, a gradation from red to red-orange to yellow can evoke a fall vibe when used thoughtfully throughout your email layout.

Color trends in email marketing

Two forces are shaping palettes this year: a pull toward calm, spacious neutrals, and a handful of high-energy accents used sparingly to cut through a crowded inbox.

Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year, Cloud Dancer, is a soft off-white built around calm and clarity. It’s the first time in the program’s history that a white tone has taken the top spot. For email, that means swapping stark white backgrounds for warmer, gentler off-whites, paired with earthy neutrals like beige and taupe instead of high-contrast black-and-white layouts.

Pinterest’s 2026 Palette pulls in the other direction with five bold accents: persimmon, a warm orange-red; wasabi, an electric chartreuse; plum noir, a deep, moody purple; jade; and cool blue. Used as a dominant palette, they’re a lot. Used in small bursts on a CTA button or a highlight strip, persimmon or wasabi does exactly what red has always done in email: grab attention fast.

Turn color into action

Color isn’t decoration; it’s one of the fastest levers you have for changing how a subscriber reacts to an email, and it costs nothing to test. Start with what you already have: pull your brand’s primary shade, pick one accent color for your CTA, and run the combination through a contrast checker before your next send.

From there, treat color like any other campaign variable. Test it. Try a warmer CTA against a cooler one, or a seasonal accent against your usual palette, and let your open and click data tell you which one actually works for your list.

Adjust colors with SiteGround Email Marketing: background, sections, buttons, and see the change instantly. If you pick a combination with low contrast, the tool flags it before you send, so accessibility isn’t something you have to check by hand.

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This article was originally posted in May 2024 and updated in September 2026.

Frequently asked questions: Best colors for email marketing

A marketing email succeeds or fails on three decisions: the subject line, the opening line, and the call to action. Get any one of those wrong and the other two rarely save it. Here’s the structure that gets all three right, plus the mistakes that quietly sink otherwise good emails.

What actually makes an email a “marketing” email

A marketing email is any message sent with a commercial goal behind it: driving a sale, pulling traffic to new content, keeping a customer engaged, or announcing something new. The label isn’t about tone or format, a plain-text note and a fully designed newsletter can both qualify, it’s about intent.

What separates a good one from a forgettable one isn’t the design budget behind it. It’s whether the email hits a specific, measurable goal: an open, a click, a reply, a purchase. An email that reads beautifully but doesn’t move the reader toward that goal hasn’t done its job, no matter how polished the layout looks. That’s the standard every section below is built around, starting with the four parts every marketing email needs to have in place before you touch tone or design. Learn more about how email marketing works as a channel before optimizing individual sends.

The four parts every marketing email needs

Every marketing email, regardless of topic or industry, is built from four working parts. Skip one and the email underperforms even if the other three are excellent.

Now let’s dive into each one and explore strategies that will encourage your recipients to open, read, and interact with your marketing emails, ultimately driving conversions and customer engagement:

Subject line

The first thing your readers see when your email lands is the subject line, and it’s often the deciding factor between an email that gets opened and one that gets scrolled past. A half-hearted line can undo hours of work on a genuinely good email underneath it.

Aim for a subject line that teases what’s inside rather than trying to say everything at once. A verb and a concrete payoff, “Get 20% off your next order,” tends to work better than a vague tease, and keeping it under about 40 characters means the point lands before it gets cut off on a phone lock screen.

Email body 

The email body is where the actual substance lives, the offer, the update, the story you’re telling. A well-crafted one states its point early and keeps the momentum going rather than building up to a reveal a few paragraphs in, and every element, from the greeting to the closing line, should point toward the action you want the reader to take. 

The email copywriting guide is a good place to see that kind of tightening done well, line by line.

Visual elements

Bullet points, images, and graphics aren’t decoration, they’re what makes an email easy to skim rather than a wall of text to wade through:

• Bullet points break information into digestible pieces, ideal for listing benefits, summarizing features, or laying out anything with more than a couple of comparable items.
• Images do work words alone can’t, showing the offer itself rather than just describing it, and tend to stick in a reader’s memory longer than plain text does.
• Graphics, like infographics and simple charts, make data or multi-step processes easier to take in at a glance. The email marketing design guide walks through building a layout that balances all three well.
• Preview by sending yourself a test copy before the real one goes out. Images are blocked by default in a lot of inboxes, so check that your email still makes sense with them switched off.

Call to action 

A call to action tells the reader exactly what to do next, whether that’s completing a purchase, signing up, downloading something, or visiting a page. It’s the moment your email’s whole purpose comes together, and it works best when it’s clear, compelling, and easy to spot, usually a button or a hyperlink built around direct, action-first phrasing rather than something passive. Keep the wording tight: a verb and the payoff is usually all it needs.

Now that you know what each part is supposed to do, there’s a way to skip straight to a working draft. SiteGround Email Marketing’s Generate with AI feature builds all four for you at once, just pick a campaign type like promotional, newsletter, announcement, welcome, or event invitation, and it hands back a subject line, preheader, and body ready to edit in the builder.

How do you write subject lines that get opened?

Four things make the biggest difference in whether a subject line gets opened, and you don’t have to guess at any of them if you’re willing to test against your own list.

Lead with a verb and a clear promise.

A subject line built around a specific benefit tells the reader exactly what they’ll get before they even open it, something like “Boost your productivity: 5 proven time-management techniques inside.” Vague curiosity-bait (“You won’t believe this…”) gets opened once and then ignored forever once the reader learns it never delivers.

Personalize where it’s genuine

A first name or a reference to a past interaction works because it signals the email wasn’t blasted to everyone, even when, technically, it was. “Julia, your opinion matters” reads differently than “We want your feedback.”

Avoid spam-trigger language

Words like “risk-free,” “urgent,” and “make money,” plus excessive punctuation or all-caps, are the kind of pattern spam filters are built to catch. Straightforward, specific language clears filters more reliably than clever wording does.

Test instead of guessing

Two versions of the same email, sent to two segments of the same list, will tell you more about what your specific audience responds to than any general subject-line formula. Run this consistently and you’ll build a pattern of what actually works for your readers, not readers in general. Pull the exact wording that performs into future sends, and check it against your open rate and click-through data before calling a winner.

How do you structure the body so people keep reading?

Getting the email opened is half the job. Keeping the reader in it past the first line is the other half, and it depends on how the body is built.

Open with the payoff, not the setup 

The first line has to work whether or not the reader paid close attention to the subject line, since most email clients show a preview of that first line before the email is even opened. A friendly greeting followed by a question, a surprising fact, or a direct value statement gets read further than a slow warm-up.

A few ways this looks depending on what you’re sending:

• Product update: Ready for the update you’ve been asking about? Here’s what’s new.
• Newsletter: This month’s roundup is here, and it’s mostly good news.
• Win-back: It’s been a while. Here’s 15% off to come back and see what changed.
• Event invite: Save your spot, the webinar’s Thursday and space is limited.

Write like you’re talking to one person 

Contractions, direct address, and a conversational rhythm read as human. Formal, corporate phrasing reads as automated, even when a person wrote every word of it.

Use storytelling and social proof sparingly but specifically 

A short customer story does more to build trust than a list of features, because it shows the product working rather than describing it in the abstract, like SiteGround’s success stories, which pair one clear result with a real customer’s name attached. A one-line testimonial with a name on it outperforms an unattributed claim every time.

How do you structure the body so people keep reading?

Getting the email opened is half the job. Keeping the reader in it past the first line is the other half, and it depends on how the body is built.

Open with the payoff, not the setup 

The first line has to work whether or not the reader paid close attention to the subject line, since most email clients show a preview of that first line before the email is even opened. A friendly greeting followed by a question, a surprising fact, or a direct value statement gets read further than a slow warm-up.

A few ways this looks depending on what you’re sending:

• Product update: Ready for the update you’ve been asking about? Here’s what’s new.
• Newsletter: This month’s roundup is here, and it’s mostly good news.
• Win-back: It’s been a while. Here’s 15% off to come back and see what changed.
• Event invite: Save your spot, the webinar’s Thursday and space is limited.

Write like you’re talking to one person 

Contractions, direct address, and a conversational rhythm read as human. Formal, corporate phrasing reads as automated, even when a person wrote every word of it.

Use storytelling and social proof sparingly but specifically 

A short customer story does more to build trust than a list of features, because it shows the product working rather than describing it in the abstract, like SiteGround’s success stories, which pair one clear result with a real customer’s name attached. A one-line testimonial with a name on it outperforms an unattributed claim every time.

Pro tip: “Swap the adjectives for a number and a name:

“Customers love us!” convinces nobody, not even the person who wrote it.

“Maria cut her onboarding time from three weeks to four days” does more work in one sentence than a whole paragraph of enthusiasm ever will. If your testimonial could be pasted into any email for any brand and still make sense, it’s not specific enough to trust yet.

Cut anything that isn’t earning its place 

Every sentence should inform, entertain, or move the reader toward the CTA. If a sentence does none of those three, it’s filler, and filler is the fastest way to lose a reader mid-email.

Give every send a reason to exist

A discount code, a genuinely useful how-to, an industry update they’d have missed otherwise, a first look at something new before anyone else gets it, the specific form matters less than whether it’s actually worth the five seconds it takes to open.

Readers run a quick cost-benefit calculation on every subject line whether they realize it or not, and “another email from this brand” is not, on its own, a good enough reason to click. Do this consistently and you buy yourself patience on the sends that undersell themselves. Skip it too often and no clever subject line brings people back, they just get faster at deleting.

How do you make one CTA do all the work?

A call to action needs to be unambiguous and visually easy to spot, using action-oriented phrasing like “Buy now” or “Register today” rather than something passive like “Learn more.” Place it where a reader naturally lands after finishing the body, typically at the end, though a second placement near the top works for time-sensitive offers.

The single-CTA rule matters more than most senders expect: two competing links don’t double the chances of a click, they split attention and often lower the click rate on both. If an email genuinely needs to offer two paths (say, “shop men’s” and “shop women’s”), frame them as one decision with two options rather than two separate asks. Building a full email marketing strategy around a single, consistent CTA style across a campaign makes each individual email’s ask feel familiar rather than another thing to figure out.

How do you measure whether an email actually worked?

Four metrics tell four different parts of the story, and none of them substitute for the others.

If you want to go a step further, A/B testing can tie all four numbers together, and you don’t need a dedicated split-testing feature to try it. Split your list into two groups, send each one a version that differs in a single element, subject line, CTA, or body structure, then compare the results side by side in your analytics. That one-variable-at-a-time approach is what isolates which change actually moved which number. 

And keep an eye on the sender reputation either way. That’s how trustworthy mailbox providers consider your sending domain, and it’s not just bounces and spam complaints they’re watching. Replies and forwards count in your favor too, so a real reply-to address that someone actually checks does more for your reputation than it looks like it should. A quick check of your bounce, spam, and reply numbers each month is enough to track it.

What mistakes kill otherwise good emails?

A few problems show up often enough to call out directly, because each one is easy to miss from the inside.

• Misleading subject lines. A subject line that overpromises earns one open and loses trust for every send after it.
• Two CTAs competing for the same click. Covered above, but worth repeating: it’s one of the most common self-inflicted drops in click-through rate.
• Skipping the proofread pass. Spelling errors and broken links are the fastest way to undercut an otherwise well-written email, and they’re avoidable with a second set of eyes or a test send to a few different email clients before the real send goes out.
• Ignoring sender reputation until it’s a problem. A domain or IP address that ends up on an email blacklist will see every metric on this page collapse at once, regardless of how good the individual email is. Reputation is a background factor worth checking before assuming a bad send is a copywriting problem.
• Overlooking the legal basics. Consent, unsubscribe links, and honest subject lines aren’t just good practice, they’re legal requirements under laws like CAN-SPAM, and getting them wrong carries real financial risk on top of the reputational one.

Put it into practice

None of this requires a copywriting background, it requires a structure, and the structure above is repeatable for every send. Start with a clear subject line promise, open the body with the payoff, keep one CTA, and check your metrics against what actually happened rather than what you expected.

If writing every subject line and body from scratch is the bottleneck, SiteGround Email Marketing includes a built-in AI email writer that can draft a first pass in your brand’s tone, so you’re editing rather than starting from a blank page.

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Frequently asked questions about writing marketing emails

This article was originally published in April 2024, and then updated in August 2026.